Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the cabin. Pass that one up. If rot is extensive, from
too-close ground moisture or a bad roof or failed
chinking, don't take a chance on it.
Pine and poplar rot from the outside in, and what
you see is often the worst of it. I've said this before, but
it's important. Oak and chestnut get water in through
check cracks and rot from the inside. A sound shell
may have mush inside. Thump logs with a sledge-
hammer and listen for the ring of sound wood. A dead
sound means decay inside.
Often old wood gets very brittle. An informal test is
to let a log fall off the truck; if it doesn't break, it's
good. Of course by the time it's on the truck, it's often
too late because you've already bought it.
Barns are often in better condition than cabins
because they usually weren't chinked. Improper
chinking held moisture against the wood and often
rotted it. The wind blew through open barns and kept
the wood dry. Also, hanging tobacco leaves in barns
discouraged bugs that would eat the wood.
I worked with a couple in Iowa using hewn barn
beams we dovetailed as cabin logs. They had
scrounged the state for materials, collecting from four
sites to have enough for the job.
White oak logs for reuse in our Missouri cabin. The stone foundation
was filled as the base for a flagstone floor. The vehicle may vary but
anything is fair game.
lighter-weight chestnut so very rare today, oak is a
good choice, although harder and heavier.
Heart yellow poplar is also a good wood. Second-
growth poplar is mostly sapwood, but the older trees,
with the olive green heartwood, lasted as well as
almost any wood. Called the “poor man's walnut,” this
was used for everything from wainscoting to shingles
to furniture.
Heart white pine, used frequently in West Virginia
cabins and northern timber frames, is a more stable
wood than most, is easily worked, and lasts a long
time. The trees are straight like poplar, and often yield
big, wide logs.
These days I see and work with over 100 log houses
a year, including consultations, evaluations, and
searches for materials. I see some being restored of
wood that is just not worth it — insect-eaten sapwood
pine or poplar with powder-post beetles actively eat-
ing away in it. Building around these kinds of prob-
lems for the sake of “authenticity,” or because the
builder or architect doesn't know a rotten log from a
good one, is a disservice and a terrible waste of money.
Bad logs limit the life of the house, as well as build in
frustrations and disappointments. A log house rebuilt
with substandard logs only adds fuel to the negative
stereotype of grandpa's drafty old cabin.
I've set some rigid rules for reuse of old logs that are
a pretty good guide. If you see pencil-lead-size holes
in the logs, avoid them. The beetle grubs will have
eaten the wood under the surface. If there is termite
damage anywhere, chances are it's spread throughout
Sometimes we reuse large beams as replacement logs. Here Mike
Firkaly splits a timber-frame sill with wedges. Next, the split faces are
hewn with a foot adze to create two hewn logs for use in the restoration.
