A Practical, Two-Floor House

November/December 1986
 
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Now that you've seen what can happen when you let a chain saw run amok, I'd like to talk about a more practical design. I've built two of these log cabins as rentals, and they're perhaps the most efficient (in terms of materials and space) and practical I've done. With no roof or floor insulation, they stay comfortable with one woodstove in 20°F weather. My tenants seem to be very pleased with them.

I used pier foundations: pyramids of rock and mortar about 2' high with pieces of rebar sticking out the top to pin the sill logs. (Keeping the logs at least 14" away from the ground is the most important way to make a log house last.) The piers are about 3' across at the base and are spaced 6' apart. I just scraped away the organic layer of soil and laid the piers right on the subsoil.

Technically, both of these houses are mobile homes: They have no permanent foundations and could be moved with a D-9 Caterpillar. Septic and building permits for mobile homes are about $1,000 cheaper than those for "permanent" structures, at least in my part of the country, and I saved $1,800 per building over a solid-concrete foundation.

All of the logs are joined at the ends with half-round notches, which are the easiest and most effective type I've tried. Each joint is spiked, and the logs are pinned with 1/2" water pipe on each side of a window or door.

The floor joists are logs with one face cut flat, and I used 2 X 6 tongue-and-groove (T&G) boards for all the flooring. I arranged the joists so that I could use odd-length pieces of T&G, which the mill sold me for quite a bit less than premium 8', 12', and 16' boards.

By the time I built these houses, I'd figured out that full second floors are more practical than lofts. Not only do they provide a lot more floor space, but they can also be sealed off to even out the heat in the house. I've found that the second floor is comfortable for sleeping even with the hatch between floors closed, and the first floor stays much cozier.

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