There are log homes that sell for millions of dollars. Is log home style considered a grand or luxury style of home? Is the style used for mansions or normally regular-sized homes? A garage offers protection from rain, snow, bears, and theft. Log homes used for weekend or vacation usually don’t have a garage, although they are a good idea. The closer you are to town, the more likely you are to see log homes with garages. Does log home style house usually come with a garage? It is easy to find a log home floor plan with a detached garage in the same style. Are there log home style floor plans with a detached garage? Is it possible? The days of being able to build a log home for $50 a square foot are probably over, but log home designs can be made very simple for cabins used only in the summer or winter, at considerable cost savings.Īs we will mention a little later in the answer to the question about exterior colors, maintenance of a log home can be quite expensive. Consider the costs of removing highly flammable vegetation (chestnuts in the eastern US, trees killed by drought in the West, junipers in Texas) within 100 yards of your home in calculating your building costs.Įven with all of these complications, Angie’s List tells us, log homes are usually built for $125 to $175 per square foot. Log homes are at special risk for fire damage.You may want to erect a 10,000-gallon storage tank both for your personal use in drought years and fire protection, making sure you keep pumps and hoses for use in case of fire. The catch is that you need to choose to build the basement before you choose your plans.
This adds to the costs of building the foundation, but gives opportunities to add a basement. More often than not, log cabins are built on sloping land.If you choose plans that work with the log and chink method, in which the builder notches the logs to fit together and corners and fills in any gaps with chinking (which in the twenty-first century is an acrylic glue, although in earlier times it was a mixture of sand, clay, and lime), you will spend a lot less than if you expect logs to fit together without chinking.If logs have to be cut at the site, lumber costs may go down but labor costs may soar. About 90 percent of log homes are built with pre-milled lumber cut to meet the specifications of the owner’s building plan, hauled to the construction site.Site excavators, carpenters, craftspeople, plumbers, and electricians may expect extra pay for the time it takes to reach your site. The cost to transport workers and materials to your construction site can be a significant part of your building cost.Log home sites without road access are usually inexpensive, but that brings up the next variable. A lot with a beautiful view in an isolated location that somehow has power and water connections will come at a premium price. Land costs for log homes are extremely variable.The cost per square foot for building your log home will depend on factors such as: There is almost no other style of home with a more variable building cost. FAQ How much do log home style houses cost per square foot (approximately)?