Yes, This is Concrete

I was driving through a town near me recently and was deeply saddened when I saw that an old house, made entirely from logs, was losing the battle with rot and insects.  I have watched them over the years as they have been fighting this losing battle.  First they tried cutting off the surfaces of the logs and replacing them, I don’t even want to know what that cost!  Then they finally gave up and put a faux wood log surface over the building.  This past week I noticed that they were putting the faux finish on yet another adjacent building.  There is nothing more pleasing to the eye than the warm finish of a log home.  Who hasn’t wanted one at some point in their life?  However, the havoc that termites, rot and mold wreak on a log home is anything but pretty, not to mention the yearly maintenance to keep the finish up which is also labor intensive and incredibly expensive to repair.
The forever innovative American spirit couldn’t allow such a beloved American icon like the log cabin become extinct because of the perils of real wood construction.  It was inevitable that someone would finally come up with a viable substitute.  That entrepreneur would be EverLog Systems.  These guys manufacture a concrete composite log system that looks exactly like the real deal.  The forms that the concrete logs are poured in was made from real logs so the concrete logs come complete with cracks, knots and even grain patterns on the ends that stick out on the corners!  A wide variety of log shapes are available from D shaped to hand hewn and everything in between.  They also have a wide selection of natural wood colors to choose from.  Each of the logs is reinforced with steel and comes with a flat surface on the inside to allow for many easy finishing options.
Why would you want concrete logs anyway?  Well let’s start with fireproof.  You can get a 20 to 30% reduction on your home owner’s insurance for using a building product that is completely fireproof.  This also makes it wonderful for commercial work.  The wall actually achieves a 3 hour fire rating and meets all the International Building Codes as well as hurricane and seismic requirements.
You also get the wood look without any of the wood problems.  Just let a carpenter bee try to drill into one of these logs.  Let’s just say he won’t try twice.  Termites are also thwarted.  And concrete is impervious to rot and mold.
We have built a timber framed house.  Just nothing compares to the look of those large beams.  The one complaint the owner had 5 years after the installation was that the beams had shrunk and cracked and twisted a little over time.  All problems that the providers of the timber warned us about and we were expecting.  It’s just part of owning a house made of natural timbers.  Now you can own an EverLog home with the look of real natural timbers and never have it shrink, twist or crack.  All of the benefits, none of the problems.
The timbers are actually poured concrete wall panels that fit into a foundation made of Arxx insulated concrete walls.  We have also used the Arxx wall systems and absolutely love the air tight heavily insulated system.  The panels are fit in place and locked together with steel.  The floor beams are hung right off of the concrete wall system.  The color and coating is put on and if you ordered the package with chinking, then the chinking is put in place.  They can pour beautiful beams and other details that you are used to seeing in a typical log home.
Now let’s talk energy efficiency!  You knew I wouldn’t even be writing about this product if it didn’t outperform standard construction practices, right?  The walls are poured with the equivalent of 2 inches of foam insulation in them.  This gives the wall an R-19 insulative value without adding anything to it!  If you then build interior walls using standard 2×4 construction and add the standard R-13 batt insulation, you will have a total of R-32 which is immensely better than the typical home.  Because these walls are poured and then sealed together, when completed, they not only pass the blower door tests, they perform six times better than a standard framed house.  This means less of your precious utility bucks floating off into the wild blue yonder which results in a 30 to 40% lower energy bill.
This type of exterior also passes my parent of male teenage child test as well.  I dare him to put a hole in this siding with his airsoft gun!
I can foresee your next question: “How much does it cost?”  I’m glad you asked.  These log homes cost exactly the same as a real log home which would be about $70 to $80 per square foot of living space unfinished, roughly the same as real log homes.  This is higher than your typical construction but you have to take into account that no extra insulation is required to meet the building code.  And did I mention that delivery is free?
I have tried, but I can’t find a down side to this product.  Having dealt with termites before, and the way the building codes are going to require so much more in the 2009 code, this type of construction makes a lot of sense.  Don’t take my word for it, take a look at their brochure at https://www.everlogs.com/pdfs/ELS-Brochure.pdf