REAL LOG HOMES Real Knowledge Part One
For more than forty years, the REAL LOG HOMES® brand has stood for innovation in log home design, technology, and manufacturing. After manufacturing more than 23,000 log home packages, we’ve learned what really matters in log home quality and performance. We’ve also learned that there is no shortage of manufacturers, production methods, and information.
With so many companies and production methods to consider, you may have questions along the path toward your new log home. From experience, we can provide advice and insight into some common issues you’re likely to encounter. Maybe it’ll help make your next steps even easier.
You can receive more information about these practices, and many others, from your local REAL LOG HOMES® Independent Representative. Most of all, you’ll get everything you need for a comfortable experience, and a home that’s always so nice to come home to.
Natural drying vs. Kiln-dried: Which makes more sense?
REAL LOG HOMES® log home packages are not kiln-dried. Rather, our logs are allowed to dry naturally and season in place for a very important reason: Under normal site conditions, all logs – kiln-dried or not – undergo a gentle cycle of swelling and shrinking, especially during the first
few heating seasons of your home. Kilndrying does not necessarily prevent this natural process. Wood shrinks when its cell walls lose moisture, and swells when its cell walls gain moisture - it’s the way wood adapts to the relative humidity around it. Logs used in your home are no different.
Even professionals who build conventional homes with kiln-dried lumber are aware
that this process is part of the porous nature of wood. In fact, kiln-dried material can absorb moisture at your job site as logs adapt to the changing humidity of your site conditions (imagine a rain storm during construction). This can start the process anew.
After manufacturing more than 23,000 log homes, we know that this natural process must be accounted for to keep your home weather-tight and draft free. Reputable manufacturers accomplish this through settlement accommodation, using a joinery system that allows for log
movement. This allows the weight of your home to keep your logs tightly compacted in a gentle and controlled manner. This same joinery system should account for the natural process of shrinking and settlement without relying heavily on caulking, which must be maintained over
time due to log movement.
Unlike kiln-dried systems, natural drying combined with the REAL LOG HOMES® patented InterlockTM Joinery System works with the logs’ natural characteristics to avoid reliance on caulking for effective joinery between log lengths, logs and
windows, and logs and doors. This produces the most weather-tight log system available.
A critical benefit of natural drying is that before shipment, your logs can be immersiontreated
with a preservative that provides added protection. Kiln-dried material from other companies may not arrive with this added benefit. REAL LOG HOMES® logs (except cedar) are immersed in Timbor®, an EPA-registered, non-toxic borate solution. Immersion allows the preservative
to diffuse deeply into the log on all sides. Surface treatments applied after construction to the exterior of kiln-dried logs may not reach all log surfaces and won’t soak deep enough to meet our strict requirements for effective treatment. Instead, the preservative remains closer to the surface, with greater risk of compromise by outside elements. With proper maintenance, the benefits of Timbor® immersion are permanent. Thus, logs used in your REALTM log home arrive better protected right from the start.
