Today’s log and timber frame home designs are not like the cabins we once knew. The “Grant” model, is a winner of the Building Systems Council's "Excellence in Design Award" and demonstrates how cabins in Georgia can be true, quality log homes. The "Grant" is just one plan constructed with 6x12 hand hewned logs, we have many other plans, log home and timber frame packages and kits.

We bring the Wooden Dream Homes product to the North Georgia and Southeast area because we believe that they balance genuine quality with affordable log home and timber frame prices. So whether you’re building a cabin in Tennessee, vacation log home in North Carolina or a weekend log cabin in North Georgia, Wooden Dream Homes is the log home and timber frame company you can trust.

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We hope you will contact us at 706-273-8186, or email us at edgrant@overlandtrails.com or egrant@woodendreamhomes.com.com 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 one hour drive North of Atlanta, GA.

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Design 

Wooden Dream Homes offers many different log home plans in various sizes and styles, from the traditional look to the more modern feel. 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. We have a licensed architect on staff, so you are assured of quality design.

 

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 Wooden Dream Homes a couple of times. Suggestions and changes were made and now they are living in a totally custom Wooden Dream Homes. 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.

 

Wooden Dream Homes 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  home in its real- Wooden Dream Homes setting.

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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.

 

"Constant Compression" Thru-Bolt Log Wall Fastening System 

Our " Constant Compression" Thru-Bolt Featuring Our Anchoring System...

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

Think about how our system works...When the weather is hot and humid outside, the logs will expand. When it's winter and isn't cold outside with no humidity, the logs will shrink....Our "Constant Compression" spring and Thru-Bolt allows for all this movement, but keeps your seems between the logs tight so you don't have any air infiltration. Think about the energy savings as compared to other systems that just use the "Oly- Screw".

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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.

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Wooden Dream 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 Wooden Dream Homes, 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. Wooden Dream Homes has developed and implemented a new technique; a "Constant Compression" Thru-Bolt Log Wall Fastening System with our new 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.  It also allows for expansion and contraction of the log wall due to temperature and humidity changes for the life of your home.  

 

 

Benefits of our "Constant Compression" Log Wall Thru-Bolt Fastening System:

• Faster to build and less labor intensive than old-fashioned spike and lag bolt systems. There is no need to pound or screw several 10", 12", or even longer spikes or screws into every log. Just start stacking.

• Structural strength is significantly improved. "Constant Compression" Thru-Bolts lock the log wall together. The log wall becomes a solid unit instead of several logs nailed together. "Constant Compression" 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.

• "Constant Compression" Thru-Bolts are without a doubt The greatest engineering advancement in the log home industry.

 

With our improved "Constant Compression", maintenance-free anchoring system... we just set the standard even higher.

 

Log-Loc 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 Wooden Dream Homes’ Log-Loc 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 Wooden Dream Homes, our Double Tongue and Groove log joining system virtually eliminates air infiltration at all log stacking location, 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.

Wooden Dream Homes is unique because we are one of the few log home companies in the industry that incorporates this double tongue-and-groove feature into the log joinery, which means your home is tightly sealed from top to bottom and side to side.

 

Saddle Notch Corners 

At Wooden Dream Homes our saddle notch corners with our special rubberized gasket virtually eliminates air infiltration at corner joints, allowing your home to maintain maximum energy efficiency.

When two logs are stacked, a gasket-covers on top of the lower log and fits tightly into the precision-milled area of the upper log. 

 

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 Wooden Dream Homes 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. Wooden Dream Homes 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. Wooden Dream Homes offers its "Constant Compression Thru-Bolt Fastening System." This mechanism allows the logs to expand and contract during the life of your home through season hot and cold changes, which guarantees that your logs stay tight during and after settling. In addition, the Thru-Bolt adds extra strength to your log walls. It's like putting "re-bar" in your concrete for strength.

 

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 Wooden Dream 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.