HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Rural Voice, 1994-10, Page 39contracted. Padfield says he has
never met a bad log home craftsman
but he has met many a good
craftsmen who didn't know how to
market their skills. His company
provides that marketing ability.
im Donkers and Gord Harris got
interested in log homes about
eight years ago when they took
apart and reassembled an old log
house. Thcy looked for a year for a
company that could provide them
with logs to build homes and found
the small company called Caledon
Log Homes of Bolton which was
using a German milling design. The
company had set up its own mill in
Bancroft to mill the logs but hadn't
set up a dealership network at the
time. Donkers-Harris became the first
dealer for Caledon Log Homes,
covering an arca from Kincardine
south to Grand Bend, across to
Oxford County and north again to
Arthur and Durham. They've also
build homes as far away as Bala in
Muskoka. (The area north of
Cord Harris (left) and Jim Donkers
have been building log homes for
eight years.
Kincardine and Durham is covered
by Shalom Woodcraft.
The first log home Donkers-Harris
reconstructed was the pioneer -style
home with flattened logs (using a
broad axe or adz on top and bottom
in the old days), with the space
between the logs chinked. Individual
craftsmen are still building that kind
of home but the cost is much more,
says Jim Donkers. "It's much time
consuming to build. Plus there is a lot
more maintenance, a lot more air
leakage if they're not built right."
The majority of log homes being
built come from pre-packeged
designs. Logs arrive at the building
site cut to the right size, even with
the window holes cut. The logs in
today's homes are designed to
provide comfort and energy
efficiency. Jim Donkers points to a
corner on the home he's building for
the Williams. The logs are machined
with a double tongue and groove
system to fit tightly together. The
logs have a "D" configuration,
rounded on the outside to encourage
water to run off, flat on the inside to
present a smooth wall. An
overhanging lip is machined into the
outside the the log to keep water
from sitting in the groove between
the logs.
The pre -fab log homes can be
made to almost any design and aren't
limited to the length of the logs
available. Since all the logs arc
milled to exacting dimensions,
shorter logs can be butted together in
the middle of a run and you have to
look closely to see any joint at all.
Old-style, one-piece construction
means that a wall can only be as long
as the length of the logs available.
Getting large logs is becoming
increasingly a problem. Caledon's
maximum log length is 17 feet,
Donkers says.
"The two biggest questions I get
asked are R -value and maintenance, "
says Donkers. "People don't want to
do a lot of maintenance."
Modern stains and
preservatives add to the
longevity of the homes.
Maple Hill uses a pressure treating
system called TimBor, developed
using natural borate minerals mined
in the desert of California. Unlike the
familiar green wood people tend to
think of with pressure treated wood,
OCTOBER 1994 35