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And the Katahdin begins

Rob Keeble said:
So Chuck are they going to insulate and drywall interior as well?

Is that a HF chop saw u have on the bench.

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That is a Ridgid 12" with the Ridgid stand a pair of the worst tools I have ever purchased. I would not recommend them to anyone that needs to use it more than once a month.
 
Rob Keeble said:
So Chuck are they going to insulate and drywall interior as well?


Also why do windows have to be supported so much? Are they not fixed to logs or are logs layer to them?

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The book tells us to install and brace all window and door bucks. They will help you keep everything in place as you go. The dealer/builder told us to stack the logs and put the bucks in after. That's they way he does it and it's much faster. Now I get that he has 30 or so years building these but I think and Bruce agrees that you could really be in trouble just letting the logs go willy nilly and trying to fix them after you have them all stacked.
He also told us we didn't need any of the strongback bracing we have up. Again he said to just stack them and go it would be fine. Again we both agree that doing the way the book says might be a better plan.
One last thing he has told us is to make sure we face nail the tongue and groove flooring on the second floor. He says if you blind nail it you won't get the collateral load strength you need. (We already know what we are doing but lets see what the brain trust here has for an answer to that)
Keep in mind that flooring is the finish ceiling down stairs and finish floor upstairs at the same time.
 
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Rob Keeble said:
So Chuck are they going to insulate and drywall interior as well?

I
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No the inside is done sand it and polly it. The company offers a insulation package but our guy didn't want it. He says if I am gonna insulate it I may as well stick frame it and log side it. I also have a bit of concern for the way they want you to insulate it. They say apply (what ever) inch insulation right ti the inside of the logs. Then strap and apply v-match to the 3/4" strapping. One I don't feel that 3/4" strapping is strong enough for v-match to be applied to. Two I don't like the inside of the log being tight to the foam insulation with no where for any water to go if it should get in. It would just sit there and rot the wood.Three if you insulate you lose the thermal mass of the logs. Instead of the log cabin being heated all the way through the logs from the inside they are frozen all the way to the inside. How ever Katahdin has done a lot of testing and says that the insulation is a real money saver.
 
Hmm, I guess if it got cold enough to freeze the logs will self seal from any moisture on the outside. Not actually sure what the best way to do the insulation layer would be though, I know just enough about moisture issues to be plumb scared of them :D. I think I'd probably put in furring strips to stand the inside wall off and insulate between, I know that still bridges but it's solid... No idea what the heck to do about the moisture situation though :huh:

In practice stick frame and log side with T&G walls wouldn't look much different. In fact I'd defy most people to spot the difference walking by. I guess you loose the protruding log ends unless you get clever.. But on the inside I dunno... Seems like maybe a plan if you were going this route.

I'm having a hard time figuring how face nailing gives you a lot more lateral support than blind nailing, I dunno. Have nailing seems like a pain as you'd either want fancy nails for that "old fashioned" look or drill and plug which is a whole lot of work. I'm pretty sure I know which way you're going as well, but would certainly be interested in theories to the contrary.
 
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The well guy is at 120 feet and he can't bail it faster than the water is coming in. He figures at that depth he can bail 27 gallon a minute. His bailing rig hold just over 13 gallons. It is kind of neat a (guessing) 20 foot long pine with a check valve on the bottom. Drop it in the well valve opens bounce a few times and pull up. As soon as you start to pull it up the force closes the check valve.
 
anybody that knows going to suggest an answer re tongue and groove face nailing versus blind nailing.

If it were my home i would want it screwed down. I can hear the squeaking already.:rofl:

Thanks for the reply on the insulation Chuck, never thought about the issue of it creating a barrier and logs being frozen through as a result. Now i definitely prefer the idea of stick frame and if one wants the aesthetics then go log lap siding.

I think the real answer here is if one wants a home like this, prior to even getting close to buying one either way build or kit or 2nd hand, go live in one on a vacation in the winter and see how it works out.

There is far too much " wild west romance" in the whole imagery for me and that means it ends up being an emotional buy. I think the info just helped me put this notion out of my mind for good.
 
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This is from this morning. We are to the top of the windows now and will start the day tomorrow dealing with the row that has the first support beam for the second floor.
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Just another angle.
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Just thought the drill rig looked cool in the sun. He is all packed down now and will be pulling out in the AM.
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Here we have the windows on the porch. The logs they sent for here 4.5 X 5.5 are just junk between heart rot and being crooked they are just firewood in my mind.
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Here is 48 new logs being milled out for between the windows.
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Here is what they will look like when they are done. We think this is going to look better than a 12+" piece of trim between the windows.
 
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So another rainy day in the neighborhood. We put the lally column in and did some site organizing. Looked over the plans to realize that they had snuck a post into the middle of our living room. They also want us to cut regular KD2 X 8 stock into blocks for between the floor joists. And last but not least they have us using regular 2 X 8 KD for a ledger on the wall. None of this is going to fly in our book so all of the 2 X stock has been replaced with 4 X stock from the same mill that sent the floor joists and a 6 X 10 has been added under the 6 X 8 in the living room to get our clean span back. At least they are taking care of us and the only beam they are going to charge us for is the 6 X 10. Oh and we had them add 2 6 X 6 tie beams to the sunroom to make it more symmetrical.
 
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Got all the first floor tie beams in.
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Bundle of floor joist
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First few in these are kinda heavy.
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Making progress
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We have to block between each floor joist. They sent 2 x stock but we are using the cut off end of 4 X for blocking. We think it looks better than a 2 X 8 from the lumberyard.
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The joint where all 4 tie beams come together.
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I pulled layout from the center of the kitchen window. There will be an Island centered in front of that window and pendant lights hung from the beams at each end of the island. You can also see the 1.5" hole fro the lag from the tie beam to the floor joist. this will be plugged. The log home designer put t post under this tie beam in the middle of the living room. We have deleted that post and our going to put a 6 X 10 under it instead.
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Bruces new tool box. I snapped that flatbar first thing this morning. He tossed it in the trash. He used it 2 more times today and both time had to get it back out of the trash can.
 
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Looking good! I can remember building my sister's place and thinking, this is the finish work, there's no drywall to cover my screw-ups. Kinda have to think all those details through as things moving along.
 
Looking good Chuck, did not catch that it was going to be a multi story unit. Wow. Somehow log cabins to me have always been one level. Kind of spoils the cathedral ceiling effect of log ceiling.
 
Rob Keeble said:
Somehow log cabins to me have always been one level. Kind of spoils the cathedral ceiling effect of log ceiling.
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A lot of them I see around here are two more-or-less normal stories in the kitchen and bedroom areas and then the tall vaulted front room (which is sometimes two full stories tall but open all the way up). Our last house had a front sun room with the ceiling almost 20' up (the ground floor had 10' ceilings in the main area), it was great until a nest of wasps snuck in up there...
 
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