Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Tobacco barns are a prime source of good-
quality logs. Most were not chinked, and the
logs are often in better condition as a result
(improper chinking often held moisture
against the logs and decayed them). Also,
with few windows and doors, barns provide
more long logs.
Logs
We find cabins up mountain roads and along major
highways; there are falling barns at even the slickest
modern farms. I have contacts in five states who locate
materials for me, and can usually find the logs I need
in a couple of weeks.
Old cabins become the source for houses moved
and set up complete or for replacement logs on other
projects. We have combined several cabins to create
a larger house. Many times we find rot in important
logs, such as sills, over doors and windows or top
plates. We try to replace those logs with age-
appropriate logs of the same wood. If we cannot, we
hew out new logs in the same wood.
There are a few exceptions. For one project, we
needed chestnut logs to replace a former cabin on an
18-by-28-foot stone basement in Virginia. It took five
months to find a cabin to supply them, and it turned
out to have some oak in it, too. Most people can't tell
the difference, but this client could — it was our third
restoration for her.
Another time, for the elaborate skiers' cabin on
Wintergreen Mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains,
we advertised for two months to find the 30-foot
chestnut logs we needed. Found those in a dogtrot
barn 100 miles south.
This log house with many excellent logs was found for a Georgia client
by Jeff Harris of Vintage Log and Lumber. Finding such venerable struc-
tures requires a great deal of effort. With the advent of the Internet,
entrepreneurs like Harris have a new way to offer their services.
by the early settlers, because it sprouted everywhere
and grew fast. But it didn't rot, so it was used for every-
thing from split shakes to fence rails, and the tannic
acid-laden bark was often stripped from the standing
trees for leather manufacture.
When the chestnut blight hit in the late 1800s,
chestnut trees died by the millions, and an age of fine
timber passed. Only a few remain amid efforts to
revive the species through research.
Heart pine, actually the slow-growth virgin wood of
the longleaf yellow pine, was the first choice of early
cabin builders in the mid-Atlantic and southern
states. The Pennsylvanians, and many of the trans-
planted Europeans in the upper states, preferred the
straight-grained white oak. White oak has proved to
be one of the best woods for recycling. With the
Woods
Chestnut has become the wood of choice for hewn-log
cabins. Oddly enough, it was considered a weed tree
