Log houses

Dear Sirs, 

we are happy to present you another type of wooden buildings - log houses for permanent living.

We have all possibilities to offer You, respectable customers, design, produce and erect timber log house during 3 months.

General information:
EUROVUDAS GROUP is on of the biggest log houses manufacturing company in Baltic states. Our company’s productivity is ten log houses per month, with 120 m² of living space, or 120 log houses per year. We are very proud of our just and right controlled production technology, high manufacturing quality, and we have reached bigger wood processing output and lower cost prices. 

Vision and mission:
EUROVUDAS GROUP vision – to become sales leader of ecological log houses. This vision predicating strategy is based on company’s mission to be manufacturer of living log houses.

Our log houses are manufactured and erected according highest standards.

EUROVUDAS is reliable partner to our customers, we offer flexible forms of orders, consulting; always recommend innovations, constantly introduce modern technologies.

In short about technology and modern production line:

The main factors of successful and qualified production of log houses are preparation of good quality raw material and proper processing of it.
EUROVUDAS log houses are made only from dried timber. That is why drying of timber at maximum reduces influence of humidity to built wooden structures, i.e. the walls are smooth and aesthetically nice-looking, walls have less cracks, and that reduces natural swelling.


The most complicated thing in producing log houses is the manufacturing of baulk joining.
Usually complicated corners (baulk joinings) are made manually, because it has 3 planes and the tool, which forms the corner, has to move on 9 spindles. This machine, for manufacturing complicated corners, with precise positioning of electronic cutting tool, by using 9 spindles instantly forms joining corner, without moving the baulk, and the joining itself is made very precisely. This method of corner joining manufacturing lets simply “lock the wind” inside the corner and wind cannot enter inside the house. This precision cannot be achieved by making corners manually not talking about productivity – living log house of 120 m² is made during 30 working hours. 

Beyond corner milling machine the module of double drilling for installation and stabilization holes is located. These holes are part of log houses building technology they are used for stabilizing the balks, which are fitted on each other and connected using wooden pins. This makes the wall solid.

The walls of log houses have only one layer, so to install electrical wires corresponding to applicable codes and hide it from view is quiet hard problem. In our machine line we have module for forming drilled vertical holes for electrical installation in the baulks. Pre-drilled hole looks aesthetically and do not spoil the view of the wall.

 

Some common information:

There are two kinds of log homes: "handcrafted" and "milled" (also called "machine-profiled"), made with a log house moulder. A handcrafted log home is typically made of logs that have been peeled but are otherwise essentially unchanged from their original natural appearance when they were trees. A milled or machine-profiled log home is one constructed of logs that have run through a manufacturing process to remove natural features and imperfections of the log and convert them into timbers that are consistent in size and appearance. Many handcrafted log builders do not consider milled logs a log at all, a position with which milled-log manufacturers disagree.

Handcrafted log homes have been built for centuries in Scandinavia, Russia and Eastern Europe. The Scandinavian settlers of New Sweden brought the craft to North America in the early 1700s, where it was quickly adopted by other colonists and Native Americans. In the 1920s, the first milled log houses appeared on the market, using logs that were precut and shaped, rather than hand-hewn. Most log homes today are of milled variety mostly because they require less labor intensive field work and there are many more options available than with handcrafted alone.

Any timber from large to small will have moisture in it when it is fresh cut. Log homes of all types experience varying degrees of moisture content. In the case of "handcrafted" logs this moisture will naturally leave the timber, drying it out until it stabilizes with the climate it is in. This drying out causes movement and adjustment in the timber. As the wood dries the individual cells on the exterior of the crafted log will seal up. The remaining moisture in the center of the timber keeps trying to escape and will eventually open a crack in the crafted log. This crack, also known as a "check," can continue to the heart of the timber, sometimes leaving a large crack on the side of a home. This occurs in all log homes, regardless of construction method or how the timbers are allowed to dry and is considered normal as well as part of the charm of owning a log home.

Milled logs are processed in a different manner than hand crafted logs. Logs destined to become Milled logs can become one of several types depending on the desired quality and end result.

Green Timber

Logs that are cut from the forest, brought to a mill and profiled are usually referred to as "green" logs. These logs will have a higher moisture content, sometimes upward of 25%. After construction, the timbers are allowed to dry in place.

Air Dried Timber

Some mills elect to let the fresh cut timbers sit outside in the open air to dry naturally. This process allows the moisture content of the logs to naturally come down as the timber dries. To be done properly, this process requires years and the mill needs space to let the timbers air out. If the logs are to be dried to an equilibrium with the local climate the process can take several years. In some environments the logs must be kept under some type of roof or cover so that rain does not effect the logs. Once the logs have dried for the desired time frame the logs are profiled and shipped to a customer. Profiling usually does not take place until right before shipment to ensure that the logs stay as uniform as possible. Arguably this process may or may not have any benefit depending on many factors such as, local climate, species of wood size of wood, size of wood, and final location of the log structure. Manufacturers and customers need to access the costs versus the possible benefits.

Kiln Dried Timber

Mills that have a kiln on-site have the option of artificially accelerating the drying process. Green timber is placed inside a large oven where heat removes moisture from the logs. They can suffer severe checking and cracking if the kiln controls are not properly monitored during the drying process. Kiln Drying can cut down the dry time required by the manufacturer in order for production, from many months to a number of weeks, and usually results in an average moisture content of 18-20%, average being the mean moisture content of the outside of the log and the center of the log.

Glue Laminated Timber

"Laminated" or "Engineered" logs are a quite different approach to log home building. Full trees are brought to a mill equipped with a dry kiln, the bark is removed and the trees are sawn into boards usually no thicker than two inches thick. These boards are then taken to the dry kiln where because of their size they can be dried without causing severe damage to the wood. Timber destined for glue lamination must be brought down below 15% moisture before the lamination process will even work so typically these timbers are dried to around 8-10% moisture. The drying process varies on the species of lumber but can be done in as little as a week. Once the drying process is complete the planks are sent through a surfacer or planer which makes the face of the lumber perfectly smooth. These planks travel to a machine which then spreads a special glue on the interior boards. Depending on the type of glue and type of mill there are two ways to finish the lamination process, one type of glue reacts with radio frequency to cure the glue in a matter of minutes and the other uses a high pressure clamp which holds the newly reassembled timbers under pressure for 24 hours. Once the glue has dried the end result is what is called a "log cant" that is slightly larger than the buyers desired profile. These log cants are run through a profiler and the end result is a log that is perfectly straight and uniform.

Some mills are capable of joining together quite small timbers by using a combination of face and edge gluing as well as a process known as finger jointing. These boards which would be scrap to any other mill could be used in the center of a laminated log or beam to bring waste to a minimum.

 info from Wikipedia