Real Estate Innovation

Advice on Buying a Home Log Cabin

The cost of log cabins varies greatly depending on the kinds of logs which have been used and the size of the property. You will find that those cabins that have been built using handcrafted logs will cost much more than those where the logs have been milled.

It is important therefore before you actually decide on getting such a cabin built you know the difference between milled and handcrafted logs. Generally, those that are milled have been prepared using either a sawmill, a lathe or a planer. This then ensures that each log will be cut to a specific profile or shape. As you will soon discover milled logs have a far more uniformed shape and size to them compared to handcrafted ones.

Logs, which are milled to help extract moisture from them, will either be allowed to dry in the air or be placed in a kiln. The time it takes for the exact amounts of moisture to be removed depends on the size of the log and the method of drying used. But by extracting moisture from the wood helps to prevent too much shrinkage occurring once, the cabin has been constructed.

Because the wood will have been either planed, sawn or lathed the surface of the logs will be smooth. Plus in many cases, they will also have a tongue and groove joints so actually putting the logs together is much easier. This means that building the cabin is a lot easier and will often take a lot less time to complete. However, if you want to retain that rustic look to your cabin the outer face of the log can retain its rough bark coating.

In most cases, the trees from which the wood for these types of logs used are pines, spruces, firs as well as cedars. For a cheap but well built milled cabin, buy one made from either pine or spruce. However, if you have a little more money in your budget then consider getting one made using cedar instead.

As for handcrafted logs, these will have been prepared by being hand peeled using either a drawknife or through the use of water. The actual logs themselves when being prepared are green and will only have been cut and hauled a few days or weeks before. Unlike milled logs these are allowed to air dry only as kiln drying is a very expensive process, as these need to be dried whilst they are still their full lengths after cutting.

Just like with milled log cabins those who make handcrafted ones like to use pine and spruce trees. However, there are some log cabin manufacturers who prefer to use either Douglas fir, Oak, Juniper, Cyprus or Alpine Fir (True Firs) instead.

As mentioned the cost you pay for buying and having log cabins constructed will not only depend on the way in which the logs have been prepared. You also need to take into consideration the size of the cabin you are having built. The bigger the cabin then the more labour intensive and the more logs will be needed in order to build it. If you want to save money but would like a large cabin then you are better off going for milled rather than handcrafted logs.