Figure 23.—Flooring. A, Plain tongue and groove; B, random-width planking.
Hanging doors and windows, and many other customary details of building construction should be done in the usual manner in building with logs. Whenever cupboards or other built-in units are constructed, they must be framed to be independent or entirely free of the log walls, like the furniture. However, such fixtures as lavatories may be attached to two adjacent logs without any subsequent structural complications.
When round logs are laid up in a wall there is always an opening between them unless they are grooved on the under side to saddle the one below, as described later under chinkless log cabin construction. In exterior walls, this opening, or crack, must be closed in order to make the structure weathertight. There are several methods of doing this. If the logs are reasonably straight and uniform in size and the corners carefully made, the opening between them will be small, often barely perceptible. When this is the case, the openings should be filled with some sort of calking compound applied with either a pressure gun or a trowel ([fig. 24]).
Figure 24.—Examples of tight joints well calked. A, Interior calking; B, exterior calking.