A Technical Consumer’s View

by

Richard H. Collier, Ph.D.

Are all logs suppliers the same?  Does wood species matter?  How are corners made air tight?  What effect will corner and sealing technology have on air tightness over time?  These were a few of the many questions I had as my wife and I began the process of choosing a log supplier for our new log home. 

I spent a few weeks of evenings researching the subject.  I quickly found three types of companies:  those that supply plan catalogs, those that supply materials for homes built of log or wood siding over conventional framing, and those that supply actual logs for a log home, the latter being our area of interest. 

I also quickly learned that each wood species has distinct characteristics.  For our home in the mountains of southern Colorado, insulation value was a major concern.  From what I learned, no species was better than air dried western red cedar in that regard.  This species is also more resistant to insects and decay than other popular species and is lighter than pine, fir, and cypress. 

There are almost as many ways to build a corner in a log home as there are log suppliers.  I looked for the best technology to deal with a long-standing concern: making corners air tight and keeping them so.  I found the “Colorado Corner” to be the best technology of any of the more than twenty systems I investigated.  Each course of cedar logs is firmly attached to the previous course with lag screws that seat fully in the course below, allowing each course to settle independently of the other while maintaining firm attachment between the courses.  The use of butyl rubber sealant, which remains pliable over a wide temperature range over many years seemed an excellent choice. 

But the feature that sold me most is the mortise and tenon corner design with a horizontal lag screw through the mortise and into the tenon to create a tight, sealed, square corner that adds strength and function.  Log end caps cover the outside mortise and lag screw head to give the appearance of a full lap joint corner with much superior strength and air tightness.  In my opinion, the Colorado Corner piece is not just a cosmetic device; it is the crown of the best engineered corner design in the log home industry. 

We had made the choice of log supplier based on the technology long before we met the owners of Liberty Log Cabins, Charles and Patty Knight.  We found them to be extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly.  They made our choice even easier.