My Cabin Build

[D L Bahler]

The Cabin is more or less finished. It's been a long haul, but now it has at last come together!



 

This cabin is hand built. The walls are made from hand hewn white pine -Me and my brothers hewed them from fresh pine logs. The roof structure is made partially of hewn pine, but the ride and purlins are salvaged hardwood barn timbers (a mixture of oak, ash, and walnut) The roof is decked with salvaged barn siding, and the gables are enclosed with the same. Doors and window shutters are also made of barn siding. This is shiplap pine siding that is over 100 years old.



 

This building is built in the swiss alpine style. That is, passed interlocking corner joints, heavy framing for doors and windows -and as you can tell this has a LOT of windows- and chinkless wall joints. To seal of the structure against wind driven moisture and winter drafts, the interior walls were smeared with tar and will be covered with paneling.


  

 

This building will serve as a cheese production facility, where I will produce handmade Swiss mountain style cheese as a business.



  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

[beenthere]

Pretty impressive build. What is the roofing to be.. steel?

Seems it will have a tough time passing the strict standards for making food, but I certainly don't know that. You likely have that all checked out already. A local cheese factory was shut down due to the cost to bring it up to present day standards.

A recent trip to a new cheese store in WI making Gouda cheese where customers could view the sparkling clean, stainless steel, and gowned, masked, and netted workers while they pressed, dipped, and rotated large rounds of Gouda was quite impressive. The aging process was a long time, such that the many aging racks went on and on forever.. each round rotated once a day.

[goose63]

Looks like a labor of love and hard work to me  8) darn good looking cabin

[D L Bahler]

I will put steel on it. But eventually it will have wooden shingles held down with bearer poles and weighed down with large stones. The so-called Schwärtach, an old method used in the alps before the introduction of inexpensive nails

The inside will be totally wrapped with 'cleaner' materials, that's why the walls are strapped, to bring it up to code. I am thinking to use plywood coated with a rubber roof type coating to essentially create a plastic wall that I can easily wash and spray down. The idea is, with the wall sealed against moisture from the outside, a suitable gap between the plywood and the cabin structure, and rubberized coating it should stay dry and rot should not be an issue.

I have been working with the state veterinarian for 2 years on this.

Also, as an artisan small scale producer I don't have nearly the level of regulation and inspection as a factory scale producer.

This is just one building in what will (Lord willing) eventually be a complex of structures for this business. This cabin is planned to eventually be a small farm and cheese shop in a few years.

[D L Bahler]

Forgot to mention,

we held a workshop when we built this. Some of you might recognize Les Ball in one of the pics (good guy).
I'd love to continue to hold log and timber building workshops in the future. I plan to make a full scale Bernese style timber frame as soon as I can afford it, and there will definitely be workshops involved with that project.

[thecfarm]

Chesse,one of the 3 things I eat!! Building looks good. You got cows or goats for the milk?

[canopy]

Interesting. If something could be done to hide the cinder blocks it would look 100x better to me.

[D L Bahler]

Agreed. The blocks will be plastered over and white. This way, it will be just like a traditional Berner Oberland building with white plastered stone foundation.

cfarm, I'm buying cow's milk for now. The next project will house my milk facilities...
I'd love to find more milk suppliers in Central Indiana -grass fed. (just thought I'd mention that in case, you know)

[flyingparks]

Great looking building. The hewning action shots are great. Hoping thats as close as I get to that task.  :D

[thecfarm]

flyingparks,welcome to the forum.

[Magicman]

That is a very nice build.   I like. 

[samandothers]

NIce build thanks for sharing. 

[AK Newbie]

Thanks for sharing I really like this cabin!  Nicely done!

[D L Bahler]

Thanks!

It has taken a lot of hard work, since almost everything was done by hand with no power tools.

This has been an attempt to recreate an authentic Alpine cabin as it might have been built 300 to 600 years ago in the Canton of Bern. So beyond what you can obviously see in the work, there is also a great deal of research involved to know what techniques I could include, and which I must omit. For example, the posted ridge beam is an archaic feature that has long ago fallen out of use in the region.

[D L Bahler]

 

 

Here is an updated image, lately I've been splitting a lot of wood in an effort to get the area around the cabin cleaned up a bit.

[jueston]

for interior paneling you should look into FRP(fiber reinforced plastic) they come in 4 by 8 sheets, they are essentially just a sheet of plastic. in my day job we build a fair number of restaurants and coffee shops, FRP is what goes in every kitchen. i'm sure sheets of plastic aren't the look your going for, but it goes up easily and it is easy to clean.

the build looks great, its amazing how using some recycled materials makes the building look like it has sat on that site for a long time.

[Dave Shepard]

Our milkhouse and parlor use those sheets.

[D L Bahler]

I've put FRP up many times, usually on commercial work. I did consider it, but right now I have plywood on the walls that is sealed with a heavy latex that is intended for sealing concrete to make a washable surface. I'll see how it looks tomorrow after the first coat is dry.

[tule peak timber]

fun! Must have looked at the pics 5 times....Thanks for posting  Rob

[D L Bahler]

Here's a shot at the interior,



 

We've put a second coat of paint on the walls since then, I think it should work pretty well. The main reason I did not use FRP was that it wouldn't have been stiff enough to attach across the strapping as I have it arranged (2x4 strapping that can work independent of the log walls to account for settling over the next 5 to 10 years, it's how it is done in good log building or so I learned in Switzerland). I may very well put FRP on in the future over the plywood, but for now I need to get things going so I needed a solution. It works well. I need to make my doors, plaster the foundation, and put in my floor (pretend concrete. I am going to mix a small amount of sand and a lot of slaked lime in with the dirt to make Terrazzo, then paint it over with enamel, but won't ever tell my inspector it's not really concrete!)

Here is what my roof looks like right now:



 

A screwed 2x4's on end fast through the sheeting into the rafters with 6" timber screws. Functionally, this roof acts almost as if I had 2x10 rafters. I then nailed purlins across for sheet metal so that the covering stands a full 5 inches (5 1/2 and 1 1/2) off the sheeting. This will be open on the bottom and vented on the top, created a low temperature thermal roof. I also take this here from Switzerland, where it is more or less how roofs are made (the would uses more like 4x4 rafters. Everything is oversized. And tile roofs)

At some future date, I hope to (carefully) take off the metal (standing seam, so I will use it somewhere else) and replace it with riven shingles. But first I have to cut shingles, stack them somewhere to season (with smoke) and have a good time to nail them on with the proper nails.

And just because, here is another shot of the whole building...



 

[D L Bahler]

Been building doors

Have to build my own, because:
1. It's a log cabin, not built to the specifications of modern American framing techniques so a standard sized door wont fit.
2: It's a log cabin, so a regular door would look out of place.
3: the door openings work on an entirely different concept than modern doors do.

So I made a couple, have a couple more to go.



  

  

 

The first two pics are of the front door, in and out. It's got a wooden frame to which is screwed beadboard at a 45 degree angle(the bead is on the inside, v-groove on the outside. Same look as carsiding, but beadboard was cheaper). Two slopes, meeting in the middle to create a chevron pattern. Then it is painted with alternating red and black, the colors of Canton Bern.
Eventually I might insulate this door with a 3/4" foam, then board up the inside. I don't know.

The other door is made of carsiding. It's very simple, vertical boards with 3 horizontal straps on the inside screwed tight with a pattern intended to help resist sag, then heavy steel strap hinges lagged from the outside through to the straps which will also prevent sag. Nothing fancy about this door. I might paint it some day, I might not. I don't know yet, we'll see how it weathers (it won't get wet)

[D L Bahler]

The hinges, by the way, are all heavy duty steel T strap hinges.
They are fastened to the door posts with 4" lag screws, so they will hold tight. They are then fastened to the strapping on the doors with 1" and 1 1/4" lag screws. These doors are not going anywhere.

The front door is 2 1/4" thick
The back door is 1 1/2" thick.
I need to make one more of each, another chevron door for the front (as you can see) and a simple door for the interior partition.

[Autocar]

Very nice you have a talent for sure  ;).

[D L Bahler]

Here is some detail of another door I built today:

First I make a frame,


  

 

Then I take the beadboard, cut one side to a 45 degree angle, and carefully align it to the frame


  

 

Then repeat the process a few times


 

Then I have a good door



  

 

[BuckBranch]

D L Bahler - my family emigrated from the Bernese Oberland to North America (over 100 years ago) and used to make Alp Kase (cheese from spring pastured cattle - made right on the mountain pasturesides). I wish you all the best in your cheesemaking operation!

I am looking to build a combination Gardner's cottage / potting shed and I really like the looks of what you have here. I would see similar when hiking above the Lauterbrunnental in the Swiss Alps. Could you share the rough dimensions of the outer walls, roof / gable height, and overhangs?

I think I can calculate the rest from these figures to get a sense of the structure's proportion. I do not have the skill to replicate your beautiful authentic building technique, but I might be able to get something that at least honors the shape and proportions of the traditional style. With some hard work, perhaps build some of the finishing pieces like the doors above. Thanks for any help you can provide.