Log Jam

For several years I kept my eyes peeled for a good example of a vertical log cabin, a style sometimes known as pole log, stockade, or palisade. And for several years I came across fragments—a wall or porch—but never an entire vertical log structure, with the logs intact inside and out. Finally, I located not one, but a cache of them, near Brainerd.

Here’s something you need to know about logs. A cut log, when it dries, shrinks in diameter, not in length. Thus, if you build a cabin laying the logs horizontally—as you did with your Lincoln Logs—the walls will shrink vertically due to the cumulative shrinkage of the individual logs. Unless you take special precautions, that shrinkage can cause problems with your doors and windows.

You don’t have that problem if you build stockade or palisade style, arranging the logs upright. The logs will shrink, but you can deal with the shrinkage more easily and inexpensively by applying oakum or elastic latex caulking to the gaps. You won’t have problems opening the windows and doors.

Which begs an obvious question: Why did I have to work so hard to find those vertical log cabins? Why aren’t most, if not all, log cabins built up and down?

Is it because vertical posts have no lateral bracing similar to plywood on studs and the walls appear less substantial? (Structural weakness doesn’t seem to be a problem. Those cabins near Brainerd have been standing tall for more than eighty years.)

Or the voyageurs who perfected the vertical technique preferred croissants to flapjacks and took their know-how back to France?

Or the creators of Lincoln Logs feared the vertical system was too complicated for six-year-olds?

I, frankly, don’t know and would love to hear from you if you do—or if you’re willing to suggest a better explanation.

Dale Mulfinger is a partner in Sala Architects in the Twin Cities and teaches architecture at the University of Minnesota. You can reach him at dmulfinger@salaarc.com.