Reasons to chose an ecofriendly log house

              Among the reasons log home owners love their residences is the unique aesthetic and architectural qualities of log homes. While log homes are more popular than ever, those who live in them share a common bond of lifestyle and comfort.

              While the uniqueness of a log home is one of the industry’s main selling points, it also means that across the country, clients and possible home owners may not be familiar with the intricacies and peculiarities of a log home. AFA Logs has developed some factors to take into consideration before having decided what type of home you want.

                  Grading — Timber approved by a certified log grading program has been visually inspected and certified to a certain grade, which translates into a certain strength. It is important for building owners to understand and appreciate the grading process from a structural standpoint. Be sure to have documentation for your manufacturer.

                   Energy Issues — Historically, issues of energy efficiency and insulation have been a point of contention between the log home industry and standard construction industry. This misunderstanding stems from most building codes requiring an R-value — a numeric indicator of the resistant characteristics of building materials — and timber naturally carries a low R-value. All wood, however, has a varying level of thermal mass, a term that describes the natural energy properties of timber. We will publish shortly an elaborated study of  the standards for log construction, prospective log homeowners should educate themselves on thermal mass and the relationship to R-value by consulting the thermal resistance informations available on our facebook page.

                     
              Plans/Construction Manuals — In addition to submitting design plans to your local jurisdiction, having a professionally-provided construction manual will carry a good deal of weight. If your building architect can't provide this type of design, ours can, this way you will be assured that your home has been carefully planned for design and construction, assuring that approval and building process can be more efficient and comfortable for all involved.
           

             Fire Performance — Understanding the fire resistance and performance of log walls is critical information to a client and state official. While there are fire-resistant systems available to the log homeowner, there are natural fire performance characteristics inherent in logs that should be
explored.

             General Log Construction — Sometimes the only reason potential clients or building owners are skeptical of log construction is simply because they have never encountered a log home before. Log home building systems are not very different than a stick-built home; the same fundamentals apply to construction of the foundation, exterior and interior walls, roof, floors, and utilities. Our construction method, by using calibrating machine assures that all the logs join perfectly, this way avoiding the loss of insulation and the gaps that may appear in the "manually" constructed houses.