- - - - - - - - What is the cheapest way to build a log cabin?

I'll sell you mine in the Jersey pines on a lake halfway between Phila., and Atlantic City. It is 40 miles from the Jersey shore and 80 miles south of Mew York City. 1 Acre.

220K. I want to leave the US.

I'll sell you mine in the Jersey pines on a lake halfway between Phila., and Atlantic City. It is 40 miles from the Jersey shore and 80 miles south of Mew York City. 1 Acre.

220K. I want to leave the US.

This is a cool concept, and less expensive than a log cabin:

[link to everything.newlibertyvillage.com]

that is cool, i have been studying a method called "shotcrete" it is what the zoo's use to create mountain like structures

just make the shape of your building out of wire and structural steel, and spray concrete over it, let is cure and cover with earth

some great ideas here!

You could try this for seriously cheap construction.

[link to www.calearth.org]

I still want my Mud Hut!

[link to www.claysandstraw.com]


[link to www.cobworks.com]


[link to www.cobcottage.com]

Doesn't it take special equipment to spray shotcrete? How much?


Probably the cheapest way is the cordwood house from the wood you cut on your own property. Small pieces to deal with, instead of major logs.

I'm looking for 5 acres to have a metal building put on. I'll enclose part of it to live in, and use the rest for a shop.

buy a trailer and panel the outside with wood.

it's normally proposed as a way to increase insulation, but i don't have any links.

I've built a stone and timber pole framed 2 storey 10 square 2 bdrm holiday house for about $25k. I got all the framing and windows, doors etc by buying from demolition jobs. I worked a few demo jobs myself for cheap materials.
The upstairs cladding is 20mm celery top pine.(A tasmanian pine with a high oil content to resist rotting).This came straight from the mill, and the timber poles from the forestry commission.
The stone came from the land. It's on ten acres of coastal forest on an island in southern tasmania. Its taken 12 years or hard work, mostly my wife and I, working weekends and holidays. No tradesmen, we've done it all.
If you are under 40 I'd say go build a house. If you are older and not a builder, there is a change you'll never finish it. It's bloody hard slow work.
Had a friend who built a huge log house virtually himself.
He had two big cables running across the house site and up the hill. He cut the trees on the land, delimbed them and hauled them down to house site with an old 4 wheel drive.
Prepared the ends and length and then using chain blocks winched them up in the air and hauled them in place on the cables and dropped them in. We couldn't believe how much he did himself. Took him a few years to complete but it all settled as he went. He used good eucalpyts which may shrink in diameter but not length.

There used to be an ad somewhere stating that your could build a cabin for 10K ... anyone see that? Probably $100 K by now though...

If you buy a "kit" for $70K--doesn't it usally take 3 times that to actually have a turn-key...?

Think bambo my freind.

Read-up some on the subject but its kinda hard ta find local
in many areas.

Ok cheepest way to build a Real Log cabin is to take class from Loghomebuilders.org ore read allot book that teach you the wrong way and it will not last.
Ore buy a over priced kit that looks like pretty dowl pins.
Thats not a real log cabin you might call a 2 by 4 a log home then its made of wood same as a dowl pins.
Cheepest way is buy land with good trees and some where the dumb ass goverment will be on your ass to make you pay permits and make you run threw hoops like Luray Page County va Red Necks try screw me out of a buck so i can build on my own land. Fagot goverment here spy on me so i dont build unless i give them money so i can then pay them more money for taxes on my home.
We are no longer living in a free country welcome to Russia.
Ok enought the venting go take the class you love it i did and many other did to www.loghomebuilders.org
Kits are over priced crap trust the people who cabins that used in Nothern exposher and Grizzle adams and Lady Hawk and there others.
Send me a message if you got qwestions to [email protected] seya

er, might be missing something here, but why not just get a petrol chainsaw? Less chance of tripping over that 200ft cord and cutting your head off

We built ours ourselves. My wife, daughter and myself. 3330 sq ft two story log. The floor beams and joist are oak trees with saw mill oak 1x6's for the floor. The walls are 2x6 saw mill oak studs about 3 to 4 feet apart with pine logs in between. Being short logs we could lift them our selves. The metal roof was the most costly part. Right at $1000. The chinking is made of mortor mix, sand from the creek and shredded paper from free news papers. We have just under $6000 in the whole thing. Two bedrooms and a lot of split level rooms. We built the doors and windows our selves. Since we are off grid we use two solar pannels and a generator. Propane runs the stove, water heater and fridge. A phone line is the only conection to the outside world. Yep, it can be done. Took 5 years to build but its paid for in full.

If you are looking for quality custom log homes in the U.S, Canada or Europe, you should consider Brian Moore Log Homes. They build incredible houses. www.brianmooreloghomes.com

Check out these log home builders. They create some incredible homes.

[link to www.brianmooreloghomes.com]

Last Edited by lacKailey on 09/28/2009 09:11 AM

Buy a copy of Bradford Angier's "How to Build Your Home in the Woods".

Came out in the '70s I think, yet it can be bought at Amazon.

[link to www.amazon.com]



Last Edited by itdincor on 09/28/2009 12:05 PM

the cheapest way is to buy some land that has a lot of trees on it and build it yourself.

There are hundreds of "kit" providers and the prices are more or less the same, depending on the kind of wood. Cypress and Cedar are the best, pine is less expensive.

Log homes are not ecologically sustainable.

Cheapest building material is straw bale construction:

[link to www.epsea.org]

Post and beam is most likely going to be up to code in most states that have allowed bale construction. California, as one example, allows load bearing bales up to 8 bales tall (12 feet), post and beam construction they allow 2 stories - three if you use steel.

Bales are pinned together with rebar, then coated with stucco to seal them. Examples of straw bale construction (walls, small structures) have survived wild fires where other forms of construction (post and beam, stick frame, log, etc) have burnt down to the ground.

Another alternative is Rammed Earth. Most typically the use of old worn out tires (which are cheap, usually just laying around taking up space in landfills) are filled and packed with native soils. Again pinned together with rebar.

Straw bale gives you insulation (R value(s) between 45 to 48), rammed earth gives you thermal mass.

Then there is adobe. A mix of clay, sand and straw moistened into clay shaped and sun dried. It gives a decent thermal mass, and if you cover the exterior in cement stucco it will last nearly forever. It is very cheap. Places with earth quakes will not insure adobe as it, it has to contain both upright and horizontal rebar. Adobe has made a comeback in my local (California) area where tar/asphalt is being added to the mix to increase its water resistance.

Again it is cheap - most places you just dig up your yard ;-)

how about use surplus shipping containers?

[link to designcrave.com]

The cheapest way to obtain Livable Shelter with longterm viability is to buy a Yurt or Surplus GI Wall Tent. Be sure to buy an insulating liner and plan on erecting a floor for the tent to sit upon. Look to also buy a floor standing woodstove for heat and cooking, or to be really homey, buy a woodburning cookstove with water jacket.

For one-person to transport, there is the USGI Arctic Tent w/liner and single collapsing tent pole. Under 100lbs for both the liner and tent. Might be able to use a freighter backpack and carry it. The 10 man Arctic tent is pretty roomy, has a smoke hole for woodstove or GI heater. With a Sheepherders stove, a 24-30" rectangular stove, fitted with a water jacket and maybe oven fixture, you could live very comfortably in sub-zero weather.


Unless you own a log-skidder or 50+hp 4x4 tractor, cutting your own timbers is not an easy task. Determination can overcome many obstacles, but if your time is worth anything, best idea is to contract for delivery of your logs from a timber-cutter and have them offloaded at your site. Handling logs is tough. The cordwood method has much going for it, if you live in a fairly moderat climate. If you have many below zero F days, the concrete used for chinking and wall strength is a heat sink that robs you of BTUs.

Most energy efficient design is stick frame with a 2x6 or 2x8 insulated wall and floor. Could cover that with log-veneer or cedar and have a very warm, solid cabin. If you are subject to building codes and HOA covenants, that is the best way to DIY and be in compliance. Lots easier to wire and plumb a stick framed house. Then there are timber framed homes that are very cool...

Kurt Saxon had a short article on building a hunters cabin in the woods in one of his Survivor books. The plan was to build on an elevated site like a hilltop and dig out 3 or 4 feet and then erect an A-frame roof. Could be done pretty quickly. If you used lots of 6mil plastic, drain piping and insulated below your floor, could have a pretty viable partially earth-sheltered cabin without needing a boom truck or winching setup.

Remember that logs/timbers have insulation value of 1. To obtain the same R19 you get from 2x6 stickframe takes about a 24" diameter log. The weight of such a timber in any decent length is well over 500l bs. Handling these is one thing, they require a massive foundation as well.

Another option, and maybe the best one, IF you can drive to your building site, is a USED RV. Look at craigslist, ebay, autobroker, and any trading newspapers in your area. Often you will find, older class C RVs with gasoline engines and generators in good usable condition (with some refits), for under $3000.

An RV is a cabin on wheels. Park it in a barn, or build a pole framed roof system to park it under. Tow a trailer full of building supplies to your site and live in the RV while you build your permanent residence.

Being mobile these days has lots of advantages. Large tents and yurts have benefits no cabin can offer. A motorhome or RV pulling a trailer with extra gear could enable a standard of living most will envy, and if things go South, just pack up and leave.

It should be cheap because it's a third world construction technique.

Get back to me when you get rid of all the critters taking up residence in the straw walls from now until they dissolve.

Lincoln Logs ToysRus 18.95 ...
but if you order right now you will get a second log cabin
free. offer applies with enrollment in triple stupidity

We just built a 40' x 40' by 9' high timber 9' timber (8" square timbers) place on top of a subterranean workshop which features ARXX poured concrete insulated walls. Timbers are much easier to handle than logs and they stack right up, no problems with fitting/scribing/etc. Also NO peeling logs, we did that when young and enthusiastic and are not interested in doing it again. The timbers were sawn locally from dry spruce and cost us about $10,000 for the whole place. Roof was framed out with TJI's and stringers and a metal roof (panels were bought on sale because they were a discontinued color). That's as far as we've gotten but it won't take nearly as much to finish it as a frame construction.

Logs and timbers sometimes get a bad rap because of their lower R ratings BUT they also have the ability to store and release heat, which a frame house does not. We live in Fairbanks (yeah, the -50 degrees place) and the most comfortable places I've lived in have all been log. There's something very cozy about them. They also tolerate earthquakes well as long as you've been careful to not frame the windows and doors too tightly. (Use insulation to make sure there are no air leaks).

Cordwood houses look 'cute' but they are a LOT of work and I can't imagine trying to build one 'square and level'. Also there are tremendous shrinkage problems involved which are unavoidable because the mortar itself will shrink as it dries. I might try a cordwood wall for the back wall of a lean-to style greenhouse where the thermal mass would be nice, but that's about it.

Why not just go to Home Depot(or similar)get the biggest wooden garden shed (or two) insulate them, and do further modifications for living in them.

i second the shipping container idea

start with one kinda like a travel trailer similar to the surf shack.......then later you can add a second one with a larger room between them like in the other links

[link to www.hybridseattle.com]

[link to hivemodular.terapad.com]

[link to www.lamidesign.com]

not a log cabin but theres some vids on youtube of small one container dwellings

no rot no bugs no rats no termites .....very low maintenance

Those are great. Put them underground for bomb(other)shelter.

I was thinking a larger tee-pee built from that fire-proof material they used for the denver airport (and the china olympic pool) roofs.