Log Home Construction in Today’s Building Climate
Log homes were quite common in my area, and throughout most of Canada, until quite recently. Issues with code compliance and energy efficiency have made log construction both expensive and (even more) impractical.
Is this the case in the U.S.A as well?
In my small town there were 4 log home builders when I was in high school, now there are none. The big BC companies are all shipping over seas or to locations where building permits are not required, like remote lodges, because the local market has disappeared.
Is there any place for log buildings in the current industry? I personally love log homes, but do admit that they tend to be less efficient and tight than standard construction.
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plumb_bob,
I suspect log homes will continue to be built as part of a high-end niche market, but beyond that I don't see any pre-apocalypse future for them.
Aesthetics aside, they are a method of construction used by settlers with an abundant timber supply, who lack the tools necessary to mill the lumber. They use huge amounts of wood, provide a leaky low-R envelope, shrink b0th initially and seasonally, have no service cavity, and start deteriorating almost as soon as they are finished. Having renovated several, I find it hard to work up much enthusiasm for them.
About a year ago, I had a NM client that wanted a log home designed to ZE standards. We found a log home builder that claimed to have built a couple of homes that were in the 1-2ACH50 and wall R-values of 20+.
He showed me his details, and I was impressed. He used 8x12 squared and D logs milling top and bottom double T&G, gaskets, elastomeric chinking and a routed drip edge on the bottom on the outside of the logs. Then he installed 2” of rigid foam on the inside, and then an interior layer of 1/4 log, for “looks” in some rooms and drywall in others.
He claimed to have tight fits and energy efficient envelope, but he did say it was expensive, and that’s why my clients declined at the end, and we end-up designing their farmhouse with unfinished wood planks and stone.
It sounds like an awful lot of trouble to go to. The only reason I can see to go with logs is esthetic, if you're going to cover the inside of the logs with foam anyway why not just cut slabs of logs and use them as siding on conventional construction?
I feel the same about a lot of post and beam construction.
I agree. I asked if we could build a regular 2x6 wall, rigid foam, with vertical rainscreens, and a 2" chinked T&G planks... I can't remember why it wouldn't work.
Probably because it wasn't what the client wanted!
Armando,
I've built or renovated few of these. https://panabode.com/
With a bit of diligence they start out alright, but as with all log homes the air-sealing has to take into account the huge shrinkage of the structure, so windows and doors are set on slides with gaps above, and as the relationship of them to the wall changes things loosen up. Structural posts need periodic adjustment as they create gaps in the logs with differential settlement, stairs go out of level, interior walls that are conventionally framed can't initially be built to touch the ceiling. Things generally only work if you forego any of the standards we set of efficiency and air sealing.
My friend built a log home SW of Denver using the type logs Armando describes. The rest of the house, foundation, sub slab and ceiling were superinsulated. Radiant floors throughout, a very comfortable home. The mountain expectation with reasonable energy efficiency.
I agree it is about an aesthetic, also about culture and heritage. I live in log home country and can say for sure some are built well, some poorly. A well built log structure can last for hundreds of years, and is a very healthy environment to live in. The down sides are well listed above.
For post and beam (timberframe) construction, it is also mainly an aesthetic. You are in effect building 2 houses, first the structural frame, and then the framed, insulated envelope. Lots of materials and labour. I find they all end up looking kind of the same.
Panabodes and other stacked, milled type structures have all of the downsides of building solid wood walls, and none of the advantages. The downsides are lack of thermal mass, shrinkage and settling, inability to control the natural movement of a large volume of wood. A real log wall will, because of its weight, push down on itself and tighten up if built correctly. And the mass of the wall can absorb and release heat in a comfortable way.
As BC moves into the Energy Step Code, I have heard that some log buildings are doing quite well, but I can only imagine the labour involved to get a log house to this level.
In the modern industry, log homes are probably best left to the niche market and off-grid type cabins, not housing for the masses.
I will be building a conventionally framed sauna starting next year, and plan on siding it with horizontal rough cut 2x12 (perhaps dovetailed at the corners), the edges will be routered and I will leave a gap between planks for chinking. The poor mans log wall.
plumb_bob,
Sorry my remarks have been so unrelentingly negative. They can be wonderful spaces to be in, it's just the builder in me reacting to the experiences I've had trying to work with them.
Hi plumb_bob,
What you describe above as "the poor man's log wall" is also basically the same as "the wealthy person's log wall." Out here in ski country (Montana) a lot of people want the mountain / mountain-modern aesthetic - ie, lots of wood and stone on the exterior. On these homes, it's typical to build conventionally, stick frame + exterior insulation, then clad the building in hewn log slabs, with either real chinking or aged wood battens between courses. When well-done, it winds up looking really convincing, and you get all the energy/efficiency benefits of having a home built with modern means & methods.
That said... it's extremely expensive, at least in this area. A lot of that is in material cost, but of course there's a lot more labor in siding with hewn slabs than more typical finishes (you're still doing lots of milling, scribing, etc - you're just not dealing with full-thickness logs).
Check out the attached image... That's just hewn slabs, milled down to 2"-3" thickness, and fastened (treated trim screws for fasteners in this case) over a rainscreen like any other siding. The slabs used at outside corners were milled to keep the full end-cut of the original wood, to replicate the dovetail corners of a true log stack.
I think it'd be possible to get reasonably close to the log aesthetic with rough-sawn planks, especially if you're willing to get creative on how you treat the corners.