Almighty Log Cabin building thread

How long should log cabin logs dry before building?

I would say a year. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Alex

My family made a post frame building and we used the popular trees right away.

Either way, you have to make room above the windows and doors for shrinkage. The only disadvantage to green logs is the weight.
Some of the best log builders in Europe climbed the trees and girdled the bark below the crown, the tree then uses up the sugars and starches, drys out a bit, gets a bit more pitch impregnated, and there is less food left in the wood for bugs and fungus. The tree finally starts to die after a year or so, then they cut it and built with the logs. Some of these buildings have been standing for several hundred years.
The oldest log building in Sweden, still in use, the trees were cut in the year 1237, and it was built sometime soon after.

I've built several log cabins from green logs. Some of the logs were cut, peeled and laid up all in the same day.

My friends and I built a cabin out of green logs, it turned out fine.

Dale, what species of tree do you recommend in Minnesota?

dale on green logs is there a formula to use to calculate the anount of gap to leave for shrinkage above doors and windows depending on the moisture content of the logs

I would say red pine (Norway pine) would be good, it doesn't tend to have extreme taper, its not extremely heavy, easy to work, and strong. If you can find a stand of straight jack pine, that should be good too, but its usually branchy and tapered. I have seen really nice jack pine in places too. White pine sap stains bad, hard to find in the right size too, otherwise its nice to work with. White cedar is light and lasts long, but it usually tapers very fast, making for difficulties in the corners. We built ours out of white cedar, and the big butts and the small tops were very difficult to notch and fit tight.

I'm building my sauna with an old time summer kitchen attached out of red pine, cause that is what I have. I will have to line the sauna room with cedar or poplar, cause pine knots will burn you and drip hot sap in the hot sauna room.

My dad planted a few acres of red pine 50 years ago, and I need to thin the plantation.

I am going to build a hewn log building with Scandinavian scribe fit and corners. I'll get the foundation ready this summer and cut the wood next winter.

I don't remember the formula for shrinkage. I'll have to look it up, its different for different species. It might be 3/4 inch for 4 of vertical wall, but that might be wrong. You have to make telescoping flashing for brick or stone chimneys so the building can slide down the chimney as it shrinks.

interesting dale i noticed on timber kings even tho they use seasoned white cedar they still use settleing devices in there vertical supports to allow for the house to settle ,but i have yet to see a close up of there window and door framing to see what there allowing for settling and shrinkage . timber kings is a great tv show there homes are incredible

If you're just building a log cabin like for a trapping cabin it doesn't matter, use green logs if you want. If you are building a log home and doing the Swedish cope and scribing the logs then they should be seasoned for a year. On "log homes" you do need to allow for shrinkage and settling at the windows and doors. It's not necessary on a "log cabin" to do that, unless you are going to extremes and coping the logs on the cabin.

14X16 built with green logs.


10X12 green logs.


16X18 green logs


12X14 originally built with unpeeled green logs.


These were all built in the early to mid '70's. Then the bark beetles moved in, and after that I had all the seasoned logs I needed to build with. I built 8 or 9 more out of the beetle killed trees and they were much lighter logs to build with.

Almighty Cabin Building anyone?
Scanner you could change the name and a star could be born???
Those are awesome Spek
Would really love to build a cabin some day. If you ever want some help let me know.

I'm thinking I may have one more in me Len, but haven't made a definite decision on it, but if and when I do make up my mind on it I'll let you know. I love cabin building, but sorta detest log home building. Lot of difference between the two.

Nice cabins , Spek!

I wish I had pictures of the one my friends and I made, we were 14-15 years old and built it on mining company property, they found it after 5 years and were about to burn it down, so it got taken apart and moved about 3 miles, it took them about 8 years to find and burn it then. It was only 12X15.
I have worked on log buildings since then, but have not built one for myself.

I'll check with my friends, maybe someone has a picture. We built the whole thing with axes. Cut the trees and dragged them out with a dirt bike.

Can anyone do a tutorial on log scribing?

Scanner I like it!

I'm catching on to this.

Easier to find. They don't have a tendency to get lost. Maybe they might just make it into an archive some day.

Spek has great photos! Show us some trapping pictures sometime.

Spek, I feel the same way, I'm just building a small cabin sized building for my sauna, and then maybe a couple more small ones for rent or sale as hunting cabins. 20x24 max size, maybe smaller.

AK Hunter them will cost you and they are pretty high dollar!! ha ha, just joking.

This one was built out of green cottonwood logs. It was built about 100 yards from a river bank, and within three years time the river took her out. We tried a lot of different types of corners over the years, saddle notch, dovetail, mortise and tenon (trapper notch), and what we called "quick corners" like the one on this cabin. Contrary to popular opinion, people were using the quick corners up here a long time before Marty M "invented" it. And frankly they are the worst possible type of corner to use on a cabin in my opinion.




Saddle notch, scribed line then chop to fit. Good locking style corner, but slow to make.


Dovetail, another good locking style corner, but also slow to make.

Another sample of the dovetail corner.


I don't have any good pictures of a quick corner, this about the best I could find. We used an upright log on the corner, (it's painted white in the picture). This is the style corner that is used in the ATA log cabin building video, and in my opinion it is the worst style corner you can use. It is quicker to build this way than with the saddle notch or the dovetail corner. It is not that much quicker though than the trapper notch, and is no where near as solid. Once you get your mind around the trapper notch it does not take long to fit a corner up.


Here is another variation of the quick corner. Two 2X8's nailed together for the corner rather than a log. My brother and I helped build this cabin for a guy up in Dirt's neck of the woods (Skwentna).


A little better view of the design of the 2X8 quick corner.


I'll try to put some more up here on the Trapper corners sometime tomorrow or when I can.

24 feet is about as long a wall as I can go here Dale, using round logs, and I have to be very selective on the logs to do that. Our trees taper too much, and if you go too long you cross taper. That is the top is less than half the diameter of the butt of the log. You probably have much better logs there than we do here for building with. When you get done with the sauna you can come build me one, my old bones are starting to ache too much, I think they need a good scalding! ha ha.

those are some nice cabin photos

I think that butt and pass corner would probably be the bestest fastest corner although I haven't used that method.


here's a few photos












built this one when I was 19 years old, the photo from a few years back

photo during construction

Nice cabins!
I helped a guy make a nice cabin out of balsam fir, its not known to be very rot resistant, but is plenty good with enough roof overhang. We used " Trapper" corners.

Randyt, nice job on the cabins. I've used butt and pass on 2 sided and 3 sided logs, and it would work well with turned round logs, but I think it would be a mess on natural round logs. Not sure how you would match things up with the different diameters between the top and the butt of the log.

B&P corners on 3 sided logs, before the ends were trimmed.

Nice craftsmanship fellas!

I think I've built 8 and I know for certain I don't have another one in me ! Nice pix guys !

Most of the old trapper cabins that had been built here from around the turn of the century on up into the 30's and 40's were built with the mortise & tenon corners, and all the old timers that were here in the 50's called that style corner the trapper notch. A lot of the early trappers here were from Scandinavian countries, and some of them old boy's were pretty good axe men. Looking at how they did their corners is what got me started copying their method, and after a while I quit using any thing else. I wish I had taken more pictures of the log work on the corners of some of those old cabins, but this is the only one I can find in my files right now. It's not the best work but is a clear picture of the mortise & tenon. Have to remember these guy's were doing everything with axes and crosscut saws.


This is the first one I built using the trapper notch. Most of you have seen pictures of it before.


Here's some others, most of these were built in the 1990's and a couple around 2004.







Couple of earlier ones from the late '70's.



Tried one with upright logs. These were 2 sided logs, and it worked okay, but I wouldn't build another one that way. This would have been about '79.

With a small cabin you could use green, or not thoroughly dried logs and be ok. If you're building something bigger that you expect to maintain and live in you'll want to let them dry down to about 8-9% moisture before you build, use a moisture meter to monitor the curing. This will prevent excessive shrinking and settling that usually causes problems with your roof, stairs, windows and doors, most shrinkage and settling issues occur up high in your building. A small cabin will not have as many of this type of problem. I'm pretty impressed with how well built some of the small cabins on this thread are!

Great pictures, keep them coming. Anyone have close ups of the trapper's notch before assembly?

I think I'll stick with 2"X lumber and plywood.

You just basically cut a flat 1/4 of the log deep in the top and bottom, a bit more or less, depending on the log above and below. The "tenon" ends remain about 1/2 of the vertical thickness of the original log.

Dale, I'm in the lowlands of Aitkin County, our Spruce and Tamarack are about 150 yrs. old and about 4" in diameter. What do you think about Ash and or popple?

Poplar should be good. I don't know about ash. Lots of old buildings here were made of poplar.
How big of a building are you planning? Poplar can be heavy when green.

Small tamarack would be ideal for a Sami Goahti, you just would have to find some curved cedar or something for the frame. The poles are covered with birch bark and sod is cut up into "bricks" and stacked outside the bark or roofing membrane. Makes for a nice warm hidden camp.

I know a guy who made a very nice cabin out of poplar. His main complaint was the wood always wanting to turn black. Not sure if its from moulding, or rotting or whatever. Just what he said. Took a a lot of work to keep it totally sealed to prevent that.

I shouldn't say "Cabin". It was a home.

I don't have a picture of what you're talking about, but I made a (pretty poor) sketch of the corner Scanner, but maybe it'll help.


The 45 degree cut in the corner is on the inside of the cabin, and it allows the next log to butt in tight against the notch.
Lay the log up on the wall and make your notch on both ends to match the logs below them.

Then roll the log in place, hold it there with a log dog, and run your saw bar between the logs a few passes until the logs fit well from end to end. It may be necessary at times to cut your notch deeper in order to get the log to set down tight.

When you're happy with it, put a spike or a log screw in each end. I like to counter sink the heads about 3/4 of an inch so you can run a saw through there on the next round if you need to.

Poplar is a lot like cottonwood, they are real high moister wood when green. I'd build a cabin out of it, but I would not put any sealer on the logs until they dried out. Then sand them down and put a good coat of wood sealer on them. Helps a lot when you build with green logs if you can keep a wood stove going in the cabin as much as you can until the logs dry. Green spruce will mold too if you don't get some heat going in the cabin right away. That moister needs to be allowed to escape before you put sealer on.

15x15 line cabin.

You can frame the gables like this and like Boco's cabin above,






Or you can build them out of logs.




If I'm putting in a loft where I need high gables, I prefer to frame them. With lower gables I prefer logs. You can go high with logs but you need to brace them up real well as you go. Had the wind knock down an end gable wall one time while I was inside the walls on a 16 x16, and it was raining logs for a couple of seconds. I had to get the quick-ash to keep from getting crushed. And I Thought I had it adequately braced.

Keep those cool photo sand comments coming fellas. I've been thinking about building a small cabin using the trappers corner but I think I can make a saddle notch just as fast. The old cabin I showed in my photos, I made those notches with a axe. Now days I use a chainsaw nose. I like a saddle notch that the bowl is down that way water wont puddle up and collect in the notch.


In regards to the trapper corner, I was out to Idaho a few years ago and the old log cabins I came across have that notch.

Permachink for the cracks between the logs is expensive stuff, but it is worth every penny of it. You can save some on it by running the saw between the logs when you're fitting them up until they fit tight, like this wall.


A Sthil 036 works good for this. I use a smaller saw like an 026 or 025 for cutting the corners, but a bigger saw is nice for running between the logs. You have to be careful of kick back when you put the saw through between the logs. Once you get the saw through the crack it is way easier to pull the saw through the wood
using the top side of the bar, than it is to push it through using the bottom edge of the bar, and you have lot's better control of the cut when you are following the contour of the log. Watch the leading edge of the saw or you will find yourself cutting deep into the log on one side or the other of the crack. May take several passes to get them to fit.

For heating purposes I like to permachink inside and out. You can make a log cabin tight enough that a spider can't get in with the stuff, and makes the cabin a lot easier to heat.



There is danger of of getting the cabin too tight. With a couple of people inside and a coleman lantern burning you may deplete the oxygen inside and risk carbon monoxide poisoning and possibly death. It has happened before. It is a good idea if you seal a cabin up tight to put a vent in one gable end or the other like this one.

Thanks for the drawing Spek. From what I see all the logs on each side have the same notch profile, correct? Is perma chink come in a tube, like silicone?

Thanks for the drawing Spek. From what I see all the logs on each side have the same notch profile, correct? Is perma chink come in a tube, like silicone?

man this is good stuff , spek on ur log gables do u spike or dowel them together if so how far apart would u recomend per spike or dowel

I love old log cabins Randyt, a lot of them that were standing when I was a kid here back in the 50's and 60's have all rotted into the ground now and there is not much trace left of them. Sad to see them go. Even worse though is when some government agency destroys them for no good reason. There's a lot of historical value in those old cabins. The old timers did not have roofing materials like we have now, otherwise a lot of those cabins would still be standing. The roof was the weak link for them. Once the roof goes the rest of the cabin doesn't last long.

The saddle notch is a good notch. I just can't make them as fast as the trapper notch. I don't mean to be putting them down either. People that build many cabins
develop their own style, and if you know the builder you can look at a cabin and tell who made it. Everybody has their own way.

Nice thing about the trapper notch is all the log is utilized. I have some cedar and have been thinking about building a small storage shed, may try the trappers notch. It's nice to try new methods, it just seems more complicated but maybe if I try it. I'll like it

Scanner, yes it's that same profile for all the logs and both ends of the log. Don't brain freeze and notch the ends of a log opposite directions, ha ha. The 45 goes to the inside, on both ends! Done that a couple of times, makes for a hat stomping moment.

Permachink comes in tubes or in bulk 5 gal buckets. It is much cheaper in bulk, but you have to buy the gun for the bulk stuff. It's worth it though. On a 14x16 it can take as many as 6 five gallon buckets to do inside and out, and if you went with the tubes you would have to have a wheel barrow full of them.

Saskamusher, I use the 10 inch timber lock log screws and I drill and countersink them a couple of inches. I pre-drill the gable logs before they go up on the wall, and put the screws about a foot apart. Don't get them in the way of cutting the pitch on them. I don't usually cut the pitch until I get the ridge pole set.

Do you insulate the floor?

I re-chinked a log home several years ago, in the winter, but had not heard of Permachink yet. We used the big tubes of Liquid Nail. It was hovering in the low teens, as for temperature, and even though we kept the tubes inside, half way through, your forearms were getting a serious work out! (We started the process from the outside, of course). I would guess we went through at least 10 cases of large tubes, (120 tubes, for our Canadian Friends). My right arm looked like Popeye!

Yes Scanner, I insulate the floor and roof both. Usually use fiberglass in the floor and foam board in the roof, but whatever a person wants.

AV, I can't even imagine pumping enough liquid nails to chink a cabin, lol. That's pretty thick stuff. Perma-chink is water based. If it sets in a bucket that has been opened for a long time it will get a little too thick to pump well. You can add a little water to it and stir it a bit to thin it down some. Add water sparingly, it doesn't take much. I've used the stuff after it sat for years. Clean up is with water. The stuff adhere's to the logs well, is very tough, stands up against weather, mice won't chew it, and it is flexible enough to not crack out. I have seen other brands of log chink used that was similar to Perma-chink but I can't remember the names of it now. Maybe someone here knows.

You can save on perma- chink if you have some wide cracks by using foam backer rod to tamp in the crack before you perma-chink it.

After I bought out the entire town of Juneau (Liquid Nail), my contractor salesman asked me what I was using it for. They had never had such a run on L.N. I told him, and he says, "Man, you should have said something! I can get this tuff called Super Chink!". Sounded like a very large Chinese man that I didn't want to meet.
That, or Bruce Lee. Either way.............

Lol.

I did a search on it, superchink is one of the other brands of chinking I was thinking of. Thanks AV.

Here is a picture of a perma-chink gun for bulk perma-chink. You just keep reloading it out of the bucket.


A box of wet towels (handy wipes or what ever) is good to use for cleaning off the threads when you get done filling the gun. Put the stuff on and after it sets a few minutes smooth it down and feather the edges to the logs with a pan water and a small paint brush. You don't want to get too far ahead with the application before smoothing out behind you. On a sunny day it will get a dry skim on it that makes it hard to smooth out. Works best to have two people, one applying and one smoothing out the bead.

Oh, when you get done wash the gun out real well right away with water. Dismantle it and get all the P-C out of it. Let it dry and then spray everything inside and out with WD40 before reassembling. If you don't the plunger will stick in the barrel and you will not be able to move it the next time you go to use it.

If you use the 5 gal buckets, get a follower plate for it. Its helps you to load the gun without making a big mess.

Good stuff Spek thanks for sharing.

I'd like to build a 16x24 with loft using the trapper notch...how much taper in the logs would you consider being too extreme?
Your picture of the cabin on the foundation must be about that size?
Did you just toe nail the rafters to the logs?

Schweg, the cabin on the foundation is 18x24. The less taper you have the better, but if the logs are running around 14 inches at the butt then I'd want at least a 9 inch top, or
if say 12" at the butt then you'd want at least 7" tops. When stacking them you alway's put a butt to a top all the way around the ring of logs, then the next ring do the same thing in the reverse direction. To do a full ring of logs it's like you put up a log say on one end, then you put the other end log in place, but you turn it the opposite direction.
If the but of the first log is toward the West , then the butt of the log on the other end of the cabin has to be towards the East. Then you do the same with the sides. If your taper is such that the top of the log is less than half the diameter of the butt, you can't build with them. All you can do is cut them down in length until you have a ratio close to what I said above, and that is as long as your wall can be. If that's not big enough for your needs then you have to build a two room cabin because you can only go as large as your logs will allow. There are places here on the Kenai where you can find logs that will work as long as 30 feet or more, but here where I'm at 24 foot is max, and you have to really pick your logs to do that. 16x18 is a pretty nice size for here.

The rafters are 4x6's and they are anchored to the logs with 10 inch log screws, 2 each at top and bottom. The log screws are great because you can run them in with an 18 volt Dewalt. Before they invented them we used 10 or 12 inch spikes and sledge hammers. A lot of pounding.

Another thing I would recommend if you choose the tubes of Perma-Chink is to get a pneumatic caulking gun. Yes, you need a compressor but it sure saves on the arms

I used to live near Eagle, AK where I picked up some logsmithing skills but am now in northern WI. I have an abundance of mature white spruce. My first thought was that they wouldn't be much different than the black spruce I was used to working with in AK, but now I'm not so sure. Any thoughts on that one? Anyone worked with white spruce?

White spruce is softer in comparison to black spruce, though I am sure it would be fine for cabin logs.
I have only used it for lumber, and it is easy to mill.the white spruce around here has a fairly fast taper, at least most that I have seen.

Almost every cabin I am aware of is built from white spruce.I know of one cottonwood and one birch cabin.

Black spruce that I am familiar with wouldn't even make a 2x2 let alone a house log.

As an aside, IMO white spruce when sawn into lumber leaves a lot to be desired. It is terrible at holding a nail. A guy almost has to use hot dipped galvanized fasteners to get it to hold.

But for cabin logs they work just fine.

Our black spruce in northern MN can be up to 9 inches thick, but most are 6 inches and smaller. Some are 160'years old and not 2 inches thick, it depends on the swamp or bog its growing in here. Our white spruce can be 26 inches or more thick at chest height.

Like White17 said our black spruce here is scrubby little trees that get about 4" in diameter, and not something you could make a cabin out of. Majority of the spruce trees on the Kenai is Lutz spruce, which is a cross between white spruce and sitka spruce. It's nice to have logs that are at least 12" at the butt to build with, but a person can build with smaller logs. Just takes more of them, and they don't insulate and hold heat as well as a larger log does. I prefer spruce, but I wouldn't hesitate to use any type of tree as long as I could get a reasonable length of log, with a workable amount of taper.

Can we talk about methods of raising the logs onto the walls, without heavy equipment?

I made a gin pole for one of my cabins, worked pretty well. Most small cabins the logs can be wrestled up or rolled up some timbers. I've used timbers with notches in them for a place to rest the log just don't trust it.

What Randyt said. If you can, find somebody to help with the log stacking, it's safer with two people. You can lay a couple of poles up against the wall to roll the log up, then make a rope bridle, tie the ends off to the opposite wall, run the ropes over the other wall, then under the log, then back over the top to the far side of the cabin. From there you can hook a 4 wheeler winch to the bridle, as you suck in on the winch the rope will roll the log up the poles. If you have a remote control winch then you can be there to help guide the log as you winch it up the skids. Called a "cross haul", good for loading logs on a trailer too. First few rings you can roll them up the skids by hand.

In theory, when you are building with natural round logs, every two rounds the top of your wall should come somewhere close to level, provided your logs all have similar taper. In reality, it doesn't generally work out so well. So, as you go up with the wall, measure every two rounds and see how it's setting. If one end of your wall is a couple inches higher than the other, then you can select your next ring of logs based on how much taper they have and use that taper to compensate for leveling the wall to some degree.
They don't HAVE to be absolutely level when you get to the top, but they should be within a couple of inches of level.

What does matter though is that you get your ridge pole level, and the eve line level. To do this you may have to notch in your rafters (provided you are going with rafters rather than purlins), along the outer wall and as needed along the ridge pole.

for keeping things level or at least nearly so I use a water level made out of a long piece of soft vinyl tubing. I fill it with blue windsheild cleaning solvent, it's easier to see and don't freeze in my area. I eye ball the logs as they go up, as I get closer to the top I then use the water level to get the tops level.

Tamarack would also be an excellent choice for building logs. It is heavy, intially though.
We have had a bunch of beetle killed tamarack, being cut for firewood, the sound logs would be good for building. It does not readily rot, and turns dark in the sun due to the varnish-like sap.

so if you realize ur not staying level how do you correct it other than adding the extra depth onto your scribes on the next round , is that the only way or is there a better method .

Measure your remaining logs, mark the diameters or height on the ends and use the logs that will bring you back to level. You could pre plan this by pre measuring and laying out your logs, per wall.

I am learning a lot on this thread, some things I did not think of. It is good to think about potential problems, and how to solve them beforehand. This thread is great!

The problem with the tamarac around my area is that it's hard to find any that's straight. And I've saved out quite a few for dock piling over the years. Tends to grow crooked, but looks straight for quite a while right up until you look it over real good. And tapers fairly fast too.But I agree...doesnt rot easily.

Like Dale said, before you even start stacking , sort your logs and match them up as close as you can in pairs. Start with your biggest logs on bottom.

Generally you will have some logs that taper more than others and you can use that difference to your advantage to help keep things level as you go up.

I prefer to get the floor built first and then start stacking logs. Make the floor level and then measure off of it for leveling the walls and ridge pole. What Randyt said works too and is necessary if your planning to hang your floor with joist hangers. Many ways to skin a cat.

I use poles for building too.




my tools



a addition can be added, these logs look a little kitty wampus but after chinking they look good

I've have not built of a platform. I've always built off piers with the first log laying on the piers. The first cabin I ever built was built on large cedar piers and the floor joists were logs that were dovetailed into the first log. another one was built on flat rock piers and then rocks filled in the gaps. the floor was dirt for a few years and then a concrete cap was poured. The first few years the roof was plywood painted with roof coating, it is now insulted and covered with tin. The latest was built on piers and logs laid on the piers with a rim joist lagged into the first row of logs and joists strung across. just the way we did it

Nice job on the saddle notches Randyt. What did you use on that cabin for chinking?

I use pole construction quite a bit too, built this little hot house for growing tomatoes a while back. Now it's full of everything but tomatoes. ha. That's alright, I built it for her, she can plant what ever she wants in there, long as I don't have to weed it.



I've built a lot of camps out of them as well




I've lost count of how many of these camps we've made over the years, over twenty of them though, kind of scattered all over south central, from the Ak Peninsula to Montague island.

Some of them that are over 40 years old are getting a little dilapidated.

mr jones that is a genious idea frames like that could be built then show up at begining of season with tarp and stove and within a day winter camp is up , love it

We call those tent frames,popular with Indians (for fishing camps and goose camps) and hunters.

Spek, thanks for the comments, your photos are awesome. I made my first saddle notch as a young teenager and have been making them ever since. I don't have a bunch of spare money so I used lime/portland cement for chinking. Would love to use permachink or logjam but that is lotto winning reality for me. lol




here's my woodshed, I'm going to expand it to double the size this summer

Thought I would add that I've used small poles for chinking before too.

I built a couple similar to Spek's visqueen cabin.

I dropped a few trees and laid a coupe of rounds of logs. Then I started digging. Went down about 4 feet. Throw the dirt outside the logs. Set up a king post with a ridge pole and run rafters (poles) down to the ground. Cover everything above ground with plastic and cover the roof with sod. Extremely warm and easy to heat.

Also makes a quick sauna for a trapping camp the same way

Thanks guy's. Saskamusher, I have built some to fit canvas wall tents, and some I just stretch reinforced visqueen over. The visqueen will condensate bad until you get the ground dried out inside and then it's not so bad. With a pitched roof the condensation just runs down the inside and down the walls. Keep your sleeping bag away from the wall or it'll get wet. About 14x16 is a good size. I always set up a wood stove in them, and it's real nice having a lot of places to hang up gear and get stuff up off the floor.

Looks like a Chinese laundromat at the end of a day of hunting in the rain. But at least you can hang it all up and get it dried out.


Randyt, I have seen the poles used like you mentioned, a lot of the old timers chinked with moss and then would nail small poles along between the logs to keep the squirrels from pulling the moss out. They also would nail tin strips over the moss instead of using poles, like this old cabin. It belongs to a friend of mine up near Coldfoot. Pretty ugly, but I guess it works for him. I'd rip it off there and get some perma-chink.


Ken, sounds like you built a barabara like the Aleuts use to build. I've always wanted try one but never have done it. Seen the remains of some down on the Alaska Peninsula, but they were all fell in by the time I was guiding down that way.

My friend last year has constructed a new trapping cabin

That is very nice, Taegnik. The notches your friend used on the corners are what we call, "trapper notches"

Looks like very little chinking needed.

Thanks to this thread, I noticed those notches too!

Nice log work Taegnik. Some good cabin logs in that area.

One of episodes on trapping of a sable is pic of some cabins there. There is video and a photo after visit of a cabin of a bear
http://pilgrim55.blogspot.ru/2016/02/Taezhnye-bajki-na-omuta-chast-dva.html?m=0

Great video and pictures Taezhnik. Looks like the bear had a good time at the cabin. I see that cabin was done with what we call the Swedish Cope.

Spek, explain the Swedish cope please

awesome pics, hope the bear doesn't cause anymore trouble for you

Scanner, it's used a lot on log homes, and it involves cutting a trough from one end of the log to the other following a scribed line so that the log will lay tight against the log beneath it. You don't see it much on small cabins.

Like this.

Is that something you do Spek, or is it too time consuming, I imagine?

No, that is one of the reasons I don't build log homes. It is time consuming, and with all the chinking materials available now it is not necessary on a small cabin.

Spek, speaking of the Swedish cope, would it be possible to only scribe where the log ends meet? Could you then run a chainsaw in between the length of the log, so as to avoid the tedious job of cutting the "trough" the entire length of the log? Of course it would require chinking afterward. Just looking for a faster way to make notches like the one in your photo because I really the look of that style.

I'm sure it could be done Winterprime, but to me it doesn't seem it would be very practical though. I think if I was going to go to that much trouble I'd just go ahead and do the full scribe.

that's a awesome cabin Taegnik, I noticed many cabins in your country has a open roof. Is there a reason why? Is the space used for storage?


In regards to the full scribe method, I've been told that a chinked style cabin is more energy efficient than the full scribe. Don' know if true or not.


'm curious how long does a saddle notch take to make. Whith a sharp chainsaw I can make one in less than a half hour, don't know if that's fast or slow but it seem reasonable.

the roof is not closed with a side because snow there never gets. And I think for economy of construction materials. Delivery of construction materials to the place of building is very labor-consuming
Yes, the space on a roof is used for storage of different things.

Thought I would post a picture of my cabin. My Dad and I built it in '78 or '79. The picture is about 10 years old just after I added that lean to for storage. The wood shed to the left I built in '72 I think. I'm going to have to replace the roof soon.
It's 20x20 and has a second story I use for storage, stairway on the back.

it is a basic cabin. live in the right half, the left half is a sauna

photo in a cabin

Nice pictures, keep them coming.

Taiga man - tell us about your snowmobile. It looks like our Alpines, which you can't get any more.

My first cabin in Alberta. Unusual design and built in the 70's by the guy I bought line off of. As a carpenter I prefer framing up my cabins with lumber. Unfortunately a lot of log cabins are hard to keep mouse proof.

My friend carved this for me.

Brian a friend of mine, trapper/guide had three cabins like that at his main guide camp. Looks almost identical for size. They were frame and plywood construction. He built them like that as they were in deep snow country. Not sure if they are still standing but brought back a few memories. I'm going to inquire.

Although building a log cabin has always been on my bucket list it is probably not going to happen. I am more of a frame and plywood guy also.

Looks good.

This evening I walked through my pine plantations, looking for suitable trees for building, I think I have enough of the size I want , and I ned to thin it anyway. My dad planted the trees 50 years ago as a Christmas tree plantation, but we never got the chance to shear and harvest them.

Nice, we'll be waiting and watching what you do with them. The only cabin I built was when we were kids. My younger brother a neighbor boy and I built one out of popple logs. We used an axe and a large bow saw. We dragged the logs by hand. We tacked split saplings in the cracks and finished the chinking with some mortar my dad let us have. Dad gave us packing boards that he got at work to use for the roof and covered them with rolled roofing. We built it down by a small stream so all the log dragging would be down hill.

Looks like some fantastic cabin logs there Dale, nice young stand of trees. You may have to skid them out with a horse, they look pretty close together?

Great cabins, good read. Does anyone have any pictures of there sauna builds?

I'm going to wait till winter to skid them out, I traded off my Belgian mare a couple years ago, and will have to figure something out.
I am not cutting till next january or so, I have too many other things I need to do first, but I can get the site and foundation ready, cut the lumber for the floor and roof and get it dry, and figure out a system to move the logs up to the walls.

I have a gas driven capstan winch that I can yard the logs with, I just attach it to a tree and put a high sheave in front of it to stack the logs where I can get the tractor to them, I can figure out a boom system to move the logs where the building will be using the same winch. It is only limited by how many feet of rope I have. I need to get a whole roll of marine braided rope or stable braid or something that won't stretch or melt under some friction. No nylon for sure. I guess stable braid works good . I'll make a skidding cone too to make it easier to slide the butts.

Many of the trees are bigger than they look, and I am not taking the really big ones. Lots of small ones too, due to the close spacing. I'm going to cut ones 10-11 inches at chest height. They are plenty long for a 18 X 24 building.

Sauna and change room in the back, summer kitchen in the front , for canning veggies, processing and smoking meats and having a few beers with friends.
I have a helper that wants to build his own, and he will learn a bunch helping on this one.

You guys are going to think I'm nuts, but I will take my lineman gear and climb all the trees I mark and girdle them below the crown, the old Northern European way, the crown then uses up the starch and sugars in the trunk, the turpene levels go up in the wood, and it dries out on the stump. I'll do that in the next few weeks. I always wanted to try the old way. Maybe its a waste of time , but its my time.

This daylight savings time stuff has me up too early. And I am off work today.
I need to find a piece of graph paper and draw out the floor plan.

This Russian snowmobile "Buran" two tracks, one ski. LOL


video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VQ38wCEXQ8

I want one,bogie wheels and all.

Me too!!!

The Buran rocks.

Dale - I've heard that old timer's would also select their base foundation logs in advance and scar the entire one side of the tree. The sap all ran to that side of the tree providing a natural water and rot preservative. The logs were harvested after drying out for a year and placed sap side down. Ever see that?

Never heard of that, but it makes sense.

A friend and I were talking about cool Russian stuff, they have some awesome machines.
Too bad snowmobile manufacturers here make machines that are too fast , use too much fuel, too expensive and are to complicated to work on nowadays. Someone should sell some simple workhorse snowmobiles again.

Talking about cutting them in the winter makes me wonder how much longer you think that extends the logs life.
When my Dad and I cut mine we cut and peeled them in the late summer. The sap was still running and they peeled easy. I think we cut and peeled 3000 lineal feet in 6 days. I think I would trade a little less life for ease in peeling and I believe that log cabin is going to outlast me anyway.
They sat and seasoned 'till spring.

All the logs are cedar. Maybe pine or spruce it wouldn't matter so much?

I remember it cost $60 stumpage for the cabin logs. USFS permit.

I don't have time to cut and build now anyway. If I were retired, I think I would be building it of green logs.

Also I live in sandy ground and they will be easier to skid in the snow with my small equipment and they won't get full of dirt and sand.

Dale, Have you seen this build on the DooTalk forums?

http://www.dootalk.com/forums/topic/1220849-small-doo/

It's a machine built just along the lines of what you're talking about.

The EPA has done away with the machines that you guys are looking for in the USA. Manufacturers like Bombardier, Polaris and others get points for making gas friendly, smoke free don't harm the earth as bad ect. They use their points to make two strokes that have these computers in em today. Thus making all these other good rigs made in foreign country's illegal to sell here due to EPA standards.

Here's some different chinking I saw in a 1920's building in Leetonia, Mn.
Built by Croatians, I am told

The chinking was held in place by nails and it looks like brick chinking from a distance.
Here is a corner

Dovetail corners

Heres a line cabin I just finished in April. It is built with fire killed logs, and all the lumber was milled on my bandsaw mill accept for the treate pad material. Sure look forward to trapping next winter!


The cabin is 16x26 inside, with a 14x16 loft as well.

Nice!!!

Nice job Dawson.

Looks like a fun project. My brother just started welding an ultralight fuselage in our basement, maybe when he finishes that he can use his know-how to make me one of those. I'd do it myself, but when I try to oxy-acetylene weld thin-walled tubing, it looks like a bird pooped on the joint.

Nice job dawson. Any interior shots?

Geeze Dawson, that's a line cabin? Pretty high class.

Ok got a question . Built cabin last year kinda Marshy land but cabin holding up good . over kill on foundation. . The problem is were I drive in with atv the tundra has sunk about 8 inches and is getting pretty wet . I have been throwing sticks and trees in wet spots but was thinking of using wood chips or saw dust to fill in wet area . Has any body used them as fill . It is a lot lighter then gravel

This could solve your issue.

Around here back prior to about 95 they used to build a lot of logging spurs with cedar spaltz (waste) from local shake mills. It made a poor road but it wouldn't be bad as long as you kept heavy stuff off. It was cheap as the mills had to get rid of it and they had curtailed burning the stuff. I doubt anyone would have used it if not for that. It takes a pretty good layer of the stuff to work.
So you have it in and working but when the stuff starts to rot it just turns to mush especially where it is laid down in a wet area. Cedar doesn't rot to fast and I'd say these roads were OK for maybe 15 years. After 20 worse then a bog.

Dawson Trapper,
Cabin looks awesome! Would love to see more pictures....interior, etc. That is a great looking window too.

I would think building a cabin with out gables, and using the natural taper of the logs to give you a slope would be easier/faster?


Something like this? (excuse my crude drawing)

Around here they would lay down logs and cover with gravel called it a corduroy road. Works great as long as the logs stay submerged or wet. Doubt the wood chips or sawdust would work as well as it would sink or squish out the sides as you drove over it. I tried some large rocks on soft spot a few years ago only to have the rocks sink further down as I drove over them. Temporary fix at best.

Miss Lisa (my wife and trapping partner) and I put together our 6th little log building last summer. Cut the logs locally and picked up the foundation rocks on our place. With building codes, need a permit for anything over 200 square feet, and I didn't want to buy one (this cabin is 192 sq. ft.). Also, Forest Service won't let a person bring logs out of the hills over 8' long, so no wall is over 8'. This cabin is out of lodgepole pine, at least two years standing dead before cutting. Hand-peeled with draw-knife.




Oh, thanks to Spek and others for all the images and hints above. Next 'cabin' I'll have to try some new things.

That's a nice little Bunkie,Gulo.Really like the foundation.

Jack that would sure beat that motel in Leadore

Ha! Decoy, I've never stayed in the Leadore Hilton, but it's interesting to drive by at night and see light coming through numerous cracks. Next time you're in the country, hit me and you can stay at our place.

Thanks Boco. Never heard 'em called a 'Bunkie' before. I like the terminology. The foundation is actually cinder blocks faced with flat rocks and mortar. Time-consuming when I should be fishing...

That would be an honor Jack. Will have to remember.Thanks

Somebody is meticulous - very nice.

You can tell White didn't come down to build it - the furthest window to the right is 1/4 inch out of square.

Wood is a quick fix as the military used logs for cord roads, but it will not hold up in time as wood rots, and sawdust and chips rot faster into a slippery mix.
The only fix is the best fix and that is oversize gravel. Other than that, you might get a few years out of a squared off logs for a cord bridge, but after that work, you might as well get the gravel from a stream shore.

Just disgusting ! You can't get good help these days !

Piperniner...

Gotta tell a story on White17. Talk about meticulous!

We were readying to put down the rim joists and the TJs on my house. Of course, White17 wants it pretty precisely square. I take the dumb end of the tape and go to the southern corner and White takes his measurement at the north. Then, I walk to the west corner and White does the measurement on the east. He has me walk back and forth several times. Then, we meet in the middle. He's not a happy camper. Mind you, this building is 36x36'. So on the hypotenuse, White17 is fuming over almost a 1/4" difference. No way would he allow us to start the floor with that big of an error. He and Pythagoreus were arguing about 0.25 inches over 50.9117 inches? We spent the next 2 hours tweaking the rims so White17 would be satisfied we were truly starting the house 'square'. You can call it meticulous, I call it simply A.R.

So, no, White17 didn't have anything to do with the little cabin. The 1/4" off on the window was all mine...

Jack

I remember that story, Jack !

To perfection ....

That should read 50.9117 FEET. I suspect that I now know how the problem started

SEE? Even at 2,000 miles away (2,008.79 miles to be precise), White17 still catches me in random acts of stupidity.

1/4” is outside of my tolerance for the first floor. Aim small and miss small!

How well would hemlock work? We have lots in this area that are 24-30” or more and long and straight. And one of the least expensive to buy

Anyone put together a cabin like this with a "skillion" roof? Where the roof only pitches one way and the two walls of the taper of the logs going the same direction?

First one I built was like that

How'd that work out for you? What size was it? I was thinking roughly 16' logs and a rubber roof rather than moss.

As I recall it was 12x16. Rubber roof should help a lot....but I think I would still put moss on top if I didn't have a better option. Moss is great insulation

No worries about snow load?

Depends on the span,slope, the size of the log, the density of the snow, any intermediate purlins. Your snow may be a lot heavier PSF than mine. BUT....oftentimes you will get a lot of melting on a roof like that if there is little to no insulation

If your using a pole roof cabin then heat and your presence (shoveling) will negate any snow load issues. If you don't use the cabin, and depending on the roof covering, decay could effect the poles and in time snow load would be a problem.
mt

Since I was a wee kid, I dreamt of building a small cabin in the Alaskan wilderness and hunting and trapping out of it until I was too old to do much. It has been a sweet and comforting dream, and it just died on this thread.

PA, never ever let reality kill a dream.

TTZT you are of course correct, but the reality is that my stone age construction skills are insufficient for the demands up there. and the sad fact is my dad was a builder, and i worked on his construction projects from the time i was little, and looking at these guys' projects, i just know it ain't in the cards. I was half kidding about the dream of an AK cabin, as I think most of us lower 48 guys kind of dream about it up there. i did dream about it a lot as a kid, and now i am just complimenting these men on their abilities.
my dad and i did build a super simple rustic log cabin when i was little, about 100 yards from our home which was itself in the middle of nowhere, and i started living in it half time when i was eleven. now i have a big boy cabin up in northern pa, which is pretty wild country as pa goes, but nothing like AK or even the ADKs. but i can still dream

I already posted a photo of my cabin in this thread, but I thought I'd share a few more. Photos of the building process and a few of the finished product.

Started by hauling the logs in March 2015 by snow machine. I used the river as a highway and cut fire killed trees as there is no way I could have moved green logs in a timely manner! Also didn't have the time or access to get in in the summer to peel them.

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The building site and the logs starting to pile up.

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I then cut standing dead along the river for milling.



And hauled in the mill, two trips, one for the carriage and one for the track.

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The actual milling didn't take long!

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I set the pads and got the 1st round of logs down that same march

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Built the cabin in March of 2016

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I did the whole thing entirely on my own. The actual building, from the pads to the completed roof with windows in and doors took 28 days. They were long working days.


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The inside dimensions are 16x26

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A couple interior shots
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The 'shop'/skinning room

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My partner built the railing upstairs.

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A couple shots out the front window

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And a couple of the cabin

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I hope some of you guys and girls enjoy these photos!

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

Great pics and great work.

Thank you for sharing!

I really enjoy the pictures.

Love the railing! But nothing like the cabin, best place ever to be!

Beautiful work!

AMAZING!

Very impressive. Wish I had that kind of talent. Congratulations.

Nice job.

That looks like quality work. There's nothing like living in a home you constructed with your own hands. I hope you have many years of enjoyment.

Very nice. How does it hold the heat. I am guessing it gets pretty cold there.

When logs dry and shrink do they just shrink diameter wise, or will they shrink length wise too? Reason I’m asking is cause I am building a cabin and planning on using a spruce log post going from the floor up to the ridge board to help support it in the center. Should I let it dry out a whole year before I put it in or would it be ok to put it in after it’s dried for a few months and just let it finish drying while it’s already set? Thanks

A stack of round logs in a wall say 8 ft high will shrink more than an 8 ft log standing on end next to that wall. Put another way, a round block 12" in diameter and 12" long will shrink more in diameter than it will in length. How much a log will shrink depends on how dense the wood is and how much moisture is in the wood at the start, so there is no formula I know of to estimate that shrinkage.

Personally I would not worry to much about it on a small cabin. If, after things get done drying and settling, the center pole is too long, cut a half inch or so off the bottom end of it and let her settle, or if it's only a slight amount, live with it.

One thing you will learn with logs, they are always moving. With heat in a cabin and high humidity outside, a log will bend slightly from end to end. When the outside wood absorbs moisture it will swell, while the dry wood on the inside shrinks. The longer the log the more noticeable this becomes. Putting wood sealer on the logs after they are seasoned well will reduce this effect to some extent, but never completely overcome it. Letting snow build up against exterior log walls will soak the wood outside and can cause a huge amount of movement. I've seen this situation bend a 24 foot log as much as 2 inches from end to end. Such excessive movement can wreak havoc on an interior framed wall or cause doors to jam to the point where they will not open. You need to have eves long enough to keep snow from ever touching the exterior walls.
But, get a small cabin dried out good, and put sealer on it, and you won't have any noticeable problems.

Going out tomorrow to start dropping trees.

A bit concerned about trying to move them. The trees are a mix of maple and oak. I plan on cutting to 18' lengths and about 10" in diameter. I'll drop them, debark them and get them off the ground then give them the summer to dry. Hopefully by September they'll be easier to handle.

10 inch DIAMETER

How you know I'm not cutting very small trees? Lol

Thanks

I just started my cabin this spring. Finally got all my piers in and enough 2x8 for my flooring.
cabin is only 8x16 with a 4x16 porch (12x16 total). It is being built with green milled D logs and will have a slanted shed roof, with a small 6x8 loft.
this will be my first build and it wont be anything fancy, just my man cave in the back 40.

here are a couple updated pictures. I now have the deck joists on and will be putting decking down this week. been going slow but only have some free time to get it done

Are you going to 'spline' that doorway ? In my experience it is easier and safer to cut the groove as you go, rather than afterwards.

Here is some log work I did last March.

20x20 inside, and 16' to the top of the ridge.

I then disassembled it and hauled it 30 miles by ski-doo.

Cool! Do you have a picture of your log hauling set up without the logs on it?

Wow Dawson trapper nice job. Do you have a jig for the dove tails?

No jig. I use a ruler, pencil, torpedo level, and log scribe. I doubt I would get as good a fit with a jig. The dovetail angle is 1:8. It is much easier and quicker to do than one would think.

Heres a small one (12x12 inside) I built two years ago.








Knocked down and ready to haul!

I am impressed! Great job and tremendous effort.

Do you connect the front and back sleighs when hauling or are the ratchet straps enough to hold it all together?

The ratchet straps do the job. There are two wooden pegs in the rear sleigh that the logs straddle, keep the sleigh in line. I learned the hard way

That is some pretty impressive builds!

Thanks for sharing!

What a great idea; build the cabin where the material is....then move the cabin.

It would be great if you could make and post a Youtube video of your method of making a dovetail, I'd like to learn how to do that.
I'd like to make a hexagonal log structure using dovetail joints, I imagine that would involve more difficulty.

Beautiful work ! I really like that tricky way of cutting the gable ends up on the deck! That has to be a lot more accurate to say nothing of safer than cutting them in place.

Looking out the front window.........is that the top of Moose Hide Slide in the right of the frame ?

The moose hide slide is about 15 miles behind and slightly to the right of that hill.

I have not tried dovetails on anything other than 90 degree corners:) Next time I do dovetails I would like to make a video. However, I do not have the natural inclination or technical ability to thrive at that kind of thing (editing, posting to the web etc) Plus with two young kids I'm a little short on time.

Nice work

So you must be east of town somewhere in the Klondike drainage ?

I love that country and Dawson is one of my favorite places.

North east of Dawson, on the 12 mile/Chandindu river which runs south out of the tombstone mountains.The next drainage west of the Klondike.

Thanks ! Just trying to get my bearings in your pix

Dawson can you come down to Atlin and Build one for me. Great Job, very impressive. I was trying to find a dove tail jig for 8x8’s ithink that’s what I will do for my next cabin.

Gee Catcher thats tempting; its been close to 20 years since Ive been down your way! Beautiful country.