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jaywash
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# Posted: 21 Oct 2010 11:28am
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Is it possible and what are the positives and negatives to building a log cabin with trees other than pine? I have been wanting to build one for some time but live in an area that offer little to no pine trees but plenty of deciduous trees. Any thought are welcome. Thanks in advance.
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Jerry
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# Posted: 21 Oct 2010 01:52pm
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Log cabins are built out of almost any tree that grows long and straight enough for your requirements. You see advertisements for homes built of oak, cedar, in the old days chestnut, and many others. Some decisions are based on R value, weight of logs, and decay resistance, but if you're doing your own work, research the species available in your area and I'll bet you can use it. What species are you thinking of using?
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jaywash
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# Posted: 21 Oct 2010 01:54pm
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I am thinking Oak and Poplar. Which is what I am finding to be most prevalent in my area.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 24 Oct 2010 10:04pm
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Douglas Fir, its a good wood, also Spruce is popular. Douglas Fir has the nice red core, the logs are pretty on the ends. Spruce is white like the pine. Logs must be cut in the winter, or they will leech sap for a long time.
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RIjake
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# Posted: 25 Oct 2010 12:41pm
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I asked the same question over at the "other" forum because my 17 acres is all hardwoods, mostly beech and maple. It may be difficult to screw into hardwood and if you need a building permit the wood may need to be graded. I've decided to go with a combination of stick built commercial lumber and some posts from my own wood.
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islandguy
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# Posted: 25 Oct 2010 05:35pm
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I think poplar would be far to prone to rot.
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tarheel
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# Posted: 7 Jul 2011 05:04am
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I talked with a cabin replica builder at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. He told me the colonials used whatever wood they had handy, except for in-ground posts. Those often were black locust, impervious to rot. Roofs should be cedar, etc. The only straight trees of any size on my North Carolina property are Virginia pine and poplar. So that's what I'm using. See old guy with the drawknife in the pic. If you keep your logs off the ground they will last. I lived most of my life in Alaska, where there's an old saying: A man who builds a cabin out of poplar will die in it.
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dalltxguy
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# Posted: 7 Jul 2011 04:00pm
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"A man who builds a cabin out of poplar will die in it"
Is that because it will collapse around him?
The most important aspect of the wood selected for log cabins is durability. That being said, the standard rule of any good building construction, ' good hat, good boots' should go a long way in ensuring longevity.
Softwoods are primarily used because of a combination of durability, size, quality and strength ( ie: long, straight, good girth with little taper and reasonable weather durability, good strength in manageable sizes). Long and straight is probably obvious, good girth- you need fewer logs to construct a wall. If a log has too much taper then it just looks awkward and you have less quality wood on the tapered end. If a log has less strength, then you need to increase the size of it.
The slower a wood grows, the better it tends to be in durability and usually strenght ( this is because it would have more heartwood and less sapwood.) So this may perhaps be why poplar may be acceptable in Alaska. May not be true of poplar grown in warmer climates. Depends on the kind of poplar too. There are a lot of trees which are called poplar.
What they called poplar in Alaska may be in fact be Yellow Cedar - a cypress or they could be referring to Balsam Poplar which does not grow in warmer regions.
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StephanieS
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# Posted: 27 Jul 2011 04:36pm
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I would also recommend using Cedar. It is great for durability. Log cabin kits can be purchased sometimes to make the laborious process of building a cabin easier.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 27 Jul 2011 06:56pm
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Cedar usually grows in a taper, not good for longer walls. Pricey too.
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PlicketyCat
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2011 08:32pm
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The Alaskan saying is because a cabin made of poplar (aspen, cottonwood) won't last very long. You'll either die because it falls in on you, or because it starts rotting apart and you freeze to death. It's a wet wood prone to cracking and checking, often rotting before drying, has poor insulation qualities, and isn't very rot/ant resistant when exposed to any amount of weather. It's a beautiful, workable wood for interior finishes and furniture projects, just not so great for anything exterior. You'd need a high foundation and very deep roof overhangs to protect poplar/aspen. Aspens in AK are some of the fastest growers and suffer heart rot like nobody's business... they usually come crashing down in the forest in less than 40 years (normally ant infested at the stump by then too).
Anyway -- most oak should stand up to the elements just, although it might be a little hard on your tools if you're doing a lot of hand notching and other joinery. Also a little hard on the back, since it's also pretty heavy. The weight and workability are probably going to be your toughest challenges with any hardwoods straight enough to use in a log cabin. I've seen them built of elm before, but you can see where big branches were cut from the main trunk and the scar sealed over.
Most of the softwoods are sappy, which helps them with the weather, and they don't normally have large lateral branches like deciduous trees tend to. They tend to be straighter and fatter higher up, and don't need to be big/old trees to be fat enough for log cabins... so they aren't old enough to have big fat branches either. Those "little" wispy branches aren't hard to slash off and don't leave big scars on your logs. But pine isn't the only softwood, there are a gajillion conifers beside pine: cedars, Douglas-firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, larches, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews to name a few.
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bc thunder
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# Posted: 8 Oct 2013 08:18pm
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I am planning on building with poplar this coming summer. Will keep it high off ground and good overhangs, but would love to hear how it worked out for the OC, or anyone else with any thoughts.
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davey25
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# Posted: 8 Oct 2013 09:14pm
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Stay away from poplar
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bldginsp
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# Posted: 8 Oct 2013 09:36pm
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I agree stay away from poplar for the reasons listed above, unless you can get specific info on the species you have where you are that tells you it has good rot resistant qualities.
Red oak is more prone to rot than white oak. There are actually a number of different species of oak called red, and a number called white too, I believe. Research is the key.
Just because 'they did it in the old days' doesn't mean its a good idea. Pioneers were building the fastest building they could out of sheer necessity, winter was coming on. No one wanted to live in a log cabin, it was the poor man's choice. Lincoln was embarrassed of his humble log cabin beginnings, though we revere him for it now. Point is you don't have to do it like they did, you can research it, and do it better.
Best book I know of for log construction is 'Log Construction Manual' by Robert W. Chambers. He doesn't advocate using cedar because cedar sap is not rot resistant, so, so what if the heart is? He says use what you got, but keep it 24 inches off the ground. Yes, 24 inches.
Some log kits may offer logs made entirely of heart cedar. They mill the logs into uniform timbers and can take off the sap, if they choose to do so. Cedar heart is one of the few truly rot resistant woods.
There is a 200 year old log cabin not far from my place in the California Sierras that is still reasonably intact. It is up on a 24-30 inch high unmortared rock footing. It's all softwood- Doug fir and the like. The sill logs are still intact. It's usually the sill log that rots first.
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bc thunder
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# Posted: 9 Oct 2013 10:27am
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Thanks guys, I know its never your first choice, but from what I have read everyone who has built with it has had good results, when they have taken the proper measures to keep it protected. I don't have much pine, and what I do have is still to young.
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fpw
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# Posted: 9 Oct 2013 08:16pm
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Poplar is fine. Keep it off the ground, keep it covered....she will be alright!
Jon
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bc thunder
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# Posted: 9 Oct 2013 09:16pm
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Thanks Jon. It was your blog that got me thinking it was possible.
Did you do the whole roof (ridge pole Ect..) in Poplar?
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