If you are just starting out – dreaming of a log home – one of the first options to consider are whether you’ll want a milled log, a hand-hewn log or a scribed log home.

In our personal situation we chose milled logs and are thrilled with our decision, but this may not be your favorite.

Considerations for our home involved time, money, skill required to build the log home, and availability of logs in our area. We only had a few months to get our house built and livable. We had a tight budget that we could not stray from. We needed to build the log home ourselves – without a general contractor and without a log home consultant. We were also keen to buy the logs locally – not just to
support our friends at Freymond Lumber (who are known across Ontario, Canada for the quality and workmanship), or to keep our money in our community — but more importantly to build with logs that have grown in our region, that were ‘made’ to withstand our tough Canadian winters.

Milled Logs

Later in this article we’ll discuss other log types, but for now let’s discover the milled log.

In modern day, most log home builders and kit companies use milled logs. A log that has been milled has been passed through a machine making all logs uniform in both shape and diameter. Shapes vary.

Advantages to using this type to build a log home, are fast delivery per order, near precision in joinery, and reduced overall costs (not just in the cost per log, but in extra supplies and labor costs as well).

Milled logs are generally shorter in length. They are therefore easier to work with (with just a few people) and easier to stack when building. Dependant on your local mill (if you’re building yourself), or your log home company (if you’re purchasing a kit or hiring a contractor), a milled log could be square, rectangular, round, or a ‘D’ shape. We choose 6″ x 10″ rectangular since we like the ‘chunky’ look and a 10″ log will build faster than a 6″ x 6″ square log.

Logs can be milled from a wide variety of tree species – cedar and pine being two of the most common. They are sometimes kiln-dried to create ideal moisture contents.

Hand Hewn

A hand hewn or crafted log is precisely what the name implies. Hand hewn log packages come with peeled and cut logs, made by hand, by craftsmen of the trade.

These logs are often more expensive, slower to delivery time, but are used to recreate a look and feel of a pioneer or vintage home.

There are as many ways to peel and prepare a log as there are craftsmen and manufacturers. Logs left mostly round, then stacked upon each other further require chinking. Chinking is the process of filling in the ‘cracks’ between logs – a time intensive process that requires regular upkeep over the years.

A final method of building a log home is to use scribed logs. Although these logs are also hand crafted they do not require the chinking process. To ’scribe’ a log is to take a scribe tool and trace the space where the two logs come in contact with each other once stacked. That area is then removed from each log with a saw.

Hand hewn and scribed logs usually arrive and are used at a tree’s natural height/length. They will take longer to deliver and are more expensive. Positive aspects of these logs however are that they appear more authentic and/or rustic.

Moisture Content of Your Logs

Another consideration you will want to be aware of is the moisture content of the logs you use – mentioned above regarding shrinkage. This is a point not to be missed in discussion with your mill, contractor, or consultant. Ignoring this warning may cause thousands of dollars of repair and restoration after the fact.

Even if your logs are scribed, even if they are milled, should they shrink and bare large gaps, chinking will be your only option to repair the oversight. More time, more supplies = more money.

Some questions you might want to ask your builder are:

Where do the logs come from? Where were they grown? Though not an absolute, it is a good idea to buy or use logs that have grown in the same environment you will be building in. Harsh climate trees are best for harsh environments. Humidity is also a factor. Uncured, green logs grown in humid climates will change over time once used to build a home with.

This doesn’t mean you can’t build with logs from other climates, but you should be certain that your contractor or mill has designed and/or engineered the plan to deal with possible shrinkage.

Here is another factor when choosing wood type. Soft vs. hard woods. White pine (our personal choice), is less likely to twist over time but does contain more moisture than other trees when green. White pine is also a soft wood and is easy to work with. This was a major concern for us since we are building a log home ourselves, without a contractor or extra labor.

White pine is one of the most common woods for log home construction, but others are just as popular and have their own advantages. Cedar, Douglas Fir, and Lodge pole are a few others.

As for hard wood, oak was once the most common as these logs contain less moisture and are therefore less likely to shrink. Oak is prone to twisting and cracking however over time. Oak and other hardwoods are also far more expensive and harder to work with than pine or cedar though.

As you’ve now read, moisture content and shrinkage is a serious consideration.

Green, uncured trees are often well over 19% moisture. Optimum moisture content is 15% – 18%. Treating logs before using in building projects usually involves a kiln-dry – common practice at the mill.

If you have selected hand crafted or hewn logs, ensure you are being supplied with either air-dry or standing-dead materials. Typical reasons for standing-dead trees are fire or insects – neither of which adversely affect the final outcome of your log home. A good log supplier will ensure that the inner moisture content and the structural integrity of a log is construction grade.

Air-dried have been cut and allowed to dry out to 15-19% before being sold.

On Thursday, June 12 2008, Eric and Ben were set to give a full day to build our log home – even though we are still just at the foundation wall stage.

They headed into the property and that’s just what it took – the entire day. By the end they were both hungry, dehydrated, tired, and dirty.

Starting the Day Building A Log Home

The day started with digging a 6″ deep trench alongside the frost wall footing to lay Big-O aka sub-drain with a filter sock. The plastic pipe is 4″ in diameter and black. The purpose of the white sock is to filter back any fine silt – ensuring the plastic pipe is accessible to water flow. The pipe and sock will eventually be placed around the perimeter of the house.

Once the sub-drain was in place, Ben carried on and finished off the height of the frost wall with remaining Logix block forms. (If you want to know more about Logix, run a search on this site for the search term styrofoam). After ensuring that the walls were level with the tops of the footings, Ben placed 2×4s across the top of the blocks to hold them in place while they backfilled the frost wall trench by hand.

With the styrofoam forms in place, leveled and stabilized, Eric and Ben ensure that the top 6″ of fill over the sub-drain is coarse gravel…

…then continue on to backfill the entire frost wall from both sides.

Here’s a shot of conscienscious workmanship. This is one corner (the top ’step’ of the frost wall) meeting the north wall’s footings. The sub-drain at the corner will eventually be connected to remaining pipe around the entire house.

The issue of kitchen cupboards that work visually in a log home – particularly when the ceiling is vaulted or cathedral ceilings is an onging concern for me. This week I will be visiting with a local kitchen designer – who offers ideas and advice for free – and will report back on what an expert has to say about the matter.

If you’ve just landed here, and are interested in seeing many other photos of log home kitchens, use the search feature at right to retrieve a list of all posts on the subject.

Today, I have two photos to share with you of kitchens that do not have upper cupboards, that do work visually and are not an eyesore from every other room in the house.

The first is similar to my current vision for our kitchen. Windows above the counters at left and right, no upper cupboards, vaulted (angled ceiling) on the left and straight up at the back. I likely will not have a table within the kitchen workspace, but to the right will be another set of lower cupboards (perhaps a river rock covered kitchen island) containing a small produce or wash up sink.

From Country Home Magazine (April 2003), “Trading Places” Written by Jill Connors, styled by Joetta Moulden, and photographed by Brad Simmons

The next kitchen photo is provided for reference only. I wish I could show you more about this kitchen as it also doesn’t have upper cupboards, but to the left and right of the sink are open shelves. A pretty and tidy kitchen all in white.

Country Home (April 2003), “Signature Style” Written by Mike Butler, and photographed by Reed Davis

Once the wood forms were in, the footings poured, and the forms removed from the footings, it was time to repack the ground that had been distrubed during excavation.

Although packing the ground mechanically in this way is only a necessity on both sides of any frost wall of your home (log home or any other home), Eric spent a few hours and packed the site’s ground to ensure no unnatural settling would occur.

Our entire building site took 4 hours to pack (and remember that we went overboard and spent more time at packing our log home foundation base than was required by building regulations). We rented our plate packer for $40/day from a local tool rental outfit and the machine itself was a walk-behind unit. By this I mean that most teenage girls or boys, or any able-bodied adult could have done this work without breaking a sweat.

There is not much skill in operating a tamper, packer, or any other name you may have for it. If you are using ICF or Logix blocks for your log home foundation as we are, you only want to be certain not to bump the unpoured wall forms during operation.

When finished, our log home site looked like the photo below. The ground will never settle unevenly now as a result of our excavation and our frost wall is secured for all seasons and temperatures.