Old hand-hewn log cabin

[mudburn]

When we bought our 57 acres 4 years ago, there was an old cabin down in the bottom. It hadn't been lived in for about 20 years and was not in good shape. Here's a couple photos I took of it today.





The logs were hand-hewn from what appears to be yellow poplar. They have deteriated over the last who knows how many years. The weather and bugs have taken their toll. There is evidence of additions that were on the north side and the west side in years past. Neither has been there since we've owned the place. There were sections that had been cut out of the walls for some reason at some time that had been replaced with framing. There was an upstairs, but the stairway was long since gone. The cabin was used for storage of scrap lumber and junk since before we owned it.

Here are some photos showing some of the walls and their condition.







I would have loved to have the cabin in better shape and possibly restored. However, my assessment and that of a friend who has built log cabins (I haven't) is that the place had been let go too long and wasn't restorable. It looked to be a matter of time before the place collapsed on its own -- it was leaning toward the south and at least two walls were bowed out. I hoped that there would be a few of the timbers in it that I could use in another building in the future (I have a timber framed barn in mind). So, rather than let it be a potential hazard to my children or anyone else (especially since we will be building our house 20 yards from the cabin's location), I decided to pull it down and salvage what I could.

We hooked a chain over one of the logs on the south side (the chain is visible in the first picture). The other end of the chain was hooked to the front of my 1996 Suburban. It took very little pull for the whole thing to collapse.



My dad and I are in the process of cleaning things up now. I'm saving everything that is useable, including the hand-split rafters. I had hoped that the timbers at the eaves would still be good since they looked like they were protected from the weather. Well, they weren't. The rafters had been pegged to these timbers, and the roof has leaked in the past, letting water into the center of these timbers. They were rotten down the middle. I'll take some more pictures of the logs/timbers I salvage in the next few days.

It was sad to see this piece of history come down, but it will live on (at least parts of it) in other forms. I don't know when it was built or by whom, but it stood there a long time.

Darryl

[Griffon]

Then I take it that it weren't braced up inside?

Maybe you could re-assemble some of the better joints into a new structure to preserve that bit of history?

Cheers, Lee

PS. Have you finalised the house re-design yet?

[Don P]

It looks to be half dovetail construction. It also looks like it has a hewed log plate extended out for the rafters too. Are they step lapped into it? I have the remains of a couple like that here in poplar.

A metal detector might be fun. A civil war sword was found behind the weatherboards of one I later worked on. I found broken glass and bricks  :D.

Good logs make nice mantles. The lesser ones aren't bad benches around the firepit either... as they slowly find their way in.

Usually the notches and some of the chinked area is shot. I've thought about vertical post and beam of new timber with these cut as infill and end notched to slide over a 2x2 screwed vertical on the posts. They could be set to a pretty tight chink joint and the load is on new wood. I'd borate or kiln the beejeezus out of the old timbers if I put them in anything new.

[mudburn]

Here's the current state of the cabin (the site for my tf house is on the level area just above the logs in this pic):




Since Don P asked about the rafter plate, I took some pictures. It was hewn like the other timbers. It was notched and pegged to a tie beam. Here are some pics:


This photo shows the end of the rafter plate where the tie beam/timber was pegged into it. Remains of the peg can be seen.


This is the joint for the tie beam (if that's the right term for it).


This is another picture of the same timber, just not near the end. It experienced a lot of decay.


This is a picture of the other end of the same rafter plate shown in the previous photo. The rot on this timber appears to be the result of water entering the center of the log through the peg holes for the rafters.


The rafters were not step-lapped into the rafter plate. They were simply set on top and pegged into it. There were also 3 or 4 square nails in the toe of the rafter. One can be seen laying on the plate near the rafter.

The rafters are in good shape, and a few of the timbers are in acceptable shape, at least on the surface. One that looked good on the outside split in half revealing internal bug damage.

I won't be using any of these timbers right away. They'll be stored under cover until I am ready to put them to use. I don't have pictures, but the white oak sills were pretty well deteriorated. Additionally, there were only a few white oak "floor joists" left from the first floor. These apparently had been set in the dirt and the floor built on top. I don't know what happened to the rest of them, but I have four of them in remarkably good shape.

Darryl