Yuhjn
06-01-2008, 09:07 PM
Log homes sure do look different since I've taken the LHBA class and I know what I'm looking at!
A friend of mine's stepmother had a full-scribe home that's premachinked and about 10 years old. Well I pulled up to that house today for the first time since I started becomming a log home nerd. I used to pull up and think "boy that's sure is a beautiful log home". And it is... but now that I know what I"m looking at it's got MAJOR problems.
Before my truck even comes to a full stop I'm noticing the roof, which has TINY little overhangs... if they are a foot off the wall I'd be surprised. So even from 200 feet away I'm already betting the end logs are rotten like heck. The house has about twice the corners it should have. And one corner (a set of 3 corners in a tight little group) appears to be created for no more reason that the logs were not long enough to do it with 1 corner.
Well I get out of my truck and start looking at the logs up close.... oh man, bad news. The ends (dont know if they are called overdangles on a full scribe or not) are rotten BADLY. Rotten up to the notch. I'm thinking another 5-10 years and the whole corners are going to be soft as sand and the house is going to start falling apart, literally.
Then I look up and notice someone has used that yellow spray-in-foam stuff to try to patch some holes in the logs where rot is setting in. Bad news. It looks like an invitation for water to get in there and not get out. That "fix" is probably going to rot those logs FASTER.
So after I do a good once over on this home it dawns on me just how much I learned from the LHBA class. I had no idea that in 2 days I'd have all the understanding I needed to size up an existing log home and predict it's future. If I had some practical experience I would have offered some advice, suggestion, and maybe some labor to help preserve what's left of this home. But since I'm a log home newbie with no callouses on my hands, I'm not really in a position to start spouting off about what's being done wrong on the house.
And you know, in class they told us many times that more corners == more cost, more labor, and more hassle. But it never occoured to me that more corners ALSO means more places where the growth rings are exposed to water....
This house has TINY little overhands and is in a part of Montana where there is wind CONSTANTLY. All day long, every day, it's incredibly windy (just east of a mountain pass, Livingston Montana actually) Basically every time it rains this womans log wall get SOAKED.
I feel really bad for her... but I'm really excited about my new log home preception skills :) THANK YOU LHBA!
A friend of mine's stepmother had a full-scribe home that's premachinked and about 10 years old. Well I pulled up to that house today for the first time since I started becomming a log home nerd. I used to pull up and think "boy that's sure is a beautiful log home". And it is... but now that I know what I"m looking at it's got MAJOR problems.
Before my truck even comes to a full stop I'm noticing the roof, which has TINY little overhangs... if they are a foot off the wall I'd be surprised. So even from 200 feet away I'm already betting the end logs are rotten like heck. The house has about twice the corners it should have. And one corner (a set of 3 corners in a tight little group) appears to be created for no more reason that the logs were not long enough to do it with 1 corner.
Well I get out of my truck and start looking at the logs up close.... oh man, bad news. The ends (dont know if they are called overdangles on a full scribe or not) are rotten BADLY. Rotten up to the notch. I'm thinking another 5-10 years and the whole corners are going to be soft as sand and the house is going to start falling apart, literally.
Then I look up and notice someone has used that yellow spray-in-foam stuff to try to patch some holes in the logs where rot is setting in. Bad news. It looks like an invitation for water to get in there and not get out. That "fix" is probably going to rot those logs FASTER.
So after I do a good once over on this home it dawns on me just how much I learned from the LHBA class. I had no idea that in 2 days I'd have all the understanding I needed to size up an existing log home and predict it's future. If I had some practical experience I would have offered some advice, suggestion, and maybe some labor to help preserve what's left of this home. But since I'm a log home newbie with no callouses on my hands, I'm not really in a position to start spouting off about what's being done wrong on the house.
And you know, in class they told us many times that more corners == more cost, more labor, and more hassle. But it never occoured to me that more corners ALSO means more places where the growth rings are exposed to water....
This house has TINY little overhands and is in a part of Montana where there is wind CONSTANTLY. All day long, every day, it's incredibly windy (just east of a mountain pass, Livingston Montana actually) Basically every time it rains this womans log wall get SOAKED.
I feel really bad for her... but I'm really excited about my new log home preception skills :) THANK YOU LHBA!