Planning guide

Log house planning. Building a log house. You have decided to create a home with a healthy living environment in a modern log house – select a suitable project from our log house catalogue and ask for a price offer. Based on years of experience in log house planning, engineering, manufacturing and building, we offer you log house projects in the following categories:

• Log house residence (1-storey residence, 2-storey residence)
• Log cabins
• Public log buildings (clubhouse, motel)
• Log saunas

To help you plan your log home, we have compiled a guiding material „10 steps to a log house“. These 10 steps to building a log house give an overview of what to consider while planning log house and what to take into account before starting the building process. “10 steps to a log house“ helps avoid possible unexpected surprises that may occur if an important detail is forgotten while planning a new log house.

You can find answers to most relevant questions in the „Log house – Frequently Asked Questions“ section. If you need any further information about building a log house, don’t hesitate to contact us via telephone, fax or email.

To enable us to answer your questions even better, please inform us of your observations by filling out the feedback form. Your suggestions will help us offer even more interesting and enriched log house solutions in the future. Also on the same form you can let us know if there was any information about log houses that you couldn’t find on our webpage. This way we can improve the quality of our webpage and give more necessary info in the future.

While choosing a plot for your new home, make sure that it’s allowed to build a log house there. In addition, attention should be paid to the following points:
• Size and shape of the plot (building area location, access roads, etc.)
• What is the natural state of your plot (trees, terrain variation, rivers, lakes, etc.)?
• Cardinal directions– how is the plot situated? This is helpful if you wish to enjoy sunrise in the kitchen and dining area and see the sunset from your bedroom.
• Does the plot have specific design demands (building permit, result of the geological research)?

Before building a log house, it is important to identify and analyse all costs associated with the project. The initial price may still vary about 15%.

• Price of the plot
• Price of the foundation
• Price of connecting the utilities – installing water and gas pipes, electricity cables, communication cables, heating system.
• Price of the house – there are 2 ways to get an initial price offer for a house:
  • When finding a suitable house in our standard projects, just fill out the form next to house and we will send you an automatic price offer.
  • If you have personal design ideas or a special project, please fill out the enquiry form and we will make you a personal price offer.
• Price of assembly
  • To determine the price of assembly, different options of building a log house should be considered.
• Other expenses – engineering, transportation, surveillance of the construction site etc.
• Preparing a budget based on these initial price offers.

• Financing by own resources or by a bank loan
• Finding ways for stage financing
• Reducing risks by manufacturer’s insurance

• Finding a designer/engineer
• Drawing up the preliminary design

• In order to start construction you need to obtain a building permit for your project.
• Building permits are usually issued by local or regional government authorities and the process of getting a building permit varies significantly by region.
• Please ask for more details from your local building permit authority.

While choosing a manufacturer for your log house, attention should be paid to the following points:

• Trustworthiness – credit rating
• Quality – materials and equipment used, certificates
• Experience – previous projects
• Services– Palmatin makes the house building process significantly easier by offering clients a full service:
  • Designing
  • Manufacturing
  • Transportation
  • Assembly
• Price-quality ratio– While comparing price offers from different manufacturers be sure to consider the following points:
  • Equal or similar contents of offered packages
  • Equal quality of offered products
  • Equal volumes of the offered packages
  • Equal volumes of services provided
    • Are the materials packed in the order of assembly,
    • Will the manufacturer organize the transport,
    • Are assembly instructions included,
    • Are the materials on a stand and have weatherproof packaging,
    • Are the materials marked /labelled,
    • Etc
  • Equal completion level of offered products
    • Are the gable ends sawn according to roof angle,
    • Are electrical drillings made inside the walls,
    • Are electrical outlet and socket holes made into the wall,
    • Does the wall have dovetail joints,
    • Etc

• By yourself – the most economical option, but the first encounter with a log house might prove to be more difficult than expected. All options should be weighed before making a decision.
• With a building supervisor – you will still be able to build the house yourself, but with the help of our experienced building supervisor, who will keep an eye on the building process and help where needed to ensure the satisfaction with the end result.
• With a building team – our professional building team of 3 – 4 will build your house quickly and correctly.
• Owner supervision with a building team – the purpose of owner supervision is to ensure building according to plans, the making of technical documentation, proper quality of construction and the correct construction.

• Experience – does the builder have previous experience with log houses?
• Construction licences (building company) – does the company have licences for construction?
• Previous projects – does the company or builders have pictures of previous projects?
• Background check – is the company or builder trustworthy?

• Occupancy permits are documents that state that your building has been approved as being suitable for occupation.
• The application for an occupancy permit is usually made to the authority who issued the building permit.
• An occupancy permit does not necessarily state that all the building work has been completed nor that all the construction work complies with the relevant legislation.
• An occupancy permit is issued when the building surveyor believes the house is suitable to occupy from a health and safety point of view.