An Introduction to Log Construction

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After finishing the second notch, use your chain saw to cut out the V-shaped groove that runs all the way along the log-between notchesand helps "fit" it to the timber beneath it. You'll stuff this gap with fiberglass insulation when you set the log in place.

That's the way to cut a tight-fitting fullscribe timber. To mark one for the chinking method, you do pretty much the same thing . . . except that you won't need to make the lengthwise V-notch, the scribe interval doesn't have to be quite so exact, and you may have to compensate for the log's taper. For instance, if you're working on a log that's 14" in diameter at the butt and 11" at the tip, first put the smaller end on a 3" block of wood so it'll lie level on the house. Then set your scribe at a little less than half of the bigger diameter—say, 6-3/4 inches—and simply draw the double-humped notch lines at each end of the log. Since the skinny tip has been lifted up 3 inches already, your scribe's curved line will go up only 3-3/4 inches on that end . . . and that'll keep the log level when you finally do roll it in place. (There are other ways to cut this sort of log, of course, but that's about the easiest I've found.)

If you build a house by the chink style, you're going to have to wait awhile—in fact, the longer the better—for it to settle before you can move in. We cut the logs for our cabin in January 1981, put the building up that May, and chinked and finished the place a year later! You could, if you'd rather, just stack the cut logs up in ricks for a year or so before building with them. In that case, you'd want to leave the bark on so they could all dry evenly . . . and treat the wood somehow to stop bark bugs from chewing it up.

If you build with the full-scribe method, you don't have to wait a year. You can move in right away. But you will need to allow 3/4 inch of clearance per vertical foot for settling. That means you'll have to leave gaps above all your doorways and window openings—you can cover them with sliding trim boards—to make up for the fact that the walls are going to sink. You'll also want to cut notches in the log ends at each side of your doorways and windows, set freestanding 2 X 4's inside them, and fasten your door frame to those boards to avoid trouble as the house settles. (Be sure to leave gaps above the 2 X 4's, as well.)

In fact, you'll have to remember to allow for settling in a lot of places: over your internal walls . . . above your stairways . . . and around your chimney flashing. Why, the funniest thing I've seen in a long time is a log home that had "floating flashing" a few feet off the roof. The owner fastened the metal to the smokestack without considering that his roof was going to sink!

You'll have to watch how you do your plumbing, too. In fact, don't run any plumbing through your home's log walls . . . because walls move, but pipes don't. Besides, if you set your pipes in there and something breaks someday, how can you get at it to fix it? That won't be as easy as punching and patching a hole in drywall, I can tell you that.

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