Logger-Rhythms

Less

« Older

Home

Newer »

Selecting Your Log Supplier - Pt. 1

Published at September 19, 2008 in Design and Planning. 0 Comments

What should I consider when looking for a log manufacturer?

Three elements that will impact your budget and ultimate satisfaction more than any other are land, labor and logs. Of these, none presents more variables for consideration than logs. You’ll notice I refer to a manufacturer. Unless your name is Daniel Boone or Davey Crockett it’s easy to forget that, even though logs are naturally occurring products, the logs you’ll use to build your home have been manufactured.

The degree of manufacturing ranges from simply removing the bark to shaping, cutting and drilling depending upon your preferences. Right now there are nearly five hundred log home companies to choose from and, since it isn’t practical to look at everybody, you need to establish some criteria to narrow the field. Vigi and I began with five and made our final decision between two of them. I’m sure we missed some good ones but I’m just as certain we missed some serious ‘clunkers’ too!

Location can be important from the standpoint of coordinating construction. Shipping need only be a consideration if you’re like the gentleman I spoke with who was building in the Golan Heights of Israel. He was looking at a supplier in Montana. Your distance will probably be shorter and, sometimes, shipping is even included as part of the quoted price. If you are building within a reasonable distance of your current residence, simply thinking in terms of a fairly local supplier is easy.

If not, your choice may depend upon how ‘hands-on’ you plan to be. If additional materials are needed quickly or a situation arises where the company must dispatch a technical person, you don’t want to be dealing with a manufacturer halfway across the country. No matter what they tell you during the sales pitch, once you buy your local representative becomes about as useful as a rubber crutch in an orthopedic ward! In any event, if you have to choose, go with a company located nearer the construction site rather than near your present location. You’ll be on site to check progress frequently anyway.

Reputation is a measure of how well that supplier has performed for other people, like you. Are most of their customers happy or have they learned some new, non-technical terms during the process? Building your own home can be every bit as stressful as it is joyous. Fred’s 5th Law of Log Home Acquisition states: Your degree of frustration will rise and fall in direct proportion to the responsiveness of your log supplier.

Talk with existing customers, don’t be afraid to ask pointed questions and be sure to visit homes furnished by the company you are considering. Older homes can be very telling. Do the logs have an inordinate amount of checking, do checks run with or across the grain, are knots leaking sap, is there any twisting or separation of logs, has there been any leakage of air or water and what is the general condition of the house? If the house is sap streaked, there are post-construction defects, leaks, cross-grain checks or checks you can drive a Mack Truck into, run for your life! A log home should last at least a hundred years, even if you won’t.

Verify the sales rep’s story and company claims. Is it hot air or do they actually do what they say? If home owners are enthusiastic [typically log home owners are] and speak well of the manufacturer, you’ve found a supplier worth further consideration.

Stability is important for your peace of mind, particularly if the company is offering long term guarantees. You not only want a vendor who will be there at the end of construction but down the road a few years in case something goes wrong. We had a support [lolly] column twist and split after four years. It was responsible for holding up around 13,800 pounds of our home. Needless to say, our pre-purchase investigations were validated when, without hesitation, our supplier said they would replace the column at their expense.

How long has the company been around, how many houses do they ship per year, what has been their growth rate and what does their financial picture look like?

Once they pass muster at this level, selection becomes a more mundane matter of verifying that the manufacturer can deliver the products and features you have decided upon. I’ll cover things like drying methods, ‘kit’ or ‘a-la-carte’, pre-cut vs. cutting on site and education, next.

The Sky Above, The Mud Below

Published at July 19, 2008 in Options and Choices. 0 Comments

What kind of foundation should I use?

I once saw a magician, The Amazing Rudolfo or something like that, make an entire house float on thin air! They cautioned viewers not to try this at home. That’s good advice, even if you’re considered amazing and have your own T.V. special. If the magic you want to perform is actually living in your new log home, I’d plan to put it on something more substantial like a foundation or a slab.

This is one of the most important construction elements you’ll consider since it’s the portion of your home that will interact directly with the ground, not only holding the building up but also anchoring it down! Foundation systems, when properly designed and constructed, allow you to erect a structure that can withstand the powerful forces of nature such as soil pressure, water, ice, expansion, contraction, wind, fungus, insects and even the effects of gravity. When a foundation is poorly designed or weak, very little else can sentence your home to an earlier grave.

In certain areas, people build on a treated wooden platform for economy. That may be acceptable for a small vacation cabin but not a permanent, year-’round dwelling. If economy must prevail or the terrain prevents basement excavation, a poured concrete slab is both strong and durable. This is basically a single layer of concrete that’s several inches thick. It is poured thicker at the edges to form an integral footing and then rods are placed to strengthen the edges. The slab is poured on a bed of crushed gravel to improve drainage and a wire mesh is placed into the concrete to reduce the chances of future cracking.

The ideal choice, for my money, is a full-fledged foundation which provides a roomy cellar and a solid base to support the massive weight presented by the logs. Of the various materials and systems available, here are three of the more common foundation types:

Cinder or Cement Block is the least expensive but often takes the most time to erect. Typically, cement footings are poured below the frost line, then the blocks are stacked and mortared together on top of the footings. Holes or channels are filled with cement and reinforced with steel rods (rebar). Cinder block, especially, is porous and tends to hold moisture which doesn’t hurt the block but tends to encourage a damp basement. Still, block is strong and offers many of the advantages of other foundation types for only slightly more cost than a slab.

Poured Concrete comes at a higher price but is seamless, doesn’t retain moisture like block and should give you a nice, dry area for storage or finishing. It tends to be more labor intensive, therefore takes longer to build, but its strength and durability are second to none. Footings are poured below the frost line, much like with block construction. Then aluminum or insulated wall forms are placed on top of the footings, into which concrete is poured and reinforced with rebar for added strength. After a week or so, the concrete has cured enough for the walls to stand on their own and the molds [unless insulated] are removed. When they discover the ruins of an old town and decide to restore the buildings, they often use the original foundations…which you can bet were made from either stone or poured concrete.

Pre-Cast is the way we decided to go when we built our home. Why? Speed, strength and drainage. The pre-cast systems appealed to us for a number of reasons. The walls are poured under controlled conditions in a factory using 5,000 pound per square inch (PSI) strength concrete instead of 2,500 to 3,000 PSI concrete like most walls poured on-site. The pre-cast walls are cured at the factory so they are guaranteed to achieve the intended design strength. Since they are manufactured square, if the site has been properly prepared the foundation will be plumb, level and square once it is assembled. Most pre-cast systems have an inch or more of foam insulation built into the walls. This minimizes cold conduction problems and provides a warmer basement in climates like the Northeast where we live. Should you decide to finish your basement, nailers are incorporated into the wall structure making it easier to add more insulation and construct your interior walls.

If you’re in a hurry, as we were, one of the biggest attractions of a pre-cast system is that it’s not weather dependent and can usually be erected in less than a day. The panels are bolted together and the seams waterproofed with special high performance urethane caulks. Building on an average 20% grade such as we did, an important feature was the unique ability for drainage offered by these systems. Because they are erected on gravel instead of a traditional footing, we were able to run several drains to empty a good distance from the house. Technically, a sheet of water coming down the hill would pass under the house and never rustle a pebble. So far…five years worth of bone dry basement. Oh, at first I wondered about the gravel footing instead of cement but, after being compacted, it’s hard as a rock!

It was not my intention to lean more heavily toward pre-cast than other foundations but, since that’s what Vigi and I chose for our own house, it only seemed fair to tell you why. Everyone has different needs, budgets and preferences. As with anything you do, it’s a matter of selecting the right tool for the job; for us, pre-cast turned out to be the right tool. Whatever you select as the foundation for your new home, just be sure to use something more earth-bound than the airy hocus pocus of The Amazing Rudolfo!

Log Profiles and Corners

Published at June 13, 2008 in Options and Choices. 0 Comments

Once I have a floor plan, what about the outside?

When planning your ideal log home or cabin, so much attention is often paid to the INside that many people are surprised by the number of decisions they must make about the OUTside. How do you want the rest of the world to view your creation…or, more importantly, how will you feel about what you’ve committed upon the welcoming face of your mountain or meadow?

Most of the choices you make about interior design will, in one way or another, affect the exterior appearance of your home [and vice-versa]. Plans for each must be made with the effect upon the other always in mind. This includes everything from the placement of nooks and crannies to the size, shape and number of windows you’re planning to install. One of the elements that will profoundly impact the personality of your home, on both sides of the wall, is the log profile you select. Log companies offer many different profiles for you to choose from and which finally forms the outer shell of your new home is more a matter of preference and who wins the argument, than it is a concern of function.

One of the more common shapes is the “D” log, which is round on the outside and flat on the inside. We chose this style for our house because it provides the kind of wall surface we’ve grown accustomed to seeing and working with when hanging pictures, cabinets, shelves or placing furniture. It would also coordinate nicely with the massive amounts of tongue-in-groove material we had planned for the interior walls. Yet the exterior offers the distinctive character of logs, not just walls of wood. The logs fit snugly together and chinking is not required. “Full Round” or “Double Round” provides the same tight fit and also offers an authentic log flavor inside as well as out. Its interior curvatures create a bit more rustic atmosphere than the “D” log. The “Double Notch” is flat on both sides and lends itself nicely to chinking, for people who like more of a “frontier” look. While usually more costly in both construction and material, “Swedish Cope” presents an impressive, very stylish appearance. To make things even more complicated, logs are offered in several textures as well, including varying degrees of hand hewing for that hint of Abe Lincoln-Daniel Boone beer, books and bearskin! Each manufacturer has its own menu of shapes and sizes sufficient to cause sleepless nights for even the most veteran decision maker.

Since I can’t climb inside your head [and if you get ten people in a room you'll get twenty opinions anyway] I can only suggest that you think carefully about what makes you feel most comfortable when it surrounds you. Is any price difference in the short run worth paying in the long run? And shop around…see it all. Whether round or square, 6″x8″, 8″x8″ or the really beefy round stock measured in feet instead of inches, you’ll know what you like when you see it!

Another early exterior choice you’ll need to make is what you want your corners to look like. Should they stick out or be finished flush? Do you want a trim cap on the ends or let the log ends show…or stick out…or go in different directions…or the same direction? This, again, is personal preference and if you don’t have any yet, you’ll soon develop strong preferences as you mentally apply each finishing technique to the ends of your mental log picture. Remember, this is for “keeps”. It isn’t something you simply change every so often like paint, wallpaper or a daredevil hairdo!

Ultimately, your selection will most likely be a fine blend of taste and budget. Vigi and I discovered, during several phases of construction, just how rapidly caviar tastes can turn to tuna when they are weighed against the reality of cost.

For our own home we chose 8″x8″ D-Logs because we felt they made the house look more substantial than the 6″x8″s that seem to be more commonly used. We selected the D-Profile for the reasons I mentioned above and finished the corners with a method called “butt and pass”, which looks suspiciously like what is now called Mortise and Tenon. The funny thing is, to this day we don’t feel we’ve compromised anywhere inside or out. Living in a home that literally contains your blood, sweat and tears and is so uniquely you can have that effect. Ours is just perfekt!

A Place For Your Stuff

Published at January 24, 2008 in Design and Planning. 0 Comments

What is the perfect floor plan?

Among the hundreds of decisions you’ll make during the planning and building of you new log home, few will have a more lasting impact on your long term satisfaction than the layout. Other people may gaze with admiration at the outside but you’re the one who has to live on the inside! That’s where you and most of your stuff will spend most of your time.

The first piece of information I’ll offer that’s sure to brighten your day is that the “perfect floor plan” doesn’t exist! That is, at least not in terms of a gold-plated yardstick against which all other plans are measured. Actually, the perfect plan is the one that best suits you and your living requirements. Whether your house is built out of logs or paper mache, there are several considerations that deserve close attention during the design phase.

Is this to be a year ’round residence or part time, vacation home? How you’re planning to use it will most likely affect the size, style and layout of your home…not to mention the cost. In either case you’ll want to plan, not only for today’s needs, but for tomorrow’s as well. If the possibility of eventual resale exists other elements should to be addressed, particularly in the case of a permanent residence. Generally, a more traditional design offers broader appeal for future resale.

How do you really live? Examining your traffic flow through the house is a good place to start as you anticipate the layout of your rooms and hallways. Provide for smooth and convenient movement as you conduct your daily activities. If you’re a family with growing children, you’ll probably want plenty of bedrooms and baths to provide enough privacy and cut down on early morning traffic jams. Your proximity to the [particularly younger] children may also be a consideration and a good size country kitchen never hurts a bit where kids are concerned. On the other hand, if it’s just the two of you, a more open floor plan offers less privacy but greater, more elegant living space. Are you aging more rapidly than the rest of us? Locating the master bedroom on the first floor and making sure all doors and hallways are wheelchair wide can be comfortable right now and may be more than just convenient in the future. Do you have a lot of friends? If you’re big on entertaining, a larger, formal dining room could be a piece of planning that makes you look like a genius!

You need to be flexible with your floor plan. Be aware of wasted space. It is important for a plan to be efficient as well as attractive. When it comes to space, just like money, there’s no such thing as having enough. While adjustments for efficiency may be desirable, changes to address building codes, structural systems or differences in manufacturers’ capabilities may be mandatory. Sometimes there are specific criteria which must also be met to satisfy your source of financing and, of course, there is always your budget lurking just out of sight. We actually went through 122 versions of our original floor plan before we satisfied both ourselves and all those outside influences. But you know what? At the end of the day, we have a design that turns out to be absolutely perfect for us and we wouldn’t trade it for any of the other 121!

Where do you get ideas or find a plan to call your own? The easiest [and fastest] way is to pick something right off a log supplier’s shelf. Check out what they have; you might get lucky. More often than not, people wind up combining bits and pieces of several plans from a variety of sources. You can discover any number of good ideas in log home magazines, model homes, manufacturers’ literature and on the Internet. Some people design their own floor plan from scratch, like Vigi and I did, incorporating the best features and leaving out the lesser ones from homes we had lived in or visited previously. Some people, with virtually bottomless pockets, even hire a professional architect. For our part, as people who had to search to see if we even had any pockets, we opted for more personal involvement.

Wherever you get your ideas, whatever the expression of your desires, always be aware of how the plan for your home’s interior affects the design and appearance of its exterior. There must be balance and proportion between the two. Above all, before you do anything, understand how things work functionally, structurally and what their impact is economically. This will make your entire experience more enjoyable and keep your changes, as well as your ulcers, to a minimum.

The Perfect Place To Build

Published at December 3, 2007 in Land and Prep. 0 Comments

How do I find land and what are the most important considerations?

Trying to find the perfect piece of land is a lot like trying to find the perfect mate. In both cases you’re looking for physical appeal, an easy going personality and financial demands that won’t land you in the poor house. If it turns out you’ve made an unwise choice, getting either one out of your life can be an unpleasant experience! Appearance is strictly an individual matter but, at least with land, several other considerations can be more easily identified.

What about location? Are you looking for a building lot in a neighborhood or for elbow room in a more rural setting? Is it convenient for work, school and shopping [If not, how far are you willing to travel for these things]? Do you prefer public utilities or are you comfortable with a well and septic? Hint: Be open to either option.

If a well is in your future, be sure you’ll find a source of good, potable water when you drill. Well drilling companies in the area you’re considering can provide valuable guidance. If you’ll need a septic system, make certain the land “perks” [I'll cover wells and "soil logs" in a future post]. Physically, hilly property is more challenging than flat; rocky terrain could require expensive blasting. If the land is low lying or has nearby water, you can get into easements, variances or have flooding problems [I'll cover these in a future post, also]. Log homes look terrific high on a hill or next to a stream but there can be a price that comes with both. Be prepared to pay it. You’ll, also, want to make sure there are no protected animal species on the property. These are all items that cost time, money and often lead to disappointment.

Something people frequently forget to do is check area zoning. If you’re planning to build a single family home, you won’t want the view from your front porch to be a shiny new gas station or the loading docks of some trucking terminal a few years down the road. Last of all, remember to ask about the taxes of nearby comparable homes to get an idea of overall affordability once your new home is finished. The town or county tax assessors can probably offer some guidance and neighbors can be helpful, too. Add in your own personal desires and you’ll have a pretty realistic check list when you go ’shopping’.

Once you’ve established your criteria and your budget, establish a level of flexibility, too. Whether you’re considering a mate for life or land for construction, perfection is a concept that is both relative and illusive. Be realistic. Remember, the consequence to overspending for a tempting piece of property now, may be a shortfall in the home and construction funds you’ll need later.

At times it may seem as though a place that meets all your requirements doesn’t exist. Believe me, it does. How hard it is to unearth exactly what you’re looking for may depend, to a large degree, upon your geographic location. Land in the East, especially the Northeast, and along the West Coast is more scarce and expensive than property in the South or mid-section of the country. Land closer to metropolitan areas costs more and is less available than its equivalent in more rural areas.

Okay. Now that you know what you want and where you want it, how do you go about finding it? We looked at more than 125 parcels of land, Monday through Sunday, rain or shine, day and night [some by flashlight], for nearly a year before we found something that satisfied us. Notice I didn’t use the word perfect…but it’s near perfect.

Realtors can be helpful if they have a land division or someone who is dedicated to land sales. Most realtors have at least a few listings but since they earn their livings from commissions, and houses pay more than undeveloped land, guess where they’ll invest most of their time! Get several realtors ‘on the case’ but realize they are only one resource, not the whole answer to your search. Newspapers and supermarket ‘Sunday Shoppers’ [where they list everything, including the kitchen sink] can sometimes be helpful. Vigi and I left no stone unturned…but our most productive activity was simply riding repeatedly through areas of interest, looking for “For Sale” signs, talking to people in their yards, at local businesses and even knocking on doors when appropriate. When you finally see something you like, be ready to pounce. He who hesitates may find himself still looking!

Whichever methods you employ, use more than just one approach. Know what you want before you go looking so when you see it, you’ll know it. Just like searching for that perfect mate, it pays to get in the habit of carrying a notepad and pencil…and your checkbook!

(NOTE: Our podcast, Speaking Of Logs will address this topic in more detail in a few weeks)

A Matter Of Timing

Published at April 24, 2007 in Design and Planning. 0 Comments

Which comes first, your land or your house plan?

This is probably one of the most common questions we hear and one that is usually addressed fairly early in the planning stage. Naturally, it’s also a question we managed to miss when we were building, and that bit of oversight gave birth to a 122nd version of our house plan. Being kind of a chicken or egg thing, there’s really no right answer but since there are several considerations that might make your life easier, or save you time or money, we’ll take a look at it anyway.

On one hand, the answer could be just a matter of timing. If you already have your land or find the ideal spot before you decide on your design it’s a no brainer. The same holds true if you find the perfect house plan right up front. On the other hand, if neither item is in evidence, you have a decision to make. Conventional wisdom says to find you land first because you’ll want to choose a house plan that properly addresses the characteristics of your property. This makes a lot of sense…except when the log home guy is offering you all sorts of assurances on everything from locking in a cheaper price, and holding your materials for 2 or 3 years, to switching designs later without penalty. My advice is to weigh your options, keep as many of them open as possible and be flexible.

Your home and land should complement each other aesthetically, functionally and efficiently. For example, you’ll want your home to be seen at its best when guests approach and to blend gracefully as if part of its surroundings, rather than looking as if it were just ‘added on’. You’ll want to have the garage located conveniently, walkways or steps which are easily navigable and windows that reveal any vistas or views as completely, yet naturally as possible. In addition, you’ll want to take advantage of any construction economies such as building upward rather than outward on a hill or in a level clearing rather than on a rocky wooded slope.

Whether you fit your land to the home or your home to the land depends upon several factors, including which element is more important to you and what kind of property may be available at the time. I said to be flexible because your ideal solution may be to compromise a little on both design and terrain to achieve the result you desire.

We designed our own home from scratch, starting with a rectangle and working out from there. We had some very specific needs which nothing ‘off-the-shelf’ would fill, and the choice of land within our price range was very limited. Most building lots we had seen were reasonably level so I was comfortable in going ahead with my design work. Well, we wound up falling in love with a heavily wooded mountainside that sported an average 20% to 30% grade and no level areas. The sprawling house I originally configured could only work, affordably, if I tucked the garage underneath and moved my recording studio upstairs. Today, it couldn’t be more perfect. Back then, we needed to exhibit some serious redesign hustle, creativity and compromise. My best friend lives by the credo, “My back may break but it won’t bend”. He should never try to build anything.

Which ever is most important to you, design or location, remember there’s more than one way to achieve your own brand of perfection and, as Fred’s fourth law states, “It’s not how you start but how you finish.”