5 Tips When Building Your Own Hunting Log Cabin

When hunting, shelter is tremendously helpful regardless of the season. After all, hunting typically takes place in remote locations. If it is something you do frequently, you might consider building a log cabin rather than just carrying tent gear in your endeavors. One of the best things is that you can build your own hunting log cabin.

However, if you are going to take on the job of building your own cabin, there are some important considerations. Here are five tips when building your own hunting log cabin.

Planning

The planning stage of building your hunting log cabin is vital. From budgets to logistics, there are bound to be things that you don’t think of. Some things you should think about during the planning stage include:

• Permits
• Zoning laws
• Environmental impact
• Budget including finishes, transportation costs, and unexpected problems
  
• Creating a blueprint
  
• Suppliers
  
• How you are going to get your materials to the job site

Though location and timing fall into the planning stage, it deserves its own considerations as it is highly intertwined with all aspects of the build. Some important things to think about with location include convenience to your most frequented trips, how difficult it will be to transport in building materials as mentioned above and positioning in accordance to the elements and remoteness among others.

As far as timing goes, one of the best tips is to avoid building in the winter. Not only can the ground be harder or softer depending on your location, but also with logs, if you build during the winter, you can deal with cracking and other troubles with the wood itself. Additionally, you will need to account for the fact that it can take up to nine months or more to build your cabin depending on the size and style, not including any time for unforeseen circumstances so you’ll want to get started as soon as you can to keep on schedule.

Roofing

The roof is one of the most important aspects of building your own hunting log cabin since it is what keeps the elements off of you. There are two main considerations for log cabin roofs– style and material. Several roof styles will work with log cabins including hip, gable, pyramid, and gambrel.

“There are benefits to each style, though which one is best for you is dependent on your needs and plans. For reference, the most popular roofing style for log hunting cabins is gable because it gives you extra space inside to include things like lofts which are common in cabins. The other consideration is material. Traditionally, asphalt shingles are a cost-effective option and therefore are often implemented in log cabins. However, there are other options including architectural shingles to give more texture or metal roofing that provides extra durability.” – Jeff Guthrie, Phoenix Roofing Contractors 

Other options include pressure-treated cedar shake or slate. Each of these options come in at a variety of pricing and have their own benefits depending on your needs.

Siding

Siding is another consideration to think about when building your own log cabin. There are two main options when it comes to siding. The traditional way is to have real logs be the siding; however, the alternative is to use steel log siding. Wooden logs have to be sealed in some way every few years to keep water and moisture out. With steel log siding, you keep all moisture and water out and when it gets dirty, you simply have to hose it off. Either way, ensure that with your siding, you do everything you can to seal it to keep the elements out.

Foundation

Lastly, one of the most vital things about building your own hunting log cabin is the foundation. After all, the foundation is the key to having a stable structure to provide shelter for years to come.

Your foundation should provide subsistence if the soil were to move away from the cabin, strength to support the weight of your cabin, and support from the settlement into the ground below. This is commonly referred to as the “three s rules” standing for subsistence, strength, and settlement. Additionally, your chosen land will play a big role in your considerations regarding the foundation.

You’ll want to check your soil type if there are any large rocks, roots, or even water sources under the surface, and how the land slopes for how water will influence the foundation. Under ideal conditions, you would have a perfectly level surface, with homogeneous soil, and drainage that slopes away from your foundation.

Stock Your Cabin with Hunting Gear

Once you have tackled building your own hunting log cabin, you’ll want to stock it with your hunting gear so that you have some supplies on your next trip. Check out our posts on the best hunting gear no matter your choice in targets to have the best wood log cabin of them all.