Log homes, built properly, in the traditional manner, are mostly maintenance free. (join us in the Log Cabin Academy to learn step by step how you can build one for yourself... noahbradley.le... )
I doubted the traditional format at first. I though, "Why bothered with chinking when you can just use all wood?" But your insight is slowly converting me. You make excellent points.
I was the same with my first traditional build... I had been raised seeing kit homes... but the more I worked with traditional cabins... the more hooked I became. I have never, not once, seen anyone who has built in the traditional manner regret it... but I have met hundreds who have regretted the "newer, simpler" ways.
Hi, my name is Tracy and I absolutely love your videos I my self am a traditionalist since I found you I will not listen to anyone else. You info is very informative and honest and I feel it is from your heart I am fully on board with your opinion on traditional log home. That's exactly what it is a home not a house. I hope to fulfil my dream of building one. It's bean my dream since I was a young boy. Keep up what you are doing I love and appreciate it very much.
Yeah those kits are junk. Btw there's a Japanese technique for preserving wood houses...shou sugi ban...where you char the wood, sand, and maybe oil....looks great too! Learning so much thank you Noah!
You're absolutely right! I know a young man who makes a fabulous living a few months out of the year treating those cabins in the Smokey Mountains. A large percentage hang off the side of the mountain. Which means special rigging, etc. Naturally, maintaining one cost quite a bit more than one on flat ground.
So true. It's an endless cycle. Over the years I have received many calls from folks who neglected regular treatment applications of their kit cabins (where one log sets on top of the other) and then rot was found everywhere and they wanted me to come "fix it"... at that point all that can be done is to side it over and hope that it holds together. Whereas none of the cabins that I have built in the traditional way have needed any treatments nor repairs. I wish I could say that I invented it... but those guys of old, knew what they were doing.
Everything you said Noah is so true about the decay of wood , any wood . Whether through fungal decay or wood eating and boring insects . They all require damp , dark areas to proliferate . Two surfaces touch and stay that way , even for a very short space of time . The results are guaranteed . Decay . . . . . Good one Noah .
Wow, Noah. If you need to get rid of Walnut, I will drive over from Vegas, just to pick up a log or two and carry it/them away for you... Having too much walnut laying around sounds like a Hell made in the nicest parts of heaven,
Noah, I'm a 23 yr old male with a desk job. More often than not I find myself daydreaming about being outside in a forest. I listen to these videos in the background while I work and it really interests/relaxes me. Thank you SO much. But I do have a question. From what I've gathered is that wood only rots when in contact with wood. Do the wood corners of the log houses rot with time? I know you notch them dove tail, but they look to be in contact with each other when laid on top of one another. If the corners don't rot, what is the reason for this (as once again, they look like they're in contact with one another)? Thank you for your time.
Hi Abe, I do hope you find a way to escape the desk job! I found myself in the same spot when I was your age and eventually just made the plunge... at times it wasn't easy... but it was SO worth it! It changed my life for the better. Wood rots when it gets wet and stays wet. Wood inside a dry building will last forever. While wood outside on the ground will rot quickly. But the odd thing is that wood can get wet over and over again and never rot as long as it is allowed to quickly dry out again. Wood that is sets flatly upon another piece of wood will allow water in and it never seems to find it's way out and so quickly rots.... such as it is in butt and pass cabins, and many log cabin kit homes. The corners of a cabin are not invincible to rot but are MUCH less prone to it in major part to the fact that there is no wood that rests flat upon the one below... the wood is pitched so as to drain water away.... there are other reasons why corners are less vulnerable... I think it was episode #21 where I went into this detail further. Noah
Noah, Thank you for the response! It was very informative and took my mind off worrying about rotting corners. One day I will take the plunge, either into cabin building or into a another career which will enable me to build in my spare time while providing for my family. I know eventually the turbulence will settle and God will provide in accordance with what He wishes for me to do. Love your videos. You have great talent and skill. All the best. -A
I suspect (though i am not an expert) is that the fact that the corners are two orthogonal pieces of wood also helps; there is always a short path along the grain of either top or bottom log to open air, and water moves/wicks much faster along the grain than across it. So that makes it a much different scenario from two logs laid flat on top of eachother along their length. Water that manages to get in there has a much longer effective distance to travel.
In my limited understanding of lumber values, you could have sold the beaver-damaged walnut logs for furniture use and netted enough money to build an entire large project with your preferred woods. The walnut would also make lovely finished interior panels.
I could have sold the walnut for sure... but in my area Craigslist if full of advertisements of folks wanting to sell their lumber... the difference that an individual makes when selling their own lumber versus going to a retail outlet to buy it is often huge in difference. So after a lot of hassle of selling my little pile of walnut I could have bought a little bit bigger pile of oak... but then I wouldn't have had the thrill of just once building a cabin out of walnut! I do have a nice stack of walnut here stored away for future furniture projects. And I have more beaver damaged woods that I've been thinking about doing a small timber frame out of... it is joy to work with!
I once purchased a home that had hand-built embellishments made from Chestnut barn wood. The entire basement was paneled with it and it was used for cabinetry and to create a wet bar. It was a pleasure to care for as long as I owned the home. I am glad you have such 'riches' of walnut.
Agreed! I do love chestnut lumber as well! It's a joy also to work with and so beautiful. I do believe the most attractive kitchen cabinets I ever built were out of chestnut. I had a real dilemma years ago... I acquired a salvaged chestnut log cabin that I wanted to one day re-erect for someone else's home. The dilemma was that I knew that I could have had all of those logs cut up into chestnut lumber and made twice as much off of it as I could have ever hoped to have gotten for the cabin. But then, if I did that, the cabin would have been lost. I resisted the temptation... and I took a ten thousand dollar loss on what could have been in my bank account (and likely spent long ago). I don't regret doing it... even though it was likely a foolish action on my part... but there is a cute little cabin that exists today because of my crazy desire to keep that pile of wood in it's log form.
This is my first exposure to working with green walnut... and you are correct it does remind me of working with hickory, particularly the sap layer (which is not as friendly as I had hoped)
do you have any videos on log cabin insects treatment and prevention? I just bought a cabin and I love it but there seems to be a lot of issues with carpenter ants and checking.
I don't have any videos yet on this topic. You can't beat good old ant spray for ants. And checking... there is nothing that can stop that from happening until it's done.
The course starts in two weeks? The email I got led me to believe that registration begins in April, with the course starting in June...? Thanks again for what you're doing. I'm stacking logs in anticipation, but they're small diameter pines. I hope you'll be addressing log maturity (will a 15yr old pine last as long as a 30yr old, under the same conditions?) in an episode or in the course.
Yes indeed! Registration begins and the first module is released on April 14th! And then, a new one will be released every week after until we are done. On June 14th the introductory sale price ends... but even then the course is a bargain when compared to any other and the value of the information found within.. It's taken me six months of full time effort to put it all together where I'll share what I've learned from 30 years of building cabins. And I offer a 30 day guarantee that you will be fully pleased, or your money quickly refunded. (Your logs will be just fine to build a cabin with!)
Nope, your walnut chest won't rot quickly. Walnut heartwood is EXTREMELY rot resistant. There are 6" walnut logs that have been on the ground since I was 10 ( 40+ years ago) at my parents house (central Ohio). The heartwood is still solid. The sapwood (white on your logs) will rot rather quickly.
Well I hope you are right! I'd like to think this little cabin will be around for centuries to come. My experience with walnut laying on the ground is different than yours though... and I think the point about furniture falling apart and being ruined quickly when exposed to weather is also valid... substitute pine logs and a pine chest.
Handmade Houses with Noah Bradley It's an old time pine tar based wood preservative. It was what they used on the deck and ropes of the old sailing ships.
I have heard that log cabins that were built near ports, by shipbuilders, were built this way (and I can fully understand why... a craftsman puts to use what he knows)... but I have yet to actually see one of these houses myself, nor am I familiar with how they held up over time. Early in my career I looked around the area that I live (Va, WVa, NC, Tenn, Pa, Maryland, Ohio) at cabins that were still standing 200 years or older and how they were built and learned from them.... I've never seen tar on any of them ( I can't make any judgments about this tar method one way or the other... I have just never explored cabins near the coastline). Are you familiar with any historic ones that I could visit?
Handmade Houses with Noah Bradley No, I live far from the coast in NW Minnesota. The only historic log building around here that I'm aware of is a partially log barn in an old yard on a piece of land we farm. The rest of the barn has collapsed but the logs are still standing. Tar is kind of a misleading name for the product as it is not very tar like. It is very thin and has excellent wood penetration. The Finnish military used to use it for their rifle stocks.
