In the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, western red cedar is widely distributed. It grows on stream sites, wooded marshes, and mountain slopes. It can also be found growing in or next to sources of water.
Western Red Cedars may reach heights of 65 to 70 meters while growing as trees. They are also rather broad, with a diameter of about 3–4 meters. They have a pleasant, fragrant scent and are well-known for their longevity—some can live up to 1,000 years.
There’s more to constructing a home out of wood than merely picking out your logs and piling them up to form a wall, even if it may be simpler to build Handcrafted log cabins out of timber than a conventional brick home.
To guarantee that the completed log home is a masterpiece, logs must be properly chosen, maintained, and handled. Knowing how many logs you’ll need is essential before you even consider ordering any or cutting down any trees.
If You Don’t Use A Cedar Cabin Kit
Investing in a log cabin should be planned and thought of very well. It is advisable to allocate sufficient time to meticulously plan your log home, and you could even choose to examine existing log cabins to determine the log count per wall. Recall that additional logs will be needed for your roof. You should be able to estimate the number of logs you will require after doing this.
Recall that you may use partial logs as well as cut full log split lengths if you have window or door openings instead of using complete logs for every wall. At this point, if you take care to prepare appropriately, you may maximize all employ just the straight portion of a curved tree, as well as the trees you fell.
There are a few ways to get your logs; buying them through a sawmill or hiring a tree feller is the simplest but most costly choice.
Your logs can be chopped to length by a sawmill, but this will probably come at an additional cost. Click here to learn more about the sawmill industry. If you have access to chop down trees on the property or own land featuring trees on it and would like to save expenses, you might want to think about pruning your trees.
When you have selected and ready the logs, building your log home may be far more satisfying.
If you go with this route, you should cut the timber in the early winter while the sap isn’t as high. Because winter’s lower temperatures allow a slower drying time, cutting logs during this season will also lessen the chance of their splitting and breaking. Additionally, the colder temperatures reduce the possibility of their getting plagued by insects and susceptible to mildew and fungal development.
After taking some time to stroll about the property and select the trees you want to utilize, it’s a good idea to number and label each tree.
Make sure the trees are straight from all sides and that the logs’ diameters are as comparable as possible when you observe them. feasible from both ends. Your logs should have a diameter of eight to ten inches, depending on your taste. They should taper to a maximum of two inches in a sixteen-foot tree, for example.
Why Cedar for Your Cabin?
Native Americans in the northwestern United States have been building their houses and shelters from Western Red Cedar for hundreds of years. Cedar groves evolved to become a meeting spot for introspection and retreat over time, in addition to a representation of strength and power.
Western Red Cedar is widely utilized in outdoor building projects nowadays, such as siding, decks, hot tubs, shingles, and posts. It has a reddish-brown hue, straight grain, and few knots.
It is the greatest heat conductor and has a high inherent resistance to deterioration, serving as a phenomenal insulator (https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/electric-charge-electric-force-and-voltage/charge-electric-force/v/conductors-and-insulators) compared to other typical softwood species, adding to its appeal to builders. Because of its low density, the wood is lightweight and simple to handle.
Compared to other coniferous woods, Western Red Cedar has the lowest shrinkage factor and the highest resilience to twisting and warping.
The cedar log home kits allow for a cabin that will maintain a pleasant summer temperature and lower winter heating expenses due to the exceptional thermal insulating properties of Western Red Cedar. For all the reasons described above, Cedar is a wood that is perfect for log cabin dwellings since it is strong and adaptable.
