Home by the forest, near the city
Why would a person build a laminated log-house as his or her home?
The Managing Director of Finnlamelli
There are many types of log-houses. The archaic handcrafted house with log cracks and axe markings are appropriate for the forest meditaters. Milled log-houses are often met in densely populated places. The most appropriate place for the laminated log-house, as the newest and the most modern, is in the suburbs: It's like being in nature with one leg but on the other hand you can get quickly to the down town bureau to carry out business transactions. Even in the case, where the hastily bought fieldside building has become cramped both for inner and outer space, the laminated log-house is the next, sturdier choice.
Reputation
During the years the number of log-houses has grown greatly and as we have gathered experience, our reputation has taken a huge leap. At fairs people no longer ask what a laminated log is, but rather are knowledgeable and ask about the details of the design. It's rather the case of not enough courage to make the decision: when my friend Peter is building a brick-house and my other friend Sass is happy with his skeleton house, then how could I make a different choice...
The spreading of the information has widened the market and on open house days even the ones who doubted yesterday make the choice in favour of the laminated log. It's also important that the Finnish manufacturers have 35 years of knowhow with laminated log processing.
Advantages
An environmentally savvy person knows to value the advantages of the laminated log as a building material. It is a stabile, six-piece glued log that does not crack because of the source materials and gluing technology and the finished house practically doesn't sag at all. Sometimes the farm house look is feared – but the log is straight and the clear crackless exterior won't give such results. There is even an exclusive nuance to laminated log-houses.
People value the main advantage of a log-house – the natural humidity regulation that is virtually non-existent in most of the modern marketed wall constructions. When it's told that the log "breathes", then humidity regulation is meant by that, not the situation where air moves between the logs and heating costs are high. A quality log-house is assembled tightly as a whole.
Inner climate
Because of climate change, ever stricter requirements are set on buildings' thermal isolation. Though the thermal isolation of a log-wall may not be as high as with other wall constructions, where a layer of wool isolates the warm and the cold, it has other properties that make up for this weakness. In our climate, where high fluctuations in temperature are normal, an efficient ventilating-cooling system must be set up in a wool isolated house, which purchase isn't a cheap option. In a log-house this isn't an issue – the massive wall stores and gives off both heat and cold thus ensuring a balanced interior climate. When the sun shines on the log, the warmth of the sun accumulates in the log and heating costs of the building decrease.
It isn't only the wall material that preserves heat, but all the parts of the house: reportedly 25% of the heat escapes through the roof, 30% through windows-doors, 25% through walls and 20% through the floor. Finnlamelli makes up for the heat loss with 350-450 mm thick isolation in the roof and 150-200 mm thick isolation in the floors. In five of the houses built by Finnlamelli inspected over a period of five years (150 – 170 square meters) it has been determined, that the average energy loss remains between 150–170 KW/m2.
Location and architecture
No matter how close the dollhouse-like exterior might feel to the log-house, still it doesn't fit between skyscrapers. The appropriateness of the laminated log-house within the city environment is regulated by the the city's or parishes general plan and engineering requirements. If wooden houses are permitted within that area, then also laminated log-buildings may be built there. The paint is visually much more important than the construction – if the surrounding houses are only in light colours then one dark one will stick out like "a sore thumb".
On most cases it is possible to adapt the project to the environment. A more fashionable look is achieved with cutting off the out-stretching crossed corners and covering them with cover boards. This way, the log-house looks like a nice house with wide clapboards on the outside that is highlighted with tall windows (either opening to the inside or to the outside), terraces and other modern elements. Modernisation also includes alternation between the horizontal boarding or log-wall and other materials. For instance the interior walls don't have to be made out of logs for the sake of visual alternation; also technically it would not be a good solution. It would make things needlessly costly as well.
Customised solutions
Although Finnlamelli catalogues offer numerous large, medium or small-type houses, they are mainly a starting point from which the company's architects develop a suitable solution for the client. Depending on the position of the house on the lot, movement of the sun, shadow of the forest or reflection of the pond water and of course the wishes of the family.
Contrarily to the general opinion, this does not mean a larger expenditure since each house is engineered from ground up irrespective of the project type. The price may rise only by additions in the material or special elements (fanlights etc.). From the point of view of interior solutions, the floors can be highlighted differently, for instance using wallpaper on the upper floor or installing wooden materials in selected spots, e.g. on the ceiling.
Partial service
In addition to full-service Finnlamelli has the option of ordering only parts of the frame from the company. This kind of a solution also enables to divide costs over a longer period and to build with the help of friends to save on expenditures.
The wish of Finnlamelli would be to receive user feedback in five years to ensure, that the home built in unison has turned out the way it was planned. Finnlamelli Eesti OÜ has entered the market for the long run, continuing the building traditions of the dignified log-construction in its modern form.