Building log home(s) in Southern California

[Kjones]

I'm a new member and was wondering if there a any restrictions to building in Southern California i.e. earthquake seismic, Fire, Available Trees etc. I intend to take skip's class but before I do I need to know if building in So. Calif. is easy / hard etc?

[Shark]

It really depends on the specific county you are building in.
Rules, building practices, & permits can all vary alot between counties.

There are members who have built in California.

Generally the way LHBA teaches, the log homes can be built anywhere, as they far exceed most, if not all building codes.

If you are in a high seismic area, have excessive snow loads, etc etc, may require a beefed up foundation, roof, or other.
But this would be the same for any house.

Best thing to do is go talk to the local building officials, found out exactly what permits you need, & go from there.

I've heard of people working on getting permits for over a year in certain locations, & on the other hand, it took us less than a week.

It varies so much, best thing to do is find out locally.

Hope that helps,

The class is awesome though.

[Klapton]

Richard Rock, a member of LHBA and Structural Engineer has done engineering studies on the LHBA "stock plans" that are available to members after taking the course. Those plans pass very stringent codes in the states for which he is licensed (I believe WA and OR, perhaps some others). I don't know if he is lisenced in CA, or if he has crunched the numbers on the stock plans for anyone there. But if I was to guess, I'd bet they would pass code in most places in CA as well.

Whether you use LHBA stock plans, or from some other source, you will most likely be required to have an Engineer certify that they are within code for your area. The Engineer will recommend corrections to the plans if they are needed.

[JeffandSara]

Hi, Kjones--

How easy or hard it is to build "Skip-style"/butt-and-pass in southern California depends on what county/city entities you have to work with, I think. We made some adjustments to the class's suggested foundation in order to meet seismic standards, but fire is not any more of a risk than any other type of building. Actually, it's probably much less... during a wildfire near our home the firemen on duty said they were coming to our house to bivouac if the fire got close. Local logs tend to be quite a bit more tapered than is ideal, especially if you plan a large home, but we brought logs in from elsewhere. Where there's a will, there's a way, and if we ever built again, I'm pretty sure we'd build log again according to the techniques we learned through LHBA.

Best-- Sara