Hola from new member-CanuckistanKork

[CanuckistanKork]

Hello everyone, fabulous website and very informative! I'm from Montreal but living in Colorado Springs now. I've always loved log homes--I've had the stereotypical log home-on-a-lake north of Montreal in the Laurentians for the last 10 years but it's a little hard to get to on weekends from here! It was built in '82 in the French-Canadian "bois rond" style and I run off the grid on solar panels/propane even though the Hydro pole is 60ft from the house. I love it but there are flaws to the "bois rond" building style. So I'm keen to learn more. I have a lot of questions. I've been collecting log home building books/mags for years. I've done a lot of my own (smaller) building projects. Building stuff is not rocket science--that coming from a female :)
Now that my husband and I are in the process of buying some land in Colorado (@ 11,200ft!!) I'm keen to build our own log home one day because we'd probably have enough trees on that land to do it. I just have to convince hub to give it a go.
I suspect the $ we'd save building a wonderful log home would be a big clincher for hub (free building materials sweetie!!) But I need more to convince him with ie: it's not that hard to do. Any suggestions?

Cheers!

[adubar]

What specifically have you found that may be problematic with your current home? If you can give a general description of what you see in your home, I'm sure that many members here can give you good ideas for tackling the issues and speak directly to how the LHBA's preferred building methods address them.


-Andrew

[CanuckistanKork]

My cottage is post-and-beam. The "Bois Rond" style (literally, "round wood") means no planing the logs at all; the walls are just "stacked" and the ends are chiseled slightly and then nailed into vertical beams. My house is built out of Tamarac (Larch in the US?) which is pretty straight though. Once the walls were finished they were chinked with, wait for this, some type of acrylic roof sealant (?--that's my guess anyways). It was built in '82. Shrinkage left some gaps between the chinking and logs, which can be a pain in the butt/messy to fill in. The acrylic is black but I'd prefer more chinking to have the walls more filled in and a different color. There have only been a few spots to patch though and I'm surprised there weren't any more than there were. There's plenty of space available for a better job to cover what looks like the bare minimum that was done. Should I get rid of the old stuff (hard as rock) and start over (PLEEEEEEASE SAY NO!), or should I just cover the existing stuff--there would be lots of room for that.

I have some pics I'll dig up. Can I do pics here?

Cheers!

[pinecone pam]

Welcome! In most cases you can use modern chink ( like Permachink or Log Jam) materials over old chinking if it is still well in place. I would cut out a small piece and send it in with an inquiry and pictures to one of these companies and ask? It would save a lot of time. And they have lots of color choices! If you want to increase the gap (between the inside chink line and the outside one) you might even have to put in another backer. Better insulation tho, so well worth it. Then you surely would not have to remove the old stuff. This sounds like a great place, can't wait to see your pics!