Design Your Log Home: Tips to keep you out of trouble

Almost every log home is a custom design, if you have a change in the stock plan or starting from scratch. By their nature, custom floor plans to open a number of challenges tested – especially if you try to design the house himself. With almost all log home manufacturers, an architect in the house will have your design and turn it into a series of drawings in accordance with the construction of their system. Your home will be structurally sound. Notto wait to identify all the genes or snafu in your project. This is a hands-on business, and ultimately, the design of the house is yours … and you have to live with it. Here are some tips that I can suggest to your project effectively.

Mechanical: open-plan offices are the essence of modern log homes. Feel a bigger house, and keeps the cook from feeling isolated. If you have a second floor that you must consider howPlumbing, electrical and piping (both supply and return) for the upper rooms. You can use the external walls that are not, then you need to create the walls low enough to fit all the mechanics. Each element is likely to find its space between the 2×4s. Although the use of floor heating radiant heat, you need the duct for air conditioning. There are some systems, the system behavior at high pressure much smaller in diameter than the traditional channels to usethen there are other options if you are pressed for space. But the best solution is to think about the future. If you are tempted to use an interior-to-ceiling log (or not), it offers the opportunity to obtain the system of Conduct above.

PLUMBING: The wisest floor plans are the bathrooms that will (or back-to-back or one above the other) short runs and plumbing. It can not happen, but when the position of the upperbathroom, trying to arrange with an interior wall downstairs. In this way, no hydraulic hose is not all place.

Room: I would imagine that the houses are usually very short on closet space. I know my house. First, it would be a terrible waste to put a case against a log outside wall. Why do you hide your beautiful logs? Why try to keep the patch material to a minimum, it seems almost a crime to waste precious spacecreate. But there is more of a reason to include. We do not seem to collect more things with age, but under the legislation of several countries, the cache determines if a room from a bedroom or office. This could affect the sale (or refinance) your home. Here's a suggestion: put two houses, side-by-side on the wall that separates two rooms, the services may not be great, but does not change the shape of the rooms do not. Try to include a coat closet near your frontthrough.

WINDOWS: As I'm sure you've already read many times, you can have too many windows in a house in the register. The tree absorbs light like a sponge. If you have a big blank wall, no insertion of a window at the top, only let more light, it adds character. Some people put windows on each side of a shed dormer. In my case, I had to move the roof line of the size of the window of my room to increase because the code that had to be 6 'square out. In anyTheir upper windows of the rooms should be big enough to climb in case of fire. Remember also that too many direct-set windows, the amount of airflow to reduce the level. In my house, I have a tent (a small hinged window) to the bottom of the card in my roof windows added. Has helped to leave the air, but even so the rooms can be tedious. A fan helps, but ultimately, I remember a skylight need to add a concept of creation.

KITCHEN VENT: One of the most difficultdecisions we have taken the issue of how hood vent. If you do not want the stove should not be on a wall, you have an interesting conundrum. Want spillway between the floor beams externally? Will be shown again until you add a fan? I was in and moved my stove to the wall, but when we had a hole in the records for venting. Horror! How can you hide? My builder built a little cedar box around the hole, and we were luckyenough for a porch roof below, so you can see from all directions. Yet, this ugly mouth on the front of the house, and I thought that I moved the kitchen at the rear of the house.

Crawl Space vs. Basement: There are many reasons to choose a space, rather than scan a basement – none of them particularly pleasant. Besides the obvious disadvantages of a crawl space, there are some things that we do not believe. I have in my blissful ignorance, notgive a thought to the ugly electrical panel. Of course I knew that we measure, and a panel would be, but I have not thought about how they did not. What I do not know is that the code, you can not sit on the panel in the search space. Since we do not have a garage, while the electrical panel is installed in one of our rooms in the wall of the Register. It is not good? Another disadvantage of the examination room, you need a quick heating of water if it is where they go, and you may need to purchase ahorizontal-mount furnace. Because our water quality was poor we had to install a purification system. This unit of 54 "to be mounted vertically, and our crawl space is 48" long. We had to make a hole in the concrete space plan for the device to do.

Gutters: Yes, you want to get the water away from your home log at any price. There are challenges, we have a mountain home in style, with a vaulted ceiling. But take a deep V in the corners, creating aparachute rain magnificent. Is not necessarily wonderful when you download on your tires! As a result of the generous overhang that comes with a log home before the end of V projects far from the wall and not make a logical angle from which not hang a gutter. In one corner I satisfied myself with an old rain barrel, and the deck hand, we have to divert water to the pergola we built the house, and ran a gutter along the edge of the pergola.

Toilets: Youmust be at least a 1 'walk and, preferably, a protrusion 2' to protect your logs. This overhang must be taken into account when designing the roof line. If you have overlapping angles, make sure there are a trap, or a creation trap snow. There are times when the projection may run into another corner of the roof. You can actually get a portion of the roof a little clearance is increased.

By fluctuations: Can be one of the most annoying bug that you can not capturebefore it is too late. Remember that your door is open, when all the roads. And that another door? Will be two doors bang together? If you are in a tight space, will open all the way to everyone? When we installed our bathroom vanity, we think that the door until the plumbing was already connected. The doors opened the vanity of a whole inch, could be worse. You can compensate by swinging the other way (was already suspended, or if your hinges will bethe wrong side). Or, in the design phase, you can use a smaller door. Or get a little vanity.

ELECTRICAL: Electrical and plumbing layout will not be your log home architectural drawings. The manufacturer is not concerned about where they sit on newsstands. Once the plans are faithful to it's time for you to sit down with the electrician and mark exactly where you want the sockets, switches and lamps. Local code determines the minimum distanceamong the shops, but nobody tells you more than necessary, in the end will probably use the same. Even if you do not need, put the cable and telephone in every room, it is much easier and cheaper to do so on the front. Also remember you can never have too much light in a house of logs. Planning for those matches – particularly those of the ceiling. It will not be pretty to add later.

Dead Space: If you are building a large log house, it washave so much space that does not really matter. But for most of the rest of us, every inch counts. There are some methods that can best space. First and foremost, you really need it again? Some space-saving design rearrange the rooms so that all open in no time. I would not. In addition, each port creates Dead Space. If you can take your floor plan so that closet door swings in a place that is already dead (for example, a cache of seconddoorway or hall), open space, a bit '. Outside the cage for a purpose or is it just opened a corridor from one room to another? Can a piece of furniture in it? Otherwise, could serve a corner and is 'open' a bit less space.

Hopefully I helped a bit '. I have a lot of these tips learned the hard way, and I am sure there are many more I have not yet met. After all, a house was a big learning curve.