story by Kathryn Retzler; photos courtesy Forest Classics

© 2004. Exclusive to San Juan Publishing

HAND-CRAFTED LOG HOMES are often the home of choice for western Colorado. Naturally insulating, they have, since this country was first settled by the white man, provided a comfortable home that stays warm in winter and cool in summer. “Rather by design or accident, the pioneers usually did it right,” said artist Dan Deuter who has rebuilt a number of the old cabins (related story, click here) which take advantage of natural solar energy. “When the home faces north-south, in the summer, you open it up at night, then close it up tight during the day to keep the cool air inside. Winter time, you do the opposite.”

Of course, today people use installed cooling and heating systems, but energy costs for log homes are still attractively minimal. Logs are the perfect building material for the Rocky Mountain’s capricious climate; they don’t require any added insulation. The thick logs, chinked with a flexible, elastic material, protect against wind and water intrusion. 

Log homes are also cost effective from a decorative standpoint. Except for interior room partitions, the material usually provides both interior and exterior walls and design features. In other words, there is no need for extensive plastering and painting, carpeted floors and stairways or fancy windows and doors. The logs themselves serve as both structural and decorative material.

To build the homes, “We use standing dead trees, dead about five to 15 years,” explained Jack Horner of Forest Classics in Montrose. The logs are mostly lodgepole pine, engleman spruce and douglas fir, which the company obtains from Colorado, Utah, Montana and Canada—“primarily Alberta right now,” added Horner, who has been building log homes for over 20 years. “We build about six to eight custom-designed projects a year, ranging in size from 4,000 to 10,000 square feet, from little cabins to large homes.” Most of those structures are in Colorado, although the company has built and assembled homes as far away as North Carolina.

Which brings up the burning question: why is it more effective to build a home in one location, then take it apart, label the pieces, transport it to the actual building site and reassemble it again? The answer is deceptively simple: time, material, equipment and labor. Logs, most of them 30 to 55 feet in length, come in by truck and are laid out in the builder’s yard, then sorted according to intended use. “Generally we select our inventory according to projects we have, although some times we do have to buy ahead to make sure we have enough material,” Horner explained. “Most building sites are not large enough to lay out all the logs and choose what we need, then setup our equipment, including a saw mill, and build on site. It takes about 15 people, on average, to assemble a log home, and each one is a highly skilled specialist. If we pre-build on our site, we can do a 3,000 square foot structure in 10 to 12 weeks, transport the components (tagged for assembly) and reassemble it in about three days. This way everybody comes to one place to work, and we send only an assembly crew to the building site.”

The method is remarkably effective and the final product is a lovely home to enjoy for a long time. Log homes have the staying power of the forests which birth them, blending beautifully and comfortably with their surroundings.

Photos

1. Chris Ripmaster, Lazy R Ranch in San Miguel County inspects his nearly-finished log home. Courtesy Forest Classics.

2. Lowering logs with the crane. Courtesy Forest Classics.

3. Crew working with chain saws, preparing logs. Courtesy Forest Classics.