1. Scandinavian Full-Scribed Log Home Structures, which require a General Contractor to produce the finished homes.
2. Post & Beam Home Structures, which require a General Contractor to produce the finished homes.
3. Embellishments to existing homes with decorative or functional interior posts, beams and trusses. Many homeowners are now adding selected structures to their existing homes to create the look of massive wood.
4. Custom Log Home Designs and Plans

Scandinavian log walls are handcrafted, and thus you should expect to pay more for your log wall structure than for a standard construction of 2x6s and gyp rock-although the difference is partially offset because, once assembled, our logs provide the final exterior and interior walls as well as the wall insulation.

Our modern log structures are finished with the same roof, floors, doors, windows, lighting systems, basement, etc. as any other construction method.

The total budget for your new home will probably include purchasing the land, site preparation, foundation, design and construction. You will be choosing the types of heating and roof, water well (if not on city water), sanitation facilities (if not on a city sewer system), fireplace, kitchen cabinets, appliances, security system, finished driveway, landscaping and interior furnishings.

The final cost of your finished home will depend on the size of your home plus your cumulative choices for all these budgeted items. If the look and feel of massive handcrafted log walls, sculpted corners and exposed trusses is high among your priorities, you can have a Scandinavian log home.

Our log structure includes the log walls, log trusses-to be visible and support any cathedral ceilings, and visible log floor joists to support the loft or second floor. This prefabricated structure is sometimes called a "kit." Your general contractor will provide and install all the remaining materials and fixtures you choose for your new home.

1. Assuming you have a completed design, Les Maisons de Billots will produce a contract detailing all parts of your home included in our log structure, and, our final price to you. A general contractor will take our information, add the cost of all your other choices for the completed construction, and, give you a final construction cost estimate.
2. If you already have an architect's design or a sketch of your floor plan with all dimensions, we can give you an estimate of the price of our log structure.
   

Our log home structures already include all work on the logs themselves, therefore, your general contractor will be doing things already familiar-such as constructing the roof, floors, basement, interior walls, kitchen and so on. As part of our price to you, we consult with your general contractor and offer continuing assistance after our structure is erected. You can thus use your preferred general contractor, if you have one, to finish your log home.

1. Any home plan can be adapted to a log structure with usually minor modifications. Wood home plans for milled-logs and piece-on-piece structures are easily adapted to Scandinavian Full-Scribed log homes. We specialize in producing custom log home designs.
2. If you would like to do your own research, the following web site contains 100 books dealing with log home and timber home designs and considerations (English): Log house books here
   

We prefer to design what you want, with you. We will guide you through the design process with our experience and knowledge of the creative use of our log-building technique. We listen well and take your personal factors into consideration. The result will be your unique log home.

1. If you are starting from the beginning, we can provide a custom architectural drawing, suitable for presentation to a municipality for your building permit.
2. If you have already selected an architect, we can provide a custom design your architect can complete.

Depending on its size, it generally takes about four to six weeks to produce your structure at our factory, dismantle it, ship it and reassemble it on your foundation. Our shipping date for your log structure is part of our final contract with you, and is based on our existing contracts at the time. Your general contractor may then take another two to four months to complete the remainder of your home. Your specific experience may differ from these generalizations.

1. Their builders chose and maintained healthy original logs. Before construction began, the builders removed the bark immediately upon cutting the trees and stored waiting logs properly to allow breathing.
2. Their construction began with their bottom logs well off the ground and away from surrounding vegetation.
3. Their roofs had large overhangs.
4. Their logs were not treated with any coating that impaired their breathing, before or after construction.
5. They all had good ventilation inside and outside the structure.
6. Their healthy, dry wood did not interest insects.
   
   At Les Maisons de Billots Jacques Lariviere we apply all this knowledge in our process of constructing log homes.

Log homeowners have long reported their heating bills are not higher than their insulated-walled neighbors, but eventually, scientists made the comparison.

In 1981-82, The National Institute of Standards conducted a field study of the effect of wall mass on six test buildings in Maryland constructed identically except for the exterior walls. One building had log walls. During winter, summer and spring periods, NIS maintained all the buildings at the same temperature and measured the energy consumption of each building.

Their seven-inch-square log construction, rated R-10-when compared to a fiberglass-insulated, 2x4 wood frame wall construction rated R-12-used about the same energy during the winter heating period, 46% less energy during the spring heating period and 24% less energy during the summer cooling period.

The full report is "Proceedings of the Building Thermal Mass Seminar," Knoxville, TN, June 2-3, 1982.

In 1991, The National Association of Home Builders Research Center conducted a study for the Log Home Council to determine a log home's wall performance during winter in northern zones. They studied eight log homes and eight well-insulated conventional homes, evenly divided between upstate New York and Montana/Wyoming.

Their results concluded that the tested log homes were as energy efficient as the tested super-insulated frame homes, even though the R-value of the log homes was 44% lower than the walls of the frame homes.

The full report is "Evaluation of Log Homes' Heating Energy Performance in Northern Climates," April 5, 1991.

In terms of construction materials, log homes use the same windows, doors, ceilings, roofs and floors as conventionally built homes. In 1990, Advanced Certified Thermography, an independent testing agency, studied the heat loss of twenty-three log homes through air infiltration for the Energy Division of the Minnesota Department of Public Service. Researchers concluded that air infiltration of log homes generally occurs in the same places it occurs in conventional homes, i.e., along the tops of walls, around window and door penetrations and at the peaks of the roofs. The researchers also concluded that air infiltration in modern log homes is not due to the joints in the log walls.

This report is no longer available in print, although people at the Minnesota Department of Public Service, Energy Division, St. Paul, MN know the data.

From March to June 1977, Applied Science and Engineering (ASE), Englewood, CO, an independent research group, studied thirty-one Denver, Colorado area homes with sophisticated monitoring equipment to find out precisely what happens during energy consumption within these homes.

Researchers at ASE found, on average, 66% of heat losses in these homes came from air infiltration (Defined as large volumes of air that flow out of a home through built-in holes like chimneys, flues and vents, and, are replaced with outside air pulled in through kitchen vents, under doors, around window and door frames, etc. Infiltration is a process not affected by insulation.) Of the remaining heat losses, 17% came through windows, 11% through the insulated ceiling (the homes they studied had 3" of attic insulation), and, 6% through the walls.

ASE's report concluded that, because of the large losses from infiltration, far more energy could be saved in a home by paying attention to heat losses from built-in holes like furnace and hot water heater flues, than by investing in increased R-value of the walls. They believed that home building codes calling out a given R-Value unfairly penalized log-walled homes.

In 1983, Doris Muir and Paul Osborne printed this report with permission in a brochure entitled "The Energy Economics and Thermal Performance of Log Houses."