Build a Log Cabin for $100
(Page 2 of 4)
May/June 1981
By Bill Sullivan
After the trunks were barked, we cut them into lengths and hauled them out of the woods with the help of an old set of iron wheels that we pulled with ropes. (Fortunately, all our towing was downhill … otherwise, we would have needed a draft horse to handle the chore.)
RELATED CONTENT
Give your log (or any other) Home a House Log! July/August 1981 You house-log cover that's both att...
Mother reader completes his log cabin....
Log homes can be an attractive — and more sustainable — alternative to conventional housing. If you...
This sturdy, folding sawbuck will help to make cutting firewood an easier chore....
Collecting the sill logs (those that form the bottom layer on each wall of the cabin) required a special trip, since they had to be the largest of all. We chose trees that were at least 12 inches in diameter, so that the smaller logs we’d already cut would have adequate support when used to form the upper portions of the walls. With the sill logs at the building site, I hewed the top of each piece flat, using an adze (a tool that looks like a sideways axe, and is swung between the legs) … and checked its flatness with a straight piece of standard lumber. Then the two side sills were lowered into place atop the stone pillars I’d already constructed. Finally, I carved saddle notches into the undersides of the end sill logs and fitted them over the side timbers.
A Fine Floor
Once the sill logs were positioned, we decided to floor the cabin before completing its walls. I first hewed flat 4 8-inch-diameter joist rounds, squared their ends with an axe, and notched them into slots chiseled halfway through the side sill logs (as illustrated in the Image Gallery) at even intervals along the length of the wall. Of course, if you use dimension lumber for your floor joists, you’ll be able to build a flatter floor faster … but such boards lack the character of — and are more expensive than — logs. We set the joists into notches carved inside the wall line, so they would be in less danger of rotting and would allow the first wall log to fit in place more easily.
Then, for the sake of simplicity, we planked our floor with 2-by-8 pieces of lumber salvaged from a demolished farm house . . . and that underfooting served us well for several seasons. Later, we completed the floor with a tar paper layer and handsome planks of 1-by-10 fir, laid at right angles to the recycled lumber (that is, parallel to the crosswise joists).
Raising the Walls
After our cabin had a sturdy foundation and flooring, we tackled the job of notching and piling logs to form the walls. Many folks pale at the very thought of lifting heavy timbers into place … but, surprisingly, we found that raising the walls can be one of the least arduous parts of the whole cabin construction process. Before we could begin, though, we had to decide — by size — the sequence in which the logs would be used, and then cut notches in the ends of each length, so that they would fit neatly into their “neighbors.” (It’s a darn good idea, at this point, to label the logs somehow so you’ll know in what order to pile them on the wall.) I chose to use one-sided saddle notches, since the fancier dovetail and Lincoln-log notches — which are carved out on the top and bottom of each log — tend to collect rainwater in the upper half … and can even rot out in extremely wet areas (such as our location in western Oregon).
