How to Build a Log Cabin by Rob Winters

Author:Rob Winters
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-11-29T07:00:00+00:00

Just take your time scribing your notches, and you will get great results!

Chapter 12 - Laying Out and Building Your Loft

If you choose to include a loft in your floor-plan... you will give yourself additional living space at very little extra cost due to the fact that “building up” eliminates additional roof build-up and foundation/flooring costs. You may need to use flat or pitched dormers to utilize more usable space... but even these costs are less than additional roof buildup and foundation/flooring costs.

So... you will need to think in terms of installing log floor joists on 3' – 4' on centers. Your log floor joists will be installed after you have reached a log wall height of at least 9' on the long sides of your home. You will then choose the right number of logs at least 9” in diameter, and mill a 1/2” to 1” thick flat spot on the log. This should give you just enough of a flat surface to lay out your flooring system. These logs should be as straight as possible and very similar in size. After you have milled your flat surface on each one... Climb up on your ladder and mark out your layout on top of both opposite walls. load all of your log floor joists on to the walls, with the bottom round crown area positioned on top of each layout mark. ( you will need to extend your layout mark down over the wall log about 6” to 8” to be able to see it and line up the logs later when re- positioning them). Then using a 2' level... make sure that all of the log floor joists are perfectly level, and carefully chock or set them firmly in place with rocks, not wood chips as they will break and spin or rotate the log out of place.

Now you will set-up your transit level on one corner using a triangular piece of 3/4” plywood as a temporary platform. (Be careful as you are now 9' to 10' in the air looking through the transit scope.) with a helper... find the measurement of each floor joist at each point that you will be cutting a notch in the floor joist. Unlike wall logs where you can take out up to ½ of the log diameter for your notch... in the case of log floor joists you do not want to notch any more than 1/3 of the log's diameter to avoid weakening the notch. You will need to do a “cutback” of the “Re-Curve” to avoid gaps in the lower portion of the notch. If you want to skip this step... simply be prepared to chink the notches to fill in those gaps. These gaps occur due to the fact that since you are not taking out much of the notch... the log surface will curl under and the next notch will leave a gap.

After you have captured the measurement for each notching point (from the flat spot to

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