Before you all get carried away, I must point out that currently this program is only available in Finnish. It is based on the research done by the Construction faculty of the Tampere University of Technology.

Results speak for themselves. For example, my friend did crude cost calculation for his house project and walked away with estimation figure of 162 000 euros. Year and a half later he had his final inspection and the tab for construction cost was closed. The real total cost for the whole project came to 159 thousand euros – pretty accurate.

So I decided to set a price for a log home made by Honkarakenne Oyj with this tool, let’s see how it turned out:

First of all, I chose Honka’s Aikamatka as the test model. Aikamatka means “time travel” in English, but that is not why I chose it. I chose it because of the simple structural design, which is as close to ordinary house as possible. Also, later it is easier to do some comparative cost estimating with different materials, while maintaining the basic floor plan and design.

Biggest problem here is that Honka doesn’t give out their prices, so the program has to set an average pricing for a log cabin kit. Here is a PDF-file if you care to check out some details (still everything is in Finnish).

On the right bottom corner you can see a box with overall costs. I set the land price to 12 000 euros and that extra 1 200 euros goes to obtaining construction permits. Cost of construction with those specifications tallies 121 172 euros, but because I’m willing (and able) to do major part of constructing by myself, 36 350 euros can be deducted making the totaling 98 000 euros. 1 180 euro per square meter sounds quite high to me, what about you?

Back in the old days, log homes were technology, which almost every man mastered. As time went on specialized carpenters kept on developing log home designs and their own skills. Eventually things developed so far that builder would hire a master carpenter to oversee and run log home building project. These carpenters wanted to leave a mark on their work from which they could be recognized, something of business cards. Solid corners were needed to keep log structure in one piece therefore corner became natural spot for carpenters to leave their trademark. There were as many variations of corners as there were proud carpenters. Nowadays we have lost our animal sense of log home building and therefore we fall as a prey of marketing, trademarked or patented corner cut this and that and so what…

Check the picture, there is a model-protected corner cut as well as model-protected thru-bolted log fastening system. Every modern log home and log cabin has those features, so what’s so high-tech about it? Anyway I thought that we are talking about natural way of living here.

Are kiln-dried logs such a technological breakthrough as log home companies market them to be? What does this technology do anyway?

Freshly felled logs will shrink as they slowly dry out. General rule of thumb is that it takes about 3 years of drying before logs can be used as log home raw material, without experiencing drastic settling.

This means that somebody has to attend those logs for 3 years before they can be used. Processing and storage costs keep on piling continuously. Few log home company has the resources to keep their own storages. Moreover, ramping the production up and down according the demand is very difficult if one has to think about raw material cycle.

It is pretty clear that log drying costs money. If outside party does this natural drying process, it will most certainly want to set higher price for their product than normal logs have. Therefore, big enough log home companies prefer to set up technology, which they can use to kiln-dry their logs. They can get logs cheaper and adjust the drying process according their production needs.

To the customer they can sell this money saving idea by saying that this way logs are high-tech products that cost more, but boy what a quality. Watch out the marketing terminology while shopping a log cabin or log home.

Log homes and log cabins can be surprisingly difficult products to understand. You get all kinds of sets and degrees of deliveries. Moreover, log homes and log cabins are image products, just open any log home magazine and it is all about emotion to have one not about money it takes to buy one or skill it takes to build one. These are the reasons why it is so easy to be lured by advertising while shopping log building.

Seth Godin had a piece about nutty pricing. I don’t know how was the case with Seth’s example, but nutty pricing can sometimes be clever pricing. Many log home companies name various delivery choices with normal buyers campaign mentality in mind. They might have four different delivery packages for certain model e.g. like this: basic, normal, deluxe and service.

The idea is to rely on our logic thinking. We automatically go and presume that service package is the best, however they set the package pricing lower than deluxe so we believe the company when it says that service package now has special pricing because of the season (it is always the season for log homes). If we go into the details and compare the delivery contents, we notice that deluxe was indeed much better, but to notice that, you have to go and have long discussions with the sales agent.

Mind about the product and the price it is not always what the label says.

Auctioning second quality log home kits and only tonight, the newspaper ad declared. Auction will be held at company’s premises so purchaser can check the merchandise. It was simple black and white text ad, tiny and cheap looking. Certainly it got masses moving. Mill yard was packed with people, and everybody was excited, but me or that’s how it looked like to me.

You see I wasn’t excited because starting price was set almost to the level of normal selling price. Because of all the commotion and tight scheduling, many people came unprepared and unknowing what they actually were trying to buy. As we all know, log homes and log cabins are rather unified products, so most log home companies try to differentiate themselves by introducing several packages, some including windows, doors, flooring, roofing, walls etc, some including just walls. It really is difficult to make an educated decision.

All kits were sold over retail price, but because it was an auction there were some amazing tie-ins with auctioned kits, including super value like flooring material. Clever business, which reminded me of supermarket in-store ads “Buy 2, just 2 euro” and when you check the price of one, it is actually 99 cents. Know what you are buying, and remember, all manufacturers have their special corner notch that is basically the same as with other manufacturers.

Just came to my mind that there is actually a big log cabin home manufacturer, which almost spells the name of this site. However, I am confident that aspiring log home owners won’t mix these two sites. After all, if people come here looking for log cabin homes, they will be guided to the Log Cabin Homes Ltd. or given information about log cabin homes in general. No manufacturing or sales competition here boys.

I would like to give all the possible kudos for the company for choosing such an excellent location – Rocky Mount. You can’t get more rustic, can you? I don’t know about you, but for a Finnish lad who never excelled in the geography of the U.S.A, Rocky Mount sounds a lot like Rocky Mountains. Glance at map proves my intuition wrong, but the labeling is already done. As I go to the company website, they follow their name and address with obligatory terms like tranquility, convenience, personal, tradition etc. I’m already sold to the idea of Log Cabin Homes.

As a private company, Log Cabin Homes doesn’t need to publish detailed financials. This is good, because they own a herd of buffalos, which double as company’s symbol, and having buffalos can be costly. One more thing, company was established as late as 1987 and therefore it doesn’t really belong to the group of traditional and old American companies.

I came across this wonderful site that is all about green home building. Green building – if traditional building methods are followed – can be very cheap way to build houses, so this site is of special interest for us back-to-the-nature log home builders, who might be discouraged by the high prices of modern log homes and log cabins.

Kelly Hart has a long history in the field of construction and publishes information on green home building in cooperation with many experts of this field. Mr. Hart was happy to answer few questions, so here they are:

Q: Post and beam log building is mentioned here and there on your site, but always as a mere structural framework. Why Greenhomebuilding doesn’t include log homes as an independent segment?

A: This was a conscious decision on my part to not promote the use of logs for homes for several reasons. Primarily, I am concerned with the continued depletion of our forests, as expressed on my page about saving our forests. There are circumstances where logs for homes can be harvested sustainably, and I encourage this, but in general this is not the case. Another reason I don’t promote the use of logs is that they really don’t provide very good insulation as a shell for a home, and this is a very important factor in any climate with temperature extremes.

Q: You introduce several methods for greener building. Apart from earthbag building, which are your personal favorites?

A: Interestingly, one of my favorites is also wood, in the form of cordwood construction. I like this method of building because it uses very small pieces of wood (more or less firewood size) that can be arranged in such a way as to provide a very well-insulated wall. This means that a considerable portion of the tree can be used, and that very small diameter trees that result from thinning a forest can be used. When the cordwood is stacked with masonry or earthen mortar and an interior void for insulation, you end up with a wall that has wonderful thermal properties because the interior masonry acts as thermal mass. An added benefit is that once you build the wall there is no more finish work necessary, either inside or outside, and it is a very durable, low-maintenance system. Building cordwood walls is a technique that is easily learned, requiring little skill.

Q: It is often so that pioneers create future trends by working very hard on their dreams. Do you think that at some point these green home building methods that you introduce on your website, will become popular among commercial constructors and home buyers?

A: This is already happening, especially with strawbale construction, and to a lesser extent with rammed earth and adobe building. This movement gained momentum in the Southwestern United States and is now finding popularity in other regions of the world.

Q: Many readers of Log Homes Cabin are planning to buy a log home kit as their starting point for owner/builder home. How would you increase the greenness of such a home?

A: First of all, make sure that the logs for that kit have been harvested sustainably; check with the Forest Stewardship Council about this. Then select a kit that is as compact as it reasonably can be to house your needs…extra space costs more, both economically and ecologically. Choose a design that will heat itself with passive solar, especially if you live where you have cold winters. And get one with the best insulation package possible, especially for the ceiling and roof where most of the heat loss is.

Mr. Hart, thank you for your time. I wish all the best and continue to follow your website for updates.

The National Association of Home Builders has applauded U.S. Senate for passing the comprehensive immigration reform. Reform enables illegal immigrants to obtain legal status in the States. U.S. will have almost one million job openings in construction industry and NAHB expects legalized immigrant workers to largely fill this void.

All good so far, but applying process is very costly. Illegal immigrants who have lived in the country for two to five years, must be able to prove that they have paid all federal and state taxes also much paperwork is included. If illegal immigrant has to pay taxes, they must demand higher pay to achieve earlier income level. This is a path to increased costs. In my opinion, Fortune magazine had much more realistic take on this matter.

Fortune magazine says that up to 40% of home building is done by undocumented aliens (referring those terrestrial ones). While big builders don’t employ illegal immigrants their subcontractors do. There have been court rulings, which have ruled against original big contractor for using subcontractors that employed illegal immigrants. If this hard line continues construction costs will go up.

Looks like there is another cloud hanging over real estate market. What do you think?

The Craft of Modular Post & Beam: Building Log & Timber Homes Affordably is the name of the book. Could the title be any longer? Thank you for Amazon UK for managing such a speedy delivery.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Illustrations are clear and simple, which is good for educational book like this. Just like me to check pictures first, I just love comics!

Everything gets covered starting from materials, so this is a good handbook for person needing the overall idea on how to build post & beam log home.

On the negative side, book lacks depth on some areas. Luckily topics, which are interesting for builder are included and dealt with in detail. I suppose this book is must read on log building courses that author holds.

Thank God it’s technical and not general picture resource book.

Good glossary and index, both are something that I especially appreciate, because this book is my first real step into English term in the area of log homes and log cabins.

I am certain that this book will make my favorite past time activity for coming weeks. I plan to write a complete review as soon as I feel comfortable with its content. As an example, there is a section in the book that tells you how to build a spiral log staircase into your log home. How cool is it that this book tells you how to use log to make everything imaginable… Ok, ok, get rid of that image of wooden fireplace, you are burning the house down.

It is from year 1972 and under the log siding beats a metallic heart of doublewide trailer. Owner of the trailer is a retired metal worker Gale Spicer. The whole process of converting the trailer into a mobile log home took about four weeks. Mr. Spicer screwed log sidings directly to the metal walls of the trailer. Unexpected benefits include better sound and heat insulation so the mobile log home trailer has better living quality. Mr. Spicer says, “I’ve had people come here taking pictures. Others are going to do it to their trailer. I think we’ve stirred up something.” Article was originally written by Sylvia Anderson and it is called - Rustic way to remake doublewide.

You might remember Luoman Log Homes, a Finnish log home company, which introduced a mobile log home called MobileHome. I suppose Mr. Spicer could have something important to contribute for this Finnish company, after all he does have hands on experience.