Building workshop – Rows 3 to 8

Going from row 1 to 3 is an easy to task when assembling a log building. Going to row 8 is already a bit more effort…

One still needs to attach the mineral wool as insulation material in the joints, just like for all (214) logs.

However, what you don’t need to do anymore is to attach the insulation between the logs. When we ordered our first Kontio log building we had to staple the insulation material along the logs ourselves. The building instruction still refer to this task. But it seems Kontio has automated that step in the manufacturing process and it is already done when the logs are shipped from the factory. What one has to do is to hammer down hundreds of pegs between the logs that keep them from twisting around. And there are lots of them. 6 pegs go into a single 6 meter long log. I think we will use over 500 of them.

The concrete mixer above is for checking whether the hole is deep enough for one peg to go all the way down. Since one is alternating between a pair of holes from one log to another, one looses easily track of where one has put a peg already and where not. This special tester has the additional benefit of not dropping accidentally into a hole. Another testing device we used also on that day made its way into one of the holes reserved for an electricity cables. And it will stay there for good I’m afraid.

In addition, a special feature of our particular log building we had to insert 1 meter long steel pipes into dedicated holes. The purpose of those long steel pipes is to stabilise the long sides because the logs itself are only 95 mm thick and need support.

These long steel pipes become necessary because Kontio suggested to put an intermediary row of short logs half way through the long wall.

However, we like the clean look of one long log. Maximising room utilisation is also difficult with a log poking into the room limiting one’s ability to put shelves or work tables on the long side without customising them. Hence, we asked Kontio to come up with an alternative solution which are those steel tubes.

With 8 rows done, the workshop building is taking shape already and one can start imaging slowly how it will look like finally.