LOG WALL CHARACTERISTICS
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Article by: Mercedes Hayes Looking at all the beautiful , How Big A Hole Do You Have In Your Wall? full-color glossy photos of log home , Building A Container Water Garden in magazines gives us an idealized vision of the perfect wooden house. , What's to Know about Furnaces Like a supermodel, we can't imagine wrinkles and imperfections, but like any natural , Is A Robotic Lawn Mower Right For You? product, log walls , Choosing the Best Plants for Your Garden are full of traits that are an integral part of their character. CHECKING: The new visitor to any log home , Viburnums Have Been Around a Long Time is invariably struck by the cracks in the logs, sometimes stretching for several feet. Initially they might look alarming, but these cracks, or checks, are a natural , History of Wild Roses process that occurs over the first few years when logs are still drying and reaching equilibrium with the environment. , How to Tell If You've Got a Rodent Problem In no way do they weaken the integrity of your log wall. , Decorating with Authentic Zebra Decor.... When trees , Gardening the organic way are cut down, there is naturally still some moisture , Green roofs on Garden Buildings left in the cells, especially when the tree , Amazing Artemisias is cut down live. These logs are called "green" and will settle many inches if used right away to build a house. , Why does Teak wood patio furniture have to be expensive? Some manufacturers , Speedheat Introduces New Products For Radiant Heating let their logs dry naturally : air , Wicker Outdoor Furniture dried : while others put the logs in a kiln and bake them for 30-45 days, which removes 80-85% of the moisture. , Red Roses If I Love You, Yellow If I Don't: The Secret Language of Flowers However, they can't go any farther without doing damage to the wood, , Decorating with Authentic Zebra Decor.... so the logs dry naturally for the next few years, and this process can create checks in the wood , Decorate with Area Rugs to relieve the pressure. However, the heartwood closest to the center of the tree , What's to Know about Furnaces is so hard that the checks will not go beyond the center of the log. As a result, you will not see the checks go all the way through. SETTLING: As you may already suspect, there is a relationship between moisture , Building A Container Water Garden content and settling of your log walls. , It is not so hard to instal a garden shed No, settling does not have to be a "dirty word". As long as your builder knows how to , Why does Teak wood patio furniture have to be expensive? deal with the settling and make provisions for the windows, , Is A Robotic Lawn Mower Right For You? doors, , New for 2006- Granite Flexible Preformed Rock Pond Kits plumbing, , Decorate with Area Rugs and interior , Preparing For The End Of Season walls, your house , Herbs For A Tea Garden can settle many inches and still age comfortably. Any log home , A Brief History of Sewing Machines will come with about a 2" gap above all the doors , Why You Should Consider Gardening For Your Children and windows, , Decorative Wall Painting Techniques which will need to be filled with insulation. The builder will cut a vertical groove in the frame and affix nails , Ceiling Fans – That Don’t Require The Ceiling to the windows , Wicker Outdoor Furniture and doors , Home Fire Safety that will slide down the groove as the building , Home Fire Safety settles, so nothing gets crushed. Most kiln-dried homes , Septic System Maintenance Secrets will only settle a couple of inches overall, and much of that will occur during the construction phase. KNOTS: Depending on the species of wood , A Brief History of Sewing Machines used in your log home, , Rock Gardens some logs have more knots than others, just as some trees , Arborvitae - Plants for The Quakertown Pa. Area have more limbs than others. The more interesting the knot, the more likely your builder will place , New for 2006- Granite Flexible Preformed Rock Pond Kits it at eye level, since each knot is truly unique. However, don't be surprised if the knots ooze sap on the sunny exterior walls , Popular perennials for the garden of your house. , Brighten Your Path By Installing Decorative Landscape Lighti Even the sealant won't stop the sap from working its way out. This will not happen on the inside , How Big A Hole Do You Have In Your Wall? of the house, , Growing Bonsai Trees or on the shady side. It only happens when the sun , Septic System Maintenance Secrets is beating down on the logs and heating them up in the summer , Hydroponics gardening verses organic gardening. Which grows the best cannabis? time. HAND-PEELED OR MILLED: (or anything in between). Hand-crafted log homes , Blue Spruce Trees - Not a Good Choice in Horsham, PA are just that: the logs are cut and peeled by hand with a draw-knife, which creates a uneven surface along the log. For an even more rustic , Geomantic Rules in the Living Room look, some of the bark is left intact. If the log is milled, the machine takes off the layer of bark, leaving a fairly smooth surface to the log. This can be sanded to a fine finish, if you have enough time or money. Sometimes, the manufacturer , Interior Decorating and Home Decor With Native American Indi might take that milled log and run a draw-knife across it to make it look peeled. The type of finish is totally up to the buyer. CHINKING vs. CAULKING: Chinking is historically done to a hand-crafted log home , Wicker Outdoor Furniture in order to keep the wind from howling in between the logs. It looks like a broad white , Popular perennials for the garden band between log courses. When cut by hand, logs can be scribed so that an upper log is shaped to match the contours of the log beneath it. However, not all logs are scribed; some just rest atop the log below, creating large gaps in the uneven surface. Either way, handcrafted , It is not so hard to instal a garden shed log homes , Herbs For A Tea Garden tend to be chinked, which was historically a mix of clay, sand, , Geomantic Rules in the Living Room lime, mud, thatch, you name it, but is now an acrylic compound which expands and contracts with the wood. , Is A Robotic Lawn Mower Right For You? Some homes , Amazing Artemisias still require chinking, and others use chinking for aesthetic purposes. Many milled log homes , Gardening the organic way are actually caulked with an acrylic product , History of Wild Roses designed for log homes. , Choosing The Right Flowers For Mom This comes out of a caulking gun, and creates a neat, finished look as well as protecting the seams from infiltration. We tend to caulk milled homes , How to Tell If You've Got a Rodent Problem or do nothing at all between log courses, because the joinery system is so tight that this step is not mandatory. Every log home , The Lesson of the Morning Glory is unique, and each has its own personality. It's amazing how many different construction systems are available to create homes , Terrace Gardening And Landscaping Ideas out of logs, and every style has its own characteristics. But overall, no matter what your log home , Shower curtains can give your bathroom a quick and easy make looks like, the cozy warmth of logs cannot be duplicated in any other kind of house. , Septic System Maintenance Secrets About the Author Mercedes Hayes is a Hiawatha Log Home , How Big A Hole Do You Have In Your Wall? dealer and also a Realtor in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She designed her own log home , Burning Bushes Do Well In Hilltown Township which was featured in the 2004 Floor , Ceiling Fans – That Don’t Require The Ceiling Plan Guide of Log Home , How to Tell If You've Got a Rodent Problem Living magazine. You can learn more about log homes , Hydroponics gardening verses organic gardening. 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