What kind of logs are the best for a log home? We saw a cedar home yesterday, it was pretty. The logs were priced good, 30 x 40 x 8 for 11,000. however, they only had one grove down the middle and they were smooth ended logs and were not interlocking. He didnt get glue on some of the ends and I saw daylight thru these. Is there a differance in wood , as in efficientcy ... Which wood is the prefered wood for a log home? What is the best adhesive to use inbetween the logs...He used Sheet rock adhesive. Ginny

-- Ginny Davis (yehagirl@goin.missouri.org), November 19, 2000

Answers

A good grade of acrylic all temperature caulking is the best adhesive for between the logs in a log home, it is very flexible, and you can apply it thicker than adhesive, to fill up that big crack. Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), November 19, 2000.

Cedar is one of the best types of wood for log homes because it is naturally resistant to rot and insects. No need for chemical additives for these things.

Log companies usually have some kind of interlocking groove system that runs the length of the logs to help bind them together and help eliminate gaps and drafts. Kind of a tongue in groove thing. Check out some log home web sites and you can see some pictures of what I mean.

I prefer kiln-dried logs over green or aged because it reduces warping in the logs and also kills any insects harboring in the wood.

-- Vaughn (vdcjm5@juno.com), November 19, 2000.

As far as efficiency, I'll answer thinking you mean heat retaining or insulating? The thicker the better. 12" diameter is better than 8". I think it is something like (and don't quote me on this) R-1 per inch. So an 8" diameter will get you about an R-8. You can check on that by going to log home forum and find out for sure. But it is the mass of the wood that retains heat that is what makes them heat efficient, not so much the R-value. Kinda like a soapstone wood stove. The thick soapstone walls of the woodstove will store heat for hours after the fire goes out.

Personally, I'd use Perma-Chink. It is a very nice product that replaces regular mortar chinking and remains flexable...it is really good stuff...a bit expensive, but worth it.

For high humidity climates, Douglas Fir is excellant. Cypress is wonderful, but expensive. If you have access to hardwoods, they can also be used. We live in a log home that was built in 1863 using ash, and oak...needless to say, it is holding up great! That site I gave you can furnish you with the answers to almost any log home question. Good luck.

-- JimR (jroberts1@cas.org), November 20, 2000.

We live in a cedar log home as does my parents. We're living in Northern Maine. Lots of cold and moisture. Our logs were milled to 6 inch widths with a tongue on top and a groove on bottom. The ends were cut flat so the carpenter cut a groove into alternating ends at the corners to set the logs together. This helped to eleminate the cracks and drafts. When you place one log onto the wall area, before placing another log on top we put foam strips on the tongue and caulking on the outside edge of the tongue, then place next log on top. We only insulated the roof. We both burn wood for heat and use about 3 to 4 cords a winter season. I have seen a log home in our area that is made from pine logs. Hope this helps. Michelle

-- michelle heath (dickfogg@ainop.com), November 20, 2000.

Yikes -- I would definitely suggest logs thicker than six inches!! I'm glad for Michelle that her house is working for her, but it would work even better if the logs were eight or ten inches thick. When we were living in Alaska, there was a lot of discussion amongst our family and friends about building with logs, and the concensus was that six inches was not enough there for anything but a dog house -- eight inches was okay for a really small house (like 12 x 16), anything bigger really needed to have ten inches. More was not possible with the small trees available locally, but would have been better. And this was with three sides milled flat, only the outside was left round. So you pretty much had the full thickness at all parts of the log. In that climate, a lot of people were also burying the lower part of the walls, which helps a lot, and some were using sod roofs also (which is what I plan to do when we move to morthern Maine!). Any kind of wood can be and has been used for a log home, but soft woods are better insulators and often are less prone to cracking. Cedar is slower to rot than most. My husband, when he was growing up, lived next door to an old log cabin that had been made into a museum (in Bellevue, Nebraska). It was over a hundred years old, and built out of poplar logs. Poplar is prone to rot quickly, but only the sill logs had to be replaced when they restored the cabin to it's original condition.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), November 20, 2000.