The Log Shell - Start to Finish

Will you hire a General Contractor or be an Owner Builder?

Determining Budget
In 2008 construction costs for a finished log home will start about $250 a square foot, not including land and services to the lot. A quote for the log shell is more accurately estimated on the number of log walls, notches, roof system and the overall complexity of the design and a completed plan is required for this. Discuss your budget it will save you and the builder time and frustrations, and perhaps disappointment.

Arranging Finances
If you plan on borrowing for your project, you should know how much you can or want to borrow before embarking on such a project.

Designing or Finding a Plan
Finding a Designer – We can help and work with you and your designer.
Bring us Your Plans – We will provide you with a quote.

The Contract
The log shell contract lays out what the log builder will provide for a fixed price.
The re-assembly is a separate contract from the log shell, but is part of the log shell package.
The trucking and crane costs for the re-assembly is separate from the log shell contract.

Constructing the Log Shell – our specialty
Your project will be constructed and delivered in a timely fashion, remember that the log work is handcrafted and sometimes weather, be it raining, snowing or very cold can cause delays.

The Process

Having the plan
Getting the quote
Agreeing on the price
Signing the contract
Acquiring the logs
Peeling the logs
Laying out the building
Building the log walls
Constructing log ceiling beams
Constructing the log roof system
Cutting the door and window openings
Cutting log ends to profile
Cutting electrical outlet openings
Cutting log ends to profile
Buff and tidy the logs

Prepare for transport and delivery of the log shell to your foundation – Tear down

Number the logs
Drill for electrical and dowelling and through-bolts as the logs are taken down
Load the logs onto flat-deck trucks
Tarp the logs
Deliver the log shell

At the foundation site – Assembly or Re-stack

A crane will off load the logs from the trucks
Install insulation
Logs will then be re-stacked *on the foundation* with the use of the crane (this is a big job)!
Install posts, dowelling, through-bolts
Once the re-stack is complete the crane will depart and the log builders and helpers will do the finishing touches, cutting framewall slots, final buffing and touch up to the logs making the log shell now carpenter ready.

Additional costs to the log shell can include, log stairs and railings, carved door posts, carvings.

Preservative staining of the logs is a separate job and one best left for professional painters or ambitious owners.

Your log house is now well on its way to becoming a reality and either you or your General Contractor will now have the other trades lined up to complete the project.

Logs

In British Columbia we are fortunate to have an abundance of beautiful coniferous logs so suited for log building.

The species of logs that we use in the construction of our log homes varies. We use Douglas fir and Western Larch, Spruce and Pine, and occasionally Western Red Cedar. Logs are large approximately 14” mid span diameter or bigger with minimum taper.

We use predominately green logs to build with. Thereby when we cut the lateral groove on the lower side of the log and a kerf cut on the upper side of the log, we control the checking (cracks) in the log to a greater extent by localizing the major checks in these two areas of the log. With the use of preservatives and ample roof overhang a log home will last for hundreds of years regardless of what log species is used.

Log Species as Building Logs – from southern British Columbia

Engleman Spruce: Good shape, knots small, easy to select good quality and straight building logs. Classified as softwood. Durability is slightly less than lodge pole pine and certainly less than fir or larch. Despite this, spruce logs are used extensively throughout the log building industry because of their straightness and availability, also the preservatives that we have today greatly enhances their durability. Spruce is a white wood throughout.

Lodge pole Pine: more irregular in shape than round, knots are indented, and there are often many cat faces (small to large indented natural scars), classified as softwood. Generally takes longer to construct a log shell because of all of the above. It is quite difficult to find really good quality pine building logs. Pine is a white wood throughout.

Douglas fir: Good shape, knots are small, holds its taper well but harder to find good straight material. Most fir grows with a sweep at the butt end. Classified as semi-hardwood and durability is good. The log is generally heavier in weight than spruce or pine. Fir has a whitish outer surface with red heartwood. It has nice colour and grain.

Western Larch: Good shape, knots small, holds its taper well, trees grow very straight. Easy to select good quality building logs, but subject to limited availability. Larch only grows in the southern part of British Columbia and only in pockets. Classified as semi-hardwood and rated next to oak in durability, makes this an excellent building log. Generally, slightly heavier in weight than Douglas fir. Larch has a whitish outer surface with reddish brown heartwood. This is a very rich looking colour and nice grain. One drawback to larch is that it can have pitch pockets in the wood that may weep out of the logs. Some of my customers have put up miniature buckets to catch the drips of pitch.

The above log species are harvested from South Central British Columbia.

The cost of any of the above four species is in general about the same, but it does depend upon the lumber markets.

Western Red Cedar: Usually obtained from the West Coast of B.C. Is a beautiful wood with a wonderful fragrance, knots can be larger than other species; the taper in the length of log is generally greater. Durability is excellent, light in weight and generally fairly easy to select straight building logs. Cedar grows in wet environments and quite often has core rot. So even though the log maybe straight many logs can be culled out because of this. Cedar also has an excellent shrinkage rate of only ¼” for a 12” green log. Shrinkage rates for the other four species are approximately ½’ for a 12” green log.

NB: Some people can have allergic reactions to cedar, so before building a house from cedar logs it may be a good precaution to check this out.

Western Red Cedar is these days considerably more expensive than the other species listed.

The decision to build with any of the log species is a good one, with modern preservatives, and proper protection of the log work through the design, your log house should last several hundred years. When deciding to build with logs other than cedar I would suggest the following, it will make log selection that much easier and quicker and additionally we are not passing up beautiful building logs:

Using mostly Engleman Spruce with some Lodge pole Pine mixed in. It is acceptable to mix the two species because they are both white wood and softwood. As mentioned in this area of British Columbia good quality pine building logs are harder to find than spruce, but when you do find an exceptional one you don’t want to pass it up.
Use a mixture of Douglas fir and Western Larch. It is acceptable to mix these two log species because they are both semi-hardwoods with reddish heartwood. Both species are also very similar in strength and that is why (in Western Canada anyway) when you buy a 2x10 fir joist it may be from a larch log. Finding good quality building logs in a timely fashion is greater when looking for both species when acquiring building logs for a project.