Log Homes

[Frank_Mulligan]

My wife and I love log homes. We wanted to have one built 3 years ago, but it was abit more expensive than a conventional home and was not in the budget. There are several in my area that I always admire. Whenever I mention log homes to people they almost always frown down on them. Does anyone here live in a log home? Pictures?

 

[BB_TX]

Like you, I love the look of a log home. I have never spoken directly with anyone who actually had one, but what little research I have done has turned up far more negative comments than positive ones. Seems as though you need to be really careful of who you deal with.

 

[TBone]

Frank,

Like you and your wife I love log homes. At least I love the look and feel of them....I've never lived in one. I had a good friend that built one several years ago and I did most of the electrical work, which is a challenge in itself (mostly solid walls).

He later sold the house and moved away so I don't know how everything held up long term but he lived there for 8-9 years and had no major problems.

Another guy I work with bought one already built and had quite a few problems with walls moving, ceilings sagging, doors dragging etc.

Before I bought one I would research them well and buy from someone who has been in business a long time with a proven track record.

It seems that the engineering is super critical in log construction because of the natural shrinking process and the expansion and contraction of the masses of wood.

TBone

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Brother and sister in law have a home made of two- 100+ year old log homes that were torn down marked and moved to the present location and put back together. These are the square logs. Huge. Makes you have a lot of respect for how they built them years ago with no cranes or power equipment. The beams inside are round, partly hewn and most still have the bark on them...

Very low ceilings on one part of the home and the other part was to be cathedral but ended up with a loft used as a bedroom.

It is nice, rustic and definately a specialty type of housing.

You have to be able to find the right person if you were ever to sell a place like this but I would love to own it as my home.

But then, I like rustic........ Tom

 

[MJones]

My wife and I lived in a log home for about 4 years. They have their pros and cons. The pros include being easy to heat and cool, very quiet (i.e.-no outside noise), and they are beautiful. The cons include the almost constant maintenance and the bugs. There always seemed to be something that needed to be stained. The bugs are what led to us selling the place. We spent a lot of money on exterminators to keep the carpenter bees, carpenter ants, and wood borers out of the house. However, it was a great place to live and my wife reminds me how much she liked that house every chance she gets.
Mike

 

[Egon]

Frank:
WE built and lived in a log house for 25 years. There are many pro's,ambience being the greatest. Many cons, everything always moves, lots of leaks difficult to install regular interior walls, doors and windows.
Lots of fond memories.
Would I do it again? NO-NO-NO
Egon

 

[kcbarnes]

My wife and I live in one now-would I do it again-no. I do like the look of it and it is quiet, but like the others there is more work to one than I prefer. Although when I side the garage I'm building it will have wood shake siding on it because I do love the look of wood

 

[dmccarty]

Frank,

I looked into log homes a year or so ago. I searched either
yahoo or google for hits on log homes. I think I spent 30
minutes, an hour tops, and found far to many horror stories.
We love the looks of the homes but there sure seem to
be many negatives with log homes.

On my wife's side of the family, two brothers built log homes.
One was a disaster and the other was just fine. The disaster
was caused by cheap logs and a cheap brother. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

We found a kit builder last summer who makes solar log homes.
We say him on a HGTV on one of the home shows and we
just saw a new story about his kits a week or so ago. He
makes a nice but expensive kit to buy and build. We met him
and one of his builders at a house that was being built. We
liked the home but it had some issues. Besides the price
the main good/bad point was that he was using CCA logs to
build the homes. Now this is great since you don't have to
worry about rot or bugs but I was concerned about resale as
well as the legal/medical issue if CCA was banned at some
point. Well, CCA is going to be banned in a few years. Glad
I don't have a home built with this stuff. I think CCA is pretty
harmless from what I have read but I would not want to have
to sell a log home built out of the stuff....

On the other hand his house will be there in 300 years.

There is a new treatment to replace CCA, I think it is based
on Borate but it will cost more money...

The day we looked at the log home that was being built we
went to a log home show room. The logs where full of checks
and knots. Lots of knots. Knots can leak if water hits 'em.
The house had a real nice wrap around porch and big roof
eaves.....

The house was built out of white pine which has to be
shipped in. Lots of Southern Yellow Pine that they could
have used that could have been cut locally and would have
had no knots if the good part of the tree was used...

I was not feeling warm and fuzzy about log homes.....

My two cents...
Dan McCarty

 

[BXmark]

My next door neighbor built a log home-- constant maintenance! Stain is already fading after just 1 1/2 years, spraying for bugs, adjusting posts, refitting doors and windows that jam due to settling, plugging drafts. They did a show on the series "Hometime" a while back where they visited 2 of the log homes they had built for the series. One must have been a million dollar lodge type home. They toured the home with a log home peservationist. He pointed out serious rot in a couple spots after only 6 years. They rotten logs had to be cut out of the wall (after jacking and bracing the wall) and replaced. Can you imagine what that contractors bill was?? If you want the look, they make siding that looks like round logs.

 

[Frank_Mulligan]

[censored]!!!

I never expected all the negative comments about log homes! I guess, I to was impressed with their looks, and didn't think there was much to maintenance. We looked at one that we really liked (we even made an offer, which was not as high as others were offering). It had a wraparound porch, a beautiful 'great room' when you first walked in, and was situated atop a hill. The bad points (as I realize now): almost no closet space, small kitchen, no garage, small bathrooms, and a BAD SEPTIC. It also had some wtermarks on the inside top 1-2 rows of logs. I asked the seller on 2 different occasions about it and he gave me 2 different stories. (Gives you that nice warm feeling when that happens!).