log houses

Just handed over to client: a new loghouse in Oosterwold, Netherlands. Inspired by the Eric & Flo, 120 m2 brutto surface.

It is well known that timber from the North is heavier. It grows slower, and it is more dense. Better quality wood. We came back from a business meeting just South of Vilnius and when we drove through a forest, we made this short movie. Nice, made us think of slow growing pine. And then in the evening when we came back from work, we looked at the dashboard and saw the temperature…

We often use larch on the facades of our houses, because it is very weather resistant. Doesn’t rot, needs no maintenance, protects your house for fifty years. But there is one thing about larch that is not to everybodies liking: it turns grey. Some people like the natural greying of larch, because it is natural. But others prefer to keep the original colours, for instance as in this house. We like the greying, but if you want to keep the original yellowish-orange tint of larch, then you must treat the facade with special products.

The Eric & Flo still is, after eight years, the house for which we receive most requests. These photos we received today from our clients in the Lozère. Winter wonderland with a beautiful house…

Log houses and cracks Log houses are built from wooden logs, that is: solid or laminated wooden beams, from eight centimeters thick upto thirty centimeters thick. We usually build our walls twelve or sixteen centimeters thick. Twelve is more than enough for a two-level house, but if you got money to spare then sixteen or twenty centimeters just looks nice. Otherwise there is little difference. But what about cracks?

In East Europe wooden houses are everywhere. In the smaller villages almost every houses is a wooden house. Until recently these house were a little different from the house that we build: round logs, not laminated no additional insulation a little air leak here and there is ok lots of beautiful decorations painted. And then finally: often without a serious foundation. Especially in Siberia houses are built with a minimal foundation on top of the permafrost.

Contrary to popular belief, wooden houses have a very high life expectancy. Of course wood should be protected from humidity, but if the owner takes care of his house it will last very long. When designing a wooden house we make sure that water can always escape from the house and that walls are ventilated. What would then be life expectancy of a wooden house? We have several examples of old wooden houses in Europe.

Lithouse build houses with three types of walls: panel walls log walls cross laminated timber walls They all have pro’s and con’s, let’s dive into the details. Panel walls Panel walls are essentially hollow boxes filled with insulation material. You build a frame from 195 x 60 mm beams, and front and back you close with an 18 mm OSB-plate. Now you have a hollow box, say 2 x 3 meters and 231 mm thick.

We are builders and we are proud of our houses because of the techniques and materials that we use. Our houses are robust, sturdy, they have very high insulation values and the are build to withstand ages. But all that means nothing when it comes to aesthetics. A nice design is just that, nice, and that is why we often cooperate with the architects from OxL.

In 2017 we built a loghouse on an island in The Netherlands. Quite an operation: getting a permit to drive a 24-ton truck onto the dike, then unloading to a barge, and then unloading on the island. After returning from a project in the Alps this was a little different for our assembly crew, going to work every day with tug boat.