Rapid Log Home Building in the UK

A dealer in the UK, Ron Taylor, recently recalled a great story about one of the first True North log homes he and his team built for a customer on a tight schedule.

The project started when this customer Jim came up to me at an exhibition in London about eight years ago with a sketch he'd drawn and asked "Can you build this?".  "Of course we can!" was my reply and that started us on the road to building one of the first True North log homes in the UK.

At the time, Jim and his wife Jackie, had a home on a narrow strip of land beside the River Thames near Marlow in Buckinghamshire, England which had been made from the shell of an old Thames pleasure craft.  However, the river was prone to flooding and Jim decided the time had come to do something about it after he got up one morning and stepped into several inches of river water.  Government planners would only allow a replacement building on the site, so the old building would have to go and during consultations a sailing club complained he would be 'stealing their wind...".  However, apart from a few restrictions, like making a map of the layout of all his plants so they could be replaced,  a planning license was granted.  Then the Environment Agency stepped in to exercise its muscles.  "You have to build it at least 5 feet above ground" was the gist of their comments. They also had a bizarre restriction stating he couldn't build the proposed decking as they said it would interfere with the flow of the flood water.  The fact that the old building presented a much greater resistance didn't hold water (no pun intended).....so no front decking was allowed.

Once approved, True North got the log home plans for the new structure under way.

Jim had wanted a workroom upstairs, but due to council height restrictions and the Environment Agency's 5 foot rule, there was only room for storage in the attic.  Jim got busy organising the foundations and the piling, which was necessary for his location.  He intended to do a lot of the build work himself, but took our offer of four guys from True North to erect the shell package.

A couple of months later, two large 40 foot containers arrived.  Jim's site was about 150 yards along a narrow track from where we could unload the containers.  The team had started laying the sill plates and first logs within hours of the arrival of the trucks.  Eleven days later, the last of the windows and doors went in and the shell was watertight.

Just a few doors away down the lane, a similar-sized conventional, brick building was also just getting watertight......but that home had taken over six months to build!

Jim continued the with interior on his own, learning trades as he went and fitting it in when he could, while still doing his day job.

Today, Jim and Jackie have a beautiful home they can be proud of and which is keeping their feet nice and dry.

If you're interested in seeing a full gallery of the log home building process, visit the True North Log Homes Facebook page to see the story of Jim's home from start to finish. Or you can also check out a full range of log home designs on the True North website.

A LEED Log Home with Many Firsts and Few Equals

Timeless Mountain Homes, an independent True North Log Homes representative in the United States, is a leader in building sustainable LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certified, HealthyBuilt and Energy Star homes. It's important for log home manufacturers and builders alike to acknowledge the importance sustainability and the role they play in maintaining it. The goals in building a LEED certified home are lower energy and maintenance costs coupled with an overall respect for the environment.

Among this partner's impressive accomplishments is an innovative project called Outaspace. Built to exacting standards; utilizing both age-old energy efficiency best practices, locally sourced building materials and the latest in log home technology from True North, Outaspace is an 8,000 square foot, environmentally-friendly Blue Ridge Mountain paradise. In fact, this particular structure has the following distinctions: 

• Largest LEED certified log home in the USA 
• First independently certified LEED log home in North Carolina 
• First independently certified log home in the southeast and second in the entire USA

The unique three-level lodge boasts six bedrooms, each decorated with a mountain theme likewise incorporating locally obtained, sustainable furnishings. The lodge, with an expansive great room and eating area, will and has comfortably hosted up to 22 overnight guests.

Addressing the building's interior or exterior you are instantly struck by the way it blends into its natural environment, including some virtually untouched logs cleverly used as deck supports.

Additional photos and floor plans for this spectacular model along with several other custom log home designs are available on the True North Log Homes website.

Impressive True North Log Lodge Built Across the Pond

One of our dealers/builders in the UK took the time to put together a great time-lapse video of the construction of a custom log home which will act as a children's training and education centre in Derby, England.




The massive lodge is approximately 11,000 square feet (including the basement), boasts 17 bedrooms and required the use of an awful lot of scaffolding. It is truly an impressive structure based on our Alaskan model, which was aptly named after a similar True North log home was used for a home in Alaska some time ago. Started in January, windows are currently being installed and the lodge expects to house its first guests in October or November.  This project was made possible by the hard work and fundraising of a committed group of volunteers led by Jem Hudson. Further log buildings are planned for the site which also includes Jem's own 3,000 square foot log home, which you can catch a glimpse of to the left of the lodge and was also raised with the help of Jem's friends.