Pioneer Log Homes of BC handcrafts each world class cedar log home to perfection to ensure your new home withstands the test of time. With only the highest quality in mind, we carefully construct our log homes with distinct artistry and personality. Each and every log used to build our custom Pioneer Log Home is seasoned and air dried to help control shrinking and checking. This process helps us create custom log homes that need very little adjustment and maintenance.
Our logs are hand-peeled at our building sites using a drawknife, all of the corner notches are hand-polished, and all of the logs are dimensioned and fitted precisely for the best performance and character.
The logs or timbers and roof system are then placed strategically into your custom design at our log building facilities. The joinery is a true work of art, finished with an age-old European process.
The preliminary construction of Pioneer Log Homes’ log shell package is performed on one of the company sites in Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada. For additional effect, the log ends are carved in Alaskan finish, smooth-faced Yukon finish, or gentle scrolled timber arches. Once every detail is honed to perfection and the log-only structure is complete, each log is tagged, numbered, and transported directly to your building site. Every log is then reassembled along with the finishing touches to re-erect your dream home.
Every exacting detail comes together perfectly in the end. Your custom luxury log home will feel like it has always belonged exactly where it stands. You new home will boldly face time, withstand all of the elements and warmly greet your family for generations to come.
The Performance of Wood
We build our wood structures to withstand high annual rainfall, snowfall, earthquakes, severe winds and extreme climates. Additionally, wood performs better in earthquakes than other building materials such as concrete and steel. Wood also has excellent acoustic capabilities that absorb sound, helping to reduce noise and echoing in your new home.
Our structures are specifically designed and engineered for each individual area they are constructed in. We factor in exposures to sunlight, severe winds, climate change, and earthquakes. Some locations we’ve built on in California, Montana and Wyoming are situated on very active faults and seismic lines. Some of Pioneer’s structures are engineered to a seismic 4B rating, which is extreme in every manner. Our structures are engineered with specific hold downs and structural mechanisms that fasten the log shell package and roof structures to the foundation. Pioneer Log Homes of BC takes pride in the fact that we can satisfy engineers and inspectors to this degree anywhere in the world.
Insect and termite problems of the past are virtually eliminated with current construction techniques and practices such as suppression barriers, site management, and treated wood. Pioneer Log Homes has shipped world class log homes to Australia and the Southern United States where damaging insects are prevalent. The way our structures are engineered basically eliminates the problems that have occurred in the past in North American wood frame construction including log and timber homes.
Over the past four decades of building custom log and timber structures, some of the homes we build have really been put to the test. Read the testimonial from one of our customers.
Testimonials
Wood also performs great in severe hurricane force winds, with special techniques and structural systems that can withstand winds up to 180 kilometres per hour or 112 miles per hour. Pioneer Log Homes of BC has constructed some projects in areas that are considered high severe wind areas. See the below testimonial.
– Wood structures are engineered to provide the same safety and reliability as other building materials such as steel and concrete. Independent studies show heavy timber resists fire better than steel which can weaken and collapse quickly when exposed to intense heat. In many respects, heavy timber construction is compared to and equivalent to reinforced concrete. With most fires, no matter what the building materials used in the construction are, proof shows the fire dangers are attributed to the contents inside the home or structure.
Again our structures are scrutinized by building inspectors, engineers and planners. Steps are taken to ensure firewalls and breaks are placed as per the design criteria. As a matter of fact, an 18 inch log wall provides an excellent mass between rooms for containment of fire and heat. Massive log and timber beams provide excellent safety allowing ample time for people to vacate if there is a fire. In the event of a fire, log and timber beams can be cleaned and the char removed to the natural wood beneath. This has been proven not only in Pioneer houses, but also on ancient log and timber construction worldwide.