log cabin

Cornflk1

Just finished digging out an old farm pond. The pond sets right at the edge of a woods. Would really like to build a small authentic log cabin 12'/14'. Some thing I can open up the door and have my barbeque inside.

Any one know of any plans or suggestions I can use for my project? Have several 8"-10" Ash trees about 50 ft tall I plan on using.

Thanks in advance.

joshmb1982

my family and i built one back in 2000. though much bigger at 32x40 ft. several trees arent gonna be enough i dont think even for a smaller cabin. and we were told when we built ours that hardwoods not as good as a softwood for a cabin because it will not hold up to the weather as long once it is dead wood. i dont know that for a fact just what i was told when we built ours. even a small cabin is a lot of work though expecially if using your own trees. youve got to debark the logs, cut to legnth, notch them to fit, and thats on top of letting the logs dry for at least one year preferbly 2. i will say it will be worth it for you thiough. nothing like a cabin you built yourself. good luck

allen griggs

I have built 7 log cabins from scratch, including the one I live in.
I have used white pine, yellow pine, and hickory logs.

For a little cabin like you are suggesting I imagine ash would work fine, although I have never heard of it being used for a log cabin.
I do know they make baseball bats from Northern White Ash so it probably would work well for a log cabin.

Your best bet is going to be to use the round logs with a saddle notch.
You need a scriber to mark for the notch.
Also as josh said you will have to peel off the bark.

You will leave a 1 to 2 inch space between the logs and you will fill that with chinking.

If you have 10 inch diameter trees, and a 2 inch chinking gap, it would take 32 logs, 14 to 16 feet long to make the cabin.

Buy this book by Dan Milne
http://www.amazon.com/handbook-Canadian-log-building/dp/091923108X

Besides that, you will need a chain saw, a scribe, a big bad * log builder's draw knife for peeling the bark, and basic carpentry tools, and you are ready to rip.

I wish you were nearby, I would love to come over and give you some tech tips.

If you believe you can do it, you can do it.

You don't need to age the logs at all, you can work with them green. All my cabins have been built with green logs.
You simply have to adjust for shrinking and settling at doors and windows. No problem, you have to do that anyway.

Good luck and be sure to contact me if you need advice, I love log cabins.

joshmb1982

we built our cabin green also. thoughn it is still in great shape there were some definate downsides to this. first that first winter with the wood stoves cranking in upstate ny. could hardly sleep some nights for the wood creaking and groaning from it drying out. and a few times there were very loud pops from some of the main beams splitting. and we used big chunks of wood here too. the carrier beam down the middle of the cabin in the basment is 4 full size 2x8s nailed together the beam on the first floor is a solid 8x8 blue spruce beam. and 2 pillars holding up the beams in both the basement and 1st floor are full 14-18in trees. this split up the side deep enough for me t fit most all of the blade from my k-bar into.even though we used 14in hardened steel screws to hold the logs together some of them twisted inside the walls. though we used logs cut into the D shape. that is flat on 3 sides rounded on the 4th. also for debarking. id advise getting a old bayonet type knife for cheap. comes in handy for getting the bark out of any knots and gouges in the logs. if i were to build another log cabin and able to put more money into it i would want to have something running vertically down through the middle of the walls every 6 feet at least. such as 2 inch rebar or something similar. the reason is that even with the 14 in screws when the log wall got to be around 7 ft hight the wall had a lot of give to it. you could walkup to it and push it 3 or 4 inches eather way.it stiffened up plenty once we roughed the windows and doors in but still.

allen griggs

Josh what kind of wood are your logs?

joshmb1982

the logs for the walls are all locally cut red pine. the floor joists and roof rafters are all blue spruce. the posts holding up the carrier beams in the basement and 1st floor are blue spruce. the posts that go from the second floor to the ridge pole are just small white pine that we got off of the property 4-6in diameter. umm and outside for the porch the joists are tamarak.