How I Built This Log Cabin Alone Using 2x8 Lumber and How Much it Cost

who doesn't like the idea of a log cabin in the woods the peace and quiet of the forest the wind Whispering through the Treetops the sound of a Meandering Creek flowing by building a cabin solo takes some planning and determination but it can be done not everyone is ready or able to chop down trees and cut their own logs I wanted the look and feel of a log cabin but due to the terrain of my property I couldn't have logs delivered or hauled in and didn't have time to Mill my own Lumber so pull up a chair grab a cup of coffee and watch How I used regular 2 by 8 dimensional Lumber to build a log cabin and how much it cost to do so exciting day we get to start the cabin we're going to break ground here in just a little bit before we do that I wanted to kind of explain what type of cabin we're going to be building or I'm going to be building I'm going to do is we're going to use traditional 2x8 Lumber and we're going to sandwich them together screw and glue it so here's kind of what a cross section looks like as you can see on the side here you've got the three of them screwed and glued together so your outside is pretty much the same thing as your inside so your insides already nice and finished uh the only thing you need to do is just stack the logs together and they sit down nice and flush with each other you just screw them for the foundation I watched a lot of different cabin builds and did some reading on various methods for my particular build and location I chose to go with 6x6 posts dug about two to three feet in the ground with cement and stone on the bottom I spaced them every four or five feet or so due to the slope of the land I thought that the 6x6 post method would be the best way to go the vertical strength of the 6x6 posts combined with the two by ten Rim beams sitting on a sill plate had to be enough strength to support the load of the log walls the burning of the wood protected it against the weather and any insects that might try to eat away at it plus I like the antique finish of it as well I also decided to use two by tens 24 inches on Center for the floor joists they were supported by the center floor beam and the sill plate run on top of the 6x6 posts I'm no engineer but that seemed like a pretty solid floor system especially since I knew I was going to use two by eights for my finished flooring one thing I probably should have done is started with the floor joists on the back and worked back to front the half inch OSP was mainly used as a means for me to walk around during construction and to provide a little insulation under the final 2x8 flooring so again here's a cross section of the two by eight logs and what I did is I ran a two by two channel around the perimeter of the cabin and set the logs down on top of that and screwed that into the platform this allowed the logs to slide into each other using a button pass system good foreign [Music] right here on this top log the next log that goes over I'm going to have to Notch out pretty much from here on back [Music] foreign let's see this top log should fit in smoothly here so there we go that's how it works [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] what makes this type of file system work is the precise measurements of the three boards when glued and screwed together I used basic construction adhesive as for glue and two and a half inch deck screws as the fasteners the middle tongue board was set two inches higher than the outside boards and this is where the measurements had to be precise a quarter inch off here a quarter inch off there and the walls weren't going to be level [Music] the key for screwing the boards together was to place the screws about 36 inches apart and near the top of the outside boards this allowed the logs to be stacked much easier once in place you just screw the bottom of the board into the tongue of the log it sits on it's also important to put a bead of adhesive down before setting each log into place [Music] foreign [Music] the next several minutes of the video shows the different aspects of the wall Construction [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign part of the wall construction that needs to be highlighted if you are joining two logs together horizontally you need to make sure you have a tongue and groove on the side of the board as well as the Top If you don't you will have an open air gap where the two boards meet you can see it here in this clip [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] because [Music] what made installing the gable walls much easier was having the Loft platform built in the back and then having the porch platform built in the front standing on those platforms allowed me to install the logs with relative ease [Music] one of the biggest challenges of this build was figuring out how to get a 20-foot ridge beam in place with only one person the only way I could figure out how to do it was to move each of the four boards individually and screw them together once in place the two outside boards were 16 feet and spanned Gable to Gable the inside boards were an eight foot and twelve foot that I screwed to the inside of the 16 foot outside boards to get the 20-foot span I needed I added a two foot outer section to each end of the middle board to make it look like a full ridge beam [Music] ladies [Music] [Music] on to the rafters if there was one thing about this build I would do differently it would be the Raptors I had the one part of the Loft built near the back of the cabin that made installing Rafters in that section pretty easy as well as having the front porch platform to do the rafters in that section if only I had thought to build the front Loft section at the same time the install would have been much easier also if I had to do it again I would have attached the Simpson inside corner braces to the ridge beam ahead of time that would have made screwing the rafters into the ridge beam much much easier [Music] thank you for the roof decking I used regular eight foot two by eights just screwed into the rafters I probably should have staggered them but that would have been an extra 100 Cuts or so and I thought with a roof this size it probably would not have made that much of a difference I also wanted to be able to see the roof decking from the inside of the cap and when looking up at the ceiling foreign [Music] foreign [Music] to waterproof the roof of the cabin I decided to use 10 mil black vapor barrier as a first layer and then put half inch oil foam insulation on top of it which also has moisture preventing properties installed the 10 mil plastic vertically by sitting on top of the roof Peak and rolling it down I know installing horizontally is better but it was the only way I could figure doing it solo plus I knew I was going to install the foam foil horizontally using the 2x4 strapping as a ladder so I had a plan [Music] foreign [Music] as the roof strapping was that it was thick enough to allow me to use it as a ladder also that one and a half inch gap between the foil foam and the metal roof provided enough airflow underneath the metal roof to prevent condensation from occurring foreign [Music] I love the look of old antique buildings that's why I wanted to rust or antique this metal roof I used a combination of muriatic acid vinegar and salt to achieve the look I was going for I then scraped the excess rust off the roof with a metal brush and then put a sealer on it to prevent further rusting from occurring I sure hope it works foreign [Music] [Music] this is [Music] I know it's kind of hard to see on the video but I did put foam roof closure underneath the ridge cap and also on the Gable ends to prevent water from getting in under the metal foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] features of the cabin is the interior stone wall not only does it provide a more rustic look but it also will help retain the heat from the wood stove I collected all the stones from the creek below the cabin and only had to buy the mortar it took a bit longer to install than I expected but was so worth it foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] another question I got quite a bit was why shredders on the inside number one I like the look of it and number two it will prevent heat from escaping in the winter time these are only single pane windows so any help I can get I'll take it [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] [Music] here's a fun fact I only used about 10 nails for the entire cabin build on the other hand I used about 2 000 screws total foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] one of the questions I was asked a lot while building this was how much did this cost or wow it must have cost a fortune with the way lumber prices are right now fortunately for me I bought most of this Lumber in the summer of 2021 when prices were at a low for example a 2 by 8 by 8 is priced at 5.52 cents now they are about 7.67 or basically 30 percent higher they actually got up to around fifteen dollars at one point crazy remember hearing how they were going to devalue the Dollar by 30 percent for the great reset well they have in the form of inflation you're now paying about 30 percent more for the same Goods but that's a topic for another video let's talk about the two by eight for a minute it's The Sweet Spot of lumber cheaper than a two by six and easier to work with than a two by ten or a two by twelve it was the perfect lumber for this type of build basically an eight foot lock made up of three two by eights was about twenty dollars compare that with logs from a mill or local cabin kit company and it was about 50 to 80 percent cheaper depending on where you live pretty much the entire cabin was built using two by Eights let's take a look at a rundown of all the materials used for this particular build I went ahead and itemized everything out by different categories [Music] foreign [Music] so there you have it I'll round it up to 9 500 because I'm sure I missed a few small items it was less than thirty dollars a square foot for the basic cabin footprint and all interior finishes in these videos now that does not include the wood stove or stove pipe that added another 2000 to the total cost because it was a brand new stove and I wanted double wall pipe to be on the safe side because of proximity to combustibles even so 11 500 for a beautiful Log Cabin ain't too bad in today's market here's the actual cap and drawings I did before Construction [Music] the next phase will be to add the bedroom on the back and bathroom to the side which will add 112 square feet to the overall cabin bringing total square footage to 436 square feet I recently bought the lumber for that and that totaled about three thousand dollars if you're interested in following along on the bedroom and bathroom Edition please go ahead and subscribe I'll be doing a complete video series on those additions starting in late January I'm also going to post a playlist of this entire build series it's called an original off-grid cabin it will go into a lot greater detail on how this cabin was built thanks for watching and we'll see you back at the cabin soon [Music] thank you [Music] all right

Channel: The Off Grid Experience

Views: 1,569,385

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Id: Xxxw0mC60A4

Length: 35min 7sec (2107 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 14 2023