How to Build a Small Remote Cabin

You can build your own small remote cabin.

Success in building a small, remote cabin typically requires common sense, mental temperance and physical fitness. In this world of state-of-the-art digital technology and instant gratification, old-fashioned patience and sweat equity may seem obsolete. Without the conveniences of internal combustion engines, hydraulics and power tools, primitive and traditional construction methods can be daunting for those unprepared. Nevertheless, building a small, remote cabin efficiently and safely is do-able.

Things You'll Need

• Logs
• Drawknife
• Stones
• Stakes
• String
• Ax
• Saw
• Tar paper
• Heavy-duty tarps
• Roofing materials (peat, sod, thatching, tin sheets or nailed battens and shingles)
• Chinking product (commercial or home-made)
• Disposable gloves
• Rags

Instructions

1. Determine a basic layout within the constraints of your personal goals, finances, time allocation, material availability and mechanical aptitude. DIY novices may benefit best by creating from raw materials a small remote cabin with dimensions no larger than 10 feet long by 10 feet wide and a simple shed roof.

2. Assemble your raw building materials. Utilize every available natural resource. Choose wall and roof trees that are as straight as possible. Pick foundation and hearth stones that have straight corners and uniform thickness. Prepare for extensive, exhausting physical exercise. Decide whether or not to peel the bark completely off your logs. Cleaning your logs with a drawknife will extend their life expectancy by making them less susceptible to rot.

3. Choose your small remote cabin's building site with extreme care. Whether you build it by hand on a stone foundation or with temporary wood footings, be mindful of local drainage, possible flood areas, potential frostline dangers and southern exposure placement. Clear your construction zone as necessary of obstructions like brush, trees, large rocks, stumps and other safety hazards. Mark the area where you will build with stakes and string lines.

4. Set your foundation either by leveling a layer of stones or resting the first logs of your small remote cabin walls directly in contact with solid ground. Position your footer logs within the boundaries of your staked construction area. Make certain all your wall logs are at least two feet longer than indicated on your interior floor plan. At the end of each log, measure in about a foot and notch with an ax or chainsaw one at a time. Scribe if you have time or proceed with rough notches if you require expedited shelter. Scribed notching requires meticulous measuring for precise, seamless log fitting. Work one corner at a time and move in a clockwise direction. Square your corners at will.

5. Lay your small remote cabin's wall logs on top of each other and notch one corner at a time. Continue laying and notching clockwise until you attain comfortable interior headroom. When cutting doorways and openings for windows, remember to provide extra space above the sills to accommodate natural settling of your logs after construction.

6. 

   Tin sheets work well on rooftops.

   Cover the walls of your small remote cabin with a waterproof roof strong enough to support very heavy snow loads. Lay asphalt tar paper and heavy-duty silver poly tarps on top of sapling rafters. For supplemental protection, add peat, sod, thatching, tin sheets or nailed battens and shingles.

7. Install doors and windows. Pack all wide gaps or "chinks" in rough notched logs with either a commercially available chinking product or a mixture of hot pine sap, sawdust and wood shavings. Apply it into the cracks either with sticks or directly with your hands while wearing disposable gloves. Clean excess with wet rags.

References

• The Associated General Contractors of America
• Log Home Builders Association
• "The Wilderness Cabin"; Calvin Rutstrum; 1972.

Resources

• Professional Construction Management
• Yellowstone Log Homes