THE PROCESS

We buy full length Red and White pine logs that come from Northern Michigan. They mostly come from the Upper Pennsula of Michigan and were logs that were planted in the l940's with C.C. Camps. Most of the logs that we buy will be 45 feet long, with a few over 50 feet. And the diameter of our logs run 16 to 18 inches on the butt end and around 10 inches on the tip end. This makes for an average diameter of 12 inches for a mid span diameter. At times we are able to buy larger logs, up to 36 inches on the butt, and we of course can always buy smaller logs.

The larger logs are hard to work with and contain much more board feet of wood, hence they are more expensive. The smaller logs are more work because when we finish a log and put it on the wall we only increase our wall height by maybe 10 inches, hence more rounds of logs. We can purchase any logs that you may want, we have built homes out of Western Red Cedar and have had them trucked in from the Northwest. This is very expensive wood and very expensive trucking.

We have built homes out of Northern White Cedar, but again the wood is very expensive and the problem with Northern White Cedar is that it is not very long. A Northern White Cedar may be 16 inches on the butt and 10 inches on the tip but only be 24 feet long. So when building with Northern White Cedar we have to be very creative with the house plan so that we don't have any logs that butt togeather in the walls.

After buying the logs, we truck them into our Cedarville Log Yard and put them through a Cambio Ring Debarker. This takes all the outter bark off the logs. This allows them to dry and keeps the wood borers out of them. After we debark them we criss cross stack them so that they can air dry. They are normally stacked this way for from 2 months to 2 years. Two months in warm weather will get most of the sap to the surface so that we don't have any sap problems when we build of deliver your home.

North Aroow Log Homes is proud to have a new Log Kiln.  We can now dry logs out in a much quicker time.  The heat of the kiln dries moisture out of the logs and ensures minimal settling after construction. 

After air drying is complete, we peel the logs with a Spar Log Peeler. There are only six Spar Log Peelers in the world and this process is a very time saving process for us. (we can pass the savings on to you) The logs come out very beautiful, the knots are exceptionally pretty. Then we truck the logs 20 miles to our indoor building facility, take them off the truck and finish peeling the logs by hand before we put them on your home.

We scribe and fit each log together. We do an over scribe method where we scribe the lateral groove in the log greater than the notch. What this does is makes a very tight corner notch as the log settles down on the latteral grove. In our indoor facility we cut and fit all the logs, including all the floor joist, truss' and purlins. We may or may not cut the window openings in at this time, sometimes it is eaiser for us to do it when the home is reconstructed. The logs are all numbered, the home taken apart, put on trucks, shipped and reconstructed on your foundation. The same crew that builds the home comes to reconstruct the home on your foundation. This is something that we do not want some other crew to do. We take pride in the masterpiece that we have built for you and don't want it messed up by someone that doesn't understand what the process is.

Just a note about our indoor facility: Your logs are not sitting out in the weather with the sun beating on then,... the rain on them...ect. Your logs are kept in great condition all through the building process. The building is 300 feet long and 130 feet wide so we can handle nearly any size home. The building also helps us to keep on schedule. No matter what storm, we are inside working everyday on your home. You of course are welcome to come at any time to see the progress, and take pictures. Or if you want, we can take pictures and e-mail them to you.

Thank you for reading!