Poplar, to be specific, weighs 32 pounds per cubic foot… oak weighs 47 pounds per cubic foot… and white pine weighs 27 pounds per cubic foot. OK, if you’re going to build your own log house, first you’ll have to lay a better and larger foundation than you’d need for a conventional home, because a log wall is typically four times as heavy as a frame one. So if you’re building with 10 inch-thick poplar logs and stuff your long notches (which I’m going to tell you about in just a minute) or chinks with an equivalent amount of fiberglass insulation, your walls will have an R-factor of 11.3. Forest Service–has an R-factor of 1.13 per inch. For instance, poplar–according to the U.S. Good round timbers, on the other hand, produce walls that retain heat pretty well. Forest Service studies have shown that when you cut the sides off the logs, slicing through their growth rings and disrupting some of their cellular structure, you significantly reduce their insulating value. In addition, I think round logs provide better insulation than do squared–off ones. You can pay around $10,000 for the materials needed to make a 1,000-square-foot “packaged” house and–if you go by the fairly accurate rule of thumb that it costs four times the price of a kit to actually finish the dwelling–up to $40,000 for your completed home. After all, log kits are relatively expensive. I’m going to deal mainly with the first two types of log buildings, because I happen to think that– if you’ve got the time–one of these is the way to go. The kit building’s got squared-off logs with splines that fit together sort of like those on tongue-and-groove flooring. And on up the hill you can see the last example, a log home that was put up from a prefabricated kit. We here at the EcoVillage built it using the “chink” method… see the white mortar chinking between all those logs? I’m leaning on the second example, an in-process model being built by the Scandinavian, or “full-scribe”, method. First off, there’s the craft shop right behind me. We’ve got three examples of this building technique right here on the property. Hi! I’m Rick Compton, and this is the Log Construction Show-How. You’re not really thinking about those two sources of water power just now, however, because right in front of you is a jovial-looking fellow who leans against the unfinished log structure… waits placidly for the latecomers to get settled… and then begins. ![]() In the background stands a simple waterwheel, while a short distance behind that, the more imposing dam of MOTHER’s pond with its hydroelectric generator-looms overhead. So imagine, if you will, that you’re standing in a small hollow beside a partly built square grid of cut and notched logs, which rests next to the completed log home (built by MOTHER staffers and used as a crafts workshop) shown in one of the accompanying photos. Furthermore, to make the piece all the more informative, we decided to present a Show-How that deals with a topic we haven’t recently covered in the magazine… log cabin construction. ![]() And we decided that this time, rather than simply tell you just a little about each of the classes that were offered, we might be able to give you a better feel for what went on–and pass along a good bit of useful how-to, as well - by actually reporting the content of just one of our mini-seminars. Well, we wanted to share a bit of that experience with those of you who couldn’t make it to our western North Carolina EcoVillage’s 1982 session. The folks who participated in last summer’s mini-seminar series at our Ecological Research Center had the chance to take more than a dozen Show-How classes, including earth-sheltered housing… biodynamic/French intensive gardening… wood-gas generation… solar water heater construction… beekeeping… and more. Homemade Cheese Recipes: Cheese Making Articles.Sustainable Farming & Agriculture Articles.Power Equipment Articles - Lawn and Garden Equipment.Raising Ducks and Geese: Articles & Ideas.Homesteading Poultry - Chicken, Turkey, Ducks Archives.
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