Building the Traditional Hewn-Log Home

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Now hold a level vertically against the inside face of the log to check for plumb. If necessary, run a sharp handsaw (with well-set teeth) through the joint where the inside face of the log meets the shoulder of the upper notch of the log below. Sometimes two or three passes with the handsaw will be needed to achieve a perfect fit.

DOOR AND WINDOW OPENINGS

There are two methods of creating door and window openings: [1] Build solid walls and cut the openings after the pen is up, or [2] incorporate the openings as the walls rise. For a variety of reasons (primary among them being the ability to make use of shorter logs), Peter prefers to incorporate the openings as the walls go up. (Note: This method may require temporary bracing of the walls near the openings until the timber that spans the top of an opening is in place. Further, in order to maintain wall strength, it's best not to cut openings closer than 3' or so from a corner joint.)

The traditional method of framing openings is to nail or peg dimensional lumber (2 X 6s for 6"-thick walls, etc.) directly to the ends of the logs to create a box. The drawback to this method is that as the logs season and shrink in diameter, the walls settle slightly at the corners . . . but when the ends of the logs that meet door and window openings are nailed to a rigid frame, they can't settle. As a result, the log ends will tend to pull away from the frames, gaps will open in the chinking, and perpetual drafts will plague the wonky structure's inhabitants.

To avoid this, Peter recesses 2 X 4 splines vertically into ends of the logs that meet the openings, then nails the framing lumber to the splines rather than to the logs. This arrangement allows the logs to slide up and down the splines as they expand and shrink according to atmospheric conditions.

The bottoms of the 2 X 4 splines are set in cup notches cut into the log that forms the bottom of the opening. The tops extend a few inches up into slots cut all the way through the timber that caps the opening. These cuts are made with a small chain saw. (Again, watch for kickback when boring with the tip of the guide bar.)

The actual dimensions of a nominal 2 X 4 are 1-1/2" X 3-1/2" (or thereabouts-they vary slightly), so the spline notches are cut 1-1/2" wide and 4" deep. (The extra bit of notch depth comes in handy for running electrical wiring down the inside of the wall between the back of the spline and the logs.) Here's how to cut spline notches:

Let's imagine back to where the log is still on the sawhorses, just after you've laid out the corner joint. Now measure and square the end of the log that's to receive the spline (if you haven't already done so). Make sure the log is still propped level, then measure down from the inside face and make a mark at 2-1/4" and another at 3-3/4". Using these two marks and a level as guides, draw two horizontal lines to establish the sides of the spline notch.

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