Raising log walls

[Chuck]

Does any one know of a relatively easy and safe way for one person to raise logs for a cabin wall? when we return to our homestead we want to start building a new cabin. Since we are remote heavy equipment is out of the question and we don't like stockade style. The logs will be about 20' long with 10" butts.

Alaska HOMESTEADING Journal

[Anataq]

Hmmm how to keep this short.... There are many ways to lift logs once they are right next to the building. The problem I see with moving logs in excess of 20' is actually moving them to the buiding site. For log walls it is actually fairly easy to get the logs up using log ramps and come-a-longs. The logs just roll up the ramps to their position on the wall. The difficult part will be raising the perlons and ridge. I might recommend building log rafters without the perlons and ridge. To raise these logs I would set up a gin pole arrangement. If you get the rear end off an old car you can set up the gin pole to rotate. One man can operate the gin pole and set logs just about anywhere they are needed, but it's no small labor to get the gin pole up, plus you need to be familiar with rigging.

I understand that you don't like vertical log, but how about Piece en Piece, or short log timber framing. Still looks beautiful and the log lengths will be much shorter.

The other problem you run into with 20' logs is that they are still going to produce a small building, your interior space at a max. will be little more than 15'. You need an over hangs of 2' on both sides, plus the width that the log itself will occuply. Now you can splice logs an spike them, but this is labor intensive as well. and a splice is best done at the intersection of another wall, so in order to get a decent sized building you are talking about a whole lot of notching, which is going to take some serious time if you are building by yourself.

Are you planing on scribe fitting, flat siding, or chinking your structure??

-Anataq

-Anataq

[smwon]

Have you considered building by peice-en-peice? You could use short logs then. That is what I am considering, if I can’t go strawbale. I would just need a chainsaw for cutting the notches down the logs and making the tendon...

[Chuck]

I have the stuff to move 400 lbs.+ logs and have I was really hoping someone knew of an easy way. We have tons of snatch blocks, come-alongs, and cable; also have a Lewis wench. I don't like log work so I learned about mechanical advantage at a young age. Thanks for the in-put though.

Alaska HOMESTEADING Journal

[smwon]

Your welcome Chuck

[Jerngen]

I realize you may not have access to the site right now but am curious on your thoughts (or anyone's) about "vertical" log homes. That way you only have to cut them 8' or however high you want the ceiling. Here is a website that deals with this. I only discovered this a few hours ago so if this is old news I apologize
www.loghomes.co.za/
The person who runs this site is situated in South Africa now but is from Canada (where his brother is currently building one).

[Chuck]

They are pretty popular in Alaska I can see a lot of advantages using that style. Our neighbors built a 11/2 story home using 12-14 inch logs, they were a husband, wife and three kids who did all the work themselves. I'm not real fond of the way they look but would use vertical logs if that was the only way.

ALASKA TRAPPERS
Alaska HOMESTEADING Journal

#nosmileys

[pipedreams]

My late wife and I moved all the logs ourselves with a simple "roller ramp" that I built. The ramp was about 24 feet long with 1" pipe every 2 feet...those pipe sections were surrounded by 1 1/2" PVC, making it a roller ramp. The logs came up through the front door opening.

Picking up one end of a log to get it positioned on the ramp was no problem...........then one good shove sent the logs (8" 3 sided) right up the ramp onto the floor.

Once the log was on the floor I picked them up with a hand powered lift...the kind used to move pallets...once the log was on that one person could wheel it around on the floor to place it in position to drop on any wall.

I always thought that this was going to be the HARD part of the project..........it was close to being easiest once this ramp was working. It only took 10 days to get all the walls up.

[smwon]

Jerngen... that was cool site and they look really neat too!

[mountainmomma]

My boyfriend and I have been trying to deal with a similar situation Chuck. Thats actually how we came about this site. We are erecting a gin pole in a 6' deep hole, dug with a post hole digger. On it will be a block and tackle. We were going to use a huge Warn winch to pull with. But, the wiring is messed up. So, instead of wasting our valuage sunny fall days messing with the WINCH, we're just going to try to pull with my Ford F-50 instead.
I can't say that we have any REAL experience with this. We've never built a log home at all. But, I don't see why you should get scared away from it.
We are planning on using the butt and pass method. This requires NO scribing at all. The logs are pinned together with rebar.
Have you looked into that at all?

[Jenny]

Hi mountainmamma. Welcome to the forum. Chuck's out guiding right now and won't be back for quite some time. He'll go through the posts when he get home to reply. When we first moved out here (pre-children days), seems like we did everything together. Now that we have three young boys, they keep me so busy that I don't get to help out with that sort of thing as much as I'd like. I still do, but not all the time like before. Our new house will be logs, but not sure type of construction he has planned yet.

Jenny

[longrider]

Consider this log building course. basically a weekend long and offers really pragmatic methods.

www.loghomebuilders.org

they do have a real pinchant for non-kit built homes and are a bit anal about it but it's not my fight nor is it a factor. take care folks, carney

[mountainmomma]

Not to derail the topic from Chuck's posting, but my boyfriend and I, as I think I mentioned earlier are in the process of trying to build a log home. Right now, we're still trying to get the gin pole in the ground. We've already spent 3 or 4 days on that process alone. We used a block and tackle pulley system attached to my Ford F-250 once the gin pole was at a slight angle (precariously resting on a series of notched logs on end), we tugged with the truck and lost all the progress we'd gained and had to start all over again. Now, we have it jacked up so high on the top end that its about 6 feet in the air with the bottom resting in the hole. There is a 2"x6" sticking in the hole at an angle to encourage the gin pole in. There is also a small piece of plywood on the ground at the hole's edge under the gin pole bottom. There are several 2"x6" X shaped braces under the gin pole in progressive heighths.
I broke our 2ton bottle jack.
What should we do now?!
Help!

[Jenny]

longrider said:

Consider this log building course. basically a weekend long and offers really pragmatic methods.

www.loghomebuilders.org

they do have a real pinchant for non-kit built homes and are a bit anal about it but it's not my fight nor is it a factor. take care folks, carney

We know a couple who took that course. They thought it was wonderful --- well worth the money, and everything it was advertised to be. Chuck was thinking about taking it, too, but the time was the same as a wolf trapping school he was already planning to attend.

Jenny

[Freeholdfarm]

Mountainmomma, are you sure you need a gin pole to build your cabin? Could you look into alternatives? (I know I'm seeing your post a couple of weeks after you made it, so hopefully you've figured out something by now, without anyone getting hurt!)

If I ever get the chance to build a cabin again, in Alaska or anywhere else, I don't think it's going to be log. It may be turf like the ancient Viking longhouses or the Eskimo houses; it may be stone and earth like the Scottish blackhouses; it may be cob. But I don't think I could manage logs by myself.

Kathleen