A must read on the difference between milled and handcrafted logs.
I also understood that you are willing to go for machine work only as well. I hope you don’t have anything against if I use the opportunity to explain some of the facts good and bad with the different techniques.
There is more about a log house or in fact about any type of house than just a good pricing and a known or seen name.
1. The machine cut logs are normally of thin walls 50 to 160 mm therefore suitable for warm and mild climate like Spain, France perhaps even Germany and England. While, yes, there are this type of log constructions also in Scandinavia they all should be fortified by means of extra insulation. Or by extra bills for heating materials. The wood it self has a good value regarding heat transfer/loss it is quite energy saving. However, what use is of the good value if there are leakages? Which brings me to the second point
2. The machine doesn’t know that every log is somewhat different but it has to make every log look basically the same as if it would be otherwise the house wouldn’t assemble afterwards. During the milling process 1 thing must happen and that is that the logs are made to fit requirements – regardless of its bumps on the surface or bending to one or the other side. (The milling process can leave gaps up to 0,63cm. Homes are not pre-built prior to shipping, therefore flaws would not be detected until erected on your site.) This brings us to the next point
3. The used wood is literally the heart of the wood - we all know that the wood grows quickly and much in its first years and slower as it grows older. The wider the year rings the softer the wood – the more likely the logs are going to play in the walls (and there is a lot of waste). Using metal screws to fix or prevent the problem isn’t going to help as even the steel poles bend with those forces when the house is settling, the best they can do is keep the logs from slipping out of the wall. This leads to heat leakages threw bent, warped or twisted wood. It isn’t hard to imagine what will happen if the logs do not connect completely. From inside you can use something to fill the spaces between the logs and from outside there is not much point of doing that as the small birds will carry it away anyhow.
4. A disadvantage with this technique is also the knot point system as with stronger winds and storms wind will infiltrate and water can penetrate the knots. You won’t be seeing this with the Norwegian knot.
5. Accordingly to my experience the normal life period of machine work is around 50-75years – however this is estimated as the technology it self isn’t that old. The hand crafted logs have a much longer life span about 200 years with proven techniques
To be honest – searching for problems with log houses I came across most of the log home manufactures describing their product as best and giving just advice that choose the best builder and not the best price. Well’ yes this is all and good but doesn’t give you any idea of what a handcrafted log manufacture could do wrong or what are the disadvantages over milled logs. Who likes to talk about problems? I do not! I will try to not to take any sides here and I will also try to put the questions in the order of their importance:
1. This is going under log houses in general.
What is the moisture content of your logs? Why is the moisture content important at all?
All log homes and log cabins will shift and settle, regardless of the species of wood chosen, or the construction methods used. Without proper construction, settling in a log home can cause problems as logs shrink as they dry out. Log walls are also subject to compression from the weight of the logs placed above them. This is another key factor in choosing not necessarily the least expensive log home company to build your home, but rather one that produces the highest quality work. Our moisture content is 18% -2 – this is the moisture content all the logs will get no matter if they are dried to be 10% or left “green” with 24%. The final content is subject to average air moisture as they can not get any dryer than that. So basically the more water there is in the wood the more it will shrink.
2. What is so special about handcrafted logs? Problems that there might be?
The crafted logs are assumed to be more expensive than the milled logs. This is partially true – after all every log is inserted by someone living and working and they need food, clothes and at least some luxury, instead of electricity. On the other hand they cant be that much more expensive as there is amortization and cost of the machinery the office has to be fairly large to sell the houses as the capacity is definitely higher than by handcrafted logs. So the handcrafted logs do have an disadvantage – during the building it goes slowly and you can’t have the house within a week.
The problem with handcrafted logs is that if the craftsman isn’t skilled the finishing details are going to look not so god, the logs do not sit on each other (leaving heat leakages). The knots are wrongly made using simple circle method - there will blow some wind in and water if using Norwegian wind notch with V-cut logs this is rather impossible to happen.
So before going further I ask of you some questions:
1. Are you going to live in the house your self with your family? How many years?
2. Are the points described before of surprising nature i.e. Insulation, log quality, twisting, joining both logs and corners, moisture?
3. In case the manufacturer is assembling the house afterwards – how many years do they give you warrantee? 1,2,3,5 or 10 like it should be?
4. Can you visit them? And what will you see?
5. What you will get for your money?
Best regards,
Peep Mumm
Ristiku LogHome
www.ristiku.com
