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Designing Your Log Home By

Doug Tatham Appalachian Log Homes, Inc.

Thank you for visiting our web site and downloading our booklet. Although we publish almost 40 floor plans we

believe that most log homebuyers would rather design part or all of their future home. It is hoped this booklet will help in the process of customizing a log home that fits both your

needs and your budget.

If you have any questions or would like a custom quote run for your design, do not hesitate to contact us at

1-800-726-0670 or

1-800-726-0708 Note: We would appreciate any comments you might have on the following pages.

Let us know if they help or if there are any other aspects of log home design about which you would like to know. Thanks.

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Introduction So you are considering building a log home. Now comes the process of finding land, deciding on a house site, designing the home, finding a log manufacturer, getting building prints and building it. This seemingly Herculean task will seem less daunting if each piece is looked at and broken down separately. There are approximately 30,000 log homes built every year. As the Chinese say, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” The first thing that must be determined is your budget. We will not go over how to develop a budget here, but will assume you have already determined what you will be able to afford. Subtract from that costs for land and improvements that will be required and we now have your house budget. Keep this figure always in mind. We will go over the costs of certain designs as opposed to others so that you will be somewhat more educated as to how to allocate the money you will be spending.

Site The site you choose for your new home should heavily influence your final design. There are those who pick out a house plan and then try to find

Everyone has an image of the perfect home site.

a piece of land upon which to build this “ideal” home. This approach is very similar to a developer approaching 10 A. of newly acquired pasture with 25 homes to build on it. Your results are in danger of looking as awkward as do many current developments. What usually results in a more satisfying project both

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aesthetically and practically is to first determine your site and then develop a house plan. If you already have a site the principles we will discuss will be applied to that site. If you have not bought your land there are a few things you need to consider. Once you have determined the general area in which you want to live, you can begin a land search through the Internet or local realtors. You can also subscribe to local newspapers. Take your time if you can because the site for your new home will affect everything else that happens. When looking at land you should pay attention to water, access and solar orientation as well as to the price. You should also investigate any zoning or permit requirements that may be attached to any prospective purchase. Check with local officials on 100-year flood levels in your area. Walk over the land looking for evidence of seasonal changes such as wet-weather springs or steams or areas that may become marshy in the rainy season. All of these will determine where you can site your home, how you can gain access and where your septic system may be located if one is needed. If you are looking at land in

the country take time to get to know your nearest neighbors. They may be a wealth of information about the history, advantages and any problems that the land has. It will also give you some idea of what kind of neighbors they will be if you buy the land. You should have a general idea of the size of home you want. Translate that to a rectangle by deciding if it will probably be a one, one and a half or two story. Then find dimensions to fit the approximate footprint. (A 2000 sq. foot one story could be a 50 x 40 foot rectangle. A 2000 sq foot two story could be a 40 x 25.) This will give you a very approximate size of the building site. Nothing needs to be set in stone at this point. It is just another tool in helping decide if a piece of land will meet your requirements as a building site. Try to evaluate the slope of different house sites on the land by carrying a contractor’s site level or simply using a 4-foot level and a tape. The slope of a piece of land is one of the most difficult things to judge by “eyeing” it. Step off your footprint and find the grade so that you will know if a basement is required or if the house will need to be limited in one direction or the other.

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If your site is steep, adding a

walkout basement creates additional living space at a very reduced cost.

The site will also determine the view or activity location of your future house design. In other words if you are buying lakefront property the house and possibly the view will be orientated toward the water. Likewise, if you are looking at a piece of property with a beautiful mountain view you will probably be locating the building so that you will be able to enjoy that view in your finished home. With a general idea of the size of your house footprint look at access into the site and solar orientation. Try to visit the site at different times of the day and if your timetable will allow at different times of the year. Note which way the wind blows on all of these trips. Being able to situate the house on a piece of land to take advantage of winter sunshine, summer shade; to find the one spot that blocks winter winds while encouraging

summer breezes is the most important consideration in the overall energy efficacy of the house. Once you have decided on a piece of land, begin getting estimates on all the necessary improvements such as driveway, water supply, etc. so that those costs can be figured into your overall budget. What remains of that budget will be immediately needed as you begin the house design process. Also check on any permits, codes or special building restrictions or land covenants that will need to be considered as you design your home. The Design Process Whether you decide to work with an architect, a designer with a log home company or design your new home yourself, the more quality time and thought you give to the process, the happier you will be with your home in the end. Most log home manufactures now expect that every project will be a custom home. Nearly nine out of ten log homes that are sold are. Most homes are modifications of an exiting floor plan, but many are completely customized for the individual owners.

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The finished log home is simply the

sum of many smaller ideas.

As with most things, customizing your own floor plan is more work, but will be far more rewarding. Remember: There are no problems in doing custom designs. It is just that some have more interesting engineering opportunities than others. There are three excellent places to start in designing your new home. The first is to start a scrapbook. Put in everything from landscaping details and house shapes to china patterns and paint colors. Your home will be the sum of the parts that you and the manufacturer put into it. Start your collection of parts—pieces that will make up the finished product. When you spot something you think you might like in your home add it. Visit log home models or open houses and take pictures to add to the file. Every so often go through the book and remove those things that no longer strike you as useful.

The second way to start is right where you are now. Make a list of all of the things you like about your current house as well as all of the things you would change. Almost every one wants more room, but that does not necessarily mean more rooms. Sometimes all that will be needed is a more efficient design. Also make note of how your time—especially your quality time is spent. Perhaps you only sit on your porch for one hour a week, but that one hour is some of you and your partner’s best time together. That porch probably needs to be transferred to your new house. Maybe it needs to become an all-season porch. Make a list of what rooms you spend your time in and how would you change that time. If climbing the stairs to your bedroom every night no longer appeals to you perhaps your master bedroom should be off the living room in your new home or perhaps you should be thinking of a one-story design. The third starting point is to begin looking at floor plans. You can use either the log home publications or traditional home plans. The trick is to recognize a stock plan that has the potential to become perfect for you.

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Getting Ideas on Paper Now it is time to start getting your ideas into a floor plan. Most log home manufactures have the capacity to design your home and produce prints from which it can be built. You may not need to pay for an architect unless your project is extremely complex. If you are working with a professional designer be aware of how much background they have in log home construction. Most architects are not familiar with log home design. You do not want to pay an architect to reinvent the wheel when log home manufactures can guide you toward a design that will work efficiently as a log home plan. Whomever you chose, be sure that they are willing to listen to you and make recommendations based on your wants, needs, and budget. If you let someone talk you into a design you do not want, you will never truly be happy with your log home. Before you start assembling all of the pieces you have been collecting, it is time to get an overview of the nature of your home and lifestyle. We have provided some questions at the end of this section in the form of a quiz. Sit down with all parties

concerned and answer all of the questions. This will give the designer some idea of the general framework into which all of your individual pieces will fit. (If you want to go into this process in great detail get a copy of Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language. It is very complex and not “light” reading at all, but it is very thorough.) After you finish the Design Quiz. begin sketching the home’s general layout. Start by drawing circles, or bubbles, that represent the different rooms or spaces listed in your quiz. Make larger circles for larger rooms, and smaller circles for smaller rooms. Arrange the bubbles according to their function or category. You will eventually be concerned with two facets of your home—layout and look. Look refers to the general three-dimensional presentation of the home: its shape, size and proportions. The layout is more

Basic room layouts begin the design

process.

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a matter of how the space is allocated within this form. Right now you are interested mostly in layout. Now that the general spaces are labeled begin fitting the individual pieces into the diagram. How big will the bedrooms need to be? In the living and dining room area are there special size requirements such as a massive entertainment center or a table that seats 14 people. Will the bath area require specialty tubs or will it need to be a bath and a half. Gradually the sizes of the rooms will be flushed out. At this point it is time to begin drawing the plan to scale. If you want to do this yourself you can work with grid paper or purchase one of the many inexpensive home architect software programs. There are several that are currently under $100 that will suffice for doing floor plans. They have their limitations, but are relatively simple to learn to operate and are accurate enough for your use at this point. If you are working with a designer they will usually produce these initial scaled drawings for you. Once the initial layout is put to scale, the look of the house can be determined. It is at this point that you will need to start working with general log home

(or homes in general) design principles. These principles will help you to fit the many pieces you have collected for your dream home into a functional design and still attempt to stay within your budget.

Inexpensive software programs can

help you develop a floor plan.

Basic Design Principles If you are on a set budget as are most log homebuyers, your house will be a balance between size and luxuries. (The following discussion will generally start with the least expensive way of designing a project and move to the more expensive hopefully illuminating along the way the pros and cons of each.) There are several ways to encompass 2000 square feet of living space. First look at the site. If a crawl space will be at least five feet deep because of

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frost line in Northern climates or because of slope of the site in general, a basement will be a very good idea. Generally, basements are the least expensive building systems with traditional stud construction being next and log being the most expensive. So if you can do 1000 square feet of basement and 1000 square feet of log in one story that will be less expensive than all log. Like wise, if you are working with a story and a half design and can gain headroom in the second floor with stud construction wrapped in log veneer your overall costs will be less than building two stories in log. This brings us the second principle of building design. A square (or a cube) is the least expensive design in house building. However, square house footprints are boring and do not look right. This principle then is almost always used only as an overall guide and rarely adhered to strictly. It reinforces the above statement about the cost effectiveness of the story and a half. If all other elements are held constant the story and a half is the least expensive, the two story is next and the single story is most expensive. However, by not holding everything constant you can modify all of the above

principles. One way to affect the cost drastically is with the roof system. Flat ceilings are generally less expensive than vaulted spaces. Log homes can be roofed using conventional trusses either flat or faulted (scissor). Or they can have roofs built using 2x material. Many log home manufactures offer a built- up roof system which features wood ceilings and large exposed rafters and ridge beams inside the home.

A built-up roof system features exposed beams and wood ceilings.

Roof costs for a 28 x 40 home

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If you use a one-story plan that is not overly spread out and roof it with conventional trusses you overcome the added foundation and roof area costs. Or you can mix and match roof

Varying rooflines allows for use of different roof systems and adds

character to a home.

construction methods to give vaulted ceilings in only part of the house and save money on the other portions of the house. The following picture is the floor plan for the previous

Proper design can facilitate cost

reductions.

elevation. It shows how this design lends itself to the use of two roof systems. Flat trusses in the bedroom wings can be combined with scissor trusses or a built up roof system in the great room/kitchen area. Also tied to the principle of the square is the principle of straight lines. The more corners you have in a wall and the more angles you have in a roof the more expensive the house becomes. Because a square house is boring, design sometimes benefits from a bump out or a roof profile may be greatly enhanced by the addition of gable (window) dormers. The gable dormer is a good example of how the price per square foot can be very misleading. One should look at the overall house design and budget. A four-foot gable dormer on a house with a 12/12 pitch adds less than 20 square feet to the useable floor space. If that gable costs $3000 the floor space works out to $150 per square foot, which is somewhat expensive, but it may be exactly what the roof or an upstairs room needs. Let something be stressed here again: The finished home is a balance between budget and design. If the budget is fixed then by understanding what

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design features will drive costs either up or down, the buyer can decide what is important and on what they want to spend extra money. If the house will be owned for only a few years then resell issues may enter into the design. By adding a third bedroom that really is not needed the resell value is usually enhanced and money may be allotted for that room. Perhaps you have a special collection that you want to display. Some buyers are drawn to log homes as a backdrop for their collections.

Some collections are easily assimilated in a home.

Some collections demand their own space.

Space may need to be created for those collections. Again there is no right or wrong here. It is simple a matter of where money will be spent. Lastly, open floor plans are a good way to create large spaces in less square footage.

A small dining room is made to look larger my making it part of a great

room. Smaller rooms borrow from each other. A downsized dining room will look larger if it opens onto a kitchen or living room. The drawback of open floor plans is that they can be noisy and may lack privacy. If your lifestyle is such that dishwasher noise from the kitchen does not disrupt living room conversation or television noise does not interrupt homework at a dining room table, perhaps the open floor plan is for you. Noise control in general is easily affected in any home with stud walls by simply insulting all of the interior partition walls. Also insulating between floors

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will be very important especially if you have children’s bedrooms on a second floor. Designing for the Future One of the questions that is very important on the Design Quiz is “How long do you intend to stay in you new Home?” We have already mentioned building for resale value, but there are two other major design issues when considering the future. The first is when the buyers have a limited budget, and plan to make additions to the house as their financial situation improves or as their family grows. The second is for those buyers who want this to be their last home. Log homes are easily designed so they can be added on to later. If that is the intention consider the flow of the house with the addition. Place an outside door on the wall where the addition is planned so that traffic will make sense. This will also mean that a hole will not have to be cut out in an existing wall. The rooms most commonly added are great rooms or bedrooms. In planning for the addition make sure that the first part of the house to be built is complete and attractive in itself. Additions sometimes take years

to materialize or owners may end up moving and never making the additions. The house will be difficult to sell if it looks or is incomplete. The most common additions are a wing or wings, a “T” or an “L”. Each of these is called a pen or a crib in log home construction. These, if done correctly, will give the addition a

A single pen home.

different roofline than the original part of the house and eliminate many of the settlement issues that come with joining new log construction to an older log home.

A double pen home.

The second design issue that looks toward the future is for all of those buyers who are wanting to retire in a log home.

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A triple pen home.

If you are planning for this to be your last home and even if you are only in your 50’s think about being in your 70’s or 80’s. Will you still want to climb stairs then? If not design a single story or put only spare bedrooms upstairs. Make sure all of the doors into the house and to bedrooms and bathrooms are wheelchair accessible. Plan for walk-in showers and slip-proof flooring. Buy “smart” appliances with automatic shutoffs. Once the home is built, use low- maintenance landscaping. Energy-Efficient Design If a log home is well engineered and built it will be easily heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. Log buildings have a thermal mass effect, which makes them approximately 30% more energy efficient than a stud built home with the same R-value in the walls. (R-values are a measurement of the resistance of any material to conductivity of heat.) But wall R-values are only

part of what makes a structure energy efficient. In normal homes whether log or conventional, the walls go up and there are multiple large holes for windows and doors. How these are installed and their resistance to the transfer of heat will make more difference in the comfort and energy efficiency of the house than sheer wall R-value. Likewise, the insulation in the roof system is far more critical than the walls. Heat rises as it is introduced into the home in the winter. Improper roof insulation allows heat to escape rapidly. In the summer the roof insulation package must keep the home from being heated by the sun. It usually does not make sense economically to have thicker logs just to add R-value to the walls. (Every inch of wood only adds 1.25 R-value points.) Adding extra insulation in a truss or built-up roof system or to the floor is a very attractive option when the added costs are compared to future energy savings. Log Profile R-values Although almost all log wood species have exactly the same R-value (1.25 per inch), the profile or shape of the log makes a great deal of difference in the energy

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efficiency of the log wall. Consider a 6-inch log in a round and flat profile, one log resting on the other and a flat chinked-space log. A six inch round log is only 6 inches through at the center so the average thickness with a two-inch jointed

A six-inch log with a 2-inch union will only average 4 inches in thickness.

bottom is only four inches. A “D” log is even less usually having a 6-inch profile flattened on the interior. On the other hand a 6 inch “squared” log will be consistently 6 inches thick. The most energy efficient log profile at six inches is the “squared” log with a highly insulated chink space. If the chink space is four inches thick between 12-inch logs it will constitute 25% of the wall. If 2 inches of polystyrene is used on each side as a backer, it raises the functional R-value of the wall to almost 13.5 which means that it is more energy efficient than using an eight-inch log.

A flat log has a consistent thickness

and R-value.

A six-inch log with a 4-inch insulted

chink joint can be more energy efficient that an 8-inch log.

Solar Orientation In the Northern Hemisphere, if a wall can be orientated within 15 degrees of due south the home can take advantage of winter solar heating principles. There are many

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good books and articles written on passive solar heating, so only the essentials will be covered here as they relate to design and house positioning. As mentioned in the previous discussion on site evaluation, a new home’s placement needs to be determined with knowledge of true north and therefore true south. (True north is often different from magnetic north by several degrees and changes over time.) The home does not have to face true south. If you are considering a covered porch across the front of the home it will shade all solar gain at least for the bottom floor. In that case the back wall might face south and the house design will change accordingly. Whichever wall faces south will get more light as well as heat in the winter through any windows or doors in the winter. This is important in establishing the kind of rooms that you want on that wall. In the summer, overhangs can shade those windows so that there is no solar gain and therefore no excessive heating. This is relatively simple and works because of the lower angle of the sun in winter as opposed to summer.

The sun appears lower in the sky in winter.

The overhangs themselves do not have to be exaggerated and can often be used to enhance the “look” of the house such as having extended rafters and ridges on eaves, gable ends, or dormers. Porches and Decks Porches are part of most log home packages. (Porches here will be a decking with a roof while a deck will mean there is no roof.) They serve several purposes besides being aesthetically appealing. First they protect the logs from weather and the stain from UV rays extending the life of both. Although they cut down on any solar gain for the first floor, they can add greatly in keeping the home cool in the summer. They also provide an inviting living space for several months of the year and a place to display the homeowner’s collections.

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Porches make inviting entrances as

well as spaces for the display of homeowner’s collections.

A combination of porch and deck

unites the qualities of both. Care must be taken in attaching both porches and decks to the logs of the home so that they do not trap dirt and moisture. Decks if they can be located on the south side of the house and surrounded by deciduous trees will make inviting additions to the home all year long. Or they may

be combined with porches to give both more deck area while lowering costs and providing partial protection from the elements.

A screened porch gives protection from both insects and the weather.

Conclusion Designing your log home, although a seemingly daunting challenge can be as rewarding as living in the finished product. The more thought and time that is put into the planning of your home the more it will be uniquely yours when it is finished. The finished design is a balance of ideas, costs, and wood. A log home is not just a place to live. It is a place of dreams made real.

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Designing Your Log Home

Design Quiz

A. Room Layout and Functions

1. What size should your home be? _________________ A. How many bedrooms? ______ B. What are their functions? C. 1. ________________ 2. ________________

3. _________________ 4.________________ D. What then are their sizes? 1. _________________ 2. ________________ 3. ___________________ 4._________________ E. How many bathrooms and their function?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

F. What are other required rooms? Room Any Special Requirements

1. _______________________________________________ 2. _______________________________________________ 3. _______________________________________________ 4. _______________________________________________ 5. _______________________________________________ 6. _______________________________________________ 7. _______________________________________________ 8. _______________________________________________ 9. _______________________________________________ 10. _______________________________________________

2. Kitchen/dining options

A. Is the kitchen to be open to the dining/great room so the cook is not isolated from other activities? ___________________________

B. Do you encourage people to gather in the kitchen while you cook? ___

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C. How many cooks will there be? __________________________

D. Will you need a pantry? _____________________________ E. Where do you eat?

1.Indoors________________________________________ 2.Outdoors_______________________________________ 3.In the kitchen____________________________________ 4. If you currently have a formal dining room, how is it used? ___________________________________________

3. Do you prefer an open design with few rooms or more closed intimate spaces or a special combination of the two? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Do you prefer the master bedroom to be separated from the other bedrooms? _____________________________________________________________ 5. Do you prefer the master bedroom to be a suite or just one room? ______________ 6. Will an office/computer space be needed & does it need to be a separate room? _____________________________________________________________ 7. Do you have any special interests or hobbies that require space considerations? ____________________________________________________________ 7. Do you have any collections that you will want to display? _____________________________________________________________ 9. What kind of storage requirements are there?__________________________ What is to be stored?___________________________________________

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10. Do any of the rooms have special lighting requirements such as morning light in the kitchen or bedrooms placed so they do not receive morning sun? _____________________________________________________________ 11. What type of lighting do you prefer (daylight, lamps, indirect, recessed)? ___________________________________________________________ B. Lifestyle Considerations

1. What is the purpose of the home? a. Primary Residence

___________________________________ b. Vacation home

_____________________________________ c. Rental___________________________________________ d. Speculative_______________________________________

2. If primary, how long do you intend to stay in your new home? ______________________________________________________

3. Who will be living with you and for how long? List their ages. a. Children_________________________________________ b. Parents__________________________________________ c. Others___________________________________________

4. What are everyone’s favorite activities and are they noisy or quiet? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Do you have frequent guests (parents, children, grandchildren, etc.) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Is your lifestyle formal or informal?_________________________

7. Do you have pets and what special considerations will they need? ______________________________________________________

8. Do you entertain often? If so for how many? ______________________________________________________

9. Do you socialize with neighbors or prefer privacy? ______________________________________________________

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10. Do you spend a lot of time outdoors? ___________________________

11. Do you need special outside buildings or spaces located in close proximity to the house?_____________________________________________

12. Will there be special gardens or landscape features located in close proximity to the house? ____________________________________________

13. What will be the real use of a garage if included in your plans? _____________________________________________________

14. What are your favorite seasons? ______________________________

Notes and observations: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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