Building a deck out of logs
My trailer is parked at campground. I want to build a deck and eventually enclose it in. I can make it 8 feet wide and as long as the trailer is. I have access to about 8 pickup truck loads of wood...
Forum Discussion
You could certainly build the deck framing out of logs, flattening the tops to attach deck boards. The actual decking would be much more easily and effectively made of planks of some sort.
While it's certainly possible to make log walls for an enclosure, kind of like a rustic lean-to, I don't think it's very practical in a campground; the neighbors would probably not appreciate the large amount of cutting and fitting that it involves, either by chain saw or axe and adz, nor the copious amounts of sawdust and wood chips produced. I think you'd also need more logs than you have available. Some sort of a post and beam framework might be practical.
There are a number of good books out there on log construction. Here is a PDF (14.3 MB) of one (published by the US Forest Service, hence in the public domain). The basic techniques haven't really changed in a century or two, though there are various fancy/mechanized log construction systems that have been invented (and are less useful for individuals making a structure than for companies building in quantity). There's more labor involved than anything else, at least if one doesn't attempt some of the fancier corner joints.
Do be aware that traditional log walls (made of horizontal courses of logs) settle a considerable amount as the wood dries and shrinks. (Wood shrinks across the grain diametrically much more than it shrinks lengthwise.) This must be accounted for if door or window frames are incorporated, or if interior partitions of materials such as wallboard are incorporated into the structure, or wherever there are vertical timbers. In the log house I grew up in, there were places where the logs had settled/shrunk the better part of an inch over a single story.
While it's certainly possible to make log walls for an enclosure, kind of like a rustic lean-to, I don't think it's very practical in a campground; the neighbors would probably not appreciate the large amount of cutting and fitting that it involves, either by chain saw or axe and adz, nor the copious amounts of sawdust and wood chips produced. I think you'd also need more logs than you have available. Some sort of a post and beam framework might be practical.
There are a number of good books out there on log construction. Here is a PDF (14.3 MB) of one (published by the US Forest Service, hence in the public domain). The basic techniques haven't really changed in a century or two, though there are various fancy/mechanized log construction systems that have been invented (and are less useful for individuals making a structure than for companies building in quantity). There's more labor involved than anything else, at least if one doesn't attempt some of the fancier corner joints.
Do be aware that traditional log walls (made of horizontal courses of logs) settle a considerable amount as the wood dries and shrinks. (Wood shrinks across the grain diametrically much more than it shrinks lengthwise.) This must be accounted for if door or window frames are incorporated, or if interior partitions of materials such as wallboard are incorporated into the structure, or wherever there are vertical timbers. In the log house I grew up in, there were places where the logs had settled/shrunk the better part of an inch over a single story.
