Posts Tagged ‘log home builders’

Large Log Home Shells Rather Than Log Cabin Kits

In this current economy customers still desire quality, but they want to also maximize their dollars. For large log homes there has been a trend towards purchasing just the log home shell from the manufacturer. Then they buy the rest of the material  necessary to finish the home from local suppliers. This is in opposition to buying log cabin kits or log home kits. So let’s look at why this is not such a bad idea, but also what items you need to be careful purchasing locally.

Almost all large log homes are built with huge handcrafted logs. The use of an 8×8 milled log on a 5,000 square foot house simply seems out of place. With that much investment the homeowner wants more of a charming and unique home. So we will focus on the handcrafted log costs.

A handcrafted log home shell ranges in price from about $45 to $55 a square foot. A typical shell will include the Scandinavian Scribed exterior walls, some interior log walls, the log or timber roof system, log support posts, log staircase for the inside of the home, and railing for the loft edge and one side of the interior log shell. Other inclusions which are sometimes added are extra matching log railing for exterior porches and balconies, and log siding for the outside of the gable ends of the home and the dormers. Handcrafted logs are hard to match, so purchasing matching log siding is a good idea if you plan to finish the gables and dormers of the log home exactly match the stacked logs.

Another item which you may want to purchase directly from the log home company is the windows. Log home walls are very thick so finding windows to fit is not always and easy task. A window must be measured based on the rough opening. Also the window must be made with an extended jamb. A thirteen inch thick log is beveled back around the window opening and door openings, but still a ten inch jamb may be required. One customer from North Carolina in the Summer of 2010 purchased a log home shell from a company located in Washington that the original owner had defaulted on purchasing. The new owner got a very discounted price on the shell but he had a very hard time finding windows to match the pre-cut shell. If you purchase your windows through the log home company then you will be sure that they are guaranteed to fit properly and snugly.

Often we are asked about logs home with chinking. Log homes with the Scandinavian Full Scribe method are more expensive than large log homes that need to be chinked. About 50% more labor is required for log home shells built with full scribing. Chinked logs are only cut flat on top and bottom so that they can be stacked. There is no mating of the logs over a curved surface. Instead chinking seals the cracks between the logs. This is an inferior method and always leaves customers with future problems in their home. So do yourself a favor and select log home builders with many years of experience and a passion for high quality log home shells.