Which company is the best American log home manufacturer? I’m playing with an idea of representing an American log home company here in Finland. I know this is tough market, because half of world’s biggest log home companies come from Finland. Still, I believe that American rustic log homes have a suitable and distinctive style, which is hard to imitate. Log cabin rental business is growing by leaps and bounds in Lapland and rental companies need specialties to compete efficiently.

American log homes have character
That’s true, say what you will, but American log homes are one of a kind, bit like American cars - big, bulky, powerful and cool. Unfortunately, American car manufacturers are in a bit of a trouble, markets cry for efficient cars and companies can’t deliver. Let’s hope the log home industry understands to jump the energy efficiency bandwagon and doesn’t just lull itself into thinking that people will buy those dream log homes no matter what. I’m all for dreams but if we can’t afford them, then we just have to change our dreams. Anyway, back to the topic.

Local competition in Lapland

Now, here is a photo of competition. You will see this sort of new log homes and log cabins in ski resorts of Lapland. Good thing with this style is that it reads log home all over it. However, like most Finnish log homes, design is so Scandinavian that it starts to lack character. This kind of Scandinavian-styled log cabin will surely loose against rustic American log home. The victory prize is yet another happy family of overnight renters. So, any recommendations? Please, just type it down to comments.

So I took a glance on visitor data and what do I see, most of the people arriving to Log Homes Cabin are looking for “log homes from Finland”. I have to admit the focus of this site might have been Finnish log homes, but I guess it really is more about log homes industry in general. This got me thinking and then doing.

Now the list of Finnish log home and log cabin manufacturers is more complete. I’ll still tune it a bit in coming couple of days. I also have plenty of material on some of the companies on that list, so writing few detailed company histories is in the works. But don’t expect me to write books, I’m nowhere near that level.

It looks alright from distance, just take a look at these photos below (I don’t want to give out the source, the log home is for sale and I don’t really want to go between buyers and the seller).

Matter of taste
Who likes this style, just raise a hand, no need to be shy. See, a jungle of raised hands! Indeed the look of the house is very comfortable, a tad dull, and might lack some personality, but has classic features nevertheless. Actually, don’t you just love those shingles in the bay window?

However, I don’t wonder sales agency doesn’t provide a floorplan, just take a look those perpendicular gables, what a missed opportunity to have lots of handy room space. Now they have cathedral ceiling and lots of airspace. This log home is probably targeted for retired people that don’t need that much storage room anyway.

Inside a log home
Now, look at the inside photo. Location of those joints is absolutely mind bogging. That corner has to carry lot of weight that comes from the frame-built gable structure seen up and on the right. Also have you ever seen worse craftsmanship than with the paneling? Oh my, this log home will have lot of difficult times ahead because of settling. I sure hope someone is able to prove me wrong.

Log home builder
It is crucial that an expensive investment like log home or log cabin is not ruined by incompetent builders. I’ve seen a log home where builders had fixed insulation wall frames directly into log wall with huge nails. Guess what happened to logs while settling? Yep, you could fit a New York Times through any given log pair. That was in Germany and owner insisted that logs were faulty. I hope that whoever ends up buying this log home won’t get into trouble.

How’s that for a positive start, eh? But news are, like I said, good. Norman from Floating Cabins agreed to do a short interview here on Log Homes Cabin blog. Now it is just about finding the right questions. And as this site gets about 50 unique visitors per day, maybe one of you would like to ask a question from Norman about these brilliant mobile, floating log cabins. Well, better watch out there on the water, you don’t want your cabin going mobile, do you? Hmm, then again, it is always very refreshing to see strange new shores

Suggest a question
Anything you want to know, ask away. I can’t guarantee Norman will answer, but he’ll get the questions. Just type your say down to the comments part and I’ll mix them together with my own questions. Let’s see what we can find about these cool products.

Now the only downside here is that because my site traffic is so minimal, I have to wait for quite some time to get even one question. That I can’t help immediately, so I just have to let go at some point and take at least my questionnaire to Norman. Here’s hoping for many questions.

Question
Jamie wants to build a log home in Northern California and is considering between handcrafted from Canada or Swedish Cope milled log with a draw knife finish. Jamie asks about strengths and weaknesses of each.

Answer
Thank you for your question, Jamie. First I would like to approach this topic from general point of view and in the end give more detailed opinions. Your two choices tell that you value handcrafted style, maybe you are part of the “rustic people”. I suppose my answer doesn’t hit the mark completely, but I’m open for discussion. Let’s get going…

What matters the most with logs?
It is not your choice of handcrafted/milled approach but the choice of company, which is important. Dedicate your time to finding a dependable log home company, which is recommended by people you trust. Think about it from this point of view (sorry if I’m oversimplifying), which is better, tomato or onion pizza? Naturally this depends on one’s taste and the place where the pizza is made. And don’t get me even started with topic, which is better, log home or timber frame home… I always choose well-made home.

Handcrafted log homes
With handcrafted log homes you can often opt for turnkey project. In this case, people who make the log frame tend to be the ones who also erect the frame and build the home. As a result, you get a well-built log home. However, many companies just handcraft log frames and have nothing to do with the actual log home building. As a side note, you would be surprised how many perfectly good log frames and complete log home kits have been ruined by incompetent builders.

Handcrafters use large logs with lots of character, so their log storages tend to be bigger than with milled log home manufacturers’. In general, this means that handcrafted logs have had more time to dry naturally, hence less cracking.

Milled log homes
Milled log homes, however, are constantly rolled out from production line and in general companies forget their customers as soon as kits have been successfully transported to the customer. Time from order to delivery of a log home kit is significantly shorter than with handcrafted log homes. Price doesn’t differ that much, because those log processing machines eat a lot of capital. This almost brings the cost of milled logs to the level of handcrafted logs.

Milled logs have very much uniformed shape, which makes design and building processes easier. Production pace and machinery investments tend to mean that log home mills can’t afford large storages for drying logs naturally. Kiln-drying is the norm, because it makes stock management easier and production faster, i.e. logs can be purchased when needed and then quickly dried for manufacturing.

What about those logs then?
I try to stay positive here so I won’t focus on weaknesses, but if one is bit stronger then the other is…

STYLE: There are many handcrafting styles, so it is difficult to compare, since I don’t know the style you are after. Swedish Cope, milled and draw knife finished logs come just about as close to true handcrafting as possible. I would say there is not much difference here.

LOOK: They look the same from distance but up close you spot that there is a difference. However, if your guests doesn’t know much about log homes they are likely to think your home is handcrafted and with special dedication even, because logs are so alike.

DURABILITY: As long as you treat your logs and build with high foundation and long eaves, both logs withstand the test of time.

COST: Handcrafted logs will be more expensive

Anything else?
This is something that comes in mind, but for sure it is not the whole truth, there are many schools in our industry. As I said, I am open for discussion and opinions, I know log home and log cabin owners have lots of opinions, at least I do. So tell me, what do you think? Also don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed to stay updated.

Disclaimer - I must state that my answers are opinions only and can’t be used as a professional advice.

Anything about log homes and log cabins that is. I am going to start a post series in which I answer your questions. Let’s do it so that you write a question that you would like to be answered down to the comments part (just scroll down the page) of this post. I’ll answer your question AND continue to refine the answer if new developments appear. Furthermore I’ll dedicate one complete post for every answer and also list them under one LOOOoong (probably takes years) page.

The team
For this mission, I’m getting help from architects and construction designers who have been working with log homes and log cabins for years. Actually our combined experience in log home business goes way over 200 years. These people come mainly from Europe, especially those countries, which are traditionally strong in log home and cabin building: Scandinavia, Baltic States and Russia (yes, can you believe it, Russia is very big in log home building). But not to worry, there is also someone to consult in matters about chinking and other issues, which are especially important for readers in North America.

Ask away!
Now it is time to put all that experience working for you and all it takes is just the time to write the question here in the comments. Ask away and stay updated by subscribing my feed.

Long time ago Mr. Mac Laird wrote in comments about his history as a log home enthusiast. I decided to check out his website to read more about his experiences as a log cabin builder. Interestingly, it turns out the site is mostly about bark canoe (test) building and bow/arrow raw material collecting.

Storyteller
Mr. Mac Laird has written a book about the old days and old ways. Instead of making a boring school book he has chosen to write in narrative manner, bit like being a grand father telling a story to kids. You can’t avoid learning some tips and tricks about living in the great outdoors, good point if you normally start to feel tired after glancing through the index of any given encyclopedic log home book. Tempo seems to be mellow, making it a good companion before bedtime (hey, in a GOOD way).

Slow tempo of log cabin living
Can you relate to canoeing or bow shooting? I can, because I have started to kayak and canoe on the river that flows right on my backyard. Swallows squeak happily as they swoosh by. Fish jump as if to say that they know I don’t have fishing rod with me. I just might have caught some kind of log cabin fever, because we all (yep, people who live in log home or log cabin) tend to have similar hobbies or habits. Is it contagious? Well, I have been thinking to purchase myself a fine bow. Keep updated about my mission to purchase a bow and subscribe to my feed.

Here in Finland a landmark legal case is brewing about forest treatment. Single forest owner is being accused of mismanaging his forest.

According to the government dictated forestry regulations, one can only cut as much as sustainable development requires. What do you think that means in practise?

It means that if the owner wants to leave the forest into natural state, owner is allowed to do that. However, if the owner wants to cut trees, owner must follow the law about forest treatment. The law states very clearly, how many trees there must be left standing and how big they should be. After this comes whole slate of different treatment measures. This bureaucratic system leads into forest cultivation, is that sustainable development?

In this case, the enforcing forestry official says that the area, which was cut, should have been cut almost to the bare bones, then treat the soil and plant pine trees instead of firs that used to be dominant tree on the location.

Government now demands 10 000 euro from the forest owner, because he cut only the biggest trees and left everything else on natural state. Owner now wonders the rigid practise, because he has been managing his forests in the same traditional manner for over fifty years and they all grow just fine.

Any cumbersome laws limiting forest management on your area?

This is a post that fits nicely to my article about log cabin rentals in Finland. I found it from a site that took part into linkdonating project.

Let’s say you own that vacation log cabin, but are facing the problem of distance. You only visit the cabin few times a year and more than just couple of days at each time. Rest of the year it goes unused, and bit like money under mattress it doesn’t earn interest. As you can see in the post, it is very important to understand local markets.

Log cabin used to be a family affair in Finland. Everybody seemed to have that special log cabin somewhere on the countryside. Log cabins were self-built and maintained, big part of the fun being slate of chores needed to keep the cabin in shape. That has changed.

Nowadays the traditional approach on log cabins has stagnated and a new trend has overtaken the old way of spreading log homes to deep forests by lakes and rivers. Today the idea is to get a carefree vacation cabin that doesn’t need constant attention like log cabins used to need. Solution has been to focus on building new log cabins around skiing resorts. Around these resorts, cabins locate side by side, making it easy and profitable for service industry to take care of the cabins. Owners can forget maintenance and hit the slopes, go motor sledging, cross-country skiing etc.

How this has changed the log cabin industry? Prices have rocketed. Skiing resorts are mostly in Finnish Lapland, which basically is galaxy far, far away, no matter from where you look at it. It is not possible to build and maintain the cabin anymore, because of the distance. Distance is also the reason, why these cabins would be empty most of the year. When we combine the high price of such resort log cabin home, the difficulty of visiting it, and the couple of weeks usage that any given log cabin has - we get log cabin rentals. More and more Finns rent their log cabins during the time they are not using cabins by themselves. The variety of log cabin rentals in Lapland, Finland is at all time high.

All this is good news for travelers. When people visit skiing resorts in Finland they have much improved selection of accommodation, which in turn increases the volume of travelers. Finally increased traveler volume brings more possibilities for entrepreneurs, therefore services become more readily available. For now Lapland vacation log cabin sector is booming and there is slight bubble developing, but in the long term, prices will level off and Lapland’s tourism sector can enjoy steady flow of travelers.