Log Homes Journal

As the old saying goes, “For 200 years we’ve been conquering Nature. Now we’re beating it to death.” It is high time to begin eco-friendly practices right from our homes. Or else, the very existence of human life on Earth will be history. Realizing this fact many industries and residential areas are now getting into eco-friendly practices. The use of log homes is the best example for the eco-friendliness.

The Log House Kits

Unlike the construction of concrete homes, the log homes can be constructed very easily with the help of log house kits. These DIY log home kits are affordable tools to construct stylish and energy efficient homes. There are many types of log home kits that are available today. Most of the basic log cabins will include the tools needed such as fasteners and sealers for the construction of a log homes. Though the construction of log homes using these DIY kits is very easy, there are some factors that need to be considered. The first thing to be considered is the price factor. DIY log house kits are available at a price range of 13,000$ to 20000$. Hence you should choose the log home kit by planning your budget. The second factor to be considered is the construction options such as the flooring. Proper planning can save lots of cash spent in the construction of log homes. For example if you choose carpet flooring instead of hardwoord flooring, you can save a great deal of money.

Preparation to Live in a log home

Though all of us will love to live close to the nature by residing in log homes, certain preparations are necessary to make us feel comfortable in the log home. As our lifestyle will be adjusted to living in concrete homes, certain preparations are necessary to get used to the lifestyle in the eco-friendly log homes. You don’t have to worry about the harsh weather conditions and the natural calamities while living in a log home. When it comes to the maintenance of a log home, it is entirely different from maintaining conventional homes. As the log homes provide natural climate control, you should eliminate the use of extra air conditioning (The main objective of living in a log home is to reduce the cash spent in electricity bills).

Advantages of Log homes over Conventional Concrete homes

• Lower Co2 emissions (40% less when compared to the conventional concrete homes)

• Low maintenance costs

• Natural insect and pest repellant properties

• High durability against natural disasters like earth quake, floods

• Huge savings in electricity bills as there is no need for extra air conditioning.

It’s high time to become eco-friendly through every means which is possible.

 

For people who wish to experience the goodness of living in a country-style home, they could easily resort to log cabins. These types of homes provide the kind of comfort and style that is totally different from the city.

One of the best things about building and using log cabins is that these types of homes provide inexpensive means of having a reliable and durable dwelling.

Since its inception in the 18th century, log cabins have continuously been utilized as alternatives to contemporary homes. These are especially utilized by people who wish to experience a more comfortable and more naturalistic way of living.

For this reason, many people are opting to build log cabins. However, most of the instruments and materials that are needed to build log cabins are often made available at quite a few diverse locations.

Therefore, as a substitute for finding and collecting the necessary materials from different places, log cabin kits are created to give you all the necessary materials and directions or manuals in just one package.

Buying log cabin kits will not only make your purchases easier and faster but it can also give you the chance to save more money because most of the materials that are bought individually would normally cost more.

With the proliferation of online shopping, you can easily find a workable log cabin kits in the Internet. The best thing about it is that log cabin kits that can be found online could provide better choice since you can easily compare and evaluate each kit first before deciding to buy the package.

Most of the log cabin kits are complete with materials and instruction manuals. Hence, you can easily start building your own log cabin. The only problem is that you still have to purchase your own additional materials for your electricity, water supply, and other features of your homes that are not normally included in log cabin kits.

Basically, a log cabin kit contains decks, exterior windows, interior roof framing, floor joints, roof framing, porch, logs, exterior doors, groove plywood floors, and floor joints. These materials are applicable whether you want to build a large or a small log cabin.

Advantages of Log Cabin Kits

Log cabin kits are not just built for the sake of having them. Log cabin kits are especially made to provide ready-made materials to log cabin aficionados who wish to build their own masterpiece. These log cabins provide many benefits that people will normally have a hard time acquiring when building their own home.

Here is a list of some of its advantages:

1. Complete package

As far as log cabin building is concerned, log cabin kits are complete with all the necessary materials. Each log cabin kit has its own instruction manual that consist of comprehensive directions in order to build the cabin correctly. It also contains the “tools supply list” that entails the additional materials necessary in building the log cabin.

Most of the log cabin kits also have the typical construction supplies such as beam hangers, nails, etc.

2. More savings

With log cabin kits, you can easily save more money because the materials are presented into one whole package. Buying these things separately will absolutely compel you to spend more because you do not only spend more money on the material but you also spend additional cost for the delivery and transportation.

Hence, you end up spending more than what you have planned. With log cabin kits, you can only spend in as little as $5,000. Additional expenses would only pertain to installation of electricity, plumbing, heating, and other lavishness.

3. Better quality materials

One of the best things about log cabin kits is that these kits usually contain the best kinds of logs. Most of the logs included in the log cabin kits are completely and naturally dried and patterned to the correct criteria. In contrast, most of the commercial establishments that offer logs would usually expedite the drying process, which, in turn, degrade the total quality of the logs.

4. User friendly

Log cabin kits are easier to use. In fact, because of its user-friendly features, almost anybody can build a log cabin.

Given all that, log cabin kits are definite advantage to most log cabin fanatics. All of these things will definitely make country-style living a great possibility.

In the current economic climate log cabins has become more than never a real cost effective alternative against renting an office, self-storage unit or even a bigger home in case the family has group up. That’s why at Cedexx Log Cabins (http://www.logcabinbuildings.co.uk)we’ve dedicated our time and efforts in finding a real solution to the current economical difficulties for small companies or self-employed people, also for the extra living space required by a new member in your family, playrooms, study rooms or workshop.

At Cedexx Log Cabins, http://www.logcabinbuildings.co.uk, we’ve developed a wide range of small log cabins that can be used as a home office, study room, workshop, playroom, gym, sauna or even to accommodate unexpected guests, starting from 3×3 m (9.84×9.84 ft) up to 8×5 m (26.24×16.40 ft) our range of log cabins can be supplied in 28, 34 or 44 mm log thickness, along with roof shingles, wood protector, double glazed windows and doors and many more optional extras.

Home Office / workshop

Is no need to spend a fortune on renting an office when you can have a log cabin from as low as £1000 in the comfort of your own garden from where you can start working while you are keeping an eye on your kids.

So why not to save a fortune (at least £3000-£4000/year) and work from your own home dedicating more time to your family and friends but also to your job?

Playroom / study room

Many kids enjoy the ‘rustic’ charm of a log cabin and they can make a wonderful addition to their playground. Proper sitting, construction and maintenance of your log cabin can protect your investment and give you and your family many years of enjoyment.

Log Cabins for living / Holiday home

At Cedexx Log Cabins we have developed a wide range of mobile log homes dedicated to accommodate a small, medium or big family, with wall thicknesses starting from 90 mm (9 cm), double glazed windows and doors we can guarantee the complete satisfaction of our customers, with prices starting from as low as £9995 you can have a superb log home, for temporary or permanent living.

Bespoke Log Cabins, http://www.bespokelogcabins.co.uk

It’s hard to believe that you won’t find something in our products range to suit your needs but anyway you should know that we also do bespoke log cabins, so even if is a small log cabin from 1×1 m or a large log home or log restaurant we can do it and unlike some of our competitors we won’t charge you extra for this.

 

No matter where you may be in the log home building process, from mildly curious to a serious buyer, there is nothing as enlightening or useful as attending a log home show. Having the opportunity to meet and talk with manufacturers, builders and dealers face-to-face lets you ask them all your questions and compare their answers.

As an example, companies that ‘kiln dry’ their logs have a different story to tell than those that air-dry logs and each method has advantages you will want to consider. Discussing these sales points and conflicting viewpoints will help you draw your own conclusions as to what is best for your particular situation. Spend a day or two at an expo and you can learn more than you could through any other type of research.

Spring and fall of every year are the busy seasons for the log home industry shows. During these months you can find a show or exposition happening at various cities across the USA and Canada. Companies of every size attend these shows so you will have an excellent opportunity to compare log home floor plans & home designs, gather brochures, pricing estimates, financing information and speak one on one to qualified industry experts about all the question you have.

Possibly one of the best benefits is getting to see so many styles of log and timber frame homes close-up. Most exhibitors will have tons of pictures demonstrating their proficiency in creating the log home of your dreams and some will even have partial homes erected on the convention room floor.

Discussing your plans with local builders that are familiar with your weather and other regional conditions can save you weeks of phone calls and meetings. As you can imagine, building a log home in Arizona offers challenges not found in Vermont and may require different construction materials, methods or wood treatments and finishes.

There are a number of techniques used to build log home corners and believe it or not, they are not created equal. Some joints may look attractive but may not be the best choice if exposed to the elements – as opposed to being sheltered under a roof or porch overhang. Some joints may offer a place for water to pool, which is disastrous for virtually any type of wood. Corner joints must provide air tightness and stability and not allow the logs to move or separate.

At a log home show you can see what a Saddlenotch, Swedish Saddlenotch, Butt and Pass and a Dovetail corner actually looks like and learn the pros and cons of each. You will learn new words and building terms that may sound strange at first, but you will soon be using these phrases in your discussions with builders and manufacturers.

One of the best parts of owning a log home is decorating it. Log home living is different from “conventional” home styles and furnishings. One doesn’t often see an antler chandelier in a seaside Cape Cod cottage. At these shows you will find much more than just log crafters. Many log and rustic furniture makers sell and take custom orders for everything from furnishings to custom carved fireplace mantles.

At a recent show I attended in Salt Lake City, vendors were showcasing everything from rustic copper sinks for the bath to custom wall air vent grilles. Other products ranged from maintenance and restoration products to wireless wall switches, which require no batteries. Truly, the best part about attending such shows is learning about products that will make your log home more enjoyable. From lighting and plumbing wares to design and maintenance products, you’ll discover solutions to make your life easier.

Many people begin their search looking for log home manufacturers and somewhere along the way they realize that what they really want is a timber frame home. Discovering the nuances of log homes and heavy timber construction is a learning process and log home shows provide the perfect setting for learning everything you need to know to choose the right product for your needs.

Some manufacturers will actually build a small home on the convention hall floor to show their products close-up. Few things are as impressive as looking at the fine joinery of a timberframe roofline or a well-crafted log corner. The next time a show is scheduled in your area, drop what you are doing, put on a comfortable pair of shoes and go for a visit!

To see when a log home show is scheduled in your area, visit the Log Home Directory at www.logcabindirectory.com

There are two options when it comes to an ownership of a new logs home: the custom-designed home built log by log on building site, or pre-engineered material package cut to the size off-site and constructed on-site.

Both of these approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. Custom-designed custom-built log home can be and is usually built from the logs of large diameter, but this architectural advantage is offset but a significantly higher price. On the other hand, the log home package usually use medium or small size logs, which allows transportation of the entire shell on one truck to most locations. The cost per square foot of these log cabin homes is substantially lower than the cost of custom-built homes.

To built a custom-built, handcrafted logs homes take significantly longer than to erect a shell from packaged logs. The length of a construction process might represent an additional cost to those buyers who arranged for financing and have to pay mortgage monthly. The producer of packaged log homes usually assebles the entire structure in own yard in order to be able to guarantees that logs will snap together easily and will form a tight, energy-efficient shell, without a need to hand-fit them into a position. The consequences of this approach are that no specialized crews are needed to erect log cabin homes shells.

As a guideline, the estimated price of logs home should be divided by a square footage in order to get price per every square foot. this information is to be used as a rough estimate when it comes to building a house and using only the basic materials. The price per square footage is likely to vary a great deal with size and type of the house and likely will influence the final price to a high degree.

The prospective owner should not worry about the way the wiring is likely to go in because the exterior walls are to be used in case of the log cabins homes. So, as the exterior walls are likely to go up, they will be notched before they are put into their place. The builder will drill holes through the sub flooring and logs for the wires to be run. Wall switches are to be done in a similar manner. Sufficient room is to be considered when it comes to logs home because the interior walls are to be regarded as partition walls wired like an ordinary house.

Plumbing pipes can be rum through these interior walls as well. This can take place the same way as when it comes to conventionally framed homes. The bathrooms that have their joists below are to be regarded as a true exception because various methods are to be considered when it comes to proceeding with these unusual over joist bathrooms. The foundation of the log cabins homes is a usual one: for exaample, concrete slab, basement and even crawl space are likely to be designed.

When it comes to the roof, these are likely to be the same as on the regular homes. They can also utilize different exposed rafters and different types of tongue and grooves that support the structure of the house. The steep roof fitted with an insulation are considered extremely strong ones; they are also energy efficient thus creating the log cabins homes sought after for a vacation home.

The log cabins homes are the perfect choice when someone decides to have a logs home as a vacation home.