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Technology

Everything starts from the growing of a log - did it become tangled with high winds, or did it grow in a quiet coppice, was the soil dry or damp. There are many factors on which the timber quality depends. Even the time when the tree was cut is important - it has to be done in wintertime when the vital functions of the tree have slowed down. In the past, the farmers even took the phases of Moon into consideration. Nowadays the phases of Moon no longer determine the time when the work is done in the forest, but the trees that are going to be used for the construction of log houses are still felled only in winter-time.
After the logs are taken to the storage area, they have to stand there for a few months and dry. In case the house is made of carriage logs, the bark is removed and two sides of the log are sawn flat. There is no sawing phase in case of full round log houses.
After the sawing, the most exciting part of the work begins - grooves are hewed lengthwise in the log, and tenons are made. As each log is unique (exposed knots, bows, different thickness), the groove on the a log is marked according to the previous log, which results in perfectly fitting walls. Hewing of grooves is handwork – only a saw and an axe are used. Nowadays a milling cutter is also used to improve efficiency and surface quality. Angle joints are made at the same time with hewing the grooves. Mostly we use tenons of the Norwegian type, which are extremely heatproof.
The insulation material used in between the logs is as natural as possible – flax fibres, moss, rock wool.