Timber Block Tahoe: A Custom Craftsman-Style Luxury Home

Ever dream about designing your own custom dream log home? Traditional log houses can be pretty pricey, but a company called Timber Block is making them more accessible with a factory-built system you can order as a kit. The prefabricated wall panels of Timber Block’s engineered homes are made of Eastern White Pine timber dried to 8% humidity along with high-pressure closed-cell polyurethane insulation for a beautiful, high quality result, and each home comes with everything you need for the framework, exterior walls, roof, ceiling, loft, doors and windows and other components.

A recent project shows off just how amazing these custom-designed log homes can be. The clients chose to alter Timber Block’s Tahoe craftsman model into their very own luxury residence measuring 3600 square feet with three bedrooms, two levels of living space and a 3-car garage. They modified the look of the Tahoe from the outside, giving it a more symmetrical facade.

The panelized home building system makes it easy to alter the shape, size and floor plan of the home. It’s a cool use of Eastern White Pine, which is a standard material for many log and timber frame homes. 

“The wood is then bonded under thousands of pounds of pressure and thru-bolted every 24 inches. The panels are stacked and delivered to the building site and installed using a crane. Timber Block homes are highly energy-efficient, can be built anywhere and assemble in hours.”

Timber Block also offers Classic, Contemporary, Vintage, Farmhouse and Evolution collections of models, so there’s something for just about everyone. What would you build?

Prefabricated Wooden Building Elements Pay Off at the Construction Site

Wood construction is more sustainable, more beautiful, and might also be less expensive in the long run, according to a new report by Metsä Wood, a European wood construction supplier. The use of prefabricated building elements made out of wood allows faster building turnaround, leading to more profitable construction projects, shorter investment payback times and fewer on-site accidents.

The company looked at how utilizing these elements, like laminated veneer lumber roof panels, change the construction process at a building site. These panels can be assembled within a single working day, and ultimately provide on-site weather protection with no additional costs by sheilding the building site beneath much more effectively than a temporary tent.

With prefabrication, large sections of a building can be constructed offsite in a controlled indoor environment, reducing the risk of accidents and consequent delays.

“Assembling ready-made wood elements can replace the potentially more dangerous process of having to build a roof from beams, panels and bitumen at the heights of an unfinished building,” says Lambert van den Bosch, a project subcontractor in charge of wood construction at Heko Spanten. “On-site accidents are of course not frequent, but every single one of them should be avoided.”

It can also reduce on-site waste and the need to transport it after the project is done, as well as cutting back loose on-site building materials that can be unwieldy and difficult to protect from weather and theft.

The Simple Life: Portable, Affordable Real Wood Cabins

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Perhaps you’ve got some land that you like to use as a relaxing getaway every now and then, or you’re looking to downsize your life to gain financial freedom. Whatever your reason for looking into purchasing a modest cabin, you’ve got all sorts of options, from hiring a contractor to build a custom cabin to ordering a log cabin kit. But the most convenient (and often least expensive) option is a prefabricated cabin that can be delivered, fully assembled, to your building site.

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Prefab doesn’t automatically mean cheap. While many factory-built structures are made of lightweight synthetic materials, many companies offer real log cabins that are simply designed on a small scale. Trophy Amish Cabins sells beautiful tiny homes made of solid Eastern White Pine logs, with stunning all-wood Eastern White Pine interiors.

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Available in a range of styles and sizes, including hunting cabins, cottages and lodges, these cabins can be kept on treated runners so they qualify as ‘movable sheds’ to avoid the need for building permits in many states. You prepare the site, and Amish Trophy Cabins offers turn-key nationwide delivery.

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All sorts of upgrades are available, like larger rafters, island kitchenettes, a range of built-in cabinetry and lofts, and your choice of trim. Check out all of the options at the Trophy Amish Cabins website.