Log Homes

Overland Trails Log Homes has been building and supplying quality log homes in North Georgia for almost 20 years. We are proud to be an authorized dealer for Heritage Log Homes. Since 1974, Heritage has dedicated themselves to producing the finest log homes the industry has to offer. Heritage is a leader with innovations such as our “Thru-bolt system”,double tongue and groove logs and saddle notch corners.. Our experience combined with the high quality of Heritage products gives our clients the leading edge that they are looking for in a log home company.

Today’s log homes are not like the cabins we once knew. Our 2500 square foot model home, the “Smokey Ridge”, is a winner of the Building Systems Council's "Excellence in Design Award". Our model was built so our clients can see the true quality of a Heritage Log Home. While the Smokey Ridge is just one plan, constructed with 6x12 hand hewn logs, we have many other designs and log styles to show our clients. In addition to the options for log homes, we also offer Timberframe packages.

We hope you will contact us so we can discuss the many areas that set us apart from other log home companies. We welcome you to tour our model or participant in one of our events. Ellijay is a just a short drive from Atlanta, GA.

We periodically hold seminars and log raising's. Our events listing shows a schedule including dates and times.

Overland Trails is now on FaceBook.

Today’s log homes are not like the cabins we once knew so sit back and enjoy a few of our latest projects.

 

 

Design

Heritage offers many different log home plans in various sizes and styles, from the traditional look to our new Coastal Series. If you find something you like, but want a few changes, no problem. All of our plans can easily be changed to suit your needs. Our model, the “Smokey Ridge”, was created based on another Heritage plan. We made some changes to get exactly what we wanted. Since then, we have built several Smokey Ridges, all with various changes. It’s quite a versatile plan!

What if you don’t find anything that works for you? Do you have your own plan or ideas floating around in your head? Ed and his wife, Ellen, designed their personal log home from scratch. While discussing what they wanted, Ed started sketching and before you knew it, there was a plan. The plan was sent back and forth with the architects at Heritage a couple of times. Suggestions and changes were made and now they are living in a totally custom Heritage Log Home. There is rarely a day that goes by when they don’t look around and say “I just love our house”.

These days the look of a log home has evolved quite dramatically from the log cabin Abe Lincoln grew up in. You certainly can still have a home that is what the log enthusiasts call a “true log home”. However, many of our clients now incorporate several different materials in their homes. Board and batten might be used in the gables and dormers, stone can be used to cover basement walls or surround porch posts. Hand rails can be composed of wood or metal, or a mix. If you worry about tiring of an all wood interior, use sheet rock for some walls. The possibilities are endless.

Heritage has an excellent team of architects, draftsmen and engineers that work with us as a team to ensure your vision goes from concept to final drawings. State-of-the-Art technology generates a database listing all the log components and other building materials required for manufacturing and shipping your log-home package. In addition to the usual floor plans and elevation drawings, we have software that allows us to generate full 3-D renderings of your home plan, allowing you to visualize your Heritage log home in its real-world setting.

 

Log Styles

 

 

 

 

 

Manufacturing

Heritage Log Homes recently completed at new, 75,000 square –foot, climate-controlled facility. Thanks to this and our state of the art production equipment we are heads above our competitors. This is the world’s first fully automated log home mill. All of our equipment was conceived and designed by our in-house team, and custom made to our specifications.

The equipment in our mill is so precise it can make cuts to within a tolerance of 1/32 of an inch. We are able to produce log home packages with greater speed and efficiency because of this precision. Less energy is used, which is good for the environment. There is also less wood waste. We even recycle our sawdust into other materials!

For centuries, East White Pine has been the wood of choice for quality log home builders. At Heritage, we continue to believe that white pine is the most suitable wood for log home construction. All of our logs are cut from the heartwood, which is the strongest part of the tree. Heartwood minimizes wood checking, less prone to shrinkage and is more resistant to insects.

Energy Efficiency

The National Bureau of Standards conducted a 28 week test and found that it costs about 30% less to heat and cool at house built with logs. Many people are knowledgeable about the R-value of insulation used in a home. In a log home, the logs are the insulation itself and operated on Thermal Mass. It takes longer for temperature to move through a log wall than a framed, insulated wall. Therefore, heating and cooling units cycle less often. We often hear from our customers how pleased they are with their power bills once they live in a log home.

Thru-Bolt System

Our Self-Tightening, Maintenance-Free Thru-Bolt Assembly Featuring Our Patented Anchoring System

No other log home fastening system provides the settlement control, strength, and ease of construction our system achieves.

What does this mean for you?

• No more worries about air-infiltration.
• No concern about your logs fitting and staying tight throughout the life of your log home.
• No concerns about your logs expanding or contracting properly with fluctuations in humidity and moisture levels.
• No worries about the RIGHT way to join logs together - This is it.

Heritage Log Homes has successfully incorporated an engineering innovation into our log wall construction process. The idea of Thru Bolting itself is not new, just difficult to incorporate into an existing system. This advanced system won't work on just any log home. If a company hasn't invested in the necessary time, money, and quality control measures, major problems can occur. Just trying to get the pre-drilled holes to line up on all the logs can in fact prove very difficult.

At Heritage, we use the latest engineering technologies available to improve the original log homes that our country's settlers relied on. These advanced homes have set the standard for log wall construction.

Our latest improvement involves the way individual logs are linked together to form the log wall. In the past, logs were spiked or lag bolted (threaded screws) together to erect log walls. Heritage has developed and implemented a new technique; a spring loaded, self-tightening, maintenance free thru bolt system with our new patented anchoring system. This method replaces spikes and lag bolts with a spring-loaded continuous threaded-rod running through the entire log wall. This forms a very strong log wall, and keeps the log wall very tight as it settles over time.

Benefits of our self-tightening, maintenance-free thru bolt system:

• Faster to build and less labor intensive than old-fashioned spike and lag bolt systems. There is no need to pound several 8", 10", 12", or even longer spikes into every log. Just start stacking.
• Structural strength is significantly improved. Thru Bolts lock the log wall together. It becomes a solid unit instead of several logs nailed together. Thru Bolting helps maintain uniform settling over the entire log wall system.
• Studies backed by independent research have proven the thru bolt (or through bolt) process is vastly superior to spiking or lag bolting the logs together.
• Thru-Bolts are without a doubt THE greatest engineering advancement in the log home industry.

With our improved self-tightening, maintenance-free version with our patented anchoring system... we just set the standard even higher.

Log-Lok Spline & T-Jamb System

Logs must not only fit tightly with each other, they must be snug with adjoining windows and doors. The tricky part is that if these joints are too rigid, then normal log settling can add stress to or even damage adjoining components.

That’s where Heritage Log Homes’ Log-Lok spline and T-jamb system saves the day. Our log butts, window jambs and doorjambs are outfitted with perpendicular strips called “splines,” which fit into grooves that are mill-cut into the butt ends of adjoining logs.

That way, log wall segments are allowed to settle naturally, leaving the splines to float freely up and down within the grooves. The result is a flexible joint that also provides an excellent seal and minimizes air infiltration.

DoubleTongue-And-Groove

At Heritage Log Homes, our double tongue-and-groove, saddle notch corners virtually eliminate air infiltration at corner joints, allowing your home to maintain maximum energy efficiency.

Each log is milled with a pair of parallel ridges (tongues) that run the length of the timber and are covered with strips of foam gasket material. When two logs are stacked, the gasket-covered ridges on top of the lower log fit tightly into precision-milled grooves that are cut into the underside of the upper log.

Heritage Log Homes is unique because we are the only log-home company in the industry that incorporates this patented double tongue-and-groove feature into corner joints, which means your home is tightly sealed from top to bottom and side to side.

Saddle Notch Corners

At Heritage Log Homes, our double tongue-and-groove, saddle notch corners virtually eliminate air infiltration at corner joints, allowing your home to maintain maximum energy efficiency.

Each log is milled with a pair of parallel ridges (tongues) that run the length of the timber and are covered with strips of foam gasket material. When two logs are stacked, the gasket-covered ridges on top of the lower log fit tightly into precision-milled grooves that are cut into the underside of the upper log.

Heritage Log Homes is unique because we are the only log-home company in the industry that incorporates this patented double tongue-and-groove feature into corner joints, which means your home is tightly sealed from top to bottom and side to side.

Heritage Log Homes timber of choice.

Eastern White Pine

All trees are made of wood. But that doesn’t mean that just any tree is suitable for log-home construction. At Heritage Log Homes, we believe that if your dream is to create a home of strength and beauty, it only makes sense to start with the wood that best fits the bill.

We custom-mill our log components predominantly from Eastern White Pine timber, which for centuries has been the wood of choice of quality-minded log-home builders. The Eastern White Pine is recognizable in nature for its height, ruggedness, durability, beauty and even its relative resistance to fire (compared to other tree varieties).

The timbers arrive at our milling facility in squared lengths called “cants,” each of which is cut from the heartwood—the innermost core—of the tree. Because of its tighter grain pattern, heartwood is the strongest part of the tree, and its minimal knotting enhances both structural integrity and aesthetic beauty. Heartwood also minimizes wood checking (cracks), is less prone to shrinking and is more resistant to insects.

Note: Although Eastern White Pine is the standard utilized at Heritage Log Homes, we are able to accommodate special requests for log components milled from other types of timber.

Drying

All logs are seasoned, or dried to the point when the log’s moisture content is stabilized. There are two ways to do this, naturally or in a kiln. Many log home companies kiln dry their logs but Heritage believes in a natural process. Kiln drying is fine for lumber that is not exposed to the elements. Exterior logs, however, are exposed to the changing humidity. Heritage allows timbers to dry on their own. This helps preserve the wood’s fiber strength. Even after the logs are used in the construction of a home, they will continue to dry. The logs will settle, at they do in all log homes. As the logs dry they contract naturally and are compressed by the weight of the logs stack above them. Heritage offers its patented, self- adjusting Thru-Bolt system. This mechanism allows the logs to contract and expand during settling which guarantees that your logs stay tight during and after settling. In addition, the Thru-Bolt adds extra strength to your log walls.

Wood Preservation

As strong and durable as log timbers are, they do require some added protection to ensure a lifetime of reliable service in the face of their strongest enemies:

• WATER - Excessive water absorption leads to stains caused by mold, mildew, sap and other types of grime.
• THE SUN - Over time, its ultraviolet rays cause bleaching and wood discoloration.
• INSECTS - Termites and powder post beetles are just a couple of the pests that can cause damage to wood.

Once they go through the milling process, all logs at Heritage Log Homes are dip-treated with an EPA-approved anti-sap preservative that protects against mold and discoloration during storage, handling and construction.

After your home is completed, we then apply a nontoxic, water-repellent preservative that protects your logs and wood siding for years, not just from water but from the sun’s rays and insects as well. Best of all, the products we use will not form a film on the log, which allows the wood to breathe so that it does not trap moisture, crack or peel.

It also leaves your surfaces with a rich color and clean, beautiful appearance. Our products are available in clear, but it can also be tinted to a variety of attractive colors, including pecan, cypress, honey and iron gray. And its easy, one-coat coverage means less cost, time and trouble during application.

Depending on your home’s location and exposure to the elements, you will want to apply a protective wood stain/preservative every 3 to 5 years. Our maintenance specialist will help you decide what treatment plan will work best.

 

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