Do you live in a log cabin?

Hurdt299

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Location
Asheville, NC
I'm looking for insurance for a log cabin that doesn't cost as much as the mortgage payment itself. If you have a cabin, what insurance company do you use?
 
log cabin a bit behind my place is now covered in vinyl siding...wonder if that's for the insurance co. drive-by??
 
kaiser715 said:
No, somebody lives in it. On adjoining property. It is maybe 20 years old.
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Oh lol yep no where old enough but they devalued there house doing that. Right now log cabins are holding their value better than any other type of house, and most people have stopped building them cause it's so hard to get them to pass code now
 
For curiosity sake, why is it hard to get insurance for them? Or for them to pass building codes?
 
livetorun said:
For curiosity sake, why is it hard to get insurance for them? Or for them to pass building codes?
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The building code gives wood a certain R value and it's not that great so you either have to have really think logs for D-logs and no one can make them big enough for nc and for dove tail logs you still have to have wide logs and a really high R-rated insulation in the chinking joint to try to increase your wall values and then you must over insulate the floors and ceilings and have high end windows to get the over all R rating high enough to pass the new code... Most people aren't willing to pay for all the extra that they will never see or realize is there.
 
Loganwayne said:
The building code gives wood a certain R value and it's not that great
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The R-value is inherent in the material, not granted to it by the building code. ;)

Most of North Carolina now requires continuous (sheet good) insulation on the exterior walls with an R-value of between 2.5 and 5 (depending on county). Charlotte, Gastonia, the Sandhills, and pretty much everything east I-95 is in a different climate zone and is exempt from the continuous requirement, but still has to have an exterior wall assembly rating of R-13. Wood is R1 per inch, so you're talking about a minimum 12" wall thickness (after accounting for interior and exterior air film transfer) if it's solid timber. The code also requires a continuous air barrier, which there really isn't any way to get with a solid timber wall.

You can go the performance route rather than the prescriptive route, but that requires energy modelling and substantially increasing the performance of the windows, roof assembly, etc, to make up for the difference.
 
shawn said:
The R-value is inherent in the material, not granted to it by the building code.

You can go the performance route rather than the prescriptive route, but that requires energy modelling and substantially increasing the performance of the windows, roof assembly, etc, to make up for the difference.
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This is how all the cabins we have worked on have been done. I believe they are letting people still build with 8x12 or 8x14 logs doing dove tale construction where the logs make up 80% of the wall and the other 20% is made with a chinking joint with r-19 insulation, but that could have changed since the last time I checked.
 
This one is in SC and was built in 1988. I've been quoted anywhere between $2375 and $5500. There's a fire dept 2.2 miles away but they won't recognize it as the first due response because it's in another county. It's looking like the $2375 is going to be my best option.
 
have to wonder what the replacement cost value they are working with is?
 
Ron said:
have to wonder what the replacement cost value they are working with is?
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The highest priced quote was a full replacement policy with no monetary amount specified. Most of the quotes I've received were under just $200,000 coverage on the structure. The lowest priced quote was $275,000 in coverage on the structure alone which is almost $100,000 more than it's tax value. The tax value of the entire property is $268k. That also includes a 2 car garage apartment and a two story boat dock.
 
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shawn said:
The R-value is inherent in the material, not granted to it by the building code. ;)

Most of North Carolina now requires continuous (sheet good) insulation on the exterior walls with an R-value of between 2.5 and 5 (depending on county). Charlotte, Gastonia, the Sandhills, and pretty much everything east I-95 is in a different climate zone and is exempt from the continuous requirement, but still has to have an exterior wall assembly rating of R-13. Wood is R1 per inch, so you're talking about a minimum 12" wall thickness (after accounting for interior and exterior air film transfer) if it's solid timber. The code also requires a continuous air barrier, which there really isn't any way to get with a solid timber wall.

You can go the performance route rather than the prescriptive route, but that requires energy modelling and substantially increasing the performance of the windows, roof assembly, etc, to make up for the difference.
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Sometimes I just wonder how people managed to survive before we had such gracious and caring legislators looking over us to protect us from ourselves and this horrible world around us? Lord help me if the man ever makes his way to check out my mountain cabin......
 
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