Building Our Retirement

My log home building process blog

[mrslogblogger]

The log wall is now ready to be disassembled and moved onto my mini truck to move down to the house. Then the logs are put up onto the floor, rolled close to where the wall is going to be built, insulated and then put into place to build the wall section. A 3" wide by 9' tall piece of 3/4" plywood is fitted into the routered groove in the upright log and also into the ends of the wall pieces, this is what holds and ties each section together. Mr logger and I manage to get the first section of wall into place.

[mrslogblogger]

Our first corner!

[mrslogblogger]

June 2014

The following week we were able to go up to the lake again and assemble the first wall section. This is being done towards the back of the property where we have the sawmill set up and there is a covered work area to protect us from the sun or rain. I just wish there was someway that really works to protect us from the mosquitoes, we have tried everything, from the new clip-ons, tho the old sprays, to the patches, non are really 100 % effective but we have come to rely on the butane powered Thermacell units as they seem to be the best of the options, in areas where you are constantly moving around as you work.

Mr Logger has placed and leveled a base for building the wall sections on. He begins with the largest diameter logs on the bottom, about 12" and as the wall goes up they will taper down to approximately 9" diameter. The first log is flat cut on the bottom on the sawmill and then the bark is peeled, the cambium layer is removed with the planer and the draw knife gives it its finishing touches and cleans up the hard to reach areas.

The second log is prepared and placed on top of the base log, using a special hand built tool, Mr logger scribes a line down both sides of the log so it is a perfect match to the shape of the log below, the log is then removed and the scribe marks are drawn in with a Sharpie so they can be seen. Using a chainsaw, Mr Logger then cuts away a "v" shaped piece of the log just a little narrower than the scribed line. Then using a chisel, a grinder he does the fine hand work of cutting out the exact scribe line shape, the more accurate this work the better the logs fit together. Then the log is put back into place on top of the base log and two thin braces are added to the ends to hold it in place once it is level and balanced. The whole process starts again with the next log and up to 10 more after that to make up one 8 foot long by 9 foot high wall. Each log is balanced, leveled and braced in place.

As the wall gets taller I am unable to be much help to get the logs lifted up into place, so Mr Logger must devise a better plan as I am unable to help him much past the 5 foot height. We try making wooden block scaffolding but the ground is not really level and it is wobbly as you try to balance a 150 lb log above your head and get it into place. Next we devise a winch system over the top beam of the shelter, with a very old large pulley wheel, then using the mini truck for power and leverage we are able to strap the log onto the winch hook pull it up scribe it for fit, lover it prep it and then winch it back up into place. A lot of work but manageable. I am praying the whole time, "God, how is this going to work, I not strong or tall enough to be a very good helper to Mr Logger. This building is going to take forever,"

I went to the cottage to get some lunch made for us and there was Mr Loggers cell phone on the table with a text message beeping on it. The message was from a young fellow who had been up fishing at our cottage the week before and had seem what Art was up to and was enquiring how the building was going. Long story short, Jason wanted to learn some building skills, needed work and was available to come the following week. What an answer to my prayers!!

After we got the 13 logs all scribed cut and into place, the top log gets cut in half so that there is a flat top to the wall for laying the beams on top of it. Now, the ends have to be cut flush and then the edges are cut at an angle to give a nice finished look to where they will join the upright log that joins the wall sections together. After that is done, the center of the ends of the wall is marked and using a special guide and a router a 3/4" wide by 1.5" deep groove is cut into the log ends. Each log is given a number and a direction, N-2, N3 etc.

 Time to head home for the weekend.

[mrslogblogger]

The weather is fine and we are heading to the lake, we are hauling up the flatbed trailer with the 4 corner walls on it. They have all been numbered and are disassembled for the trip up to the lake.

As we drive into the lake there is still snow in patches under the trees and the road is still quite wet, but the ground is firming up nicely as the frost comes out of the ground and the snow run off drains into the lake.

We are able to back the trailer down right to the building site, and then we make a small ramp to help roll the logs off the trailer and up onto the floor. This is still very heavy work as each log is 7 feet long and weights close to 150 lbs.

Once onto the floor we have to determine which corner goes where. A marked logs go to the Northeast corner, B goes to the Northwest corner, C goes to the Southeast corner and D goes to the Southwest corner.

As Mr Logger lifts and rolls the logs up the ramp, I then took them and rolled them towards the various corners of the house. Together we then stacked them in piles and covered them with tarps to keep them from the weather.

once all the logs are in the correct corners, it called for a nap, Mr Logger laid down on a stack of logs for a break. Then we tarped 3 stacks to protect them from the sun and rains. The fourth stack we assembled into the first corner of the main floor.

A thin strip of foam membrane is placed under the first logs and then they are screwed in place from the basement. Being square on this corner sets up the correct angles for the rest of the building. As each log is set into place it is insulated along the length of the scribed area and also in the saddle portion where it crosses the other log. We don't want any drafts come winter.

Once this corner is up we posed for a "selfie" in front of the new bathroom window.

A double rainbow is a great promise for this spring as we start to build in a big way.

[espritdesign]

Confluence le plateau à thé par le studio Artonomos

[mrslogblogger]

So beautiful!

[katiehitt]

[lafirme-blog]

Du bois, une bonne idée et voilà, la lumière fut! Belle réalisation.

[mrslogblogger]

Mr Logger, could you make me one of these?

[mrslogblogger]

Another Winter:

Winter Days are spent building the corner block or Square for the main corners of the house. Mr Logger has brought the logs home with him before winter set in and has spent many hours preparing them for building into the corner block and then building the Square, or as he likes to say, His little log cabin.

But we also found time to go up to the lake during a very cold winter this year to do some snowmobiling, ice fishing and relaxation.

[mrslogblogger]

It's A Wrap!

After Mr Logger and our son have the log posts and the floor joists all in place and the top of the logs are flat cut and the ends trimmed the plywood flooring is put into place. It is a rush against Winter to get this done and get everything wrapped in tarps, until Spring allows us to once again continue to build.

Stairway area is boxed in ready for the stairs. Notice the post in the center here is a log with a crotch in it, one tree split into two . this will give support to both sides of the floor supports and also give character to the basement.

The floor was tarp-ed just in time, the next morning there was a skiff of snow already on it. By winter's end there was over 4 feet of snow covering the tarps. This is as far as we can go this year up here on the project.

[mrslogblogger]

Let The Log Building Begin

The main supports for the floor are pine logs. These are hand selected from our property as they have to be quite dry and very strong, which in Mrs Logblogger terminology means big!

The trees are cut down and sawed into the appropriate lengths. they are dragged back to the work area with the help of my little mini truck.

Mr Logger informed me today that this log that he is sitting on is actually a fir log. This will be used a little later in the project for a main beam in the living room. Fir is a little bit stronger than the pine. He also said he is using some spruce as well. All three species of evergreen live in our area.

After the log is obtained, both pine or fir or spruce, the bark is then peeled off by hand or with the help of a long handled tool called a debarking spud. Once the bark is off there is a layer of cambium, this is the actual live part of a evergreen tree trunk, and needs to be removed to reveal the clean white wood. A tool called an Australian Draw knife is used to remove this layer. It is very sharp.

I thought this tree cookie (slice of log) is interesting as it shows the various parts of the log.

The log is then drilled to attach to the footing and the saddles are cut where the joining logs will fit.

[mrslogblogger]

Operation Concrete Floor

We are up to September now and the weather can start to get unpredictable, but the goal is to get the basement floor poured, the log posts and the main floor, floor joists and plywood flooring on before the snow starts.

Before the concrete floor can be poured, the sand and gravel base has to be levelled and compacted, the log posts bases were poured earlier when the footings were poured so care has to be taken not to disturb them.

Once the sand was all compacted, 4'x8'x3" Styrofoam sheeting was laid down over the entire floor for insulation.

The Styrofoam was covered with a layer of poly plastic that was tuck taped at all the joins, for a vapor barrier.

We had an old friend that had been a concrete finisher but we hadn't seen him in several years, but we dug out an old business card and gave him a call. He was still in business and yes he could do our concrete placement and finishing, as long as we could house him and take him fishing in the evening. That was no problem so it was arranged.

The next big arrangement was getting the concrete in a big enough quantity and fast enough to get this poured in one operation, the old cement mixer was just not up to the task. So we had to get a truck or two in and also a pumper truck. This is no small accomplishment as they have to come out to a remote location and the last 9 km are on a gravel road and then down to a gravel lane, one vehicle wide and fairly full of potholes for another 1.5 km. But we found a company that was willing to give it a go. We prayed for clear weather and the roads were dry.

The floor was 4" of concrete and came up over the footings and to the base of the walls to push back and prevent any possibility of the walls kicking in at the base from the back-fill.

So smooth and beautiful! Thank you Erhard.

[mrslogblogger]

Next Up - The Basement Walls

The walls were built in place on the ground and then wall by wall erected into place. The walls are 2 x 8” permanent wood, pressure treated lumber. The studs are 16” on center and the walls are 9’ tall. Windows were framed in in the West and East walls and 2 double patio doors in the front south facing walls.

The walls were then clad with 5/8” permanent wood, pressure treated plywood. Over the plywood, a water proof barrier was applied that is called “Blueskin”, it is like a double walled swimming pool liner. It is glued in place with a special adhesive, lapping the footing and along the lower edge of the wall to the height of the back-filling material.

Once each wall was constructed it was lifted into place, using two men and two wall jacks, it was leveled and braced to stay perfectly straight. the walls are also bolted to the footings with huge lag bolts.The first wall was the west wall and then the north, east, and south walls.

The North wall being 48’ long was built on the ground then split to be raised in two sections.

You will notice there is a gap in the “Blueskin” in the picture above, this is where we intend to put a door.

After all the walls were up and all the “Blueskin” glued into place around the exterior, another layer of material was added. This layer is called “Mirradrain”, it is a drainage barrier in case there would ever be an incident of water getting into that area. It is a black plastic like material that is bubbles in 1/2” squares that resemble bubble wrap without the back layer. On the outside of this bubble layer is a thick felt like layer that resembles landscape fabric that prevents any fine sediment from plugging up the drainage properties of the bubble material. This product is tacked in place along its top edge and then held in place with the back-fill material around the entire foundation.

Below is one of the front corners when completed this process, permanent wood frame and plywood, with “Blueskin” attached then "Mirradrain” tacked in place and held firmly against wall with the back-fill material.

This is a roll of the “Mirradrain”, the fabric side is out when it is applied to the wall.

[mrslogblogger]

Year Three

The building season is short up here, mid May to Mid October. With still being only able to work on it in short bursts of weekend and the occasional week it is a good thing we have a few years until full retirement. This is now the third year of preparations and beginning to build. In June, our son was able to join Mr. Logger for several weeks and got an amazing amount of work accomplished. They built the forms for the footings and set them in place on the prepared gravel base. Once the forms were built and in place they started to mix the cement. This was done with the aide of a old cement mixer. The weather was fine and they were able to pour almost all the footings, then the belt on the cement mixer shredded. They had to make a 1.5 hour round trip to the closest town to replace the belt. Then they were able to complete the footings. Next step basement walls…

[mrslogblogger]

Digging Stumps and Excavation for Foundation part 2. September - October.

[mrslogblogger]

Spring is here!

With the arrival of Spring it is time to remove the stumps and dig the foundation, it is a big job and has to be done at just the right time. The frost has to be out of the ground it and firm enough for the excavator to be able to move around, but yet the ground needs to be a little bit soft in order to be able to get the stumps out without too much difficulty.

Weekends and several weeks over the spring and summer are used for this huge job.

It is said that "pictures are worth a thousand words," so I will not spend time typing a long description of this process but will let the photos do the talking.

[mrslogblogger]

Digging Stumps and Excavation for Foundation, part 1. May through September.

[mrslogblogger]

[mrslogblogger]

Drawings and Floor Joists

The day finally arrived when we got the message from or draftsman that he had a draft ready for us! It was exciting to sit down with him and do a room by room walk through. We did a few tweaks and then headed to the lake to stake out the exact location. As we staked it out we pretended to look out each window to see what we would be looking at and found that we really didn't want the kitchen facing the back of the property so we headed back home and had our draftsman adjust the plan with the kitchen up front with a lake view.

It would be a few months until winter was over and the spring melt had dried up enough to start excavation of the foundation, so Mr logger decided that it would be ideal to start doing some preparations of the materials we would need for the up coming building. So he began to cut the floor joists on his sawmill. The joists were 3" x 8" x 12' rough cut, with the edges hand chamfered, to add a rounded edge. One hundred and twenty joists stacked to dry and ready to be utilized.

The final draft is finished and we are so excited to get going on this long term project. Good thing we are still a few years from retirement!