As no chemical reaction is involved, such as hardening of mortar, a log cabin can be erected in any weather or season. With suitable tools, a log cabin can be erected from scratch in days by a family. Log construction was especially suited to Scandinavia, where straight, tall tree trunks ( pine and spruce) are readily available. The Marshal's Cabin, a hunting lodge of Marshal Mannerheim in Loppi, Finland The Wood Museum in Trondheim, Norway, displays fourteen different traditional profiles, but a basic form of log construction was used all over North Europe and Asia and later imported to America. It was also common to replace individual logs damaged by dry rot as necessary. Nevertheless, a medieval log cabin was considered movable property (a chattel house), as evidenced by the relocation of Espåby village in 1557: the buildings were simply disassembled, transported to a new location and reassembled. Over the decades, increasingly complex joints were developed to ensure more weather tight joints between the logs, but the profiles were still largely based on the round log. The insulating properties of the solid wood were a great advantage over a timber frame construction covered with animal skins, felt, boards or shingles. As the original coniferous forest extended over the coldest parts of the world, there was a prime need to keep these cabins warm.

They developed interlocking corners by notching the logs at the ends, resulting in strong structures that were easier to make weather-tight by inserting moss or other soft material into the joints. Log saunas or bathhouses of this type are still found in rural Finland.īy stacking tree trunks one on top of another and overlapping the logs at the corners, people made the 'log cabin'. a small gabled-roof cabin of round logs with an opening in the roof to vent smoke, to more sophisticated squared logs with interlocking double-notch joints, the timber extending beyond the corners. Their log building had undergone an evolutionary process from the crude 'pirtti'. accomplished in building several forms of log housing, having different methods of corner timbering, and they utilized both round and hewn logs. Although their origin is uncertain, the first log structures were probably being built in Northern Europe by the Bronze Age (about 3500 BC). Historically log cabin construction has its roots in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

1912 photo of a log cabin in Russia by color photography pioneer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky He noted that in Pontus (modern-day northeastern Turkey), dwellings were constructed by laying logs horizontally overtop of each other and filling in the gaps with 'chips and mud'. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settlers.Ĭonstruction with logs was described by Roman architect Vitruvius Pollio in his architectural treatise De Architectura. A log cabin in Ruka, a popular ski resort area of North Ostrobothnia, Finland.Ī log cabin is a small log house, especially a less finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure.

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