Log Work

What kind of home do you live in? This probably isn't something you think about on a regular basis. Most people don't, unless you're in the construction or building industry. Chances are you live in a framed house or building. Light-framed construction is the most common type of modern building for many reasons. As taken from Wikipedia: "Light frame construction using standardized dimensional lumber has become the dominant construction method in North America and Australia because of its economy. Use of minimal structural materials allows builders to enclose a large area with minimal cost, while achieving a wide variety of architectural styles. The ubiquitous platform framing and the older balloon framing are the two different light frame construction systems used in North America."

Staying on track with good American practices, we use frame building because it's quick, cheap and easy. Compare this to the log buildings of yesterday. (As a side note, log buildings were not the buildings of choice for the first East Coast settlers. Log buildings are more common as you head West in the later years of America's development.) Personally, I think log buildings are fantastic. When I moved to Alaska in 2003, I had a very romantic image of what the architecture would be like there. I imagined everyone living in a quaint log cabin with lots of wilderness around. Well, this is hardly the truth, and it makes sense that it's not. Anchorage, the city I lived in, was mainly developed in the 1960s and 1970s- when inexpensive frame building was becoming very popular. Log buildings require quite a bit more expertise, craftsmanship and hard labor (logs are HEAVY!). Sadly, skilled log craftsman are on the decline. This is why such organizations like Preservation Trades Network are increasing in popularity- we don't want to lose these skills!

I could go on and on about logs, but let's get to the Alpine Guard Station and the work we've been doing. If you remember, the main cabin of the building is a pretty impressive log structure. The bottom logs (the sills and the spandrel logs) were sitting either directly on the ground or on concrete. Both of these situations caused the logs to rot quickly. We had to remove these bottom logs and replace them with new, healthy logs. So...how do you remove the bottom log of a building without taking it apart??

Like I mentioned in the last blog, we had to jack up the building, use a lot of force and chainsaw power, and a bit of manly sledgehammer power to get these suckers out.


It took a few days, but we finally were able to get out the sill log and two spandrel logs on the East and West sides of the building. Thank goodness for the hefty 12 ton jacks we had, otherwise there's just no way...
Kind of looks like the building is floating huh? Well, it kind of is for a moment. It's pretty amazing to lift an entire house straight from the ground; and a little scary.

Once we got the logs out, we had to put in the new ones. But first, we had to cut down the trees, somehow carry them to where they needed to be (trucks and hitches come in handy for this), peel them, drawknife them, and then notch them to fit back into place. All of this took about two weeks from start to finish, seriously, this is not easy work. Like I said, these suckers are heeaaavy. And notching the corner of a log to fit into the one above and below it is not exactly easy either. We did it though, and I think the end result looks pretty dang good!










Now we just need to put the finishing touches on, like a little bit of paint, and any epoxy on some logs that can be saved. I'm glad that this difficult phase is over though, now we can get going on other things like fixing the interior, re-shingling the roof, and building the porch that once stood many years ago.

As a bonus, if you're interested in seeing how a log cabin is built from start to finish, I recommend the move "Alone in the Wilderness". It's about a man who moves to Alaska by himself when he is 51 to build his own cabin and live there for an entire year alone. It's very impressive!