Pioneer Log Siding

Over the winter, Caren and I waffled back and forth, to and fro on siding. One day we'd like tongue and groove cedar, the next we'd be considering board and batten. As springtime rolled around we began looking at D log. D log is basically 2x material that makes the house appear as if it is constructed using logs. We even went so far as to start collecting quotes. That's when Caren found Pioneer Log Siding.  

Richard Gunst and his wife, Chris, are true artists, turning run of the mill 2x material into beautiful, hand-hewn log siding. Be sure to click on the link above to check out his website. Then check out the pics below to see how Richard's material is turning our little house into a true mountain cabin. Both Richard and Chris have been fantastic thru the whole process, from ordering to staining to shipping to answering a myriad of questions. They have gone above and beyond with customer service... And Caren and I are totally stoked!

We've just about finished installing the siding. Thanks to Richard's tips, it was amazingly easy to put up. The process was a simple one. Install the trim around the doors and windows, install the corner posts, install the courses of siding, alternating with inch and three-quarter strips of plywood...

Well, maybe it wasn't quite so simple. First, Tom, the neighbor, volunteered to help us with his builders level. It took him all of about twenty minutes to "shoot" the house and snap a chalk line on it that would serve as our reference line. I'm so glad that Tom knows what he is doing. His twenty minutes made it super easy to insure that everything was level and plumb.

Then Kelby and I ripped half inch sheets of plywood into one and three-quarter inch strips to serve as spacers between each course of siding. The spacers serve two purposes... they make it easy to make minor adjustments in leveling the courses of siding, and they serve as a backer for the chinking that will go between each course. Each strip of plywood then gets covered by plastic packing tape. Kelby, Zach, and Caren all had a hand in applying the tape. The tape keeps the chinking from sticking to the plywood so that it is only stuck to the actual siding, thus allowing it to move, and stretch as the siding expands and contracts with weather conditions.

With the house "shot" and the plywood spacers taped, the next step involved putting up the trim and corner posts. If you look closely at the photo above, you might notice that the posts and trim sit about three-quarters of an inch proud of the siding. We wanted to add a little depth to the transitions so we furred them out using the original cedar siding that we removed from the house. A simple enough task after one re-mills all the boards to the appropriate size... table saw, planer, miter saw... three easy steps, if you don't count removing the nails, before we could install trim and corner.

And the there are always little problems like this one to deal with. The south gable end was a complete bear. All the electrical, water, and gas enter the house there... never mind the chimney. Someday soon I will document that whole process....

Then we got to install the actual siding. Each piece was screwed into place, top and bottom, every sixteen inches. That is a lot of screws... Upon Richard's recommendation, we used "headless" screws. Phillips makes a headless deck screw that fit the bill perfectly. They even make them in colors that matched our stain. One has to look really close to see that there are any screws holding the siding on at all...

Remember the repurposed corrugated metal we got from Jesse all those months ago? It is now wainscoting under our windows. I was worried about cutting the heavy gauge metal, but it turned out to be a not so difficult process. Just a metal blade for the jig saw and a lot of vibrations... picture Caren standing on the metal to hold it in place as I cut it. My arms were pretty much jello by the time we finished, as were her legs.

We still need to finish the shingles on the north gable and the top course of siding under the eave on the front, as well as around the front door. I simply ran out of time to finish the shingles before taking a much needed vacation... think flyfishing in BC. And we need to get the new covered front porch built before completing the siding on the front of the house. The good news is that the permit for that was issued just before I left for BC, so we are ready to go starting this weekend.