In alt.home.repair, on Mon, 20 Jan 2020 19:37:44 -0500,
wrote:


For the walls below the windows, he used logs, not lengthwise like in
most log cabins and houses but so the ends showed inside and out. That
was his big mistake. The logs had dried for weeks, months, or a year or
two, not sure, but they continued to dry after they were in place, and
shrink, so there were holes almost an inch big that the air would blow
through. He chinked it with cement, that didn't look sot good.


Cordwood construction is a thing -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwood_construction
I'd question using it - for load-bearing-structure -
under big expensive windows in a big expensive home.
John T.

At the bottom of the post I pointed out the windows had not sagged.
Must have had some 2x4's holding them up.
But the url you gave says they expand and shrink even if aged.
I wonder how that works.


Unless both cut ends are fully sealed they absorb and release
moisture. Even log houses expand and shrink with the seasons -
just like your hardwood floors.


Years ago, talking to my old neighbour - who had a beautiful
log home built - I remember him saying that there were
some sort of "jack screw" devices built into the structure -
to adjust for the long-term settling as the big logs dry out.
not sure about seasonal expansion/contraction ?
They also used some special framing on top of windows & doors.
It all seems like a lot of bother - but it's a really great looking
home - and the present owners seem happy there.
Recent technologies might have reduced the troublesome stuff -
this log home is 30 + years old.

As for Micky's original post - re : the decorative cordwood -
.. it might be a nice touch - if the cordwood is properly dried
and treated for bugs, and sealed ..

I don't know if he sealed it or not, maybe not. Plus I presume it has to
be resealed once in a while, and I'll bet he doesn't do that.

.. and I hope they used something stronger than 2 x 4

I just used 2x4 generically. I wasn't wasn't there for that part. He
might have used bigger.

for window framing ..
John T.

The same webpage I quoted also said the logs had to age for 3 years
before being used, and I'm next to certain it wasn't that much. I don't
remember seeing any stacks of short logs aging. I would have found it
curious.

I have another friend from college who lives in Denver and he and his
wife were driving around the mountains an hour west of there and came
across a 6-room log house. Vacant. They found out who owned it, USC or
Stamford, and he wrote them and they had inherited it from a sea-captain
who built it to get as far from the sea as possible. He left it to the
school which never used it, and they sold it to my friend pretty
cheaply.

It needed quite a bit of work but he was handy and only 30 y.o or so. He
found chinking, made from newspapers as early as iirc 1870. He had the
second half of his wedding reception there.

Also in the area were a bunch of fraudulent gold mines. People would
dig a hole, salt the mine with gold, or just say it had gold, and then
raise money from investors in the east, a small amount of which they
would put into more digging, and the rest they would live on, very well,
or save. The police and prosecutors tried to stop it, but of course
they didn't advertise in the Colorado law journal. The time was the end
of the 19th century, 1870 to 1900, somewhere along that time.