Any members from Maine (or area) or have experience in Maine?

[chrisjohnson123]

Like many people, I'm asking a lot of questions (and reading and educating myself) before signing up for the classes... One question I do have relates to the type of B & P construction in that the logs are not milled. Just curious if anyone knows if if this type of construction is suitable for "harsher" winters? From what I know in Maine is that there does exist a fair number of log homes, but they all appear to be kit models with milled logs.

Thanks for any help, Chris

[jrdavis]

Chris,

We have members in Canada and Alaska and Idaho (they will chime in).

Unmilled logs are BETTER for "harsher" winters as they are natural and thicker.

Welcome to the site and keep reading.

JD

[chrisjohnson123]

thanks for your response. much appreciated

[loghousenut]

I've never seen a kit home that I would have in a harsh environment. Conversely, I'd put mine through a Maine winter in a heartbeat. You are at the right place, Mr. Johnson.

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t55/loghousenut/Floor8-2011022.jpg

[StressMan79]

indeed. best put in an "alaskan entry" for the cold. basically it is a small room that acts as a pressure lock on the space shuttle, or any other space vehicle. You enter a door into the room and then go into the house through another door... that keeps large amounts of heated air from escaping.

Wood has an R value of ~1/inch, so if you are happy with R8 in your walls, you can do a milled wall, but I'd go with 16" tops and get the R16 and the massive thermal mass that comes with it.

-Peter

[spiralsands]

Another winter house tip: You wanna site your entry door on the opposite side of the house from where your weather comes from. Like, here in Central NY, weather comes from the west predominately. Sometimes we get storms from the SW. So here it is advisable to site an entry on the east side of the house so after a snow dump, you can get out of the house. Also, on the weathery side of the house you want your fewest and smallest windows. (I got this stuff off an old weblog, now inactive, called York Staters.)

Frances

[rreidnauer]

That can be a bit tricky sometimes when orienting doorways. I have this problem at work, where a Northeast-facing door gets a huge drift around it. However the problem stems more from the building layout, as it's in (what would be expected to be well protected) inside corner of an "L" shaped building. The problem is, the winds and driven snow are blown over top the building, and the calm pocket of air allows large amounts of snow to be deposited in the eddy current created. Meanwhile, I notice spots which can literally be bare of snow on the windward side. (typically, at the corner of a building, where air velocity is highest)

Not saying it's not a good idea to think about position. Just that, even the best plans don't always go as planned..

[spiralsands]

Not saying it's not a good idea to think about position. Just that, even the best plans don't always go as planned..

...the story of my life, Rod.....

[FishingAddict]

Frances---how is that small cabin build going? I have not seen many comments on it from you. Trust it is going well

[spiralsands]

Well, thanks for asking. My foundation beams are in. My truck isn't big enough to haul long lumber and piles of plywood so I have to have it delivered. To take a delivery, we (my daughter and I) had to build a culvert at the road for a truck to pull in. Soooo, the past couple of weekends, she and I have been piling in a pipe, bags of cement, big rocks, gravel, sand and dirt into what looked like a "small" ditch.

Let me tell you......it takes A LOT of material to fill a "SMALL" ditch.

So our culvert is now functional in that I can drive my truck over it but we made it a little narrow but I'm sure a delivery will make it in. Now I gotta get out the materials list and order the stuff for the floor platform. I'm a little indecisive on the materials because those hills have been getting a little rain these days and I work so slowly. I'm afraid the floor will be out in the weather so long I'll get warping. But I have big tarps to cover it up during the week. Hope they work. I wanted to be dried in by October. ho ho ho!