The Log and Timber Home Show

The Log and Timber Home Show was this weekend in Atlanta. I had to work Friday and Saturday, so I had to go today after church. To be honest, I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong there was plenty of log home companies there for those who may want someone to build them a log home. I was hoping to see companies like Schroeder Log Home Supply, Eagle Panel Systems, Perma-Chink Systems, Andersen Windows, and maybe a local Drafting Company. I have been to two of these shows in the past and some of these companies were there.
I was able to talk briefly with the Perma-Chink rep. They gave me their brochures and told me I needed to come to Tennessee to attend their seminars to learn how to use their products.
All in all it was a good day, Cody rode with me up there. He's starting to get excited about the idea of building our own log home.

Is it Fall YET?

Is it Fall yet? Today the high temp here in middle Georgia was "ONLY" 92 degrees. After hitting triple digits the last couple of weeks, 92 seemed like cold a front. The relatively mild heat afforded me a chance to cut up one of my neighbor trees for fire wood (with her permission of course).
I'm so ready for fall to be here so we can get started on our house. Today didn't help my longing to be working on it. The muffled sound of a chainsaw buzzing, the smell of 2cycle engine oil burning, the smell of fresh cut red oak, the feel of the chainsaw in my hands "Oh" Sorry about that, I was getting a little carried away. :) My wife often says one day she's going to come in smelling like saw dust to get my attention.
On a serious note, I'm looking forward to the Log and Timber Home Show coming to Atlanta Sept. 21-23. This will give me a chance to talk to some of the company rep. face to face, like prema-chink and others.
Within the next month I hope to send our plan ideas to Dirkson Design Services or R.C.M. Cad Design Drafting Ltd. In about a month or so it should start cooling down enough. Then I can start planing and treating logs. Can't wait!

Video Tour

I found this video tour of a house that was for sell. The floor plan is almost exactly like ours. This house is a log kit. Ours will be handcrafted, so the logs will look a lot different. Main Floor, 2ND Floor

Plan Design

I have scoured the web trying to find that perfect plan that I have in my head. Needless to say I have not found that "perfect stock plan". I've come close, but it's not a log home plan. It's a conventional stick built plan.
There is a lot I have to consider in my plan. The most obvious is, it's a log home! Almost every aspect of the build will be different. From the shier weight on the foundation to the complexity of the roof system. The wiring, plumbing, and a/c ducts do not have hollow walls to be hidden in. I also have to consider the length of the logs I have to work with. Which will determine the max. size I can build.
The plan that I found is offered by Home Plans.com. There will be a lot of minor changes made to 1st floor such as window and door placements etc. The 2nd floor will be greatly altered with a full length shed dormer on the back side of the house and a master bath. The exterior will have a wrap-a-round porch.
Most Architects are not knowledgeable in log construction, therefore I will have to use someone that is. There are several such designers in Canada that are not affiliated with a log home company.
Dirkson Design Services Inc. and RCM CAD Design Drafting Ltd are a couple that I came across in my research that I really like. I have not contacted either company as of yet, but I hope to sometime in August.

Going To School

In the late 90's I was looking through a copy of Backwoods Home Magazine, when I came across an advertisement for Lasko School of Log Building. Up until then I did not know such a school existed. Imagine that, a school that could teach you how to build with logs. I looked up the site on the Internet and became very excited about the possibility of one day attending this school of log building. This past April I finally got the chance to attend.

Bill "Mr. Lasko" offers 2, 4, 8, and 12 week courses. I was only able to attend a 2 week class, being somewhat restricted by my job. Bill made the most of the time I was there. I was in the practice wood pile the first day cutting practice scarfs, notches, and lateral groves. By the third day I was working on a cabin for one of his clients, cutting tenons on floor joists . By the end of the two weeks we had covered and had "hands on" all the basics of Scandinavian full scribe log wall and floor construction. Bill had three different projects going on in various stages of completion. Which allowed me to work on actual cabins and homes. I was very pleased with what I learned.
As a side note: To get the most out of my experience there, I spent months before hand reading and studying various books on log construction, I was already proficient with a chainsaw, and I have a background in rustic furniture making.

Rough Notched and Final Scribed.

Floor Joist Tenon

Lateral Grove

Look at the size of these logs!

Peeling The Logs

When most people start working for a Handcrafted Log Builder, they usually start working in the log yard as a log peeler. This is the low man on the totem pole. Peeling logs is a laborious and sticky affair. Handcrafters do this to these new guys to see if they have what it takes to be a log builder. If they don't have what it takes, they will quit early on before time is wasted in training them.Having peeled logs before, I was not looking forward to peeling 55 logs by my self. My little man was a big help.

You have to peel (debark) the log so that it will start drying out and keep the insects out of the wood. The southern pine beetle and others eat the cambium layer. This is inner bark, the layer between the wood and the outer bark. Once the outer bark is off the beetle larva can't survive.

When we get ready to start to build we will have to draw knife or plain the logs again. This will give them a clean tooled look. More on this when we start to build.

Working hard!

Peeled Logs

Stacking for storage

Log Peeling

Peeling a Log

The Log Rack

We needed to build a rack for the logs to get them off of the ground and to make it easier to peel them. This rack is also where they will be stored over the summer. The rack had to be level and it feeds the logs out to the temporary building site. A set of ropes and pulleys used with my truck made it easy to load the logs onto the rack. See the video to see how it works.

Loading Log Onto Rack

Skidding a Log

Getting The Logs Out of The Woods

Now that the logs were on the ground I had to skid them up to our temporary building site. Moving a 1000 lbs. of log would have been an easy job for a logging skidder, but I didn't have one. :) What I had was a 4-wheel drive FORD truck, and it got the job done! Barely! If it had not been a 4-wheel drive it would not have moved them.

Felling a Tree

Cutting the Trees

I started cutting trees in January. I wanted to have them all down by the end of February, before the sap started to rise in the spring. Your suppose to cut your trees in the winter while the sap is down. This keeps your logs from checking (cracking) to bad when they dry. I had a total of 55 trees.

Just a safety note: Logging is one of the most dangerous jobs and should not be attempted by the inexperienced.

My helpers. No, he's not allowed to use the saw.

Our Land and Trees

We purchased our current home and 20 acres of land about 7 years ago. It has always been our intention to someday build here. Our current home is a small brick home located in one of the front corners of the property and sets on about 2 acres, the rest is mostly wooded. These leaves us with the other 18 acres or so to build on. One of the back corners of the property is about 50 yards from a creek. This area has a nice pound site that we hope to take advantage of. Our home site is wooded and about a 150 yards from the County Road. After clearing the under brush and a few unwanted trees we should just barely see the road.

This property was selectively logged about 12 years ago. Most of the mature timber was cut then, however our trees were passed over then because they were not big enough at the time. They are Slash Pine and are about 25-35 years old. They have an average butt diameter of about 12 inches and a average middle diameter of about 9 inches. They are 35-40 feet long.They are a little on the small side, but our house will be a "round log chinker" so they should work out fine. Were going to rough cut window and door openings as we go, so we can "stretch" the log.