PLANKS NAILED AS GUIDE FOR CUTTING
LOWER LOG HEWN OUT
Incidentally, in planning your house remember to take into consideration that a log cabin’s interior absorbs a great deal of the light unless—God forbid—you intend to whitewash the walls. Therefore, plan for as many windows as your walls will allow without unduly weakening them or disrupting your interior plans.
Use timber at least two inches thick for window and door frames and wide enough to protrude slightly on the outside of the log wall. The bottom piece—or sill—of the window frames should have a pitch of about one inch to the outside and project two inches to allow for drainage of rainwater. Don’t try to build your own windows. Order them to size from a mill and set them in.
Roof Should be Sturdy
The pitch of the roof and the width of the eaves are largely matters of personal taste and the kind of cabin you are building. A low pitched or flat roof, however, must be thoroughly braced if it is to bear a heavy load of snow, and the additional materials may cost more than a steeply pitched roof. The most effective roof for many cabins is low pitched with wide eaves—not too wide, of course, but wider than you’d have on a city house. Build the gable ends to the height you finally decide on; then trim down the rough ends along a line marked to the pitch of the roof.
If you have been wise, you have a long, straight log of unquestioned strength saved for your ridge pole. This should rest in notches at the very peak of the gables, and since it forms the keystone of your house, be sure it is solid and well bedded in oakum. The auxiliary roof supports, called purlins, run parallel to the ridge log and should be set by notching out the gable log where the purlin end rests. Cope the log above it so that the two gable logs grip the purlin firmly. These purlins ought to project eight or ten inches beyond the roof itself to allow for axe-trimmed ends. ([Fig. 9].)
Smaller Logs for Rafters
Rafters are the next problem. Choose smaller timbers, yet ones that are well proportioned to the purlins. For the average cabin, logs with four-inch butts are about right. They should be spaced not more than two feet on the centers. Saw a square cut into the plate log—the top logs of your walls—then square a place on your rafter to fit into this cut. Drive it well home. ([Fig. 9].)
