Secrets About Log Homes Date: 5/20/10
Did you know that Log Homes have secrets?
Yes they have many. Would you like to know some of them?
Knowing these secrets will help you to get a better log home and be able to maintain it for a long time to come.
Did you know that how the logs are produced at the factory will make the difference between owning a great log home for a long time or a pile of fire wood in 10 years? What is the secret to low maintenance and long life of your log home? What is the secret to having one of the lowest air infiltration homes on the market?
Water penetration is the prime factor in all three of these secrets. The log profile makes a big difference. How much the logs are dried before milling makes even a bigger difference. And the biggest secret is even simpler. A saw cut in the top of the log will allow the air to dry the log evenly clear to the center of the log. This also relieves the stress from drying. This will eliminate over 90% of the cracking in the wrong place but places the opening of the log at the saw cut. This opening is then covered over with the log above. Now that most of the splitting that happens with all logs is controlled and the log is now able to be dried to the center so that it is completely stable, it can be milled. Now when the logs are stacked they will not twist or warp or crack uncontrollable in the log walls. This now almost completely eliminates all the water penetration in to the log wall. What is left is to put on a very good finish the right way.
I have built log homes all over the US and many of those places have a very high rain fall. Why do certain log homes that I have built over 30 years ago still look like they were just built? And why does the finish last a long time. That is the secret you now know.
This also gives you part of the secret of the low air infiltration into the home. Because the logs do not shrink, warp or crack. And because of the drying saw cut the logs do not twist nor do the drying cracks spiral around the log and go from the inside to the outside of the log home or visa-versa. The second secret to less air infiltration is all thread bolts that fasten to J bolts in the foundation and go up through the log wall to the top. These are placed approximately every 2 foot along the wall and also there are 4 at each corner and beside each door and window.
I have seen the air infiltration tested in the state of Washington and in every case with this particular log home the air infiltration rate was less than one air change per hour. Even a good sense home requires 1.5 air changes per hour and most of them barely do that. And again most of the log homes other than this one can-not even meet the good sense requirement. And I know of none that will meet even that after 2 years except for the one type made by Lodge Logs.
Another secret that only a few types of log homes have is how they perform in storing heat. Most log homes in the US today are made from cants which are cut from larger logs. A cant there for would not have the hart in the center of the log and most would not have it at all. With the hart in the center of the log the heat would have to travel through many layers of annual rings which are hard and soft. The soft part stores heat and allows the heat to travel slowly or slower through it. So pines and white wood species will do better than harder woods. When you cut through the annual rings which allow the heat to travel along that cell to the outside as in cants, you lose more heat. Each of those annual rings that are whole circling the hart is complete not cut through and they perform better. Simply put the hard part of the annual rings that hits the air will transfer heat faster when in a cant most of them will be open to the air, in a round log with the hart in the middle they will not. Simple physics will prove this.
How about another secret, log homes control humidity in the home. A family of 4 will give off 10 to 15 gallons of water a day in the home. Log homes will wick out this water and from testing the amount of humidity in the Lodge Log homes along the Oregon coast where it rains a great deal, those homes had around 45% to 50% humidity in the air. When testing the standard stick frame homes around them I found 85% to 90% humidity. If you look up how air heats with different levels of humidity you will find that 45% is perfect for heating air and 85% takes twice as much energy to heat that air.
Let’s take another secret about humidity and log homes. Logs are not affected by humidity. They will have the same insulation properties because they stay the same, approximately 14 to 15% moisture content in the average log home. But the standard home with R21 fiberglass insulation is directly affected by humidity. When it is tested at the laboratory it is tested at 0% humidity. When in the average home it will suck up moisture like a sponge and with most homes it has a vapor barrier called Tyveck that stops the moisture from getting out of the insulation and the wall. At 85% humidity which is normal for most standard homes R21 fiberglass insulation is less than an R4.
The secret is that Log Homes when built right will last a longtime be energy efficient and easy to maintain.
If you read my other blogs this particular log home by Lodge Logs also is fire resistant, earthquake resistant, and tornado resistant.
I just have one question, Why aren’t they building this home more?
Log Man Dan
Dan Barnett
No comments:
Post a Comment