Project Types: Log Homes
Beautiful Log homes
You can’t imagine how wonderful the world could look from the warmth of your own log home.
Log Home Designs from PSE: Build Something Greener
Log home designs from PSE offer distinct advantages and are a standard feature in green building practices.
Log Home Designs from PSE
The designers and engineers at Precision Structural Engineering (PSE) place green building practices as the cornerstone of their mission, with log homes being one of the best examples of cleaner living for both the occupants of the structure and the environment.
Log homes are beautiful and make fine second homes or vacation spots. But this particular home type is fast becoming a popular primary residence. With continued innovations in design and the cost savings that comes from increased efficiencies, log homes are capturing the attention of many homeowners. PSE, licensed in 22 states, is familiar with the best green building practices and has the expertise to take ideas in log home design to the completion of your dream home.
Green Benefits of Log Homes
Wood is a naturally green material, being renewable and sustainable in the long term. Additionally, superior log home designs are reliably more energy efficient than other housing types. For example, the heating and cooling system in a log home is generally 15% more efficient than its traditional counterpart.
There are also efficiencies found in the construction process, since most or part of the assembly occurs off-site and is then delivered to the final location.
Log home designs from PSE utilize the latest technology from some of the best engineers invested in maximizing the performance and increasing the efficiency in every log home. You’ll find that PSE green building practices are among the most innovative. Please contact us for a free consultation to discuss your specifications and ideas for a log home. We look forward to working with you.
Log homes in America had their beginnings as basic frontier housing, but by the end of the 19th century, massive log structures had become trendy vacation retreats for the upper classes.
Today, none our of ten log homes in the US are built as the family’s primary residence, not as a vacation retreat and they are built in outer rim suburbs, not along lake shores.
In the past, most log homes were built as family do-it yourself projects. Most of today’s log homes are not built by the owners. The majority of log homes are completely turn-key built by professional contractors.
There are over 25,000 log homes built annually in the United States alone. Log homes are available in almost any desired architectural style. Most manufacturers will send a catalog showing their stock log home plans, but log home can be redesigned to fit the need of the buyer.
What sets a Log Home Apart?
A log home is really very much like a conventional home. It has a foundation, walls and a roof. It has the same kinds of plumbing, electrical and heating systems. In fact, a cutaway of a log home reveals not much that is not typical of standard home, other than that fact that the walls are beautiful and made from logs.
Two characteristics, however, can stand out. One has to do with the roof, and the other with ceilings. A log hoe can have a conventional roof, constructed of rafters or trusses. These are generally unseen, as in a conventional home. Some people, however, like to see the structure of their homes with log rafters, which run exposed from the tops of walls to their roof ridge beam, or with log purlins, which are exposed and run parallel with the ridge log beam.
Another factor is energy-efficiency is air infiltration. Tests have shown that modern log walls don’t leak air. Also, the increased thermal mass of log houses will put the owner in the forefront of the environmental movement when it comes to energy-efficient construction.
A ten-year joint study conducted by the construction industry, the US Department of Energy( DOE) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the National Bureau of Standards shows that log or solid wood construction can save up to 25 percent on annual energy (heating and cooling) bills when compared to sick-built or ordinary frame construction.
Logs could be hand crafted or logs could be produced in the mill. The milled-log home producer utilizes modern machinery to mass-produce piles of same-size, precision-peeled, and notched logs. Homes built with these system are generally more affordable because a whole lot less work is involved than hand-crafting logs.
Manufactured log homes are generally sold in packages or kits that come in varying degrees of completeness and price. Unlike the handcrafted counterpart, exacting machinery creates building components that usually do not need to be reassembled before shipping the logs. With the help of efficient high-tech equipment, a single miller can provide a hundred or more families with log shells each year.
A handcrafted log home is still keyed to the basic tent of muscle and a wet brow. Each trunk is peeled by hand, then every log, post, and beam is carefully measured and shaped to fit in its place. While some artisans prefer to craft their homes entirely on-site, most companies will pre-build the log shells in their own work yards. The logs in each home are then numbered and the building disassembled for shipment to the owner’s land where I the log home will be re-erected. Prices varies, however, cost of kit log homes is about $75 per square foot and cost of had-crafted log home is about $100 per square foot. Please note that the finished home may cost double the mentioned cost.
Structural Designs of Log Homes
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