You could be forgiven for thinking that we might be a little biased when it comes to log house kits, but we really do think this is the best way to self-build a house, and we’re going to tell you why in this blog.
A log home kit is one of the most straightforward ways to build your own home, whether you want to do it all yourself, or get a building contractor to put the structure up for you.
Starting off with the practical stuff, there’s the time it will take to build the house: 3-6 months for a brick and block house to be built to watertight, compared with a couple of weeks for a log home kit (more details) . We know, right? – bit of a difference! In all, it’s entirely feasible for it to take no more than 6 months from delivery to completion.
Care about the environment at all – or about saving money on energy bills? Then a log house is your ideal choice. A log home, by its very nature, is more sustainable, with a lower carbon footprint than a conventional brick and block house. By using wood to replace steel and other high energy materials in building, it is possible to significantly cut the carbon emissions per cubic metre of a house! [Source].
Wood is a great insulator, and your log house will be very energy efficient and highly airtight, so you will need to consider how you’re going to ensure sufficient ventilation. We would usually recommend a Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery system as these provide fresh air that has been warmed from the heat recovered from the stale air that is extracted.
How about convenience? Instead of spending time organising multiple different deliveries to get all the materials you would need to build a brick and block home, you can opt for one or two trucks arriving in one go, bringing you a log home kit that contains everything you need to build the basic structure/skeleton of your house to watertight. That includes windows and doors, the wood for an internal timber frame to allow for insulation, and timber for internal stud walls.
You will need to sort out foundations separately, but even then, it’s less complicated than with a traditional British home, as – because its relatively lightweight yet immensely strong – a log house needs minimal concrete in its foundations in comparison.
As a method of creating a perfect, eco-friendly, energy efficient self-build home, there’s very little to rival the convenience and simplicity of a log home kit that you can even arrange to have built yourself.
Building your self-build house from a log home kit is rather like putting together a giant 3D jigsaw puzzle, but at the end of it, you get to live in it.
