Design & Cost

How do we get a design?

Design and cost are always the crunch questions, and aren’t as scary as you may think.
We build small cabins right through to massive lodges and accommodation houses
99% of our homes are custom designed, that is our customers basically come up with a plan that they love and suits their life style, location and views.

It may be a take off of a home we have built before, or a plan similar to one they already know, or one they have found on one of the many plan web sites available.
We do not have a plan book for you to choose plan 1-100 from, this seems to be not really what our customers want.

We can introduce you to one of the many log home designers we work with, to help you get the plan that you really want, not one that looks like some one else’s. These designers are experienced in log home design ideas, and details.

They will take all of the worry out of getting your log home all of the way through the consent process.

What is a good design?

Log walls are just another form of wall construction; we can build traditional cabin styles as well as the modern and high tech log homes of today.
You the customer can decide what you want in your log home,
Maybe small cozy rooms or large expansive open areas. All look great in log.
Our logs are just real trees with the bark taken off, exposing their natural beauty, natural shape and characteristics.
Log beams, and floor joist logs, just look amazing and strong and divide up flat ceiling spaces beautifully.
Log post are a natural addition to verandahs and mezzanine support, and also a main component in supporting ridge logs and purlin logs if you are having any,
They are a great leaning place and people just love to touch them.
Light is important I any home and designers have a flare for this right at the design stage.
Some customers like all things wood, and some like a delicate mix of log walls and some conventional, these conventional walls can then become a feature where they intersect, golden log walls.
And can be re decorated through out the years
Great use of space, flow through working areas, as well as cozy quiet areas, and a great fireplace are all things we enjoy in our log home.

What other materials should I use?

Remember log walls are your framing, insulation, inside lining, outside lining, all in one.
You can incorporate any other building mediums and materials with log construction.
Concrete or wooden floors, heated or not, Carpets, tiles, stone and mud brick.
Cedar, fir or board and batten around dormers and Gable ends,
Flat gib ceilings, Tand G timbers, or high lofted, cathedral spaces.
Modern fires and heating, and the latest in light fittings and electrical,
Traditional or modern bathrooms all work well with Majestic log walls.
Farm Kitchens to modern breakfast bars etc are all commonplace in our log homes.

Engineering

All of our log homes are Engineer approved, to ensure you get the safest and strongest log home you can, engineered to suit your location, wind zone, and earthquake Zone. Logs are an amazing building material that is strong and flexible. Mostly over specified in areas like lintels and beams.
The designer or Architect will have this done for you.

What is the cost?

Cost is really related to what you want.
We do not price log homes by the square meter alone as this is not very accurate.
As two log homes of the exact same size may have many different numbers of log walls, log posts, and log roof pieces, hence a different cost.
We have built log homes with 3 bedrooms of …100..sqm and 3bedroom log homes of 620 sq meters and the log shells ranged from …$70 k to $300k.
Again this is purely based on the volume of log work and the technical Difficulty of the construction.
The most efficient log home shells can cost around $800 per sq meter, ex Geraldine, But most will cost more than this with extra corners, and extra log walls, verandahs and log roof systems.Some log kits can cost over $ 2000 per sq meter.
Natural log homes will give you a fixed contract price before any construction starts, which is based o a 4-hour detailed review of your plan.
Every detail is taken into consideration, every hole electrical outlet, floor joist ridge beam posts and door and window openings.

What do I get for that?

You will get you log home handcrafted by us at Natural log homes construction yard by experienced craftsman to our highest quality.
All log components, are hand peeled, yes, by hand not machine,
All of the log walls are hand scribed and hand cut and erected to the top plate height and then all of the overhangs are trimmed to your desired shape.
All of the window and door openings are cut and squared to suit your selected joinery,
As we disassemble your shell, we drill for all of your electrical outlets on the log walls, and for any hurricane holding down bolts.
Our log seal gaskets are installed on both sides of every long groove and around every notch.
Roof pieces are meticulously cut out to exact log piece drawings, and log trusses if any, built with love to the engineers design.
Posts are fitted with screw jacks,
Then all logs are finally buffed to remove any construction marks, (numbered like a giant jigsaw puzzle), and each with its own 2 lifting straps is loaded carefully into a container ready for delivery right to your foundation.

Who does the rest?

NLH do all of the log work, all of the chainsaw work.
The rest of the work is just normal carpentry, any skilled carpenter can do.
All of the log work is cut to accept the normal carpentry timbers.
Our customers generally engage a carpenter in their area, to build the foundation,
And finish the kit of, they will put the iron on the roof and build the kitchen and Bathrooms. They do not have to run a chainsaw at all.
We will school him up on any log related questions he may have.
We are log specialists and it’s not cost effective to have Natural Log Homes men, living in hotels, doing normal carpentry work, that a carpenter in your area can do. Also he knows the local electrician and plumber who need to work closely with him.
We can price delivery, and some of NLH crew to help you or your builder assemble the log home shell, or you could arrange this yourself.
Most shells can be reassembled with a hiab truck, and the fastest assembly took us 5 hrs, but the larger homes can take up to a week.

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Photos and text copyright © Natural Log Homes Ltd, 2010. Last update in September 2010.