Technology reinvents Vermont's log home industry

Vermont Business Magazine, Apr 01, 2002 by Marcel, Joyce

Log homes are as energy efficient as standard houses, said Craig Wolinski, the council's program manager.

"We have a research lab that did research comparing log homes to conventional stick-builts, and they were found comparable," he said. "The log home had a lower R value in the walls, but overall, they were comparable."

However, log homes require more maintenance than more conventional homes.

"But it's not overwhelming," Wolinski said. "The big thing is to keep it dry. You need larger overhangs. And it's recommended to get a foundation so the actual logs are several inches, maybe several feet off the ground, so the logs aren't sitting on the ground collecting moisture. But if you maintain the house, it will last forever. If you reseal it and clean it up every two years, it will look like the day you bought it 30 years down the road. They hold their value if you take care of them."

The homes' stability is a big attraction.

"We've had houses come through an earthquake in Italy completely unscathed while buildings collapsed all around them," Foster said. "That was three years ago in August. We had a building in the Lyndonville area that was washed out in a flood. It floated down the river, and my understanding is that it lost bricks off the chimney and a porch post. We had a house that went through Hurricane Andrew, which destroyed Homestead, Florida, and it only lost a few shingles. Other people took refuge in it. We had some that went through wildfires in California. We had a house that even a number of firemen took refuge in because it was safe. Why didn't it burn? Ever try to start a fire with a log?"

American log homes are desirable all over the world.

"We sell a pre-cut log home that we ship to all of the US, plus Turkey, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Canada," Foster said. "Europe tends to be environmentally friendly, and log homes are more in tune with their current living style. Japan has a tremendous attraction for Western and cowboy items, and log homes are often associated with cowboys. Also, they have a tremendous desire to get away from masonry-style construction."

Log Home Producers

To get a handle on the log home industry in Vermont, Vermont Business Magazine talked to many of the people working in the field. Here are profiles of some of the companies, large, small, new and old. (For a profile of one dealer's experiences, see sidebar.)

* Northeastern Log Homes was started in Groton in 1972. It now has over 45 standard designs, excluding its new Camp and Cabin series. It exports all over We world, and employs 70 people, including staff in sales offices in Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and Kentucky. It also manufactures post-andbeam homes, which it sells from an office in York, ME.

The company's kits start at $28,000 for a small home in the budget-minded "Traditional Home Series," and can run upwards of $125,000, excluding land, shipping and labor. The Camp and Cabin series runs between $11,100 and $23,000.