SUSTAINABLE LIVING

During a time in our history when climate change, pollution, and soaring fuel costs are truly legitimate concerns, the thought of an environmentally friendly and heat efficient home is reassuring.

Today’s log homes are, in fact, among the most sustainable residential and commercial choices available, good both for the planet and for the people who live in them. American Log Homes’ manufacturing process helps restore, renew, and safeguard nature. The best made log homes are manufactured with virtually zero waste, which is where we come in. From the ways in which the logs are harvested, through their milling process, to the construction of the finished home, our responsibly built log homes leave one of the smallest carbon footprints of any building choice.

Once our log homes have been built, their value as green living choices become all the greater. Our log homes are an ideal building material as they maximize direct sunlight during the colder months and maximize shade during warmer months. This occurs as the logs absorb heat effectively and keep interiors well-insulated. The results are lower air conditioning and heating bills, if any at all.  These factors also improve indoor air quality.

Using dry wood to eliminate shrinkage and building using proper construction, log homes are also extremely airtight. This factor not only further reduces heating and cooling costs but also improves indoor air quality. The result is a far healthier interior environment.

Embodied Energy

The term “embodied energy” is becoming more and more familiar to folks concerned about the environment. It refers to the sum total of energy expended to produce a product. By this standard, the walls of a log home contain less energy than the walls of a brick and mortar home, and also less than the walls made of milled boards. Below is a chart noting the differences between wood, steel, and concrete design in terms of environmental impact and total energy use.

Responsible Logging

American Log Homes uses only dead standing timber. One common example are trees that have been killed by pine beetle infestation. When logging is done correctly, it allows remaining trees more room to grow and gives them more direct access to sunlight and rain.

Dead standing trees scattered throughout the forests are removed selectively by helicopter logging. In many cases entire tracts of woodlands may be composed of dead standing timber, which are most efficiently removed by clear cutting. Either way, such dead trees have drier wood that is much more prone to catching fire from lightning strikes, sparking power lines, or careless campers. Caught alight, one such dead standing tree can lead to the devastation of vast living forests and related ecosystems.

Fortunately, most dead standing timber is prime material for log homes. Beetles, for example, attack only the cambium, the thin growing layer beneath the bark, leaving the rest of the timber unaffected. Since a tree destined for a log home will be milled down to its heartwood, any and all traces of infestation are eliminated long before construction. In these fundamental ways, logs are a sustainable resource.