Home Made Log Cabin Kit

Hello log cabin enthusiasts ! Good news ! You can have your cake and eat it too ! I feel like I built a log cabin for free. I bought a few boards each week. I never missed the money. Now I am not a slave to the bank. I am free to take off work whenever I want and do international volunteering. And I get to live in my dream home. And it was FUN to do.

My property-neighbor was thrilled when he learned I was going to build a log cabin. He even gave me the name of a log cabin supplier. Later I found out he would get $500. just for sending me over. And the price for a 2 story cabin (2400 Square feet) ? $ 80,000. That doesn't include foundation, floor, chimney, electrical, plumbing, roofing, etc ! NO WAY !!!

I wanted a log cabin so bad; the rugged, rustic look. Guess what ! If you already HAVE a log cabin, the Log Cabin Supplier will sell you 2x12 (2 inches wide by 12 inch long) boards to make a garage. I called and asked if I could simply buy the boards and make my own log cabin. They said "Absolutely Not !" I asked why. They responded, "If we started doing that, before long we would only be a siding company."

What I really wanted was the "look" of a log cabin. As a short term missionary I had been to Belarus showing Christians how to build a pole barn (30 by 50 foot) for $5000. They were amazed you could build a structure in 2 weeks on such little money. The president of the country passed a law making it illegal to worship in homes. This was done under pressure from the Russian Orthodox church who feared the influx of new Christian groups entering the country. EMIUSA.org Engineering Missions International sent me to Belarus, to share the good news of how to make incredibly low cost buildings. So far, at least 3 pole barn churches have been built that i know of.

I thought "I go all over the world for Habitat for Humanity and other Christian organizations singing the praises of post-frame buildings (pole barns) but I hadn't considered it for ME. So I laid out the building (32 feet wide by 40 foot long) and put 4x4 posts every 4 feet

Next I put pressure-treated 2x6's around the bottom. This became the form for the floor. No better floor can be made than concrete slab. It will never get termites, it is low cost to make and the floor never squeeks nor sag. I ordered concrete with fiberglass (it only costs a little more when you order it) and requires no steel rebar.

How it looked: 4x4 post
__________________________ top of concrete floor
__ground_ll 2x6 ______ 4" thick concrete minimum
/
___/ <-- Footing Depth 24" for 40 deg N latitude

Put the posts 3 foot down. You can rent a post hole digger and be done in a couple of hours. If you keep the pressure treated 2x6 level around the perimeter and put one down the center you have the perfect form. Put one down the ceter so you have 2 18 foot wide sections and you can use a 20 foot board for leveling it up. The floor will look like this:

<-- move board back and forth -->
2x6 -20 foot long =============================================
ll__________ filled with concrete <-- 18 feet --> ll middle of bldg

As the concrete truck fills the void move the === board back and forth to level the concrete .

Once this was done the fun began !! A 16 foot long 2x12 can be purchased from any hardware store for between $18.00 and 23.00 each. The more you buy the cheaper they are. It is a big job to carry them out so if you save up a few weeks you can get them to deliver them for free.

Here is what I did with the 2x12's:

2 x 12 l l l
l_ l l
_ l l
l l l 4x4 post
l l l
l_l l
l l

The 2x12's were screwed to the posts. At first I was worried it woudln't look like a log cabin because the 2x12s had not been roughed up like the $80,000-120,000 log cabin kits in the magazines. But I found that if you got back farther than about 40 feet you couldn't tell the difference ( see my photos). The best screws are 3.5 inch long with Torx drive or the square drives. Phillips screws "cam out" when lots of pressure is applied. The new Bosch dark green lithium drill is incredibly powerful. I screwed so much I actually got carpel tunnel and had to stop for awhile.

Between each 2x12 I place a 1x3 or 1x4 to fill the space.

Modern chinking is an incredible material. After it dries it is still soft like rubber. It comes in 5 gallon buckets (45$/each). I used a 4 inch PVC pipe to smooth it out but finally just started using a plain ole 6 inch wide putty knife. In the end the cross section looked like this:

l l l
l l l post
l___l l
\ l l l
\ l l 1x4 l
/ l l l
/_ l_l l
l l l
l l l
2x12

The area that looks like a "backwards K" is filled with chinking. You can order it on the internet and get it delivered to your home. You smooth it out, then leave it alone. If you keep trying to smooth it more you mess up the surface and it will start getting rougher. The whole idea is to get it as smooth so it will not hold rain drops. I painted my chinking. It made the surface smoother.

I love the look of natural wood. After much research I found if you stain it, you will have an annual job of doing it over and over. I decided to simply paint it the natural color of wood.

Each week the 2x12's grew higher and higher, running up the 4x4 poles. It was a lot of fun. Before long I was 14 feet up, the height for the sidewalls. I enjoyed working with the 2x12 so I used them for joists for the upstairs floor. I spaced mine on 24 inches and my floor is a little spongy. If i did it again I would space them 16 or 20 inches apart. The house looked like this:

ll l
side view ll l
ll______________________ l
ll-------ll-------ll-------ll-------ll l glass
ll ll ll ll ll l
_______ll____ ll_____ll_____ll_____ll_____l_____
<-----------40 feet -------------------->

So down the center of the room 4x4 posts were put in to hold up the second floor. I left one end open in case I wanted a 15 foot christmas tree someday. A balcony makes the place a little more exciting. I also wanted to make a climbing wall or maybe I would go really exotic and make a water falls on the wall someday (I have not done this so far).

In case you are worrying about how you will make the corners look like locking logs, i worried about this a long time too. Finally I just boarded up the corners and it looks just fine. the locking logs are another thing that you can't actually see when you get back from the cabin.

The 4x4 posts were then extended on up to hold up the roof. The 32 foot direction of the log cabin looked like this:
ll
end view <----- 18 ft------->ll
ll ll ll
ll_____________ ll_____________ll
ll ------------------ ll------------------ ll
ll ll ll
ll_____________ ll_____________ll ______

The slope of the roof was the height of the ladder. This gave me a low slope for my roof . Now leaves and sticks will pile up on my 2 to 12 slope. A higher slope might cause more leaves and sticks to slide off the roof. Actually the next big wind blows the leaves off, since my roof is metal. But I do have to take a long stick one time a year and pull of the sticks. The cabin is directly under a huge sycamore tree.

It took me a year to do what I have described so far. I got in no hurry, much to the annoyance of a neighbor. He asked why I didn't just borrow the money and finish it. I asked if he was willing to make the payments the next 30 years. At which point he backed off. If you have family buildng a house this way is nice. You can buy a little material each week. then have a super-work-weekend where everyone comes over and does construction.

I have been building my log cabin for 5 years. I have been living inside it for 2 years. It is warm and comfortable. I am trying to finish out the upstairs. then I wil finish out the down stairs. For now downstairs is material storage. upstairs is living space.