how about some logging down under?

Thank you for this. Whatever wood they're using is quite compliant for splitting 'straight' and offering knot free trunks. Novel way to build too, compared to square or round log homes in North America and Scandinavia. I'm guessing that Australian timber is much heavier than pine and hence the pioneer use of planks instead of logs.
 
Before and after:

COOLAMIN%20Mike%20Gore%201972.jpg


800241605_NXXhz-L.jpg

Coolamine Homestead, Kosciuszko National Park, New South Wales

The top photo says 1972. The film was "produced for the Australian Heritage Commission by Film Australia, 1984... Part of a series featuring master craftsmen working at their time-honoured crafts. Each craftsman explains the skills required for authentic restoration in keeping with the Burra Charter. Designed to promote awareness of authentic building and restoration techniques and heighten the value of the National Estate. This part features the work of axemen Bill Boyd and Mark Garner, here involved in restoration work at the Coolamine Homestead complex in Kosciusko National Park."

from http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18965610?selectedversion=NBD3818694
 
300Six said:
Thank you for this. Whatever wood they're using is quite compliant for splitting 'straight' and offering knot free trunks. Novel way to build too, compared to square or round log homes in North America and Scandinavia. I'm guessing that Australian timber is much heavier than pine and hence the pioneer use of planks instead of logs.
Click to expand...
they said it was alpine ash
 
phantomknives said:
they said it was alpine ash
Click to expand...
Log building in temperate zones cashed in on insulative properties of wood and the whole building uniformly settled (ie shrunk) as it dried out but in Australia it seems to be more a question of keeping water, sunlight, bugs and critters out. With wood slats shrinking 10-15% in width and thickness over time I wonder how the Aussies dealt with that seeing as the uprights (slotted posts) retained their initial height.
 
My curiosity led me to some information about this type of building, and the specific buildings at Coolamine Homestead.

The "slab hut" is "an icon of Colonial Australia, as evocative of time and place and humble beginnings as the thatched cottage of an English village or the log cabin of Early America."

"...Its walls were, strictly speaking, built from 'flitches'. Slabs are sawn from a trunk, flitches are split from it. Hut-builders felled selected trees, and sawed the trunks into suitable lengths. They then split these lengths into flitches using a maul and a wedge. Timber was split tangentially, that is, along the grain, instead of by the traditional British radial method, from the core of the trunk out towards the bark. There was neither time nor tools suitable to properly dress timber into planks, nor to season the timber; it was used green."

"...Most slab-hut construction techniques could be described as bush carpentry. Few early settlers could afford the time, or possessed the capital, to build any dwelling more impressive than a slab hut: they had first to clear their land and get a crop planted or pasture fenced. In later years, according to the terms of their purchase, selectors had to erect and occupy a dwelling on their land as soon as possible... The average settler could thus erect a basic hut in two or three weeks, adding to or modifying it later."

"The two preferred methods of slab hut construction differed chiefly in the placement of the wall slabs: vertically or horizontally."

A description of the horizontal slab walls of one homestead:

"The walls are erected by what is known as the drop-slab-panel system - upright panels formed of three-foot slabs cut from the outside slice of tree-trunks, and dropped horizontally, one above the other, between grooved posts - a simple arrangement, quickly run up and artistic in appearance - outside, a horizontally fluted surface, formed by the natural curves of the timber, and inside, flat, smooth walls. As in every third panel there was a door or a window, and as the horizontal slabs stopped within two feet of the ceiling, the building was exceedingly airy, and open on all sides..."

above quotes are from the Wikipedia article: Slab hut


Some information about the Coolamine Homestead shown in the video:

The horizontal slab construction... is the most
commonly used form of slab construction at Coolamine.
Other evidence of vertical slab construction also survives,
primarily the extension to the Southwell house. Horizontal
or drop slab construction is more suited to colder climates,
as the slabs can be tamped down from above to eliminate
gaps...

The climate in the Coolamine Homestead area are
characterised by mild summers (average daily maximum
temperature of 21C) and cold winters (average daily
maximum temperature of 4C). Frosts can occur thoughout
most of the year, with the average nightly minimum
temperature in July being -4C.
Precipitation is greatest during winter, with over 150mm per
month from July to October. Average annual precipitation is
quite high at over 1500mm.

from
Coolamine Homestead, Physical Analysis
Kosciuszko National Park
Conservation Management Plan
August 2007
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/parks/CoolamineSection4.pdf
 
Thanks Steve. Says horizontal construction is more suited to colder climates and yet ..."the slabs stopped within 2 feet of the ceiling, making the dwellings airy and open on all sides". This is probably how much they shrunk after initial stacking. This isn't my idea of a recipe for a comfy abode, knowing perfectly well that warm air rises!
 
300Six said:
This isn't my idea of a recipe for a comfy abode, knowing perfectly well that warm air rises!
Click to expand...
Such methods,as Steve's research shows so well(thanks,Steve),have much to do with expediency...Also,with building short-handed,by remote settlers.
Your Canadian version of this,300Six,is the so-called "piece-en-piece",same deal except with sections of round logs vs flitches.
In some better found,more permanent cabins especially, but really in all,some provision was made to close that inevitable gap.
It could have been mechanical,having to do with extended tenons and the upper zill coming down gradually as the fill shrinks,and on down to stuffing that crack with moss,old blankets,et c.....
 
jake pogg said:
Such methods,as Steve's research shows so well(thanks,Steve),have much to do with expediency...Also,with building short-handed,by remote settlers.
Your Canadian version of this,300Six,is the so-called "piece-en-piece",same deal except with sections of round logs vs flitches.
In some better found,more permanent cabins especially, but really in all,some provision was made to close that inevitable gap.
It could have been mechanical,having to do with extended tenons and the upper zill coming down gradually as the fill shrinks,and on down to stuffing that crack with moss,old blankets,et c.....
Click to expand...
Verticals and horizontals don't mix, especially when they were all green (fresh wood) to start with. At -30-40 C or F you're quick (coldly calculating!) at figuring out what it is to do different next time around. Continually stuffing moss, horsehair or crumpled newspaper in joints and cracks doesn't even begin to address overall wood shrinkage of 10-15% which, in the case of an 8 foot high wall, is substantial.
When you inspect a heritage log building in temperate, boreal or arctic north America you'll find that the door and window frames are loosely attached via slotted fastenings and there is a deliberate gap above them to accommodate shrinkage and seasonal movement. Second storeys are rare in these only because a 'stick-framed' staircase is fixed whereas the height of the walls (that support the floors) isn't.
 
Some related detail from that report mentioned earlier:

1984
The slabs were re-installed, approximately 30 % of the
original were retained and the remainder was split from
new alpine ash logs...

1987
Some additional slabs were fitted where some of the previous
replacement slabs had shrunk to leave a gap in the wall panels.




from
Coolamine Homestead, Physical Analysis
Kosciuszko National Park
Conservation Management Plan
August 2007
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/parks/CoolamineSection4.pdf
 
300Six said:
Verticals and horizontals don't mix
Click to expand...


It is true that in Any "log-cabin" type construction the mix of horizontal and vertical is problematic.But neither is it ever entirely avoidable-doors,windows,dividing walls and stairs,as you mention,at the very least will pose these challenges,that people have learned to resolve over time.
(in reality,even the rafters are affected by shrinkage,and a decent cabin would have a provision for the changing pitch of the roof).

But these Australian jobs are not "log-cabins",(even as loose as that definition is ).These are a form of a timber-frame,with flitch infill.
Drawing on uncounted centuries that Europeans played around with all the related const. techniques.

So you're absolutely right,in a theoretical way,but in practice all of that Does get done,one way or another...Just like those "piece-en-piece" cabins,a log-infill timber-frame in effect,are all throughout Canada...
(and here,in Alaska,we have these ghastly "alaska-corner",aka "easy-corner" abortions...:)...among many nicer ones,of course...)
Neat building though,a serious amount of work,and time,and skill...Impressive.
 
Steve Tall said:
Some related detail from that report mentioned earlier:


1987
Some additional slabs were fitted where some of the previous
replacement slabs had shrunk to leave a gap in the wall panels.




from
Coolamine Homestead, Physical Analysis
Kosciuszko National Park
Conservation Management Plan
August 2007
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/parks/CoolamineSection4.pdf
Click to expand...

No real surprise! Folks living in older houses (namely without vapour barriers and humidity control) have learned to stay well away from fashionable 'wide plank' floors because the joints will open up almost 1/4 inch in mid winter. And were the floor boards naively installed in mid winter specifically to counter this they promptly heave or buckle during the summer. It's a difficult concept for rookie woodworkers to grasp; that wood is always 'alive' because it never stops moving.
 
^^^^
A fact of life with hardwood floors. In winter we close up our houses (blocking humid outdoor air) and crank up the heat. Essentially turning our homes into drying kilns.

I've had several clients complain about 'cracks' in their hardwood floor during the winter. Nothing we can do for them but suggest a humidifier.
 
Square_peg said:
^^^^
A fact of life with hardwood floors. In winter we close up our houses (blocking humid outdoor air) and crank up the heat. Essentially turning our homes into drying kilns.

I've had several clients complain about 'cracks' in their hardwood floor during the winter. Nothing we can do for them but suggest a humidifier.
Click to expand...
I have never known one to not comment on it. It has always amused me..
 
Square_peg said:
^^^^
A fact of life with hardwood floors. In winter we close up our houses (blocking humid outdoor air) and crank up the heat. Essentially turning our homes into drying kilns.

I've had several clients complain about 'cracks' in their hardwood floor during the winter. Nothing we can do for them but suggest a humidifier.
Click to expand...
During a reno of removing some interior walls I had to match up a narrow strip floor. The existing had obviously been nailed down (in about 1930) during late spring/early summer because mid-winter shrinkage opened up the joints by 1/8 inch (pretty impressive for 3/4 x 2 in). Rather than bang down warehouse consistent humidity-controlled boards I postponed that part of the job until mid summer and stored the flooring in the house for a month beforehand. When it was noticed that the existing floor had become relatively tight I whacked down the new one. When I went back at Christmas to have a look you couldn't really tell where the old floor ended and the new began. The initially-sceptical homeowners were impressed, one) that the Yellow Birch was a perfect match and 2) that floors all through the house looked the same.
 
300Six said:
Thanks Steve. Says horizontal construction is more suited to colder climates and yet ..."the slabs stopped within 2 feet of the ceiling, making the dwellings airy and open on all sides". This is probably how much they shrunk after initial stacking. This isn't my idea of a recipe for a comfy abode, knowing perfectly well that warm air rises!
Click to expand...
Hi all. About 56 years ago I was involved in helping repair a 'slab hut' about 40 kilometres (roughly 25 miles) west of where I now live. Working on a cattle station (ranch) as first job after escaping from High school as soon as I was legally able.
There was a lot of adze work to bring the desired smoothness to the interior of the flitch/slab and also to the end sections of the slab to enable them to slide down and fit snugly. A hand saw was used to make the space between slabs fit as tightly as possible - usually 2 runs of the saw produced a tight fit. The slabs on this particular hut were made from Beefwood - and how the original builders managed to stop those slabs from cracking and splitting I do not know/remember. I also do not remember an air gap at the top - there was just enough room to insert a slab - but whether we fitted a locking slab I can't remember.
The saw cut was at an angle to ensure rain would run out and down the outside.
I've probably forgotten more than I can remember, unfortunately.
Snug as a bug in a rug, in Winter, though.
 
Great post, Old Bin. I love stories like that. I've used that saw trick numerous times to close up a joint in woodworking.
 
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