Log cabin kits differ very much company to company, so let me tell you about Cowboy Log Homes log cabin kits. Log home kits can be just a log shell only or a full dryin package, or something somewhere in between.
The simplest form of a log home package is a log shell only. Our log shells come precut. The milled log packages come with the door and window openings precut and the corners premade. The handcrafted log shells come fully precut with even the electric box holes and wire holes precut. The log shell is something that you can’t just go out and purchase anywhere.
With the precut log packages we also have to include the blueprints for the home, or we can’t precut the log shell. The log home designs include a preliminary drawings stage and a final drawings stage. The preliminary designs are modified to include all of the changes that the owner desires. This is were the room sizes and locations are determined. The outside elevations give a good estimation of what the log home will look like from the outside.
The log kit comes with at least the four exterior log walls, but much more commonly log home owners also want a log roof system, log support posts, log floor joists to support the loft, log staircase, log railing, and log support posts and header beams for a covered porch. These items should ideally be purchased all together so that the logs all match.
For a log cabin kit most commonly the other materials included are: exterior doors, windows, roofing, soffit, fascia, first floor subfloor, upper subfloor, interior framing lumber, 1×6 pine tongue and groove for the soffits and ceilings, and exterior door and window trim. The idea behind this type of cabin package is everything that is needed to keep the weather out of the home comes with the log shell.
Some owners choose to do more select group of materials with their log cabin kits. An owner many choose the log shell, the doors, and the windows. Then he/she purchases the rest locally. Another owner may choose everything except the first floor subfloor. So the log cabin kits can be customized to exactly what the owners would like to purchase.
A major advantage with a log cabin kit is the owner and builder does not have to spend extra time driving back and forth to the store to purchase the various materials. Another advantage is you tend to get a better price on the dryin materials when they are all bundled together. A disadvantage is whatever materials are left over they are usually either used for something else or they are just sold. So the decision is up to you, your builder, and what you are comfortable with handling.