A well-planned log home fullfills your dreams and is quick to build
You should reserve enough time for the planning of your log house to make it exactly how you want it to be – your very own home. Building a home or villa is primarily an investment into the quality of your own life.
This is why you should always ask yourself: What would produce the most enjoyment and comfort for me? What sort of benefits can a well-planned home bring me and my family?
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Getting started
Finding a mutual consensus amongst the family can sometimes be difficult. By browsing our catalogue of ready-made houses and viewing our inspiration images you can start homing in on the right idea. You should also make use of the opinion of professionals to ensure that all of your wishes can be fulfilled. Our model houses are a functional starting point for customising one’s own log house and home.
Marko Heinonen, Honka’s Development Manager responsible for planning and design, encourages people to come and discuss their ideas with a professional already at the very early stages of the process.
Working meticulously on the eighth version of your plan might not be the best idea; you should focus on style and overarching ideas instead.
It starts with an idea
It is an idea or a wish that makes us browse house catalogues and think about a new home. Often that original idea is lost as new ones keep popping up. But that first original thought might just be the one you should base the design on. Try to think about how it all started – see if you can still remember.
Seek out a professional and tell them about that original idea and about the framework of ideas you have drawn from browsing the catalogues, and you will already be several steps ahead. You don’t have to dread having to plan everything yourself. The professionals know everything there is to know about the planning.
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Planning is about more than just the house
When planning a house, you think about the entire property and its characteristics. Factors such as the cardinal directions, amount of light, views into the different directions, the type of the soil, nearby buildings, access to the lot and the desired yard areas and facilities are taken into account when placing the house onto the lot.
Have you thought about what sort of yard you would like to have? An easy-to-maintain terraced yard or a vegetable garden where you can forget about your work troubles? The professionals have a strong sense of how the surroundings of the house could be best utilised, make use of it!
Going to an expert is worth it to avoid possible foibles and do-overs during planning and construction. Changes mid-way through are also costly, and they cause delays in the schedule.
The extra time you spend on planning will pay itself back through a smooth construction process and, most importantly, through improved quality of life. In other words, good planning is truly worth it.
DESIGNED FOR YOUR NEEDS AND LIFESTYLE
Our sales people constantly meet with customers who only have the idea of building a large detached house and who don’t even have a lot picked out yet. That, too, is a good starting point. At the other end you have customers who come in with finished plans from their architect and building permits in their pockets. Most people, however, fall somewhere between these two extremes. They come in with their own drafts or some model house that they would like to modify. Then the process of shaping the idea into one’s own home may begin.
The customers’ wishes on matters related to hobbies, for example, are what make each house an individual. The most common wishes are for a movie room, a library or reading nook and space for storing. Dog owners often want a mud room while fitness enthusiasts need a gym. The most unusual wish Heinonen himself has been involved in fulfilling was a tower with an opening roof built for a telescope.
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When looking at the customers’ sketches and plans, the most important things to consider are their functionality and practicality. Building regulations require bathrooms and doorways to meet certain minimum dimensions, for example. These and other similar requirements are often overlooked in the customers’ own plans. However, the wishes of today’s customers are often quite realistic.
People usually have a good idea of what a house of a certain size costs and they are able to proportion their wishes to their budget. The seller also always reviews the wishes, the schedules and the budget together with the customer.
Telling the customer when a certain idea doesn’t work is also a part of quality thinking. Of course, anything can be built, but in terms of costs it is not always sensible to do so. Log still cannot be used for curved structures, but with other materials even the curved solutions between the log structures are possible.
Your needs change over time
When designing the house, you should already consider how your needs might change in the coming years. A log house will stand for decades, so incorporate those years in your thinking. The family may grow, as well as its members. You may need more space that you will want to allocate differently.
Accessibility is also a factor to note, even if you do not have the need for it personally. When the possible future needs are taken into account in the planning process, you are creating the basis for a home that will serve you for a long time. For insight and tips on the planning process, contact Honka’s planning team.
From planning to PREPARING FOR construction
The planning process is divided into three stages:
- Drafting prior to the closing of the deal
- Planning for building permits
- Structure plan, foundation plan, log frame plan
A professional can do planning work with the construction site in mind, which means you can use more carefully thought-out solutions with a higher degree of pre-fabrication: gable elements, verge elements, etc. Standardised structures cut down on costs and speed up construction, especially at the erection stage. When the customer’s wishes have been thoroughly reviewed beforehand, there will be no need for changes mid-way through construction.
Prior to the closing of the deal, we create a 3D image of the target building based on the customer’s wishes so that everyone is on the same page with regards to the wishes and what the end result will be.
Plans required for building permits can be created right after the closing of the deal. Once the building permits have been acquired, it is time to create the structure, foundation and log frame plans. All in all you should reserve one or two months for the entire planning process.
From planning to brisk construction
A house building schedule is affected by many things, including the requirements of the lot (whether rock excavation, pile driving etc. are required). It is also worth noting that the time it takes to acquire the building permit can vary by city. The season can also have an effect on how long it takes to be granted the permit.
A log house package can be produced within 6–10 weeks of the order date – regardless of the time of year. From there, the switch from planning to construction is a smooth one with no further steps, especially if you are using the log house manufacturer’s own construction service.
Once the foundations have been laid, the log house can be erected very quickly. Getting a log house weather-proof usually takes 2–4 weeks. The schedule is significantly affected by what type of house package you purchased (built all the way to the roof or just the frame, for example) and whether you are erecting your home using volunteer work and elbow grease or employing professional services at strategic stages of the process.
You do not have to cope with the planning and building phases by yourself. At Honka the planners are there to support the customer throughout the project so any possible questions that might arise can be tackled together.
Be brave and get started
Marko Heinonen wants to stress that you should not hesitate to contact a professional to discuss your plans even in the very early stages of the process. Working meticulously on the eighth version of your plan might not be the best idea; you should focus on style and overarching ideas instead. If you have finished plans in place, then you are already set.
Honka’s Development Manager Marko Heinonen was interviewed for this blog.
