Log Home Nightmare

Log Home Nightmare
A True Story
Once upon a time a nice married couple decided to build a log home.
They had saved for years, scraping here and there. Finally they were ready to start shopping for a log home. Which one to choose? They all are log homes.
Taking in log home shows and talking to many different sales people they began to accumulate a lot of information. This went on for several years while they were deciding where to put their dream home and what they wanted in there log home. After awhile it became more and more confusing so they decided to focus just on what company offered the floor plan that they liked!
Along came a silver tongued salesman offering them the moon but not telling them that there was really no cheese on it. This salesman said that all corner styles are good! (even when but and pass corners have a proven track record for ROTTING). That 19% moisture content was ok! (even when the log home industry standard is 17%.) Log profile doesn’t matter that flat logs are ok! Cants are just as good as logs with the hart in the center! That spiked logs are just as good as bolts! That we have the best log package on the market! He told them their log company has a great 4 year Warranty. (it did not occur to them to check out other log home companies with life time warranties or to look at homes sold by them that were more than 4 years old. It takes about 4 years for the big problems to show up.)
They bought the package hook, line and sinker ( they never did find the cheese.).
So there next step was to hire a general contractor and get started. They hired one that was recommended but did not check with any people he had worked for . That was there second mistake.
The excavator was a fried of the general contractor and got the job digging but did not give a bid with the fill included. There contract went over $15,000.00 more than another bid. Worse yet the concrete contractor ran into trouble because the excavator did a poor job of digging and filling. The final foundation was not square or level.
At that time they received a letter from the log home company that the logs would be arriving late. This caused the log stacking to continue into late fall and snow. Extra labor and costs ended up to be another $10,000.00 for the log stacking (they did not think to check out labor costs for stacking the different log profiles. There are some companies Like Lodge Logs that labor costs are less than half.).
Through the next year sub contractors were late or had added expenses because the general contractor did not check out their bids (or they were friends and he received 20% of all building costs.).
Budget just disappeared and they paid a lot more before the home was finished. It was supposed to cost around $350,000.00 but ended up over $500,000.00
Well they finally moved in and were prepared to enjoy their home. But it lasted only a short time. That winter water started coming in at various places. This was due to several things but the main problem was simply the, but and pass corners, which channeled water into the log wall through cracks developing in the wall logs.
The next year they had problems with trim being pushed off when the wall logs started shrinking ( at 19%, an 8’ high log wall will shrink around 5 to 6 inches in 4 to 5 years. Next , the doors would not open and some of the windows broke from the logs setting down on them. Logs began twisting and warping, opening up places in the walls.
After losing a lot of money in repairs they became fed-up with the home and sold it shortly after 4 years. (Notice that the warrantee the log company’s offered was only for 4 years. From my observations over 32 years I have come to find out that the warrantee that log home companies offers reflect how long the home actually starts to have problems. But later a few years ago another company offered it. Not only were there logs short lived but their warrantee wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. So now you still need to do your home work.)
About 10 years after the home was built, the corners showed rot and eventually the home was tore down.
The Nightmare finally ended.
After 32 years of selling, designing and building over 130 log homes and having worked on over 30 different log companies log homes, I found out one very important thing; The buyer needs to do their home work.
My next article will let you in on more secrets to a successful log home experience. And yes there is truly a way to make it a dream home.
Have a great day,
Dan Barnett
Trails end Log Homes
541-999-5477
If you would to have my technical assistance simply give me a call.