Why do people buy kit log cabin homes from dealers, when they could build their own log cabin home from scratch instead?

The main reason people buy kits is because they mistakenly think log cabin homes only come in "kit" form.  That kits have to be made by a big manufacturers who have the super expensive equipment needed to mill "logs" into shape, so they fit together.  But the reality is that's only one way to get your own log cabin home.

The better alternative is building build your own Skip style butt and pass log cabin home from scratch, it will cost much less, go up quicker, be stronger, require less maintenance, and experience no settling.  These are just a few of the advantages of doing it yourself,

Anyone can build their own log cabin from scratch without a kit, just by doing this:

• Buy some local logs, or get them for free
• Stack them up
• Throw a roof on top
• Finish your home by adding windows, plumbing, electrical, etc.

In fact, the Skip style butt-and-pass method of building was created just so the average owner-builder could do everything that is required to build a log home -- without any special skills, tools or experience.  

All if takes is the right kind of knowledge.  Without the right knowledge building your own log cabin home can be extremely hard, but with the right knowledge it can actually be very straight forward and easy. 

If you have looked at kit log cabins, then you've probably noticed they tend to be very expensive. If you found that to be disappointing, then you might be happy to hear that there is a little known secret about how to get kit log cabins for free -- or at least for a shockingly small amount of money.  And the cool thing is that the least expensive 'kit' you can get, is the absolute best one you could possibly build.  It will be the the easiest to build, the quickest to build, the least expensive, the most resistant to water damage, and the strongest.

First off, you should understand exactly what the average log cabin "kit" consists of. A manufacturer typically includes three basic items with a kit: logs, doors, and windows. Sometimes they will include roof material and a porch. A log home at that stage of construction is often called 'dried in' (aka, it's weather tight).  It is vital to understand that a manufacturer can't and won't include finish materials, such as plumbing, electrical, floor coverings, kitchen cabinets, et cetera.

When it comes to pricing kit log cabins, salespeople usually describe it like this:

   1. The actual log cabin kit: $80,000
   2. Materials for finishing your home: $80,000
   3. Labor (with a local general contractor): $80,000

Have you ever heard of a butt and pass style log cabin? Most people who are shopping for log cabin kits haven't, and there is a good reason for it.

You will probably learn more about log homes in the next five minutes than you would learn from talking to a log cabin kit salesman for five years. In the next couple of paragraphs we're going to reveal the deep, dark log home secret: butt and pass.

The log home "industry" doesn't want you to know about butt and pass log homes. When you pick up a log home magazine and flip through the pages you will see dozens of log cabin kits that look very beautiful, but you will almost never see a butt and pass style log home. Typically the kit log home magazines show Canadian chinkless and saddle notch log cabins. Why?

The kit magazines are 100% supported by advertising from manufacturers of log cabin kits. And here's the big bombshell:

It is not possible to make log cabin kits out of a proper butt and pass style log home.

The reasons for this have to do with the technical nature of building a butt and pass log home vs. building log cabin kits that must be shipped somewhere else and "reassembled" by a builder. The reasons are too detailed to go into here, but suffice to say that there is no such thing as butt and pass style log cabin kits.

Why should you know about butt and pass log homes?

A spiral grain log is one where the natural grain of a logs outermost layer twists around its circumference.  A log can be either straight grain, left hand spiral grain, or right hand spiral grain.  In the picture below log A has straight grain, and log B has a left hand spiral grain:

Some log homes have very steep roofs.  They can be so steep that they almost look like an A-Frame building.  Other log homes have shallower roof pitches.  More like what you might see in typical modern stick frame construction.  There are some reasons why a shallow roof pitch is easier and less expensive to build and work on, versus a steep roof pitch.  Here are 4 of the reasons:

Sometimes when you build a log home you end up with left over sections of logs.  These log sections might come from the wall, where you cut openings for windows and doors.  Or they might come from cutting your logs down to the proper lengths for your walls.  

Some builders simply throw this excess away, because the log sections are so short.  That's not the most environmentally sensitive approach to building though, and a lot of good wood simply ends up going to waste.  Our students take a different approach, often finding creative ways to use all their pieces of scrap wood.

The bottom line is that when you build your own log home, you'll be able to use every part of your logs.  That will help make your project environmentally friendly.  Here are a few examples of how our members use scrap logs:

Many people have the mistaken belief that log homes are environmentally unfriendly.  While that might be true for the commercial kit builders, our members build log homes which shatter that stereotype. 

Our students are building their own traditional log homes from scratch, and as owner-builders they can build absolutely as eco friendly as they want to.   In fact, our students are building some of the most eco-friendly log homes on the planet.  One of our members just won the 2009 Built Green Washington environmental award for his log home. 

Below is a quick look at just a few of the tips on eco-friendly log home building that we cover at our class:

Log homes tend to get looked down on by environmentalists, because they think you have to wreak havoc on the environment to get your logs.  That is not the case.  It is possible to obtain the logs for your log homes while being environmentally friendly.

For example, many of our members want to incorporate some form of sustainable forestry practices into their log home building experience.  There are several methods one can use to get logs from eco-friendly sources, and here are some real life examples:

Since the real estate bubble popped lending standards have tightened.  That has lead to a "credit crunch" where people who really have good income and employment history can no longer qualify for mortgages.

This problem has only worsened with the failure of IndyMac and other regional lending institutions.

In response to this financial crisis some of our members are using a very traditional finance method which completely bypasses the banks.  They are using 'owner financing' to buy unimproved land (raw land) where they then build their mortgage free log home.  Here's some general information about owner-financing:

You can save a lot of money building a log home with the Butt and Pass style of log home construction, because it uses fewer logs than any other log home style.  Since the Butt and Pass method uses whole logs (without notches), you end up gaining more height with each course than you do in a notched or milled log home (which has wood removed from each log). 

Below is a picture of a whole log Butt and Pass corner: