UAF offers log cabin building workshop
March 3, 2014
Nancy Tarnai
907-474-5042
3/3/14
Robert Chambers, one of the most famous log cabin builders in the world, will conduct a log construction workshop May 1-23 in Nenana.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Natural Resources and Extension is working with the Toghotthele Corp. in Nenana to offer the workshop to corporation members and the public. The work site is 307.8 Parks Highway, near Nenana. The end result will be a 16-by-20-foot cabin that Toghotthele might auction off to the highest bidder.
The workshop is for people interested in building high-quality, energy-efficient log structures in Alaska. Chambers will lead the sessions on how to build with green logs. Richard Musick, of Fairbanks, will assist. The classes are facilitated by UAF Assistant Professor Valerie Barber.
Building an energy-efficient log home requires the highest level of craftsmanship to meet modern standards of airtightness, indoor air quality, safety, comfort and durability.
Basic procedures and techniques will be described and practiced to help even the novice get started with a project. Instruction will cover safety; chain saw use; maintenance; cutting, notching, ripping and scribing logs; and building roof trusses. Final product will be a log shell with roof trusses. The cost of the workshop is $1,500, and a few openings remain.
Chambers has been building log homes since 1983 and teaching log construction since 1988. He is the author of the best-selling log home construction textbook and DVD, Log Construction Manual, and the inventor of log construction methods, products and machinery. He holds U.S. and foreign patents for his log construction inventions. Find out more at www.logbuilding.org.
In April 2006, the International Log Builders Association presented Chambers with the Grand Achievement Award, which has been awarded only three times in the ILBA’s 41-year history. He is a consultant for log home owners, log home companies, builders and developers throughout the world.
Richard Musick builds custom energy-efficient log and frame homes. He owns Ventilation Solutions, a company specializing in heat recovery ventilators and air filtration systems. He has taught more than 20 two-day courses around the state, showing basic log-scribing techniques and how to build energy-efficient log homes, and has taught three log construction courses similar to the one that will be taught this year.
For more information, contact Barber at 907-746-9466 or vabarber@alaska.edu.
ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Debbie Carter, 474-5406, dscarter@alaska.edu.
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