What's up everyone? Welcome back to The Durbin Compound! Chances are you haven't met me already
because 99.4% of you guys aren't subscribed.
So today we're talking about log homes. So, what it's like to live in a log home, some pros and cons.
I'm going to go through a couple things...what I like and don't like, and some of the challenges
with living in a log home. I hope that this video helps you out and stay tuned.
All right guys! So let's kick the video off here. First and foremost, I want to say that I don't live
in a traditional log home, as many people would consider it, a round log and chink home.
This is a post and beam computer-cut log home. This kit is a Bristol lll by Lincoln Logs out of New York.
So you basically order the kit, and it comes, and you basically build the house, you know, all in a kit.
So, it's computer-cut. It's considered a log home. If you don't think so, I mean the same log
on the outside is the same log on the inside. They're just flat cut on the inside and
they have ridges in the top of them so that, you know, you can lay insulation in between.
But all those haters out there, yes, it's not a traditional log home. But you're going to get the gist of it.
So, let's run down a couple pros and cons. It all depends on what you like and what's important to you in a home.
So, the things that we consider, things that we like, may not be something that everybody else likes.
So, first I'm going to go with noises. Okay? So when you have a majority of your home that's built
out of wood, it expands and contracts with the weather. So, as humidity rises and falls the house
creaks and cracks and moves around. It essentially is a living organism and it will creak and crack a lot.
So you will hear a lot of paneling moving and stuff like that. It's a lot of fun to live in
a log home because it is a living creature and it's, you know, it's just a lot of fun to hear the house moving around.
Now is it annoying? No, not at all. And it's not like it makes noises all the time.
But you'll hear a random pop, and you know, a joint maybe squeak from time to time, but nothing
that's anything crazy or sustained. It's just, you know, creaks and cracks that the house makes.
So, the next thing, I'm going to pick you guys up and we're going to go through the house. I'm going to show you
some things that are challenging and some things that are unique to a log home.
All right! So you see at my computer desk, we have these interior walls that are pine boards.
But this is an exterior wall here and these are all the logs. And then you have the basic beams up top.
And then these are the pine floors to the upstairs. So you have these big beams running across. Like I said
this is a post and beam. So you have your posts and your beams that go across here and then, you know
they come out and attach to the other beams. So as you can imagine, these pine boards and
the tongue and groove flooring creaks and cracks as the house settles and does its thing.
So walking out here into the living room...great views. A lot of log homes have big windows like this.
You have structural benefits to using big logs and having a lot of structural capabilities here.
So the posts and beams...these are all glue lambs. If you know anything about glue lambs,
it's like a bunch of two by fours that are glued together and sandwiched together.
Looking up at the vaulted ceiling (and the old ceiling fan I need to replace) but all tongue and groove
pine boards all the way up and down. So, one thing that I want to get to next is decorating.
So the outside walls, the exterior walls that are made out of the logs, are real easy to put nails in and you
consider it a complete stud wherever you want to mount something to it's possible. It's not like your
traditional drywall, but decorating is a little challenging in a log home. You know, only the interior walls
in the house are drywall. So you know, everything else is log, all the way around,
and only your interior walls are drywall, like these and in the bedroom. So you know, you have nice beams.
You have nice wood everywhere. So decorating can be a challenge if you don't want to paint the logs,
or paint the wood in general. So that brings me to my next topic is cleaning. So cleaning this house is
very difficult because no matter what you use, if you use a rag or a cloth, it snags on all this wood.
So you need to use...I brought a brush. So we use a brush like this. And the brush head
allows us to basically brush the cobwebs. As you can imagine, you get all kinds of cobwebs way up
in these hard-to-reach places, and nooks and crannies, around the windows. So we use a brush like this
so that we can get all the cobwebs and stuff out of the way. So just like I rolled in a picture earlier
of the computer cut logs here, you can see this is basically how its constructed here.
There was a rib here and they cut it off. You can see the rib back in here, but insulation
gets packed in between and then they're sat on top of each other. So on this corner joint here where
they have been exposed, they basically cut the rib off the top for aesthetics. But outside you can see
it a lot better. You can see the ribs outside on the top. So, that gets into my next point about
a log home is the walls are really thick. So you can imagine that this is how thick your wall is here,
about seven and a half--eight inches wide--is how thick your wall is. So when you bring
in a traditional contractor to put in doors and stuff like that, all of your stuff is set in
a big distance from the outside of your log. So the outside of the log, then you
have your trim piece, and then you know, this wall is a good almost 10 inches thick.
So you know, future updates and putting stuff inside or updating windows and doors, it creates challenges...
bigger door sills and window sills than you would traditionally have.
So we're in the process of redoing the deck right now, but future updates make it a little bit more difficult.
And then there's exterior maintenance on the logs. So you know, stuff like this where
you have a crack that has formed, you technically need to seal these, as water can get in them and
start rotting them out. Now this home is about 20 years old, so it's not too terribly bad,
but you need to seal these logs on the outside. Keep up with the stain, and otherwise
keep the exterior of the house free from rot and stuff like that. So, I really enjoy a log home.
It is really awesome to live in one. There are a lot of maintenance items that you need
to worry about keeping up with, but overall it's pretty sweet to live in a log home.
All right guys, now that we've come back outside here, I wanted to show you some cracks and stuff that have opened up.
And you see this is on the top of the curve of the log. So, when the water runs down your log face,
it's rolling right into these cracks. So when I say a lot of extra maintenance that you
wouldn't otherwise have in a home, you don't have this kind of stuff with vinyl siding.
These are things that I'm going to have to fill with caulking and otherwise have a backer rod
and fill them up. And then they need to be caulked and stained over. So you know, another thing with
a log home is they get dirty. You can noticeably tell that this side of the house is dirty. So where we were
on the back side of the house, it looked really shiny and looked really, you know, stained out.
And this looks really hazy and dirty. So until I wash this off, its going to look dusty and just dirty.
So these are some extra maintenance type items that you need to consider when looking at a log home.
All right! So over here you can see more cracks and stuff that have formed in the logs.
This is all dirty. So I stained this last year and it looked exactly like the backside of the house.
But this side of the house gets more wear and tear from the sun because this is a southern exposure.
And this just gets a lot of dirt and UV rays. So this is something you need to keep up with.
Keep a sealer on it after you have stained it. So I go around and caulk these every couple years
to make sure that I'm doing my best to keep water out of the cracks. So the garage here is log siding.
So the log siding doesn't crack out like a traditional log does. So log siding is really easy
to take care of. I'm glad that I have some of that around here. The second edition here on the second story
is all log siding. So it gets dirty just the same, but it doesn't crack out and otherwise
do the same old log stuff.
You saw in the other part of the video the log stairs that go up here or
the log banister. These things are really cool. I really love the rough cut stairs.
You can see the rough sawn stairs. Really cool addition. Really, really hard to clean. So just consider these
kind of things where, you know, you think, well yeah, that'll be awesome in my house. And yeah it is,
but they are a pain in the butt to clean. The dust and cobwebs stick to every little, single thing.
So if you don't want to put the time into cleaning and doing those kinds of things, then you certainly
need to reconsider exactly what you're looking at.
All right guys, so one last point I wanted to mention
is that when you have a floor like this, and literally this is the floor upstairs, and then
you see the bottom of the boards here. Okay? So you don't have a traditional flooring truss that is
up in the ceiling for you to hide mechanicals and things like this. So, everything is hidden behind
chases like this, where over the bathroom in here, you see how the paneling is in here?
This hides a lot of air conditioning stuff...the vent for this hides plumbing and electrical that goes up
to the second level. So, everything is back here in this chase. So if we were to take this board off
this wall only goes up so high. And then where this beam goes in, that's a little crawlspace up in there
for all the mechanicals that come from the basement up through to the next level. So you can see
the return air vent. And then up on the second level I have a return air vent up there so that
all goes through this little chase and these walls down here. So it's not like you're just going to come in here
and say, "Well we're going to renovate this whole thing and we're going to put the bathroom
over here and we're going to, you know...we're going to put a bathroom up here that overlooks the awesome
living room and the pond."" But guess what? You're going to have to frame in all of this to hide all your plumbing.
So just think about things like this when you're looking at a home, or you know you're
looking to build one. You kind of have to stick to their floor plan. We considered moving the toilet upstairs,
but I'd have to do a lot of work up underneath here. So you know, you give and you take a little bit.
Just consider these things in the future.
So yeah, there are only a couple cons and sometimes it wouldn't even be considered a con
when it comes to decorating and cleaning and just being able to...
or thinking about future updates and how the structure of your home isn't necessarily
like we're going to knock out this wall and we're going to put a big addition out here.
Not necessarily the case. You'll have to cut the logs, figure out how you're going to maybe build the new structure
along with the logs, or get new logs and tongue them in. There's tons of different ways you can
go about it, but it's not like a traditional, you know just cut a hole in a wall, we're going to put in a window here.
So, you'll most likely be cutting it with a chainsaw and you know to put a new window in
or something like that. And then you know, just the overall upkeep of the logs.
It's not too terrible, but you want to stain and seal every couple years to keep your logs from rotting out.
So, consider those kind of things when you're looking at a log home or you're thinking about building one.
They are awesome. They're built like a brick house. They are a tank, but they're also
challenging in their own unique ways. So I love my home! It is pretty awesome, but you know a lot of people
might say, "Ahhh! I'm going to pass on that. That seems like too much work." It certainly is not your vinyl siding house
where you're just going to live in a neighborhood and not have to keep up with anything.
This is going to be an ongoing project for the rest of your life, or however you long you live in it.
So, I hope you guys enjoyed the video! Give me a thumbs up. Or a thumbs down.
Whatever you're into! And if you're subscribed to the channel, I guess we'll see you in the next video!