DENISE LANG GO WITH SUCCESS
Choose the... #1 Realtor in Bigfork
(2015, 2016, 2017) Choose the... #3 Realtor Flathead Valley (out of 900+ Realtors) Choose the... Experienced Realtor with 238 Transactions (2015, 2016, 2017) 406.249.1758 DeniseLang@NPRMT.com DeniseLangRealEstate.com
Basedon information inandoutofNMAR/MLS for theperiodof 1/1/2015 to 12/31/2017. Informationdeemed reliablebutnotguaranteed.DeniseLang isa licensedRealtor® in the stateofMontana.
BN: I wouldn’t say it is the style of homes or the tools that have changed that much, more the quality of the construc- tion that we are producing. The hand-scribing, hand-chis- eling, and chainsaw work that is involved in building a hand-crafted log home is a working trade, there’s no doubt about it – practice definitely improves your performance. In the early days we weren’t really worried about how tight thelog fits; we could tink it or knock it or whatever. Overtime you kind of figure out new tricks and things that work better. I would say the quality of the fits of the logs has been our biggest improvement just through experience. When you mention “hand-peeled logs” at montanalog- homes.com, are you talking about logs that are not chemically treated? BN: Correct. Everything we bring in is what we call dead standing or naturally dyed trees, you know from a forest fire or a pine beetle plague, which has been very prevalent across the nation, all over North America actually. There are quite a few companies out there that choose to use live trees, they call them “green logs.” It’s an easy harvest; they always have a readily available supply of logs that are just standing out in the woods living and breathing. They harvest them, peel them, and build with them with high moisture content within the wood itself. Over time, that usually leads to considerable shrinkage in the log and a lot of structural displacement. Utilising dry logs would reduce that movement and settling by about 8-fold or so.
We work with loggers all over the place and we’ve pur- chased dead standing logs through countless businesses over the years. It’s a constant battle following where there could be a good source of material. We often go long dis- tances to inspect the sale or inspect the logs prior to pur- chasing them. We also use a secondary industry out there of entrepreneurs, basically log brokers, who are looking for what type of logs we need. They have multiple sources of loggers and people who they’ve known over years so it becomes a network with people out there looking for what you’re needing and putting two and two together. “The hand-scribing, hand- chiseling and chainsaw work that is involved in building a hand- crafted log home is a working trade…” When the logs come in we go through every one; we phys- ically inspect the log for any defects – the slope of grain or spiral of the grain in a log can be an issue, for example. From there it goes on to the peeling rack, which is basical- ly two logs set up about two-and- a-half to three feet off the ground, where we use the actual hand tools. Imagine a razor blade on steroids, I guess, with two handles on it. It’s a lot of physical labor to actually peel the bark and remove the top layer of the log.
27
APRIL 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs