Are you going to buy or build a Log Home?
Can you learn enough about log homes to keep from losing a great deal of money?
It took 40 years for one person to become a Qualified Log Home Technical Advisor!
Do you even have 5 years to learn all there is to know about log homes?
Do you have 1 year?
Hiring a technical advisor is really the best way to your dream log home.
Again, why hire one? I have seen many people simply take the advice of a sales representative from a log home company. That is the worst thing that a person can do because that representative is trying to sell his product and make money for him and his company.
Another time a couple wanted a used log home that had been built 12 years before they bought it and they did not know what to look for in the log walls themselves. What happened? They called me in about 6 weeks after buying their log home and asked me to look at their home because there was “a lot of sawdust like stuff coming out of the logs.” (Their words) It was actually what comes out of the south end of a termite going north. Anyway, their home started falling down that very week and had to be torn down.
It cost them thousands of dollars to start over. A consultant that knew about log homes would have saved them a lot of heart ache and money.
Another time a couple just liked a certain floor plan that only one log home company happened to have on their web site. Later they had a lot of problems with their log home package and then their log home. They did not know that just about any log home company can make that floor plan. A Log Home Consultant would have saved those headaches and money.
One of the biggest problems with the log home industry in the US is the simple fact that there is no control on what they are allowed to sell. People get taken. I like to say, they buy an expensive pile of fire wood.
Are you going to buy that expensive pile of fire wood? Or, hire a technical advisor.
I just have to tell this one.
About 5 years ago I was helping with a log home in New Hampshire and we stopped to look at a log home nearby that had been there about 15 years. We asked the owner how he liked his home. He said: “Oh it is a great home except for replacing 2 of the corners and I will probably have to do the same for the other two very soon.”
It will cost him, when he is done replacing the 4 corners, more than what he paid for the log home package. And in another 10 to 15 years he will have to do it all over again.
Is that really what you want to do with your dream home?
I would think, “Hiring a log home technical advisor”, would be less expensive.
One more story, a long, long time ago when I was just starting with my 40 years of learning about log homes, I worked on a green stick hand scribed log home. (It really wasn’t a true hand scribed log home because the true had scribed log homes of 700 to 800 years ago were done by hand with simple tools. This one was done with chain saws.)
First the logs turned black and slimy. Boy was the owner mad. We spent 2 weeks bleaching and cleaning the logs. Then they started to shrink. Not only was the home design poorly done, but the green Douglas fir logs started to crack and twist and warp. The design had a large center truss setting on the side walls with an entry door right under it. The top log on the log wall was the only thing holding it and that log was twisting and rolling off of the log wall. Then to top off that, the wall shrank over 13 inches and we had to cut into that log over ½ way in, to keep the door intact and opening. During the first 2 years we changed most of the windows which were broken and all the trim several times. If you want to talk about a night mare, that owner had one.
Do you think hiring a person with a lot of knowledge is the right way to go? I Do.
I have over 40 years of true stories that I could tell but I will stop here and ask another question.
How do you pick a good Technical Advisor?
Qualifications should be: Acquainted with wood species used in building log homes and should have woods experience and be a certified log cruiser and log scalier.
That person should have a good working knowledge of many different log profiles, from different log home companies learned by repairing them.
That person should have, knowledge of Architecture, and have designed at least 30 to 40 log homes that they have actually built.
That person should have a working knowledge in log home sales and be unbiased.
And finally that person should have a few years doing technical advising.
I know of only one person that meets all of those requirements, and more.
That is of course Log Man Dan.
I chopped my first tree down at 12 and operated my first cat at 13. Put myself through college at the U of O in Architecture by logging. Became a certified timber cruiser and log scalier for The US Forest Service by 23 years of age and started working for home contractors at 24. By 25 I was the shop supervisor of a storm window company and by 26 I also had my own construction company and started designing homes. I have since repaired many log home of all varieties and have designed and built or supervised more than 130 log homes. During that time I have sold log home for several different log home companies. Also I have traveled to many parts of the US for various log home companies and log home owners to give technical advice. And several times I have re-designed homes on site to correct log home design problems.
I have perfected a log bracket that will hold log floor joists straight and still let them dry properly in a floor system. I have eliminated many structural costs by redesigning and using practical log construction practices.
I have enough knowledge in thermal dynamics of wood to impress a college professor at cal tec. So much that he had me design and build his log home.
I have now had many of my log homes featured in national publications such as Countries Best Log Homes and Log Home Living and my favorite home in 2007 was selected one in 12 in the nation by Log Home Living for their calendar.
My son and I have perfected and built several, all log spiral stair cases, and our last one connects 3 stories on a 32” center log with the log steps supported by 3” log pickets, a unique design I have not seen anywhere else.
I would be glad to help you save a lot of money by advising you on your dream home.
So just give me a call and we can talk,
Log Man Dan,
Trails End Log Homes
2420 Hwy 101,
Florence, Oregon 97439
Ph: 541-999-5477
PS: the two pictures above are from two national magazines.
Also please look at the ads below.
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