Similarly, houses that are made of logs are strong enough to withstand storms. While hurricanes and tornadoes can destroy other types of homes, log cabins tend to endure even the worst damage. Some log cabins are even known to resist damage from trees that fall on them during particularly severe storms.
Log houses
are stronger and more likely to survive tornadoes 26% hurricanes, largely due to all internal locking joints.Where other types of housing have succumbed to extreme weather conditions, such as hurricanes and tornadoes, their log house neighbors have stood firm. Why? All thanks to a carefully designed construction system. A construction system is a predetermined way of assembling the various components to ensure high levels of structural integrity. It may come as a surprise, but cabins are safer than traditionally built homes.
Their strong walls, solid foundations and fire-resistant material make them very durable in a tornado. While they can sometimes be expensive, a log cabin is definitely a safe place to be during a tornado. Log houses are great for maintaining temperature and saving energy. This is due to the massiveness of the logs and their ability to absorb heat during the day and radiate it at night.
This helps keep your home comfortable without having to rely so much on your HVAC. Homes built with solid log walls are generally 2.5% to 15% more energy efficient than standard stick-frame constructions, according to a NAHB study. Disasters such as tornadoes are rare in areas where you traditionally have log cabins, but you can never be so sure. When loose shingles and insulation break with strong gusts, strong winds invade the interior of the house, causing the entire structure to collapse, but not so with log cabins.
In general, log houses made of solid logs are considered to have very good fire resistance compared to other wooden structures. Beyond a constant flow of visitors looking to soak up a rustic atmosphere and connect with Mother Nature, there are other advantages of owning a log and wooden house over a more conventional construction. Oven drying of logs removes moisture, providing the log with improved stability that further contributes to the durability of your log house. In addition to local codes and guidelines, your builder also needs to know the “ICC-400 Standard on the Design and Construction of Log Structures”.
With hurricane season upon us (June 1 to November 30), I thought it would be worth seeing how well log houses fare in typical hurricane conditions. The durability of your log house will increase if your logs are treated in the factory with a borate solution. In fact, evidence is mounting that log houses are actually more durable than their contemporary counterparts, made of wood and drywall; log houses are actually more likely to survive natural disasters, given the rock-solid construction techniques used during construction and several peculiarities of the design. The thing about log houses is that you can't start cutting down trees and putting the logs on top of each other.
If you decide to hire the services of a private architect, the log house company you choose simply acts as a supplier of building materials, providing the logs to build the house. The engineered building systems developed by log house manufacturers and followed by builders determine how individual logs work as a stable unit. For many of the same reasons, a log cabin is safe during a tornado or hurricane, it also makes it safe during an earthquake. A few years ago, Southland Log Homes developed tailor-made log home packages for hurricane-damaged regions in Florida.
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