Log Cabin Porches And Interior Details

A LOG cabin is not complete until it has at least one good-sized porch. Indeed, this is true of any type of vacation structure that is used mostly in summer. While the interior is mainly given over to cooking, sleeping, and congregating about the living-room fireplace on chilly evenings or winter days, the porch will become the most used part of the cabin. In fair weather a hammock, easy chairs, a convenient table, plenty of air and the eternal music of the out­doors lure you and your friends to the porch. For maximum benefit the porch should be screened and protected by curtains against storms. Then it can be used for dining and sleeping purposes, becoming in ef­fect an extra room. And a porch is much cheaper to build than a walled room, no matter whether the cabin is built of logs or shingles.

Various types of porches and the manner of building them are illustrated above and little trouble should be found in following directions.

supporting, no porch posts being required. An interest­ing and attractive way of making such a roof is to use longer logs for the upper courses of the sidewalls, and then install several fairly large logs as ribs in the roof. These ribs run parallel to the plates and ridge piece. The third sidewall log from the top projects, say, a third of the porch roof extension; the second log from the top, two-thirds of the extension, and the top log all the way across the roof space and for several inches beyond the line where the roof edge will be. The log ribs and ridge piece extend the same degree as the top side-wall log.

When the roof extension over the porch is to be considerable, it is advisable to use corner posts and to close in the gable end of the porch roof, by one of the various methods available; or else make a hip roof. The space above the porch floor generally is not celled, because there is no particular advantage in closing it.

When the porch is at the side, so that its roof is virtually or actually a continuation of the eaves, the roof construction will depend somewhat on the height of the cabin proper, and the size and design of the porch. The roof rafters of the cabin can be extended beyond the eaves far enough to provide rafters for the porch roof, if the roof pitch is not great and if the porch roof does not extend out too far. When such a construction would bring the outer edge of the porch roof too near the floor or ground, the roof can be given a smaller pitch, and its rafters tied into the main structure either along the wall below the cabin eaves or in the roof at a point somewhere above the eaves. The latter construction is better when a considerable pitch must be given to the porch roof to provide good drainage. In this case, the porch roof rafters are spiked to those of the main roof. When the cabin is in a region where snowfall is heavy, it is better to use a gable roof, no matter where the porch is situated. A gable roof

The manner of building stairs and balcony is shown above. Also the best way of holding a log to bore a hole through it is shown.

extending from the side of the main roof is tied into it by extending a ridge board and plates outward from the main roof, and erecting rafters in the usual manner.

A rustic construction is almost imperative, if the porch is not to look like something that belongs to another building. Use logs 5 in. or more in diameter for the porch posts, and smaller poles for the porch railing if one is used. Likewise, poles can be employed to build railings along the steps. When it is desired to screen the porch, and open railings are not desirable because screen wire, extended to the floor, is easily damaged by shoes and chair rockers, the porch can be closed in by building a boxing of two rows of slabs staggered and nailed with flat sides in contact, or by setting small poles vertically and close enough together to keep out insects. Building an insect-proof wall of poles is not easy, when a single row is used. A sug­gested method is to employ two rows of slabs and place a layer of tarred building paper between them. Poles or slabs can be used for closing unsightly spaces be­neath parches.

Because a screened-in porch amounts almost to a necessary luxury, set the corner posts and intervening supports in such positions that the spaces between them will take standard-width screen wire tacked to wood frames. Among the standard screen-wire widths are 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 36, 42 and 48 in. Thus, for 36-in. screen wire, allowing an inch along each edge far frames the space between two posts should be 38, 75, 112 in., etc. These figures allow for an inch between adjacent screen-wire strips, when more than one is used, in addition to the allowance at both sides.

To keep out unwanted wind, sun, and rain, awnings or curtains of some sort are desirable. These can be strips of awning material placed either inside or out. It is easier to make them wind-and water-tight if they are outside. In that position they also provide pro­tection for the screen wire in winter. A satisfactory curtain for most purposes consists of a rectangular piece of awning cloth or canvas with hems at least an inch wide across the top and bottom. Pass a wooden strip through the upper hem, and use it as an enclosed batten for nailing the curtain to the porch frame. Through the lower hem insert a round wood bar or

A type of porch that is supported by small poles. When screened in, this provides a large room with the use of little material

metal pipe or rod, to act as a weight and roller. This bar can be tied down at the ends, when it is desired to close the area completely. At other times it can be rolled part-way up and held in position by tie strings or strips of cloth sewed at intervals along the curtain edges. When the lower bar is rolled part way up and held outward from the porch by two supports, the curtain becomes an effective awning.

Whatever the type of porch, make it as wide as possible, so that there will be room to swing hammocks, serve meals, and move about. So that water will drain off, the porch floor must be sloped slightly. A drop of about 1 in. every 5 or 6 ft., measured from the wall outward, is sufficient. This slope is obtained by running the floor joists parallel to the wall and setting each one slightly lower than the next one towards the wall. Thus for a floor 10 to 12 ft. wide, the outside joist would be 2 in, lower than that next to the house wall.

Run the floor boards across these joists, that is, from the wall outward. If the rainfall is extremely heavy, so that the porch will be wet much of the time, use plain-edged boards, and leave spaces about 1/8  in. wide between them. This prevents water from remaining in the cracks for long periods and rotting the wood. Usually tongue-and-groove flooring, preferably of cypress or redwood for resistance to weather, can be used. When laying the floor, coat the edges of the boards thoroughly with white lead thinned with lin­seed oil, to produce water-tight joints.

Finish the floor by painting it, or by applying var­nish or linseed oil. Paint is probably preferable, but it should be of a color that will harmonize with the re­mainder of the cabin. In the winter, porch floors catch much of the mud and snow that otherwise would be tracked into the house.

A useful and attractive type of porch consists of a stone-paved terrace overhung by a roof, or else left without overhead protection. Such a terrace can be tucked in at intersecting corners of certain types of log houses. The paving can be of field stones, set in the ground or bonded with mortar.

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How To Build A Log Cabin