By placing a down payment of 25% of the total kit price, you have
locked in your price for up to a year, and you have also locked in a
delivery date. We strongly request that you allow us 10-12 weeks between
the time of deposit and your delivery date. This in turn will give us the
time needed to properly dry your logs and produce a nice log home kit for
you.
What about the shipping costs?
One of the most common questions asked of log home companies is
"How much will the trucking cost?" Obviously, the farther the travel
distance, the more the cost. On average, shipping can range between $750 and
$2,500, depending on your distance from our plant in Parish, NY.
Usually, the entire average home can be transported in one shipment. We will
do our best to contain these costs for you with respect to shipping.
We have also had many of our customers provide their own 18-wheeler for
shipping. In that case, we'll load the log packs on the flatbed at out
site, and away it goes to it's destination.
Please judge these costs against the bigger picture of the
final total cost. Some companies will offer you "free" shipping.
In these cases, it should be obvious that the freight charges are already
built into the price of the kit. We all have to pay for shipping somewhere
along the line, whether it's mailing a box of clothes to a new college
freshman, or trucking a complete log home to a customer six states away.
It's just part of life.
We say all of that to now say this.....When comparing prices,
first choose good products, and then compare total costs, including both
materials and freight. If someone is telling you that shipping
is free, or already included in the price, OK then. Take it with the
understanding that common sense gives you, and look at the
dollar figure at the bottom.......... no matter how they arrived at it.
We realize that nobody likes surprises that cost them more money,
and sales transactions will run more smoothly if everyone knows all costs up
front.
Log
Preservation
On the country roads in your area, take a good look at the old w ood
barns that have been there since you were born... Look closely, and you'll
notice that the barns that are in good shape are the ones with a good
roof. The roof is the key to any wooden building's long life. Very rarely
did anyone use preservation on the wood in those days, but they did make
sure that there was no permanent water or moisture on it. If you allow any
wood to remain wet or moist, you automatically invite fungus to begin it's
systematic destruction of the wood's cellulose. It doesn't matter to the
fungus whether the wood is sawdust, regular 2x4's or cabin logs. With a
good roof and overhang over your building, you can eliminate the permanent
water/moisture problem.
 We
can only guess how many hundreds of spring and summer rains those old
barns have seen, and they are still standing square and solid. it's because
of their sound roof; not because of preservatives. As long as they can dry
out after the rain, they're fine. The same holds true for log homes. A good
solid roof is the ultimate protection from fungus.
Common sense indicates that the interior surfaces of
a log wall are protected from exposure, simply because they are inside the
home. The 2x4's that comprise your stud walls, and the lumber used for your
floor joists and rafters are dry and protected because they also are inside
the home.
No amount of discussion ever convinced the building industry to
apply preservatives to these interior timbers, 2x4's, and 2x10's, because it
wasn't necessary. Common sense says the same holds true for the interiors of
your log walls.
Having said all that, we are not opposed to applying a
preservative to the exterior of your log home after
construction, in spray or brush form (NOT dip-treating, because that
will put the preservative INSIDE the home, where you will inhale it for
years). We sell an ultraviolet resistant coloration that contains the
fungicide in it. you may know it as TWP, and it can be obtained in a variety
of shades and colors, from a golden yellow to a dark brown. However, we are
entirely opposed to applying any preservative material at all to
the interior log surface.
With a dipping process, the preservative is applied to the
interiors, as well as the exteriors of the logs. For years, we have opted
NOT to do this. it seems that many of yesterday's preservatives, after
chemical testing, have been banned for interior use. Creosote is a great
preservative, but it cannot be trusted to be good
for your health. Imagine breathing it in for years in the enclosed
environment of your own home. The EPA decided that it should do something
about it years ago. Pentachlorophenol sounds like it can really kill fungus,
doesn't it, but what can it do to you? It was banned for interior use by the
1980's. Lots of log homes were treated with it, inside an out, and people
are still living in those homes. Then came Zinc Naphthanate. Yes, it
inhibits fungal growth, but after years of breathing in the fumes, what
allergies will you get? The latest in the list is the Borax solutions. Time
will tell with this, too.
Years ago, we began recommending no wood preservative on the
interiors of our log homes. It is no good to go "back to the land", build
your dream home on the back forty, and develop allergies or some other
similar problem because you are breathing in chemicals. In the past, too
many chemicals have been given the go-ahead for our use, (not just in our
industry- remember DDT?.... but in many other cases) only to be pulled from
the shelf at a later date. By then, we have already been exposed.
Most people will agree that it's better to avoid exposure in the first
place. We are comfortable with preservation on the exteriors of your logs,
only. By avoiding interior application, you will also avoid years of
concentrated exposure.
Some manufacturers have tried to make an issue over air-drying versus
kiln-drying. We air-dry our products, and we have always air-dried. Our logs
are as beautiful and functional as any, and at a lower cost. With any drying
method, the logs should be dried to approximately 20% or less. With a kiln,
the moisture content of the logs can be reduced further, depending on the
kiln's setting. However, once the logs are removed from the kiln, they are
now in the environment again, just the same as the air-dried ones are.
You can imagine what happens now. Again, we'll refer to using your
common sense..... If the weather has been rainy and wet, both will
absorb moisture from the air, in their attempt to find a moisture content
equilibrium. If it's been dry out (let's say 10% ambient moisture), both
will lose moisture to the surrounding atmosphere, as they again attempt to
find that moisture equilibrium. The gain and loss of moisture in wood is a
never-ending process that varies with the daily weather.
Once you think about this, you soon realize that the moisture
content of the logs is a function of the local climate, regardless of how
the wood was dried.
This whole process, where the wood is constantly "chasing" the
ever-changing moisture content of the surrounding air, occurs with ANY
wood.....not just logs. It happens with kitchen chairs that get loose in the
winter as they dry and creak, and with interior doors that maybe don't shut
right in winter because they, too, have changed shape a little with the
seasons.
In conclusion, you will experience more seasonal changes with your
own log home, as your heating system dries the logs out in winter and they
expand again when the heat is turned off for the summer,........ than you
will ever see because of the method of drying used in manufacturing.
As long as your logs have been dried, whether with air or
kiln, the majority of their shrinkage has occurred before construction, and
they are ready for the building process.
5.5" high Camp-log |
7.5" x 7.5" D-Style |
Hand-Peeled |
Lodge-Log |
In these log samples, note:
1. Our Triple Tongue-in-Groove weather-seal.
2. The logs are usually at least as wide as they are high, to provide
more stability to the log wall.
3. Lags (screws) are staggered between tongues, to add to wall stability.
4. The heart of the tree is contained within the log.
5. Look closely at the interface between the top and bottom logs.
Where one log rests on another, there is a space on top of each tongue. (and
below the groove in the log above it.) This is extremely important,
and this is why.......
Please pay attention here...... You have read this far, and the next
paragraph describes how any weather-seal acts in log homes.........
This is where the weather seals are located, and there must be
permanent spaces here after the wall is constructed. This space is allowed
for a purpose- to keep the gaskets from becoming part of the load-bearing
surface. If there were no room allowed here for gaskets, they would be
crushed flat during construction. Then, when the logs are subject to their
first heating season (winter), they will dry more and shrink somewhat.
The gasket that was crushed during construction will not rebound to
maintain the seal, and the logs will develop air leaks.
With our weather seal, this potential problem is solved by
allowing room for the gasket in the first place. Our log gasket is a canned, pressurized foam that expands when it
is exposed to air. It fills in all spaces in the wall, and sets to a
flexible semi-solid state that "follows" the logs as they move with the
seasons. This ability to follow is crucial to preventing air leaks.
We have produced log home kits in both linear and precut form, and
all of our kits over the last 20 years have been shipped as a lineal
kit. Our lineal kits are the same as the precut kits, except that the
logs are not cut to an exact length. This is left up to the on-site
contractor, and here are a few reasons why most customers now choose our
lineal log packages: Read on to see why a lineal log kit is better
all-around for a buyer.
1. Price. Obviously, the cost of a kit is cheaper if you purchase
your logs in lineal form.
2. Searching for individual logs during construction. You'll have
between 200-300 logs in your home. It is frequently more time-consuming to
locate each numbered log (precut kit) than it is to pick any log you
like and lag it in as you go (lineal kit).
3. Log Butt Joints are hidden behind interior wall. This has
always been a big plus for our lineal packages. As the home is being
constructed, we can locate nearly ALL of the log butt joints behind
the interior 2x4 walls. This is easy to do with a lineal package, and it
makes a very pretty log wall. Impossible to do with the precut kit.
4. Late floor plan adaptations and window changes. While we're
building a local log home, the homeowner almost always has a couple of
changes in window and door locations, or more often, window sizes.
One has to realize that once a home is under construction, it looks a
little different than it did on paper, and this is when most people
want to make the changes. With the precut kits, the changes are a big
problem (so much so that you will choose not to make the change), but with
the lineal kits, the contractor can make the on-site modifications and keep
on building.
5. Foundation sizes vary. We have seen enough foundations that are
2-3" off to make this point to you. If your log home is precut for a 28 x 42
foundation, for example, and your foundation is 2-3" different, it's a big
problem and the solution is left in your own lap. If the foundation is too
small, you'll have to cut your log wall shorter on-site, and if the
foundation wall is too long, you'll have to order more, longer logs, which
takes time. This happens more often than people realize, and 2" makes a big
difference, but with the lineal packages the compensation in size is easy to
accomplish.
6. IT'S YOUR CHOICE as to which logs go where in the log wall. As
soon as you start log construction, you will notice that each log has it's
own look to it. This is due mostly to knot patterns and knot sizes.
Depending on where in the tree the log was located, and the diameter
of the raw log that was sawed to produce the cabin log, knot sizes and
patterns will vary between logs. Look at some of our pictures, and you'll
notice this variation. Everyone is different. Some people like a lot of
knots in a particular room, and some like a clearer wall look. To others,
this does not matter. With the linear package, you can dictate where each
log goes. With the precut kits, each log is limited to a specific location
in the home, like it or not.
7. TWO CUTS PER WINDOW: We've used a chainsaw and saw-guide for
years for field-cutting our window openings. This is a simple, inexpensive
squaring jig that mounts to your chainsaw, and it cuts a very exact opening
AFTER the logs have been installed. The logs are "stacked" and lagged in, up
the sides of each window and door location, allowing for each log to
protrude 3-4" into the final rough openings. Then, two cuts (one for each
side) finish the opening, all at once. (We also use the same jig on our
solid log gable ends). This method is about 10 times faster than stacking a
precut wall, tapping each log end-ways to it's exact required position, then
repeating the same process again and again.
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