How to Order Your Log Home.

How to Order Your Log Home. 5/15/10

Some people simply think that the salesman should know all about this and the fact is even some of the oldest sales people can make mistakes.
Should you find a company that sells the whole shell package or just the logs?
Some people feel that they don’t have to worry because the company they picked is a reputable company, is that really so?
Choosing your log home company will be talked about in another blog and should be considered before ordering.
So now we need to consider the statements and questions above along with other thoughts and actual true stories.
Should you rely on the salesman, thinking that he really knows what he is doing? No! One of the worst things to do is not to get advice from another source. For example a couple found a log home company that met all of the 10 things outlined in my blog, “How to pick a great log home company!” Yet when they ordered they relied on the salesman.
It started with not finding a rep in the area they were building in so they ordered from the factory. Bad Idea, they lost $20,000.00 on the log package. The salesman at the factory was also the manager of the company so he could do just about whatever he wanted to. They ordered their package according to his calculations and he was off by $20,000.00, a trifle right, wrong. That was more than they allowed for overrun on costs for their home and they haven’t even started yet. But he did not tell them until their order was ready and simply called them stating that they needed to send over the rest of the money before they could ship the logs. They needed the logs right away to get into the construction window. If they had bought from a salesman other than the factory they could have at least dickered about the price but more likely the salesman would not have made that big of a mistake because the company makes its sales man pay for any mistake they make. This company is noted as a reputable company and has one the best products on the market so be aware that companies still do what they want. You should order from a dealer. And even better a dealer builder.
So when ordering you should check the lineal footage of the log walls in the home your going to build. Next you should make sure each log on your log home plan is numbered and its size is on your order sheet.
Find out what they expect for payment on the log order and make sure it is in accord with your lending company. If you are financing the home yourself and you agree with what they want,then go ahead. But before paying the final payment for the logs, go to the mill and ask to be allowed to check out your order. You should have a detailed order list with every log on it and the lineal footage of log wall logs.
If this is something you just don’t feel you can do then find someone other than the salesman. One of the better ways to go is to hire a consultant that can help with all phases of your home. He should be experienced and I have covered this in why you should hire a consultant.
Other problems I have seen with ordering is the simple fact that the Architect does not detail log connections for log homes. I have actually seen log floor joists sitting on thin air. I have seen log connections left out completely because the Architect could not get their cad program to draw it correctly. Stairs met for average people which will allow only midgets to use them. I have been sent to log home sites to redesign and basically rebuild parts of homes that the architect has messed up. The sad part of this is that the home owner paid a lot for plans they thought would be great because they were drawn in the modern way with lots of frills and fancy things put all over them by a COMPUTER, NOT A MAN. Tools are what you make of them and people are no better than their tools. These new Architects don’t use the best tool they have their brain. Their ability to use it to draw a great set of plans no longer exists. Even when they are said to be great designers watch out they will charge high prices and you will just have to have the plans redesigned or the logs reordered.
One Architectural company in particular that is one of the best today and charges for it, does not have a cad program for designing their homes and commercial buildings. It is all done by hand.
So if you want a great log home get a dealer builder that designs plans and you will be far ahead of everybody else. Do not go through the factory if at all possible. A dealer has to watch his reputation and large factory does not.
Another thing is buy logs from a log home company and windows from a window company and so forth. Log home people know about logs and window people know about their windows. When you start mixing products up you start having problems. Don’t buy roofing from the log home company buy it from a roofing company. Would you buy a sewing machine from a car dealer?
There really are no great deals out there. Sometimes it seems like it for instance I bid on a log package for some people and then they received a bid from another company at less than half price. They thought they were saving money. Their log home logs had to have a big crane to lift them into place. The logs needed to be cut and drilled and lag screwed. Their construction costs were more than the cost of my logs and the cost to put my logs up. But worse their logs were flat on flat green logs. They then shrank 6” in the first 3 months and they had tremendous problems. They never did get the home finished and finally lost it to the bank. Later the bank sold it to someone else and they finished it only to have it start rotting, and 15 years later it was torn down.
To sum it all up if you haven’t studied log homes and learned all about them then get unbiased help. A cost of a few thousand can save over a hundred thousand on bad decisions. For instance a person had several bids from other log home companies for a large 3400 sq ft home. But they would not bid logs for the second story and their costs for the pole logs and the log walls came up to $100,000.00 more than my bid. Both bids had erecting the logs included in them.
I have seen many people pay way too much for building their log home and many time I have saved them a lot of money.
So if you want your home to go smoothly and not cost an arm and a leg Get Help.
(The two log home pictures above are from feature articles of homes that I designed and built.)
Have a great time with your home.
Log Man Dan
Dan Barnett
541-999-5477
PS: if you would like some help please give me a call.The Log Home Plan Book: Favorite Plans, Decor and Advice