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Bramburr
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# Posted: 19 Jul 2017 05:47pm
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I have 200 (so far) 4x6 oak beams 10' long that I wish to build a small cabin/small house with. I love the look of both post and beam as well as traditional tongue and groove homes. I'd like to hear pros/cons, opinions, and ideas from everyone. What would you build with these?
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Atlincabin
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# Posted: 20 Jul 2017 11:15am
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Not sure what I would build with these, but I'm jealous that you have them! I might consider getting them ripped into boards and use for flooring or walls, or something like that. But that is just me.
I have seen some nicely done cabins using vertical logs rather than horizontal. This would take advantage of the length of your beams, which seem somewhat short to run a full wall length in horizontal.
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Malamute
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# Posted: 20 Jul 2017 12:01pm - Edited by: Malamute
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The book Your Cabin In The Woods by Conrad Meinecke has drawings of small cabins built with shorter logs. The one that came to mind has bump-outs for beds and other living spaces. Lots more corners, which would make it a huge amount more work in normal log building with notched corners, but would be about perfect with your shorter wood and not doing notched corners. Post and beam corners, butt and pass, or dovetails would all work with your wood.
A google search didnt turn up any images of the particular drawing I had in mind. If you can lay hands on the book, the picture has enough concept to adapt it to your needs and desires and work out dimensions that will work for you.
EDIT: hey wait, I looked at the search results again, this is one of the cabin ideas I recalled, but didnt see this image the first time I looked. I believe theres another one also.
https://img0.etsystatic.com/136/0/10335836/il_570xN.857433190_a16m.jpg
EDIT: Found the pic I was thinking of, but its a small size. The upper right pic of this group,
https://img1.etsystatic.com/035/0/7154588/il_570xN.515503165_ik1d.jpg
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Bramburr
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# Posted: 20 Jul 2017 02:55pm
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Malamute
Thanks Malamute!! I'll be looking for the book right away. I don't know why I didn't think of incorporating both ideas.
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NorthRick
Member
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# Posted: 20 Jul 2017 04:51pm
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Another thread on this site might give you some ideas:
http://www.small-cabin.com/forum/2_599_0.html
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rockies
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# Posted: 20 Jul 2017 07:52pm
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One thing to consider: Are your beams green, kiln or air dried?
A green timber can be as much as 50% water and when it dries out it shrinks across the width (very little along the length). You might find that all your vertical posts have not shrunk much but your horizontal beams and boards (though tightly joined at construction) now have large gaps between them.
Even air dried or kiln dried timbers can still continue drying out after construction since kiln drying usually reduces the moisture content of the wood to about 19% but the local environment keeps wood at a natural level of 8-10%.
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Bramburr
Member
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# Posted: 25 Sep 2017 12:05pm
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rockies
They have been air dried indoors for almost 5 years. I hoping to have time to get after this project in the spring 
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rockies
Member
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# Posted: 25 Sep 2017 08:25pm
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One thing to consider is that even after 5 years of drying wood can still contain a higher level of moisture than expected for your local climate. Your wood may continue to dry and shrink until it gets down to the equilibrium point for your climate zone.
Here is a list of common levels of moisture for climates throughout the US.
http://www.woodfloorsonline.com/techtalk/US_moisture_map.html
Make sure you test your logs for moisture content and then compare it to the chart so you can gauge how much more your logs may shrink.
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