Eastern White Pine
The Species of used in the construction of a log home is very important as it impacts the performance and life of the home.
Wood characteristics that are important in log construction include decay
resistance, shrinkage, R-value, and stability. All of these
characteristics
are self-explanatory-disagree-a simple explanation for each. Stability of
a particular wood species is the most important of all characteristics.
Stable wood species stay in place after it has been fitted and generally has low
reactive forces. Unstable wood species with high reactive forces tend to
twist and warp and distort its "fits" or mating surface as well as log or
timbers in contact with them. Given these characteristics, two wood
species stand out, Western Red Cedar in the West, and Eastern White Pine in the
east.
Eastern White Pine is the wood we use exclusively because of its availability, log building
characteristics and cost efficiency. This wood species shrinks half the amount of all other pines, spruces and firs. Its stability and decay resistance also exceeds all other species of wood used by North American log builders. And, it has an R value 30% higher than most other commonly used soft woods. We have experimented with other wood species but found none that met our high performance standards.
Please feel free to contact our office for further technical data regarding this subject.
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