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Log Houses

A log house is a solid construction that will last hundred year or more. Learn more about log house construction, differences and advantages

What Is a Log House? 

It is a wooden house, which walls are built from wooden logs. Very often it is called a log house, log cabin. Although log cabin term is more used for a smaller size house, without insulation, like wooden holiday cabins. 

Photo below shows a wooden house built from logs:

log-cabin-log-house

Type of Wood

Wooden houses construction from logs was very common in Scandinavian and Baltic countries long time ago, where straight and tall coniferous trees, such aspineandspruce, were growing. 

Logs used for a wooden house can be:
  • massive wood (dried, non-dried)
  • glue-laminated timber

    massive wood logs:

as tree comes from a forest, with a machinery help it is cut in square beam and later processed to required shape and thickness; the main feature of massive wooden log is that it is made from one solid peace of wood;
solid-wood-timber

massive wood is cheaper building material than glue-laminated timber also it will have cracks and will move/settle more than logs from glue-laminated timber; some people do not mind about cracks and love rustic look.

    glue-laminated timber logs:

also it is called "laminated" or "engineered" wood; uusually it is made of three to five layers of timber, i.e., glued lamellas from which any defects of timber have been removed. Cut timber blanks are mixed and glued into lamellas, which are glued into squared beam up to 20 cm thick. This clears timber strains; therefore the squared beam becomes more resistant to hogs and twists.
glued-laminated-wood

For the gluing process we use natural glues, without any components that are environmentally hazardous. Laminated wood is stronger and gives more architectural freedom for your house layout, shape and look. 

Logs Profiles and Thickness

Two most common log profiles are:
  • round logs;
  • squared logs;
round logs are used only in specific regions, and more for a summer houses as they do not have very good thermal insulation properties; example of round logs below:
round-timber-logs

square logs are used very often in a log houses construction; they are more stable and have better wind-proof connection; if client is planning to build a log house for permanent living it must be insulated and here square logs works much better than round logs; example of a square logs house below:
square-laminated-timber

Logs thickness vary from 80 mm up to 200 mm. Below example of possible logs thickness:
timber-logs-profiles
Thickness of logs usually is a client preference, also depends on a house complexity. Two levels house most likely will be built from 120 mm or thicker logs.

Insulating a Log House

Every country has it's own building regulations, although there is one common rule - houses with good thermal performance is now a requirement. Log house itself hardly will pass required thermal values, unless you will add extra insulation on the walls. Following article will explain insulated log wall technique.