Log Homes: Handcrafted vs Milled
From the Editor
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Copyright © 1997
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Log Homes: Handcrafted VS MilledThis Canadian handcrafter's perspective was written as a response to an e-mailed question: 'State your best case - What are the advantages of handcrafted over milled log homes?' Distinctly DifferentEssentially a 'me too' product, milled logs are seldom equal or superior to natural logs when used in a log home. Except for two notable instances, manufactured log homes are a compromise at best. Handcrafted log homes require very good, straight logs of a closely matched size. Flat ProfilesSome manufacturers make a pretty D-log with a flat wood-to-wood interface, potentially drafty butt-and-pass corners, and not-so-pretty butt joints in the walls. A builder uses these logs and builds the home with only a 2-foot roof overhang, allowing rainwater to take advantage of the profile's worst weakness; the flat-to-flat. The worst kind of stunt you could pull on any log wall, milled or not is to cover it with inadequate roof overhang. The majority of milled log homes in the States qualify for this dart, and every builder should know better. If the logs get wet occasionally throughout the year; water is trapped between them and they eventually rot away. There is a very strong log home renovation industry in the States right now, replacing the bottom few rounds of homes that are only 17, 25, or 60 years old! That's a difficult (expensive) repair that would not have been necessary with a better log profile or species in the wall, and/or more roof. Avoid flat-to-flat logs altogether. There are few habitable areas that are dry enough that this form of wall construction will survive for long. Some flat-to-flat log homes are reduced to junk after only 25 years. At least build your house to outlast one roofing. Risk only what you can afford to lose. A log home should be expected to last over 100 years without more than superficial attention. Tongue and Groove ProfilesMany look like a good log if they're not cut too thin. From a purely insulative point of view, the log should be at least 8 inches thick, the minimum allowed by the CLBAI LOG BUILDING STANDARDS (a handcrafting standard). Many, many 'log' homes are made of timbers 6 inches thick or less. Most handcrafters wouldn't dream of using less than 10-inch tops in a wall, 11-inch tops being more usual. The big problem with T&G profiles, and any square profile, is that the cants are usually fed into the machine as quartersawn timbers. If the logs were bent, any timbers cut from them can flex after they're in your wall, allowing air infiltration. If they did not grow at a northerly or high elevation, chances are that the soft and open-grained wood will crack appreciably as dries, in some cases allowing water that hits the wall to penetrate to the inside. There are examples in which the water runs in in a steady stream whenever it rains. Yes, you can repair the cracks, but again, that wall had better be Cedar if it's getting wet very often. A high grade profiled log will have a 'boxed heart'. This is still a fairly stable log. I challenge you to find any. A milled Swedish Cope log with a boxed heart is the closest approximation of the advantages of using real logs in the first place. I had mentioned that some leading edge millers are producing a pretty good product. A few laminate 1x6 boards and re-profile it as a d-log. Nice, stable, but calling it a log is a bit of a stretch. Many are using a T&G log with a decent drip edge. There are other well-engineered wall systems that only look like log walls but are in fact framed with log siding inside and out. This and others of these new systems are so far from log work a comparison is invalid. Corner Styles
The more common work, though, is butt-and-pass treatments with an uneven corner. Though a few companies are splining their butt-and-pass or using a box joint it's more of an exception; remember, this whole segment of the industry is based on ease of production. Sometimes an effort is made to disguise the telltale T&G log ends in an attempt to make them look like real logs. No attempt will be made to hide the unsightly butt joints in your walls. There are only a handful of companies who can make more that a 22' long milled log. There will be butt joints. Assembly MethodsA manufacturer typically sends 'logs' out that have been as yet hardly touched by human hands. In a lot of cases none of the precutting has been done; that's left to the 'log home builders' on your site who will pile it into walls. This may take from at least several days to a few weeks. The pieces may have to be cut, and hundreds of spikes must be pounded in the walls to hold them together. The cutting is usually limited to bucking certain lengths off square. On the other hand, the handcrafted log home is built to exacting tolerances by a skilled crew on the builder's site while your foundation and floor is being prepared. Every notch is attended to by craftsmen; the fit is airtight. The roof structure is fitted, the openings are all cut and sanded, and the walls insulated as the building goes up, and all electrical and through-bolt holes are drilled as the home is being disassembled and loaded onto a truck. Then the handcrafted home is simply re-piled, an operation that takes four people and a crane truck about twelve hours. In this method a crane is needed full time for only about 20 hours for disassembly and reassembly, and can be better utilized during the home's initial construction in the log yard, reducing costs. The saw work is limited to cutting the bottom round from the doorways. A dozen or so spikes will be used to secure the top round; the interlocking corners hold the home together and in most cases through-bolting is optional. Environmental ConcernsIn the handcrafting industry only about 5% - 9% of the log is wasted, compared to up to 50% in some milling operations. Millers commonly have an enormous pile of shavings from the lathe or milling machine; the logs are often cut down to 10 inches diameter from an 18-inch butt if that's what they're running. Because of their volume production methods there's a continually high volume of waste being produced. Around here this waste material is expensive and difficult to dispose of, especially if it's Cedar... the ranchers don't want it for bedding, the pulp mill can't take it because there's too much bark and the wrong kind of shaving, the landfill won't deal with it, you're not allowed to burn it, and the Ministry of Environment is pressing for a solution. By using the handcrafted method when possible that wasted r-value is simply left on the wall instead of in the junk pile. And the huge amount of energy used to overmanufacture a finished product can be saved. Handcrafted homes simply make sense. Conclusion:It's Hard to Improve on NatureIt's true that while owning a log home is enjoyed by many, only a relative few live in a hand-carved work of art. To those discerning few, no other kind of construction can compare to a real, handcrafted log home built by real artisans from real logs. To them, it's no contest; the products are leagues apart, like comparing a log picnic table to one made of 2x4 studs. Not satisfied with ubiquitous 'me-too' knockoffs, what they want is a durable treasure, built to last for generations. Bless these people, for as long as this small segment of our log home industry survives, there will be a solid niche for every handcrafter. Duncan Crow is a 20 year veteran to log home building. He owns and operates his own log home business. He also owns and operates the TIMBERSMITH'S LOG WORKS, a web site for the first time buyer as well as the seasoned veteran. |
