After decades designing and building log homes, PrecisionCraft knows, for some, nothing but an authentic handcrafted log home will suffice. Indeed, very little compares to the detail and artistry of a genuinely handcrafted log home. There are a myriad of reasons why this is true, but the processes of carefully selecting, hand cutting, and intricately placing each log certainly makes individual log elements part of the larger work of art that is a handcrafted log home.
The distinctive look of handcrafted log homes conjures images of the rustic lodges and rugged landscapes of eras long gone. Purposefully designed to look and feel centuries old, PrecisionCraft handcrafted log homes leave a lasting impression. Continue reading below to discover if the uncommon, authentic beauty of a handcrafted log home is the style for you.
Characteristics of Handcrafted Log Homes
Specific characteristics of handcrafted log homes include hand-peeled logs, tapered logs, large character log posts, hand-hewn textures, and visible chinking.
The visible craftsmanship that goes into a handcrafted log home is the most striking characteristic of this style. If, for example, you visit an authentic handcrafted log home, you will see every drawknife cut, and each carved notch. These textures display tangible reminders that experienced craftsman created every individual log and connection within the home. Subsequently, owners of handcrafted log homes own more than a luxury residence; they own authentically handcrafted works of art.
Building a Handcrafted Log Home
Though a few of the tools have changed, handcrafted log homes are cut and built in much the same manner as that of hundreds of years ago. For example, individual logs are still hand-peeled with a drawknife and hand-cut with an axe, chisel, or chainsaw. Painstakingly stacked, log-by-log, chinking seals gaps between the logs, just as it did in yesteryear.
The craftsmanship required during the creation of your handcrafted home takes longer than that of milled log, log post and beam, or timber frame home. For example, the stringent processes and detailed work of producing a handcrafted log home, (including meticulous pre-assembly to ensure a proper fit of each log), takes several months.
Upon achieving a perfect fit, disassembly occurs. Your home is then loaded onto trucks for transport. Finally, the same PrecisionCraft crew that earlier pre-assembled your home in our Idaho yard, travels to your build site. There, your team installs the log structure. Combined, it is easy to understand why our handcrafted log homes offer such a rustic look, and a higher cost.
Beyond aesthetics, modern engineering methods enable our building professionals to create amazing handcrafted structures that also meet the most rigorous building codes. For example, PrecisionCraft employs the Houseal™ Non-Settling System, a patented steel pin-and-pipe method that prevents your logs from settling. As a result, our experienced team successfully builds complex handcrafted homes in locations with strict building codes.
Combining the craftsmanship of yesterday with the modern advances of today results in handcrafted log homes that are beautiful, functional, authentic, and energy efficient.
Structural Envelope of a Handcrafted Log Home
PrecisionCraft handcrafted log homes use only the highest quality and most energy efficient building materials and methods. Their use ensures your home provides a comfortable, healthy, interior environment along with outstanding energy efficiency. Our products and building solutions include Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) for your basement, the previously mentioned handcrafted log walls with chinking, and Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) for your roof. When combined together, these materials create a tight energy envelope for your home without compromising its beauty.
Handcrafted Log Home Styles & Architectural Design Concepts
PrecisionCraft’s in-house firm, M-T-N Design, works with clients designing custom floor plans and the necessary log structures for their handcrafted log homes. This award-winning team keeps a client’s ideas and requirements top-of-mind while drawing on its specialization in log home design. This is why M-T-N Design consistently creates some of the world’s finest luxury log and timber homes.
Thus, whether you envision a great room enhanced by a wall of windows trimmed in massive log posts, like that of the Stoneridge, or dream of log walls and the dramatic custom truss like those found in the Cumberland, an astonishing first impression and a lasting dramatic statement are certain to follow. Please browse our architectural designs and remember: every M-T-N Design concept is just that, a concept. Each is intended to inspire you, and each can be redrawn as a handcrafted log home.
A Final Note
Authentic handcrafted log homes are synonymous with beauty and artistry. From the large, tapered, hand-peeled logs to the meticulous stacking, the intricate workmanship of skilled craftsmen brings out the natural beauty of the wood. If this rustic authenticity beckons you unlike any other style of architecture, own a log home like none other by insisting on a handcrafted log home from PrecisionCraft.
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