building a log home with white oak logs. any advice??

[jwicker]

i'm new at this but here we go ,.i bought a bandsaw mill and want to build a log home.I was looking for any advice and info that would be helpful.On my land i have plenty of white oak trees ,pine and poplar .

[rreidnauer]

Welcome to LHBA. A few quick thoughts. Since you got the mill, save the oak for flooring, joists, and rafters. Use the pine or poplar for the wall logs. Mixing species is OK if you run short of one, but try to build up a far as possible with one species before switching to the other. Final thought before you do anything, take the class. Yea, I know it's a few bucks, but believe me, you will make it all back in avoided mistakes and great cost saving techniques/ideas.

[Basil]

I built mine with poplar. Yellow poplar (also called tulip poplar) is resistant to termites but the sap wood is prone to rot if it gets wet. I built a 10' wrap around porch to keep my logs dry and keep the water out of the checks (poplar will check and have a few large cracks). Rod is right, save the oak for other needs. I know oak can be used, but it is harder to work with than almost any other kind of wood (especially after its cured a while) that would be used for a log home. If oak is what ya got, tho, build with what ya got!

I wouldn't mix poplar wall logs with pine, if it were me. It will look very strange and mixing a hardwood with a softwood is something that I don't think any of us have done. The two types of log will look WAAYY different.