Jun 18 2010
Log Homes Kits – The Simplest Route to Owning a Log Home
If ever you are of the mind to own your own home, a log cabin home, log homes kits are the best thing to come around since sliced bread. Now, allow me to dispel a misconception here… by the sound of it, the concept of building a log home from a kit sounds almost like there would be a resulting many of the same design homes dotting the landscape, as though they were all popped out of molds, or a log cabin cookie cutter, if you will. I’m here to tell you that this just simply could not be any farther from the truth. There are countless designs to choose from, and all have room for changes to be made to each one, allowing great space and room for individuality from home to home. The “kit” part of this whole concept lies in something else entirely – allow me to explain…
The concept of log homes kits does not mean uniformity of house plans or designs. There is a sense of uniformity, but it all lies in the cut of the logs, how they fit together, and in their ability to be custom created to fit according to the individual designs of each log cabin. This is not only to provide ease of construction, but also to reduce by inordinate amounts the time it takes to complete the construction of a log-built structure. Basically, when you receive a kit, you get a complete package of all of the parts needed to build your log home – the logs themselves, the flooring, all windows and doors, and if not gotten separately, even all the “built-ins”, such as kitchen cabinetry, for example. All parts are marked for proper placement and in the order they are to be constructed in.
Now, imagine building a log home not from a kit, but from scratch, with an amount of logs to be shaped and fitted on-site. This represents a huge amount of labor and time consumption. To lay down the first set of logs, and then to cut and shape the next logs to conform to the contours of the previously laid ones, all one log at a time in succession, would make the building of your home take up to many months to complete. With log homes kits, all of that work has already been completed for you before the materials even arrive at the building site.
You simply lay the pre-cut, pre-shaped logs in order as marked, and… well basically, that’s pretty much it in a nutshell. Now what would have taken months to accomplish has now become a much simpler undertaking that can take just a few short weeks to finish. This is what’s so appealing about log homes kits – simplicity, ease of construction, and speed of accomplishment. Ordering pre-shaped log cabin kits is also much less expensive as well.
The beauty of a log home is something that must be experienced first-hand – the beauty of rustic nature that can be observed in a log cabin built from a pre-cut log home kit is something that really must be seen to be appreciated. If you’d like to find more information on this, take a look at this video showing a few log homes kits, and check out all of the information to be had at http://www.junctionloghomes.ca.
An excellent article; however, I offer a bit of clarification. Not all log home kits include flooring, all windows, doors, 2×4′s, shingles, etc. Some log homes kit manufacturers include only those components (logs, beams, siding) that cannot be purchased locally. There are a few advantages to this option. First, the materials are delivered to the job site as needed. A weather tight kit will deliver the roof shingles along with the subfloor materials. Look out for “midnight requisitions.” Second, the customer will usually have a greater choice of features such as window styles and manufacturer. My company, B&H Cedar Log Homes, precuts the log walls after the customer provides us the window model numbers. Third, delivering only the logs, beams, siding means the customer does not run up charges to his construction loan until materials are needed on the job.
Just thought I would offer this point of view.