I have been told to cut the trees down in the winter. It won't bruise the tree because they are frozen,the new growth for bark hasn't developed yet and it doesnt damage the forest as much as far as skidding out the trees and such.The type of tree used to build a log home is usually designated by what is available, and your price range. In fact you could use a bunch of different types of logs on the same house, just stagger them so you don't have say one wall of pine and another wall of cedar on another and so on..I will post some of the more common types and the pro's and cons to that particular species.Another thing you must look at is the size of tree needed.
As a rule of thumb we try to use a tree that has a top no smaller than 11-13". This is to make sure we go up at least 5" on the small end of the house each round. We will get more into that later.
White pine- the king of all trees(here in northern ontario anyhow)- it is beautifully straight with very little branches on them or knots. It cleans up real nice and white. Be prepared to pay more for it than others
Jack pine- also a very good choice but it will be typically alittle more knotty. Trees chosen from the center of the bush will have less limbs and therefore less knots. If possible ask for these trees.
Cedar-Lasts a long, time but i find it tapers too fast and for this reason it is hard to work with. This of course is in the method we use which is scandanavian scribe with saddle notches..
Spruce- it is also good to use, doesn't taper too much but it has a nasty reputation for releasing sap. The sap will come out of these logs for a few years for sure. I was talking to a guy recently who built his house out of pine, but somehow a spruce log got in there way up at the top and the sap run down on the walls every time he turned the woodstove on.
Poplar- good, a little too hard of wood therefore not real supberb for thermal mass, and it is very crooked. the good thing is , it's readily available and cheap.
As a sidebar here i would like to add that i have heard of people using hardwood even oak, but this is real hard on your chainsaw and tools, even poplar gets super hard after it drys and you can't even pound a nail into it. I will post a picture here of some trees pulled from the bush where i chose the logs for my last customers house....notice the yellow paint can on the spruce tree
I would suggest that a decent size tree will have a butt size of 16-20" and the tops would be 11-13" and the tree will be 37-45" long..tomorrow we will get onto peeling logs, and tools needed....thanks for the interest in my diary and will try to answer some questions tomorrow...we use a big front end loader to lift the logs, i will eventually answer all the questions as i go along..take care,...pickster
