The worst mistakes in wood construction. Work carried out after installing a log bathhouse Why did we want a wooden house

The first heating season for many log house owners becomes full of surprises and unpleasant surprises. For some, the logs begin to twist, and the walls, which looked smooth during the finishing of the house, acquire curves that disfigure them. For others, it blows so much from the corners and from under the floor that the worried owners are urgently going to open the floors and insulate them additionally. Concern for your home forces others to resort to the help of specialists from companies involved in construction expertise. As a rule, the conclusion of experts comes down to one thing: the reason for the “diseases” of a log house lies in a violation of the technology of its assembly. On the eve of the new construction season, we decided to talk about the rules and mistakes of building log houses

The topic of our article will mainly be of interest to two categories of readers: those who are just planning to build a log house, and those who already have one. Well, with the first ones everything is clear: they want to avoid any mistakes during construction, and therefore any information on this topic is useful to them. But what might interest others in this material? And for them, most likely, our conversation will not be superfluous. Owners of newly installed log buildings can check whether construction technologies have been violated, as well as diagnose the condition of the building. Sometimes timely prevention helps prevent serious “diseases” at home.

Alexander Isakovsky,
expert engineer, LLC "CONSTRUCTION EXAMINATION LABORATORY":
“Remember that a log house takes much longer to build than a brick house of the same size. You must be prepared for the fact that you will be able to move into it only 1.5-2 years after its installation on the foundation. And the promises of some builders that they will build a log house for you in 45 days and you can immediately live in it are a myth. The first mistakes can be made already at the time of designing a house. One of the most common is non-compliance with the principle of “summer” and “winter” parts of the building. For example, a warm room is located above the porch on the second floor. It turns out that in this room part of the floor faces the street. As a result, its insulation becomes an extremely difficult task. The thermal insulation of the house is compromised. What to do in this case? It is necessary either to make the porch external or to design “cold” rooms above it: a balcony, veranda, etc. Very often, in order to improve the architectural appearance of the building, chopped bay windows are designed. High-quality execution of such elements in a log house is very problematic. If you don’t want to give them up, then it’s preferable to make them according to frame technology, but it is still advisable to avoid bay windows and other elements that complicate the architecture. The simpler the log house, the warmer it is. It is also no less difficult to perform a high-quality connection and insulation of the roof with the walls when installing chopped gables in the attic floor. Round logs do not fit well with the roof. Very often, heat loss occurs at the junction of the rafters and the wall. It's better to do two full floors and a cold attic, it is much easier to insulate flat ceiling than an attic roof.”

At the planning stage

When planning the construction of a log house, you should keep in mind that you will not be able to outsource the entire process of its design and construction to one or another company and not delve into any details. You will have to study a lot of literature, master terminology in order to speak the same language with builders, and also control individual stages of work. This is what experts with extensive experience advise. wooden house construction, and owners of log houses who did not understand the technology in time, and now regret it. It is, of course, much more difficult to mislead a person who distinguishes not only “in-the-foot” cutting from “in-the-corner” cutting, but also corner joints for outbuildings from similar joints for residential buildings. Today, there are two ways to build a log house: contact a specialized company or hire a “wild” team of carpenters. Of course, the latter option will be cheaper in terms of initial costs, but it can lead to problems, the solution of which will either be impossible at all or extremely expensive. Such teams, as a rule, build a house according to sketches proposed by the owner and which have nothing to do with the project. As a result, errors in choosing a foundation and in calculations load-bearing structures etc. So, the acquaintances of the author of these lines, who are very far from construction, received from such “craftsmen” a foundation poured into the ground 70 cm deeper than the required one (a very noticeable amount was thrown away), as well as incorrectly executed floors. Now, to strengthen them, you will have to “decorate” the already not very large living room with two supporting pillars.

[type of log processing]
For the construction of a log house, three types of logs are used: round (round timber), hewn to one edge with inside(half-carriage) or hewn into two edges on two opposite sides (carriage). The latter are usually traditional material for the construction of wooden buildings in the Scandinavian countries. Many experts recommend choosing a semi-carriage, since in an unhewn log house when interior lining When walls are covered with clapboard or other materials, the usable area is partially lost. Moreover, hewn walls (depending on the style of the interior) may not be finished with anything at all. However, it should be borne in mind that processing a log on one edge is a labor-intensive procedure that requires the skill of a carpenter and increases the cost of the house frame by 35-50%.

Experts say with one voice: “Never start building a house without a carefully developed project!” Even in times of crisis. But project is different from project. Sometimes the customer may be given a “project” on 4-5 sheets. At best, it describes only the crown timbers of the house, but does not indicate the size of the crown gaps and gaps in the cups, the material on which the frame is assembled, etc. In practice, this is a small sketch with the dimensions of the future building. The project must contain at least 30-35 sheets. Remember that the architect from whom you will order the project must specialize in the design of log houses. Knowing the requirements of SNiPs regulating the construction of log cabins, he will carefully calculate the structure of the building, taking into account the distribution of loads on the load-bearing elements, take into account the shrinkage of logs, etc. Before ordering a project, you need to select the material for the house (see “Specialist’s comment”, p. 110) .

Our reader may ask: isn’t it better to buy a ready-made log house? No better. Firstly, it can be made without any design. Secondly, you still strive to create housing for yourself. There are often cases when people “successfully” buy a ready-made log house, and then begin to supplement it with balconies, verandas, and extensions. Sometimes these new elements weaken the supporting structures of the building, due to improperly made connections, “cold bridges” appear, etc.

It is especially dangerous to buy a “settled” house. Of course, it is tempting to buy a log house that has stood for a year, finish it and immediately move into it. But what is behind the word “settled”? It happens like this. Workers assemble the first five crowns of the frame and place them on some supports (these five crowns are called a foot). Then the top crown is removed and, using it as a template, the next five crowns are cut. In total, three or four stops go to the house. Time passes, no one buys the log house, and the logs continue to be piled up. Moisture, penetrating into them from below and above, has negative impact on wood, and after a year half of the frame is close to rotting. In this case, company managers who care about their reputation use such a log house for the production of boards. Others try to sell substandard goods to an unscrupulous client. After assembly, the log house should dry on your site (and not anywhere else), standing on the foundation and under a temporary roof.

Logs are different

In addition to choosing the material from which your house will be built, you should decide on the degree of processing of the logs to make the log house. After cutting, a tree can undergo two operations: debarking and sharpening. Debarking (cleaning of bark), as a rule, is performed without the use of mechanized tools. After this procedure, they remain on the log small areas bast (“subbark”, a fresh layer of tree bark, separated directly from the trunk). After drying, it darkens, and the wood acquires a variegated color, characteristic of unplaned logs. On the one hand, during debarking (unlike shaving), the fibrous structure of the wood is not damaged, but, on the other hand, the bast is most susceptible to rotting, so it is preferable for the log to also be shredded. As a result of this processing, carried out using electric planes, the log is completely cleared of bast and acquires a uniform golden color.

“Father, do you hear, he’s chopping...”

When the logs are prepared, the carpenters assemble the frame at their construction site, that is, away from the eyes of the customer. The question arises: how to control this process? There are two options. The first is to move the work to your site. There is only one positive aspect of this solution: you can watch the log house grow day after day, and if necessary (for example, you are not satisfied with the quality of cutting the lock joints) intervene in the situation. But there are many more negative ones. Firstly, transportation costs increase (they do not transport a clearly defined number of logs that make up a log house, but blanks with a 30% reserve). Secondly, the builders need to be provided with normal living and working conditions, since they will be on your site for 3-4 weeks. And finally, how to clear the area from a huge amount of bark and wood chips? And removal of construction waste is not cheap.

The second option is as follows. In an agreement with construction company be sure to write down the requirement to show the log house during its manufacture. As soon as the first foot is cut down, you should be informed about this so that you can come and inspect everything carefully. In this case, you won’t have to buy a pig in a poke.

Sergei Zelensky,
Director of INDEPENDENT EXPERTISE OF CONSTRUCTION QUALITY LLC (STROYEKSPERTIZA LLC):
“One of the most common mistakes in log houses is incorrectly performed floor insulation. For Moscow and the Moscow region, the thickness of the insulation in this part of the house must be at least 150 mm, otherwise the heat will go underground. In practice, they put no more than 100 mm, as a result the floor becomes cold. Proper floor construction implies good vapor barrier. The vapor barrier panels are stapled to the beams from below (from the subfloor side), laying them across the beams. The overlap of the panels should be at least 10 cm. Then boards are nailed to the beams (again from below) (they can be placed staggered), which serve as support for thermal insulation. On the side of the room, insulation is placed on the vapor barrier. An air gap of 5 cm should be left between the insulation and the subfloor located on top of it. Do not forget to install waterproofing above this gap to protect against possible accidental pouring and subsequent wetting of the insulation.

To organize ventilation of the subfloor, vents are made in the basement, the area of ​​which should be 1/500 of the area of ​​the subfloor. The ventilation system must be designed so that the underground rooms are ventilated from all four sides. Common mistake- lack of vents in the base strip running under the partitions. Builders make ventilation holes on the outside, but forget about them on the inside. As a result, “dead zones” are formed that are not ventilated. There is an opinion that vents should be closed during the winter. This is a serious mistake. It is necessary to create vortex flows underground. If the vents are closed and there is insufficient thermal insulation, the floor beams may begin to rot. The more products, the better. Naturally, with good thermal insulation of the floor.”

Look into... the corner

If we touched before general issues construction log house, then now you have to delve into the basics of carpentry. The log house is assembled twice. The first time is during its manufacture at the work site (in this case, insulation is not placed between the logs). After assembly, the logs are numbered, the log house is dismantled and delivered disassembled to the customer’s site. Here it is assembled for the second time, already on the foundation. Insulation (moss, tow, etc.) is laid between the crowns and in the corner joints.

How is a log house made? It begins with tying - placing and cutting through the first crown, for which the thickest logs are taken (they, firstly, bear the greatest load, and secondly, they are closest to the surface of the foundation and, therefore, are more susceptible to atmospheric moisture ). To connect parallel logs, a groove is cut out in the upper one, repeating the shape of the upper part of the lower log. The saw makes two longitudinal cuts and several transverse ones, after which the groove is carefully selected with an ax. Connect logs at the corners of the building. Proper execution corner lock connections are main task during the construction of a log house. This is important both from the point of view of thermal insulation of the building (a log house freezes in the corners, not along the walls), and from the point of view of structural strength.

There are two main ways of cutting a corner: “into the paw” (without residue, when the ends of the logs do not extend beyond the outer plane of the wall) and “into the corner” (with residue). What are their advantages and disadvantages? Cutting “in the corner” makes the connections more reliable than cutting “in the paw”, and the corners of the building are protected from rain and wind by protruding parts of the logs. It is believed that a log house made “in a corner” is more stable and warmer. But with the same area, a house in which the joints are made “in the paw” is significantly cheaper (0.6 m of logs are used for releases when cutting with the remainder). In addition, when felled “in the paw”, the house can be sheathed on the outside if desired or necessary, but chopped “in the corner” - not.

Each of corner connections There are some modifications. Thus, cutting “into the corner” is divided into cutting “into the cup”, “into the edge”, “into the hook”. In the first method, a cup (a semicircular recess) is made in the upper part of the log. The marking of cups is carried out in two stages - rough and clean. Using a special tool, a line is drawn in the lower log, repeating the profile of the upper transverse log. A rough cup is cut along this line. After fitting and finishing marking, the recess is precisely adjusted with an ax. This is the simplest, but not the most effective method of corner joints from the point of view of thermal protection. In this case, the heat will be maintained only by tow placed between the logs. That’s why they call this type of cup “household”, suitable only for outbuildings, but not for a residential building, for which it is better to make a cup with a pre-seal. The preseka creates a reliable locking connection, and heat from the room does not escape outside.

More complex is the connection “in the oblo”. In this case, the cup is “tipped over”, that is, a recess is made from the bottom of the log, which eliminates the retention of moisture in the joint. As in the previous method, the connection “to the block” must be with a stop.

Ivan Alekseev,
General Director of LLC "RUSDOM":
"When they build wooden house, the main emphasis is on the fact that it is wooden. Just wooden, that's all. But they are used for construction various breeds tree. What material is best to use as a wall? People said about pine: “A pine hut is a healthy heart.” Its wood is soft and easy to process. Pine can be either combat (ore) or non-combatant (mind). Ore pine is the most preferred material for log houses. It grows in sandy soil, usually on a hillock and (ideally) surrounded by fir trees planted later. They choke the lower branches of the pine tree and force it to stretch upward. For such a tree, the trunk slope does not exceed 0.8 cm per 1 m. The age of pine for the construction of a log house should be no older than 150 years (otherwise it will be overripe trees, the core of which begins to collapse), but also no younger than 80 years (until this time is still the nucleus is not fully formed). Mande pine (sawlog) grows on moister soil, has less resinous wood, and its trunk slope exceeds 0.8 cm per 1 m, but it can also be used for building walls of a house.

As for spruce, it is more knotty than mand pine. The density of spruce is less than that of pine by about 10-12%. Its wood is more susceptible to cracking when drying, and cracks, as a rule (due to the fact that spruce grows with a twist), form around it.

Larch is 30% denser and stronger than pine, more resistant to dampness and damage by putrefactive fungi. It occupies about 40% of all Russian forests, but we will not find residential buildings from it built before the early 90s. last century. Why? One of the most common answers to my question sounded like this: “Entire houses were cut from larch quite rarely due to the hardness of the wood - only a few lower crowns were laid from larch logs.” But then I want to ask: “What about the walls of wooden fortresses? Was the larch there softer?” The answer to the question must be sought in another area. The energy of larch is similar to the energy of aspen, therefore the shamans of Siberia and Far East it is forbidden to build houses from this material, calling larch “ebony” Cedar wood has unique properties. That is why the population of the Urals and Siberia at all times preferred Siberian cedar for finishing their homes, but they did not dare to use it on the walls. Already in ancient times, people understood that cedar forests are the lungs of the entire planet, and making walls from such material is a great sin! It is necessary to ban the felling of cedar trees high level, and we, builders, should under no circumstances undertake to build houses from the tree of life.”

It is quite rare to make a “hook” connection (a complicated version of a “hook” cut with an internal tenon), since only a very experienced carpenter can do it well. Experts warn that when cutting “into a cup” or “into a circle” you should not make the walls of the house inside hewn (smooth), but cutting “in a hook” necessarily requires hewn walls. After a brief introduction to the methods of cutting into a corner, we will consider the main types of joints into a paw. There are two of them: “in an oblique paw” (“ dovetail") and "in a straight paw with a tooth." A claw is the end of a log, processed into five edges. Any deviations in the marking of the paws can lead to a violation of the geometry of the corners of the log house and their loss of tightness. In a dovetail joint, the foot has the shape of a trapezoid, gradually tapering towards the base of the log. Cutting corners in this way does not provide adequate thermal protection for the building, and therefore has long been used for outbuildings. But today, unfortunately, you can very often find houses whose corners are made in exactly this way. If you decide that your log house will still be made “in a claw”, it is better to use a connection “in a straight claw with a tooth”. The paw has the shape of a parallelepiped, and the tooth plays the same role as the cutting edge when cutting a corner “into a cup”. More detailed information on this topic is contained in GOST 300974-2002 “Corner connections of wooden block and log low-rise buildings”.

Typical errors

[note]
Cutting a corner “in the head” is 30% more expensive than cutting it “in a cup”, and cutting it “in a hook” is 50% more expensive.

All mistakes made during the construction of a log house can be divided into two groups: some relate to the quality of the log house, and others relate to its final assembly. Errors of the first type mainly come down to poor fit of logs and the presence of large inter-crown gaps (according to SNiP 3.03.01-87 “Load-bearing and enclosing structures”, the size of the gaps between logs when joining on one side cannot exceed 1 mm), as well as poor quality of corners connections. Another error involves violating the “Curvate Up” rule. The fact is that due to wind loads, any tree has curvature. According to GOST, it should be within 0.5-1.5% of the length of the log. When making a log house, logs should be laid with the curvature upward, so that the upper ones press on the lower ones and level them. Otherwise, there will be gaps and protrusions on the walls, and for aesthetic reasons the house will have to be covered with clapboard or other finishing materials.

Now let's move on to the second group of errors. There are significantly more of them. This list begins with an incorrectly executed foundation. For a wooden house (relatively light), there is no need to make a monolithic strip foundation to the freezing depth, and yet this is the most commonly practiced solution for log houses. We have already written about why this happens in previous issues, including introducing readers to the cost-effectiveness and reliability of shallow foundations (“ New home", 08/2008), optimal for wooden buildings. The most common mistake is that the foundation for houses with a working underground is not calculated taking into account thermal characteristics. In winter, the communication pipes located in it can freeze and burst. In addition, there is an unfavorable temperature and humidity regime (when the underground freezes, the humidity increases), due to which the lower crowns of the log house, beams and subfloors rot. It is no coincidence that carpenters say: a properly executed subfloor of a house is the basis of its longevity. To prevent the foundation from freezing, experts recommend insulating it from the outside with slabs of extruded polystyrene foam. A hatch must be cut into the floor to allow inspection of people passing below. engineering communications and checking the condition of the lower crowns of the log house.

The next important point is laying the lower crown on the foundation. To prevent moisture from seeping into the logs through the foundation, it is necessary to properly waterproof it. Builders often use one instead of two or three layers of roofing material. Or they do without leveling the surface of the foundation strip using mastic. In this case, the lower log will never lie tightly on the base, gaps will inevitably form (therefore, the thermal insulation of the building will decrease).

[wood for construction]
What kind of wood is suitable for building a house? There are three varieties of it: combat, sawing and stocking. The first group is top-class forest. It grows on sandy soils and has a height of at least 24 m. From it you can get logs up to 10-12 m long and make a beautiful log house.

Sawlog is a forest up to 24 m high, characterized by a large number of branches and taper. Experts do not recommend using it for building a house, since the walls will look ugly: the difference between the diameters of the butt and the top is too great. It is no coincidence that carpenters call such forests “carrots.”

Podtovarnik grows up to 15-18 m, is characterized by a small taper and has a diameter of 11-20 cm. It can also be used for construction small bathhouse, but it should be taken into account that with such a diameter of logs the heat-insulating properties of the walls will be low.

One of controversial issues: Should the first crown be laid directly on the foundation or on a backing board to protect the logs from rotting? Some experts are convinced that this is necessary, others consider this technique to be outdated. Be that as it may, the use of a backing board reduces the risk of rotting of the lower crown, and replace it new board much easier than replacing the crown itself. When ordering a log house, you should definitely clarify this point, as well as what the first crown will be made of. Best material for him - oak or larch.

If two logs of the first crown lie on the foundation, then the next two (they are called overlap logs) “hang” on them, so a significant gap remains between the overlap logs and the foundation strip. How to get rid of it? They act differently. Some builders believe that these cracks need to be sealed only after a year, since they contribute to better ventilation of the log house, and therefore to its drying. Others close them immediately. Each opinion has its pros and cons. Much depends on what exactly the gap is being sealed with. If half-logs (the so-called Zamyatina) are used for this, then it is advisable to lay them simultaneously with the assembly of the walls, otherwise after a year the logs of the log house will shrink, and the “Zamyatin” will be made of freshly cut wood, and when it dries, cracks will inevitably form. The half-log should be placed on tarred or oiled tow.

Opponents of this method believe that moisture will still get into the Zamyatin, since the wood is sawn in half. The sapwood part is completely open, and therefore such a backing element will quickly rot. It is best to fill the gap stove brick M-150 or M-120.

The log house can be collected for moss, tow, jute and flax fiber, etc. What to prefer? There are different opinions. Some believe that moss is most suitable for primary caulking. When moisture gets on it, it not only does not rot, but also releases tannins that protect the wood. Others give examples when moss caught fire at high temperatures, and people barely had time to jump out of the burning bathhouse. These experts say that tow or flax fiber, unlike moss, can be soaked fire retardant compounds. Still others believe that better than jute there is nothing in nature. But the Finns use a special tow, made like double-sided tape and capable of shrinking from 15 to 5 mm. Using this material eliminates the need for re-caulking. In order not to feel like Buridan’s donkey, choose any of the inter-crown insulation materials. The main thing is that it performs its main function - providing thermal insulation.

One of the most controversial is the issue of using dowels (dowels) when assembling log houses - wooden rods installed vertically in logs of adjacent heights to secure them. Some experts believe that the house should be cut down so that the walls are firmly held in the corners and grooves. And there’s no need to make a colander out of a log; it doesn’t need extra holes. Others are sure that dowels are necessary so that the walls do not deviate vertically from loads and their own weight. Be that as it may, it is better to build walls longer than 3 m, as well as those in which openings for windows and doors are cut, using dowels.

A large number of mistakes are made when installing doors and windows. Since log house sits down for the first 6-8 years, then rigid fastenings are unacceptable in it, therefore, it is impossible to insert window and door structures directly into the openings. To do this, use the so-called casing (casing box). Unfortunately, it is performed incorrectly almost everywhere. The pigtail is an auxiliary frame consisting of four bars (to make it, take a bar with a width equal to the width of the log and a thickness of 10-12 cm). A tenon is made at the ends facing the opening of the logs, and a groove is made in the socket. Grooves are also selected from both ends of the bottom of the box - window sill boards, which is installed first, laying jute fiber under it. Next, install the side bars of the pigtail. The top part of the box closes the structure. A gap (6-7 cm) is left between it and the hem of the top log for free shrinkage of the house. This gap is filled with tow.

When building log houses, there are things that are strictly prohibited. For example, hammering nails into the joints of logs. This mistake leads to fatal consequences. Any nail in a corner or wall will rust and the wood is in danger of rotting. The log lies unevenly on the nail head, and an inter-crown gap appears. Since it is uneven, the tree immediately begins to “spin.” This can no longer be corrected. "Diagnosis" - complete disassembly log house

A lot of errors are associated with the calculation of load-bearing structures. For example, the customer wants to have walls 10-12 m long. You can find logs for them, but if you don’t make cuts (bandages external wall from the inside), then the walls will quickly become barrel-shaped. The crosscuts serve as stiffening ribs and are installed on walls whose length exceeds 7.5 m.

Violations are also allowed when laying floors. For example, builders place floor and ceiling beams parallel to a long wall. If you cover a seven-meter log house with a seven-meter log, it will bend even under its own weight, not to mention other loads. Often beams are cut into the crowns of the house incorrectly, so-called undercuts are made, as a result of which the beam does not fully rest on the log and can break at any moment.

Of course, in one article it is impossible to talk about all the errors encountered during the construction of a log house, but we have named the typical ones. And those who are just starting to build a log house have every opportunity to avoid them.

The editors thank the companies "RUSDOM",
LLC "INDEPENDENT EXPERTISE OF CONSTRUCTION QUALITY" (LLC "STROYEKSPERTIZA")
and CONSTRUCTION EXPERTISE LABORATORY LLC for assistance in preparing the material.
Magazine "NEW HOUSE" No. 3-4 (2009)

During the debate that flared up after the publication of the article “Ours in America,” a reader contacted the site’s editor who wanted to talk about his personal experience. Vyacheslav has been living with his family in a house made of solid logs for four years. And according to him, if he knew all the “nuances” at the time of choosing the material, he would build a house from bricks or blocks. Below in the text is his personal “Top reasons why you should not build a log house.” To maintain authenticity, we left the text almost unchanged, making only light stylistic changes.

Why did we want a wooden house?

1. Once we saw with our own eyes a house made of logs - we immediately liked it, it looked very beautiful, we wanted one for ourselves.

2. For practical reasons: initially it was assumed that we would come on weekends, heat the solid fuel boiler and quickly warm up the house (the concept changed during the construction process).

3. Environmental friendliness: I wanted the house to breathe easily and smell like a pine forest. In general, I liked the traditional concept of living in a private house: a wooden frame, grass near the house, a forest nearby, etc.

house in summer

Start of construction

rear view

Here we managed to learn a little from the mistakes of others. A friend of mine, in order to save money, purchased the timber himself. As a result, a timber truck came to him, the cutters selected suitable logs, half of the timber truck went back... In the end, 120 cubic meters his timber turned into 200. I worked with contractors who sorted the wood at their base, and brought to the site only what was actually used for work.

view from the yard

Initially, I was not worried about the construction process, since I trusted the contractors. During the work, they still made some mistakes in some places, but not much (more on that below). The logs were laid on moss. They chopped and hewed - by hand. After they made the “box” with the roof, the house stood for a year.

from the entrance

One of the interesting things about the construction process is that I can note the discrepancy between the actual sizes of the rooms and their visual perception until the moment of covering the floors. I personally measured the 19-meter kitchen with a tape measure, because visually it seemed that there were 7-8 meters there. And so - with all the rooms.

Finishing

The most interesting thing began at this stage. Firstly, the house needs to be sanded ENTIRELY on both sides. This work is tedious and expensive - prices for work can be looked up on the Internet, four years ago it cost us a pretty penny (375 sq. m. at $5 per 1 sq. m.). Moreover, when estimating the area of ​​work, the bend of the log is added to the formula “height by length” - the area increases.

upper plinth - adjustable to curves

Then - impregnation ($0.7 per 1 sq.m.). Then - painting in one layer. Then - to the second (both - $1 per 1 sq.m.). Moreover, so that the materials fit well, the house must be painted by hand(which stretches the process over time). After all these procedures, the question of a “breathing house” and “the smell of pine” disappeared by itself.
We didn’t make a basement, so our foundation is simple: PGS pad, insulation, concrete. The builders who poured the floor did not completely cut out the lower logs in doorways. As a result, a year later it “broke” in these places floor tiles(ceramic granite). I had to remove the entire damaged tile, cut out more logs, and pour a new floor. This turned out to be easier than somehow cutting out the laid tiles - not every tile cutter takes porcelain tiles.

a crack in the tile remains in the doorway

Added to the “pleasant” aspects of finishing are regular finishing off moss, stolen by birds, and sealing seams with sealant. This work is long, expensive and dreary. Fortunately, there is a sealant manufacturer in the Republic of Belarus that offers products at reasonable prices. If he missed the mark with imported ones, he would go to hell.

Laying communications in a log house it also becomes a problem. Embedding a socket into a round log is quite a task (and the corresponding “tariff”). You can't hide the pipes inside. Attaching a plinth to an uneven log is also not an easy task, you will have to “think about it” and work with your hands.

plinth - strip + mastic

Due to the long-term shrinkage of the house, doors and windows were inserted into a frame made of boards. If you try to bet on a “live log”, the risk of getting it “sideways” increases significantly. Like risk of damaging the door or window. But even this “trick” did not help us personally: in 4 years of operation, the doors were adjusted twice. And some windows still siphon.

Home maintenance

box for the kitchen (on the left against the wall)

The house is constantly “breathing”. When the heating works, when it doesn’t, everything moves. To hang the kitchen, it was necessary to build a metal frame, cover it with plasterboard, and only attach the kitchen to it. Otherwise, no way. So beloved by our citizens sliding wardrobes it is absolutely impossible to establish - there is nothing to “attach” to, and the wall and ceiling live their own lives. The staircase, which was “tied” to the wall, eventually became warped and the railing was torn out.

instead of a wardrobe...

Any decorative boxes, covering communications, turn into a work of art - they need to be somehow combine with a log wall, and this process turns into jewelry fitting with a construction cutter in hand.

The joints sealed with sealant were sealed twice in 4 years. Doesn't matter - cracks appear. The wooden floor on the 2nd floor is also drying out, there are also cracks, and this is inevitable.

crack between logs

In autumn mice get into the house, in the gap between the lower log and the foundation. It is not yet possible to block this road for them, since the interface line is very uneven. And if on the main “animal trails” this phenomenon can be reduced to “nothing” with the help of poison and mousetraps, then when mice frolic between the logs without “visiting”, nothing can be done with them. Just curse it.

Also between logs every year wasps make their nests. The issue is resolved with the help of Dichlorvos. But it still has to be decided.

In autumn and early winter, the second floor is a kingdom of flies. First flies get stuck in the cracks for the winter. Then the house becomes warm - and they climb inside. We have not yet come up with any other means against this brethren except a vacuum cleaner.

We are also the best friends of Tikkurila paint sellers. There needs touching up, here you need to tint: steps, joints, terrace. They didn’t keep accurate records of production, but a lot of buckets of paint were purchased over 4 years.

In the spring, when the pine tree (and then the birch tree) blooms, the whole the house is covered yellow pollen. Moreover, in a thick layer. On level ground vertical wall there simply wouldn’t be so much of it accumulated. This issue is resolved by washing the walls with a jet from a Karcher. But again it needs to be resolved.

Bath

Inside the house dust accumulates on the bend of the logs. There are no universal means here - dust can only be removed manually, the old fashioned way.

Sometimes spontaneous, inexplicable bursts of life happen inside the house - some bugs, midges, insects appear, but I have not installed any system here yet.

In the bathhouse, near the guest bed, some kind of perky creature lives in a log, crunching the log all night. It is not possible to find and kill her.

And finally - about the famous “winter” forest. My house was cut down from February. The bathhouse is from August. I still haven't noticed a difference.

Price issue

Considering all of the above, such housing cannot be called cheap. House total area 240 sq. m. (with a small attic floor) cost me $40,000 only for the first stage: foundation, frame and roof. Then the project grew, we also built an outbuilding, a bathhouse from the same “round timber,” and landscaped the area and the street next to the house. All this (including materials, finishing, windows, doors and geothermal boiler) cost us a total of $180,000.

shrinkage to the roof

Conclusion: What we got for this torment is very beautiful house. And some kind of indescribable pleasure from the feeling of a thick, uneven log, its rough appearance, rich texture... Friends who began to build across the site from mine listened to approximately the same text, my complaints and advice to build from blocks. And in the end... the log house was also cut down. Here, of course, everyone decides for themselves. But I gave you fair warning.

Interviewed by: Dmitry Malakhov

Chopped logs are the most unpredictable building material. During the shrinkage of the log house, the crowns can twist so that through cracks appear in the walls, and their appearance will be hopelessly spoiled. Insufficiently diligent builders can damage a house that was built using timber, a carriage or a rounded log. Remont.Divandi experts tell you what you need to pay attention to in order to get a beautiful, warm and durable wooden cottage (or bathhouse).

Customer errors

A minor mistake made by builders during the construction of a wooden house can dramatically worsen thermal characteristics home or shorten its lifespan. But customers can also make mistakes. Conscientious builders always dissuade private owners from purchasing log buildings that have stood on the production site for a year or more. As a rule, their lower crowns have already begun to rot or are affected by fungus. To give it a marketable appearance, the log house can be bleached, but this will also have a bad effect on the durability of the wood.

Alexey Galimov

A similar situation can happen if the timber was brought to a construction site, but they did not start cutting it right away, but dumped it on the ground. After some time, the logs begin to turn blue - this starts the process of rotting. The bluing is removed using chlorine-based chemicals, but as a result, the oil used for finishing may not adhere to such a log. log house. If under construction big house, then the timber must be imported as needed so that it does not lie, but gets onto the walls as quickly as possible.

Another problem with old log houses is that there is a possibility that the cutters who made the box are already working in another place, and the assembly of the log house will be carried out by other people. The hired team will easily shift the blame for poor quality assembly onto unknown cutters. They say they made an open marriage, and it is impossible to collect it qualitatively. The assembly of the log house should be trusted only to those who made it. Otherwise, there will be no one to ask for quality.

By the way, from improper storage Not only chopped logs deteriorate, but also other materials.

Alexander Bunkov

Alexey Markin, director of AMstroy, talks about another mistake often made by customers.

Alexey Markin

For example, a person decides to build a house from a gun carriage, rounded logs or profiled timber. Log houses from these materials are usually made using special equipment. The customer comes to the enterprise with a project that was prepared for him by a third-party architect, and it turns out that they cannot make the components here as in the project. The equipment is designed for other sizes. As a result, you have to either abandon the selected material or completely redesign the house to suit the technologies available at the enterprise. It happens that reworking a project costs as much as the project itself.

Another piece of advice that protects you from mistakes can be considered naive, but in some cases it will come in handy. Builders strongly advise against contacting companies that promise to build a log or timber house in a month. The construction of a building from wood of natural moisture or even dry wood is always carried out in two stages - the construction of a log house with a roof, and after about a year's break, windows, ceilings, and floors are installed to allow the log house to shrink. Only houses made of laminated veneer lumber do not need shrinkage. Previously, the portal Repair.Divandi talked about.

Photo No. 1– A log house with huge cracks.

Builder mistakes: typical and gross

As Alexey Markin notes, the most common mistake when making a log frame from chopped logs, are small areas of contact between log and log (small width of the inter-crown groove). The thermal characteristics of such a house will be low. The head of the Domostroy-SK enterprise, Oleg Valuev, adds that in some cases the crowns may not be adjacent to each other at all (photo 1). Huge cracks will have to be caulked regularly, which will require considerable additional costs. However, the appearance and thermal characteristics of the house cannot be radically improved.

Photo No. 2– The log house cannot sit properly due to incorrectly placed racks.

It happens that builders build a house in such a way that it simply cannot sit down.

Oleg Valuev

This is a very common mistake. Often the house has an open veranda under a common roof. It turns out that part rafter system rests on the frame, and part of it rests on the veranda posts. The log house shrinks - by 10-15 cm per year - but the posts do not shorten. As a result, the upper crown hangs on the rack, the edge of the frame closest to it cannot sit down, and cracks appear here. If the material is damp, it can warp the roof.

As Oleg Valuev explains, if you plan to make a veranda under the roof, then between the upper end of the post and the upper crown you need to install a special jack for shrinkage (photo 3). This will allow the log to sit evenly. Instead of a jack, you can put several planks that will need to be knocked out periodically. By the way, shrinkage jacks are clearly visible in the first illustration (Fig. 1) to ours.

Photo No. 3– Jack for shrinkage (photo by Domostroy-SK).

Another mistake that prevents the shrinkage of a log house is an attempt to fasten adjacent crowns with nails. The log lies unevenly on the nail head, and an inter-crown gap appears. Due to a loose fit, the log may begin to “spin” during the drying process.

Alexey Galimov

There are very difficult cases. One day a man approached us with a request to fix a log house made of profiled timber. We arrived at the site, and there the crowns were fastened not even with nails, but with self-tapping screws. If the log can still somehow slide down along the nail during the shrinkage process, then the self-tapping screw holds it tightly. There are huge cracks in the frame, all the jute is on the outside, the joints are turning blue. Here the treatment is only complete disassembly, processing and reassembly.

The problem of poor-quality waterproofing of the lower crown of a log house has somewhat lost its relevance. As a rule, the installation team performs this operation efficiently. However, the customer should pay attention to how the foundation and wooden walls. If the foundation is strip or grillage, then the surface of the strip should be leveled, and between the foundation and the lower crown there should be 2-3 layers of roofing material, or a waterproofing layer of similar effectiveness.

However, excess moisture can get into the wood not only through the foundation. If you lay floors and hang ceilings in a house before the frame has settled and dried, this will impede air circulation and lead to “steaming” of the house - mold or mildew may appear on the internal walls.

Alexander Bunkov

The issue of protecting wood from moisture is especially relevant for the lower crowns of a bathhouse. We recently had a case - we were repairing a bathhouse whose lower logs had rotted. It turned out that the builders had insulated the floors in the steam room and washing department polystyrene foam. The space under the floor turned out to be clogged. The water that got under the floor from the washing room did not dry up. Within six months the lower crowns rotted. We raised the frame on jacks, replaced the crowns and redid the floors. The repairs cost a third of the price of the bathhouse... The floors in the washing compartment and in the steam room must be done without insulation.

The head of the Domostroy-SK enterprise, Oleg Valuev, notes that in the washing room there is also no need to make baseboards on the floor. Moisture collects under them and the process of rotting also begins.

Photo No. 4– Mold on unventilated wooden structures.

Unpredictable wood

Even experienced builders cannot always predict where moisture will go and where it will begin to accumulate.

Alexey Galimov

A very recent incident. They polished the inside of a frame made of chopped logs. The days were very hot. The heat is oppressive - moisture goes inside the house. The inner surface of the walls turned out to be wetter than expected. The sawdust formed during sanding stuck to the walls and underneath it turned blue. Well, they noticed it in time and cleaned it up. To prevent moisture from forming anywhere inside the log house, the log house must be well ventilated.

To chime or not to chime...

Many Ekaterinburg builders consider it a mistake to refuse to use dowels (dowels) when assembling log houses. These are wooden rods installed in vertical holes and connecting two logs adjacent in height. In general, the scheme is as follows: dowels pierce the first and second logs. When a third one is placed on top, holes are drilled in it and in the second log (offset relative to the existing ones) for the dowels of the “second portion” and so on along the entire height of the log house.

Alexey Galimov

Main mistake When installing log houses, do not do any dowels. And without dowels, the log may begin to spin as it dries. However, various factors must be taken into account. For example, if profiled timber with natural humidity is laid in winter, the drying process will be slow. Such a log house can sit normally even without dowels. And if you build in the summer, then dowels are required. Otherwise the log house will move and the cup might be torn out.

Not all builders agree with this position. Some people believe that cutting should be done so that the walls stand firmly and without dowels. However, in lately There are many more supporters of using dowels. After all, additional fastening of logs allows you to make the shrinkage of the log house more predictable, and in some cases, correct the shortcomings of lumber. The presence of dowels in walls with openings for windows and doors is especially important.

Photo No. 5– Installation of dowels when assembling a log house from profiled timber.

Director of AMstroy Alexey Markin emphasizes that when working with timber, rounded logs or carriages, incorrect installation of dowels can lead to freezing of the crowns. Other experts also remind us of this.

Oleg Valuev

Typically, dowels with a diameter of 22 mm are used. The holes for them should be slightly larger in diameter. For example, we use a 25 mm drill. Otherwise, during the drying process, the log may jam the dowel and this will interfere with the shrinkage of the crowns, since the log will not be able to move down and will hang on the dowel. Let me also remind you that to drill holes for dowels you need to use a very sharp drill. So that he cuts through the jute laid between the crowns, and does not pull it through. Otherwise, cold bridges may appear in this place.

Photo No. 6– Laying jute in the inter-crown grooves (photo by Domostroy-SK).

Insulation/sealant is placed in the inter-crown grooves - moss, tow, linen or jute felt (more often they say simply “jute”). The last option is the most popular today. Oleg Valuev draws attention to the fact that in the cup the width of the joint of the logs is almost twice the width of the inter-crown groove. Therefore, in this place, builders must remember to increase the width of the insulation tape (photo 6).

There are other points that a private developer should keep in mind.

Alexander Bunkov

The side of the log that faces north has denser wood. This can be seen in the cut - the annual rings on the northern side are thinner. The north side should place the logs outward. Then there will be fewer cracks. However, brigades, as a rule, do not pay attention to the annual rings. They put it in whatever way is most convenient for them. It’s true that customers don’t take this point into account either. When we offer an additional payment of 50 rubles. linear meter– placing logs taking into account the rings, clients, as a rule, refuse.

VIRA Group specialist Yaroslav Kulikov reminds that a wooden house also places special demands on the roofing. Usually a log house has not only external, but also interior walls. They sit faster than the outside ones. This can lead to deformation of the rafter system, which rests on both internal and external walls. To prevent this from happening, small gaps are placed in the rafter attachment points, and the rafters are made sliding.

Yaroslav Kulikov

I would also not recommend using sapwood for construction. These are tree trunks from which resin was collected. They show a characteristic herringbone pattern of cuts. There is no resin in such wood. She's loose. A house made from it will not last long. By the way, in order for the house to be durable, we use the following technique when making a log house - on bottom surface A compensation slot 3-5 cm deep is sawed along the lunar groove in the logs. Then, when the wood dries, the cracks will go inward. Large cracks should not appear on the outside.

If a house is being built from chopped logs, then the presence of sapwood in the prepared materials can be calculated by the characteristic herringbone of cuts (“the top” of the herringbone is directed towards the butt part of the log). If a timber or rounded log is used, then the absence of a “tap” will have to be taken on faith. However, some guarantee is provided by the fact that recent years(about 15-20 years) in the Ural region there is practically no tapping of pine.

Ecology of consumption. Estate: There are countless building materials, but for a dacha, the first among equals is a tree. In Russia, wood has always been valued. For strength and lightness, the ability to retain heat for a long time and ease of processing. They built everything from it, from fortresses to temporary dwellings, and made household items and tools.

There are countless building materials, but for a summer house the first among equals is wood. In Russia, wood has always been valued. For strength and lightness, the ability to retain heat for a long time and ease of processing. They built everything from it, from fortresses to temporary dwellings, and made household items and tools.

Everything was built from wood, from fortresses to temporary dwellings, and household items and tools were made.

It is comfortable to live in a wooden house: warm in winter, cool in summer, dry even in humid areas and in damp weather. And today, in search of a modern, comfortable home with a fireplace and heated floors, an alarm system and satellite TV, many choose a house made of logs - beautiful, cozy, with an environmentally friendly, even healing atmosphere.

Our ancestors mostly built their houses themselves, although the construction of a log house is a long, labor-intensive and responsible task. Today, there are companies that take on all stages of construction, from the foundation to related work. However, there are subtleties here that will not be superfluous to understand, whether you are building a house yourself or hiring a contractor. Let's look at them.

Log house foundation

The construction of a log house has its own characteristics, which you need to know in order to live in it long and happily. And the first thing to consider is the features of foundation construction.

Since a wooden house is a relatively light structure, the foundation for it is most often not very solid: a shallow strip, columnar, columnar-strip or slab.

However, the height of the base must be at least 50 cm so that splashes of rain and melted snow in the spring do not fall on the lower crown of the walls. IN strip foundation Vents must be provided to ensure ventilation of the underground, which will prevent the formation of mold. Important point here is the most thorough waterproofing. Usually it consists of coating the foundation with mastic and laying 3-4 layers of roofing felt.

Wood requirements

Log wooden houses are built from coniferous species: spruce, larch, cedar, but most often from pine, and the best is considered to be northern pine cut in winter. It is the most dense, durable and moisture resistant. An exquisite rarity - dried-out northern Karelian pine - kelo.

What should you consider when choosing logs?

• Pay attention to their surface: it should be yellow or dark yellow.
• The cut is dense and even, without blue spots, and the darker core takes up ¾ of the cut.
• The size of the cracks in the log is no more than a third of the cut.
• Good quality logs - without resin pockets and a large number of knots, blue stains and rot, not twisted.
• When an ax hits a log, the sound should be ringing.
• The logs should not be very wet: after drying, they may lead, they may bend or crack heavily.
• To maintain the quality of wood, you must comply the right conditions storage, transportation and drying of logs.

From time immemorial, logs for the home have been prepared by hand. The branches are carefully cut off from a cut tree and the bark is carefully removed, trying not to damage the bast layer: it protects inner part trunk from moisture, and therefore from mold and rot.

It is known that the tree is thicker at the butt (lower part of the trunk), and its diameter decreases towards the top. Therefore, debarked logs are selected according to thickness.

This cutting method is considered the most reliable. The corner of the house will be protected from precipitation and. However, the internal area is reduced in size due to the protruding ends of the logs.

The function of insulation is to protect against heat loss. Therefore, during the operation of the house and the natural movement of logs, no cracks should form in it. He must:

• Be dense enough and at the same time flexible, protect the joints of the crowns (especially in the corners) from blowing.
• Depending on changes in internal and external humidity, absorb and release moisture so as not to contribute to the development of fungi, mold and rot.
• Be environmentally friendly and durable.

The insulation of a log house is tow, moss or tapes - on a jute/flax-jute base or self-adhesive foam rubber.

• Tow in the form of hand-twisted strands is laid out along the entire length of the log. Then the log of the next crown is laid. After assembling the entire house, the tow is pushed between the crowns using caulk and a wooden hammer, wrapping it at the bottom, then at the top and in the middle of the crack, and hammered tightly into the crack.
• The moss is also laid out on the log and after laying the next crown, the excess is cut off with a sharp ax.
• Jute tapes are laid along the entire length of the log in an even layer and attached to the lower crown with staplers.
• The effect of using foam rubber self-adhesive thermal insulation tape is that when it interacts with air, it increases in volume by 3-5 times and fills all the voids in the joints of the crowns.
• Insulate the joints of the crowns and the injected under high pressure polyurethane foam, which spreads over all voids and fills them. The method is fast, not labor-intensive, but requires special equipment. However, the foam will come out from the smallest cracks, and after it hardens, it will be necessary to clean the frame and seal the holes with wooden plugs.

A house caulked for the first time is left to shrink for a year. A year later, they caulk again, sealing all the newly formed cracks. Sometimes additional caulking is carried out after a year of operation of the house with the heating turned on in winter. But in any case, a wooden house should be caulked regularly for insulation, once every few years. published

Despite the variety of modern building materials, wooden buildings do not lose their popularity. The log house is wooden structure from several crowns of timber or logs, which are fastened together in the form of a quadrangle without a roof and floor covering. Gorodnya, povalusha, four-walled, five-walled, six-walled, eight-walled, “in the oblo”, “in the bowl”, “in the paw”, “in the dovetail” - what kind of log houses there are! This is a kind of blank, the frame of your future wooden house. In Rus', craftsmen managed to make log houses by connecting logs together without a single nail.

When the house is “assembled”, you can begin one of the most important stages of finishing – sanding. Logs with bark residues from which the log house is assembled look unattractive, and are also subject to rotting and exposure to bark beetles.

Why grind:

• Protect the tree from microorganisms and mold.
• Make the surface smooth better adhesion(layer bonding paint and varnish materials), eliminate cracks.
• Give wood an aesthetic appearance, emphasizing the texture of the material.
• Prevent premature aging of wood.

How to polish a log frame

A tool for grinding a log frame should have sufficient power, but not be heavy. The optimal solution is a parquet belt sander with built-in bags for collecting sawdust and dust. Unfortunately, if the house is made of semicircular logs, such a device will not cope with sanding. When processing grooves and end sections, the owner can use an angle grinder, popularly known as an angle grinder. Grinding is carried out using attachments of different grain sizes. Fine abrasive and coarse abrasive grinding wheels Apply alternately to obtain a perfectly flat surface.

Stages of polishing a log frame:

• Rough stripping of bark.
• Medium processing – smoothing the wood with a coarse abrasive with a grain diameter of 40 and above.
• Delicate processing using a fine-grained nozzle (80-100).
• Final sanding before applying paints and varnishes.

When is the best time to polish a log frame?

Before choosing a tool, you need to decide on the time for grinding work. Grinding precedes everything else finishing work: it is carried out before applying antiseptics, fire retardants, impregnations and paints and varnishes.

According to the rules, it is carried out one year after the construction of the structure. During this time, the process of shrinkage occurs - a natural reduction in the volume of the log due to the drying of the wood and the achievement of a moisture balance between the wood fibers and environment. Over the course of a year, under the influence of atmospheric phenomena, the log house darkens, and polishing - necessary stage its processing before further finishing.

Work on grinding a log frame is carried out only after the wood has completely dried. Wet wood will not allow sanding to make the surface perfectly smooth: the fibers will rise and be torn off unevenly by the machine.

It is better to sand the log house in warm, dry weather. The optimal time is late spring and summer. Plenty of sunlight and high temperatures with minimal humidity help dry the logs before sanding. If the time has come for prolonged rains, and the log house is not sanded, and, of course, there is no opportunity for it to dry, it is worth covering the logs with polyethylene or other covering films (for example, roofing felt) and wait until the dry weather settles. As we wrote above, moisture interferes with the operation of the grinding machine, the fibers swell and rise. Hired workers may insist on carrying out work at any time of the year and in any weather, as they are driven by time constraints. However, remember: after grinding they will leave, and you will live in the house and admire the consequences of grinding. True professionals will definitely warn you about the disadvantages of sanding in wet weather and will not begin the process even at the expense of their time.

I wonder what optimal time for assembling a log house - winter, and grinding work is recommended to be carried out a year after construction - it turns out that also in winter. But we wrote above that the best time is summer period. In addition, after grinding it is necessary to treat the surface with antiseptics, which only work at above-zero temperatures. So what to do if there is no opportunity to postpone polishing until warmer times?

Sanding a log frame in winter

In winter, concentrated in upper layers the moisture freezes, forming an ice crust. Ice does not allow deep penetration of the antiseptic, which is applied after grinding. Therefore, all protective impregnations lose their effectiveness. In addition, wood fibers expand, deforming and forming cracks. On the other hand, in winter all natural processes slow down, mold and mildew cease to pose a particular danger to wood, so work on treating with an antiseptic can be postponed until spring. But there is another problem: a sanded frame without applying protective impregnations albeit with weak, but still significant exposure to UV rays, it may turn yellow, which will lead to the need to re-grind the frame in the spring.

So, if there is no way out and you have to start grinding winter period, special technology must be followed. It is extremely difficult to sand a log house on your own in winter; moreover, even the most savvy amateur is not immune from mistakes, which over time will reduce all the work to nothing. It is better to entrust winter sanding to specialists.

At subzero temperatures, grinding in the open air is prohibited, so a kind of sarcophagus is built around the structure - installed around the perimeter scaffolding, covered with polyethylene or other covering material. However, the problem of ice crust on the surface of the wood is still relevant, so the inside of the sarcophagus is let in with the help of heat guns. hot air until the desired temperature is reached. Only after these procedures is polishing performed with professional equipment.

Regarding sanding a log frame in rainy weather, it is still better to avoid dampness during wood processing. Wet fibers swell and rise, cutting unevenly grinder. If grinding is unavoidable in the rain, the same technology is followed as during winter work: preliminary construction of a thermal sarcophagus.

Important! Do not leave the sanded surface untreated. It is recommended to maintain a time interval of no more than 48 hours between sanding and applying primer and antiseptics, otherwise the log house will require re-treatment.

Sanding is a time-consuming and demanding process, however, if you ignore it now, you will lose much more time and money in the future, trying to restore a once beautiful wooden building that has darkened due to untimely processing.