Log Home


		Continuing the Log Laying Process



It's finally starting to look like a house. Course nine is complete and there are only 5 more to go (in most of the house). One wall will have a couple more courses and one other will have solid logs all the way to the top of the vaulted great room ceiling.

Here we are working on course nine. In this shot you are standing in the shop area and have a good view of the entire back of the house. You can easily see the size of the kitchen window and French doors along with the door that will lead out from the half bath to the hot tub area on the back porch. The other two windows that don't have their bucks yet are in the laundry room and master bathroom.

This is basically the same shot from the inside. The door bucks are plumed and braced to help keep the walls plum as they go up. The laundry room and master bath windows now have the ninth course of logs and the bucks mounted. The window bucks are also plumed and help keep the wall straight going up.

This shot shows the size of the master bedroom windows at the far end of the house. Just to give things some scale the post at the far end is 8 feet tall.

Here you are standing in the master bedroom looking at the front door and great room windows. They are the same size as the master bedroom windows. You might think that the size of these windows might be a problem given the Arizona sun and the potential for the vast amount of sun shine to add unwanted heat to the house in hot summer weather. Not so in our case. On the entire ground floor there are only two windows (the laundry room and master bathroom) that won't be covered by a porch. This will give the entire house good ventilation but will limit the amount of heat transfer from direct sunlight. If we were building in Montana our priorities might have been reversed.

Starting in course 8 the opening for an octagon window in the master bathroom is installed. The factory made the large cuts but a small amount of material must be removed in the field. Here you see me measuring and marking the log in course 8 for the cut. The other two logs are from course 9 and are temporarily set in place to make sure all measurements are correct and everything will line up properly when they are permanently installed.

Here you see the octagon window cut out and how everything lines up when properly installed.

Last week I promised a few explanations. What you see being installed here is a product called Butylog. It is used to provide the majority of sealing between the log courses. This stuff has the consistency of already chewed gum and it is extremely sticky.

After laying the Butylog in place the protective paper is removed. Then the next log layer can be installed. Once the Butylog is in contact with the next log and is compressed by the lag bolts it is next to impossible to separate the logs one has to be removed.

Here you can see what happens to the Butylog just by setting the next log in place. If it comes in contact with the wood it will stick and (trust me) it doesn't like to come apart even without being compressed. As you can see this log has a slight bow in the center so a small section of the Butylog never came in contact with the log. If the lag bolts had been installed they would have pulled that section of the log down in firm contact with the lower log and Butylog and this "separation" would not have been possible even after removing all the lag bolts.

Where logs butt up against one another or a post it is sealed with a plywood "key" and plenty of caulking.

We found the easiest way to seal the logs was to fill the key hole with caulk and then push it down with a key. Then the key is removed and more caulk is squeezed in the hole and the key is then permanently installed. The more caulking here the better the seal.

Corners are sealed in a similar manner except that a foam tape is also used where tab "A" fits into slot "B". Here you can see all three materials used for sealing the logs, Butylog, caulking and the foam tape.

When a log course butts up against one of the inside corner poles or another log in a corner a pole barn nail is also used to insure everything stays together. As you can see these are not small nails.

Last week I also mentioned Kerf cuts. This log has been marked for a kerf cut. These are done for each door and window opening. What you are doing is a back cut for a recess where the exterior trim boards will eventually go.

Each kerf cut is 1 1/2" deep. Once once all log courses are up and the doors and windows are installed that section of the log is cut out and the trim boards are installed. I know this isn't a very understandable explanation but everything will become clear in a later update when I show how the material is removed.

I also wanted to explain how the holes for the electric lines are checked to make sure each hole lines up with the one below. We used a three foot piece of re-bar which was inserted in the hole and if it can be slid down passed the log below then the holes are aligned.

Here's the re-bar fully inserted in one of the electric holes proving our measurements were correct. It must be noted that you need to put a good bend in the top of the re-bar so you don't lose it if you drop it down one of the holes.

	One thing that can't be understated is the necessity to constantly check for plumb, everywhere!

Occasionally everyone's going to make a mistake. In this case we noticed in the plans required the kitchen window to be located exactly 3 foot 5 1/2 inches above the sub floor. This meant we had to cut part of log course 5 out to lower the window a couple inches. In a stick built house this problem wouldn't have existed but in a log home the log that goes above the window must be a minimum thickness for strength. In order to insure this minimum thickness is correct any material that must be removed is taken from the lower portion of the window instead of the top.

This process could have been done quicker if we had noticed that this material needed to be removed before we installed the log but......

It took about an hour to measure, mark and cut out the required material to correct the problem. As you can see a circular saw, saws-all, and chisel were used in the process.

The finished product. The bottom buck has been sunk into the lower course just enough to insure the rough opening is exactly 3'5 1/2" from the sub floor as the plans required. Hope I don't have to do that again!

That's all for this week. We are hoping to complete up to log course 14
in the coming week, then it will be on to interior walls and the second
floor system.

Check back soon.