While the thought of buying your own home usually evokes a lot of good emotions, deciding what type of home to choose for a living takes more time and effort than it may seem in the beginning. Scandinavian log cabins for sale are not a thing we build every year. Therefore, when planning the construction of this house type, we usually come up with a lot of expectations for future comfort and hope to avoid construction mistakes that may cost extra money.
To make all the construction decisions smoother, we decided to ask for a little help from the www.maestrocabins.co.uk team who has been specializing in wooden houses for many years. According to specialists, a few essential things need to be known and considered carefully before starting any construction works.
A good project – half of the job
The main goal of any type of house project is to meet the expectations of future owners to the maximum. Therefore, according to experts, every professional pays special attention to this stage of construction. In short, all of the building works – from foundation to finishing – must be planned before construction begins. After all, the final result depends directly on it. So, what works should you focus on?
Type of your wooden house: which one to choose?
If you decide to build a wooden house on your plot, it is worth knowing that a specific type of log house will not only look different. Different types of log houses also have different features, which usually affect not only the comfort of living but the future costs of construction and house maintenance as well.
Probably the most expensive version of Scandinavian log cabins can be considered houses built of natural, large diameter logs. Every log used in the construction of such a house is carefully handcrafted, and houses themselves are built based on traditional technology, where the joining of each log is also made by the hands of experienced craftsmen. Houses made of natural logs are usually very unique: special treatment of logs allows to preserve what nature has given.
It is important to mention that designing this type of wooden house opens up much fewer possibilities for interior design – the space of the rooms becomes limited, as it directly depends on the length of the logs. However, from a technical point of view, the main advantages of such houses are particularly good self-insulation and air circulation. For this reason, by additionally insulating a log house, you will not only be able to live in it all year round but will also enjoy extremely low keeping costs. However, given the unique, long, and wide diameter logs used for construction, it is not difficult to see that the price of such materials significantly increases the cost of the house itself.
The second, probably the most popular option of log houses is glued beam wooden houses which construction differs little from the production of massive log houses: the untreated logs are cut into oblong boards with special machines and dried very well. Later, after stripping, the logs are joined with a hydraulic press using a special, water-resistant glue. Although glued and laminated logs are very similar to logs used for solid wood houses, the wooden cabins made of them have some important differences – they are not sensitive to changes in ambient temperature and humidity.
It is also important to emphasize that houses made of glued beam logs are not limited by aspects of indoor space and architectural solutions. As the wood is glued, the desired shape and length of the log could be easily obtained. Finally, this type of house, due to the use of glued beam wood, is cheaper than Scandinavian log cabins built of handmade logs.
The third, no less noteworthy type of wooden house is a frame house. When building this type of house, wood is combined with other materials, so the house is not similar to traditional country houses. The fast constructions, easier reconstructions, and the wide range of unique architectural design solutions often become particularly important arguments when choosing this type of house.
Wood type: why is it important?
According to www.maestrocabins.co.uk specialists, just like the technical properties of the house, the choice of a wood type also affects the thermal insulation properties. Only by choosing top-quality wood for your log cabin construction, you will be able to ensure a great microclimate in your new house: it will be comfortably cool in the room in summer and warm in winter.
Probably the most common Scandinavian log cabins for sale in our countries are built using coniferous wood: pine, spruce, cedar or cedar pine, larch. It is not difficult to understand that, first of all, such a frequent choice of these species of wood is related to the abundance of these species of trees in our country. Also, the choice of wood is determined by other specific properties of wood.
For example, spruce wood has a much higher resistance to temperature differences than pine, which is why spruce is often chosen for the production of building structures. However, when evaluating pine wood, it is necessary to emphasize that it breathes much more, so it has better air and moisture permeability, and its specific density ensures better mechanical properties of the building.
Assessing the essential aspect – thermal insulation, the insulation of a wooden house made of spruce will be at least 10% better than a house made of pine, but the same house made of larch will be even 25-30% colder. These types of wood are significantly outperformed by red Canadian and Siberian cedarwood, which, thanks to its unique structure, not only retains heat very well but is also particularly good at cleaning the air and the microbes it contains.
Cedarwood also has a very low coefficient of compression, so it practically does not give in to longitudinal and transverse rotation or shrinkage. Due to the low density and high air content in the wood structure, cedar has the lowest heat loss compared to other types of wood.
The big advantage when choosing wood for construction could be taking into account not only the type of wood but also where the trees grew, what time of year they were cut down. For example, conifers can grow significantly depending on which forest – mixed, dense, or perhaps in the woods on a hill, in a swamp, or lowland – which is quite important for the strength and durability of the building.
It is also worth noting that the winter season tree will be much drier, so drying the already assembled structure will likely allow avoiding major deformations, large cracks, and fungal or rodent damage.
The advantages of insulated Scandinavian log cabins
According to experts, many important aspects are recommended to pay attention to when building a new home. However, the insulation of a log house is probably the factor that will have the greatest impact on the comfort of life and the cost of maintaining the house. Although the construction of wood (due to the specific properties) ensures a relatively good tightness, reducing the need for insulation of the house itself, this issue should not be taken for granted.
When choosing materials for home insulation, it is especially important to pay attention to the thermal conductivity coefficient – the lower the coefficient, the fewer insulation materials will be needed. The conductivity will eventually affect heating costs as well. It is also important that the material used for insulation is vapor permeable – does not breathe, the wind does not accumulate in the material, and it is resistant to the growth of microorganisms.
It is important to keep in mind that freshly built Scandinavian log cabins for sale will remain in place for at least a few years. If this process is not properly calculated, the materials used for insulation may be damaged and the work may need to be re-performed. It is also necessary to mention that it is recommended to perform all insulation works from the outside, as the insulation of the house from the inside is not very practical. The floor is necessary to dismantle very often, and, if the work is done not in the highest quality, it provides an excellent breeding ground for rodents or mold.
Experts emphasize that even large investments in the insulation of the walls of the house or efficient heating systems will be worthless if you do not ensure the complete insulation of the house. It is worth noting that windows and doors account for as much as 25% and sometimes as much as 30% of heat loss, so when investing in the insulation of wooden walls, do not forget to pay attention to the weak spots. High thermal insulation could be assured by choosing plastic windows and sealed doors.
Modern Scandinavian log cabins
Wooden houses are still associated with a rustic interior by many people. However, while turning a wooden house into a modern home has its challenges, the log itself could be perfectly combined with contrasting materials. However, it is important to pay more attention to a few essential solutions.
Wooden houses themselves are associated with nature, but this does not mean that only natural wood should be used for the interior decoration of the log cabin. Unique finishing solutions usually allow you to create an exclusive interior style.
One of the most popular interior decoration materials for wooden houses is plasterboard, which allows realizing unique layout options. In this case, a lot of possibilities for any walls and ceiling decorations are being opened up.
To maintain the unique interior of a log house, www.maestrocabins.co.uk specialists recommend combining wood-based walls or ceilings with wood, giving space some modernity, but maintaining the natural accent of wood. It is necessary to emphasize that the combination of wood and plasterboard is not the only solution that ensures the modernity of the rooms. Fragments of tiles and stone adapted to the interior can also be named as a rather good-looking and stylish choice. Talking about the floor of a wooden house, there are a lot of options – it could be made of natural wood panels or laminate with wood or stone texture, there is also a choice of tile or carpet, but the latter options are less common when it comes to modern style homes.