Log Home Planning

Once you make the decision to build a log home, the planning begins. As part of this process, you'll purchase land, you'll select a log home company, you'll choose and customize a floor plan, you'll decide on log style and wood type, you'll set a budget, you'll select a mortgage company or bank, you'll either find a general contractor or act as your own contractor, and you'll set your schedule.

Home Planning Software - Amazing and Fun
One of the most useful (and most fun) tools you now have available to you for planning your log home is home designer or home planner software. These programs allow you to design your home to an incredible level of detail, almost to the professional blueprint level. Many even allow you to place furniture and fixtures, and let you take a realistic 3-D walk-thru of your virtual house to see exactly what it will look like. In this article, we'll talk about what's available and how to use this type of software to plan your log home.

How to Buy Land for your Log Home
Choosing just the right of property for your new log home is an important part of your overall plans. In fact, many people often find a piece of land long before deciding that it would be a great spot for a log home. Before you fall in love with a beautiful home site, be sure to get your emotions in check long enough to take a practical look at the site. Will it work for the home that you want? Does the location fit your lifestyle needs? Are there legal issues that might be a problem?

Choosing Your Log Home Company
There are dozens of log home companies offering a wide variety of plans, products, and services. Although many of these companies are much alike in many respects, the differences in their products, services, and business approach often make it difficult to compare them and decide between them. In this 2-part article we'll tell you what to look for in a log home company, how to compare them, and how to use them to make your planning task easier.

How Much Will My Log Home Cost?
This is one of the top questions asked by prospective log home owners. It's not an especially difficult question to answer but it requires a bit of effort. We'll show you how to get a rough, high-level estimate, and then tell you how to refine that estimate as you get more detailed information. We'll also tell you how to cut costs if your dream home is beyond your budget.

Site Planning - Siting Your Log Home
Choosing the property for your log home is an important part of the process, but deciding how your home will sit on that property (called "siting") is just as important. Remember, you'll only get one chance to get it right. Proper siting will be important for a number of reasons: it affects the cost of excavation and construction, it affects the energy efficiency of your home, it affects the views you'll have from your home, and it affects accessibility. Likewise, siting choices can be controlled by zoning laws, building codes, and covenants.

Finding the Right Log Home Plan
One of the most time-consuming planning tasks for most potential log home owners is that of deciding on a plan. Finding just the right plan, with the right features, the right layout, and the right size — not to mention the right appearance — can be daunting. Most log home companies have their own portfolios of plans, but it's rare that any one of those plans will exactly meet your needs. Fortunately, most log home companies have an architectural staff that can modify plans or even create new plans from scratch — or adapt plans that you've found at another log home company. However, be aware that you can't just make any changes and that compromises may be required.

What's With the Different Types of Wood?
Eastern White Pine, Western Red Cedar, White Cedar, Cyprus, Oak. Some log home companies use only one type of wood and others offer options from a number of different species. Most will be happy to tell you why their varieties are better than their competitors'. So is there really a best wood species for log home construction? What are the characteristics of each type? How important is it to make the right choice?

Which Style (Profile) Log?
There are real handcrafted round logs, there are milled round logs, there are half-round logs, there are square logs, there are "D" logs — among others that can be offered by log home companies. There is even log siding in a variety of styles. Most prospective log home owners will prefer one style over others because of visual appeal and appearance. But are there more practical reasons to choose one style over another? We will explore the answers in this article.

Should You Care About Log Drying Methods?
Log home companies tout their particular log drying methods as being the best. Is kiln-drying really better than air-drying? Is 15% moisture content better than 20%? Should logs be pre-treated for insects? How do we sort through these confusing issues and determine which are important and which are mostly marketing hype?

What's the Fuss About Settling and Shrinkage?
All homes build of wood, whether log or not, will experience some settling. Since log homes have more wood in the walls than a conventional home, the effects can be more exaggerated. But is this something a future log home owner needs to be concerned about? Let's find out in this article.