Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Dollarwise, a carpenter can spend two or more days
restoring a window, which is easily twice the cost of a
new one. But that's the essence of restoration; it has
to be worth it.
Restoration
Checklist
Look for danger signs — rot,
damage, etc. — before purchasing
a structure to restore.
Compensations
You may not be able to find a suitable house for
restoration within reason or in the right place. Most
of the following chapters are devoted to skills needed
both to restore a house and to build your own step by
step. If you restore, these construction details and
skills can make the difference between a good restora-
tion and a disaster.
If you need floor information, refer to that chapter.
Roofs always need replacing, so thumb the pages of
the roof chapter. I've arranged the topic this way par-
tially for this purpose.
There are compensations for the rigors of log house
restoration — lots of them. Building your own house
from scratch or restoring one will be lots of work and
take lots of time or money, or both, so you have a
choice. If you build new, you have the tremendous sat-
isfaction of hewing your home from the forest and lay-
ing the clean, bright wood together to start its new life
as your shelter. If you restore, you have the sense of
history, good vibrations, and the knowledge that you
have saved an important part of our past, and some
standing timber too.
Look for houses with wide logs.
More heartwood means less
chance of rot.
Plan on spending much more than
the cost of the house itself for the
complete restoration.
Do the dismantling slowly and care-
fully to avoid injury.
Code logs meticulously. Your job
will be much harder if codes are
confusing or wrong.
Maintain a good working relationship
with your building inspector.
Plan to remove all old chinking and
rechink.
Add plumbing and electricity to
comply with building codes.
