Log Home Benefits

Factual Questions
1

Log homes certainly seem like a nice option–aesthetically pleasing (at least in my book), simple in construction, perhaps constructed with native materials. However, I have no sense in how log homes compare to traditional stick-built homes in more, shall we say, practical values.

For instance, how do log homes compare to traditional stick-bulit homes on:

  • Price (say per square foot)
  • Construction (is one really easier to build than the other?)
  • Efficiency (insulation, r-values)
  • Weathering (painting vs. staining frequency)
  • Long-term problems (settling)
  • Expected life (how long might one expect each type to last)

In short, how practical is it to build one type of home over the other in both the short and long term.

For what it’s worth I live in New England (Vermont), but information need not be region-specific, although that would help.

Thanks.

2

• Price = higher
• Construction = more difficult
• efficiency = depends who you talk to … low R-values, but high thermal mass (once it’s warm, it stays warm for a long while)
• weathering = often; had some friends who apply sealant to their cabin every year. A major pain. Makes you remember why people invented vinyl siding
• settling = if planned for (usu. taken into acct. today), not a real issue
• expected life = only as long as people take care of it (applies to either one); log homes from Colonial days are still standing; most of them are gone; stick-built construction is only about 60 years old; so take your pick.

3

There are log home magazines you can look at that show all the techhie details. I would get bored with log look on the inside and would have to construct drywall walls over the logs to maintain my sanity.

4

Lots of IMHO material here. Apologies in advance to the mods.

We live in a log home. It’s “full log,” which means the logs we see on the inside are the same logs we see on the outside. Having said that, we have only lived in it for 3 years, and it was built by the previous owner in 1989. So by no means am I an expert on log homes.

All else being equal, a log home is pretty expensive to build. I think the material cost alone for our home was around $60K, and the total cost was around $180K when everything else was thrown in. That was in 1989, and did not include the cost of the land.

IIRC, it took only 2 days to install the logs. But there was a lot of other labor involved (chinking, etc.) However, one nice thing about our home is that there is very little drywall. I hate drywall…

I’m not sure, but I would have to believe that a well-insulated 2X4 frame home is more efficient than a log home.

Have you seen those fancy color ads in the back of magazines from log home companies? What they don’t tell you is that log homes have to be maintained. This means you get to spend your summers blasting, staining, caulking, sealing, etc. while precariously perched atop a ladder.

None that I’m aware of.

With proper upkeep they should last a very long time.

Here’s my opinion: it is difficult to justify building or purchasing a log home for practical reasons. If you want a practical, efficient, and cost-effective dwelling, purchase or build a brick home. People who live in log homes do so because they like living in log homes. But they end up “paying” for them in terms of the initial cost and reoccurring/nonstop maintenance costs.

As for me, I’m not all that crazy about log homes. We purchased our current home because I liked the land and the location. The log house was actually a strike against it for me. But we went ahead and bought it, and now we’re stuck with it.

So if you like the looks of a log home, go ahead and live in one. But if you’re primary concern about value and efficiency, do not even consider it.

5

The chief benefit of a log home goes to the kids. If any of your children wish to run for high office, they can say they were raised in a log cabin.