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GLISTENING WATER and mood-inducing scenery make a stroll along Ambleside Beach a special pleasure. (Ian Smith photo)

Log homes in Canada are rapidly gaining the respect they inherently deserve according to Doris Muir, editor of Log Home Guide for Builders and Buyers.

“With inflation and energy conservation affecting the housing market many people are looking to log homes asa sound investment,” she said.

Log homes often cost less to build than conventional houses, they require little maintenance, they are sturdy and have excellent insulation qualities.

The Eastern Forest Prodticts Laboratory in Ottawa recently issued a report that states that the colder a white pine log wall gets the better it insulates. It also said a six-inch wall

made of pine is equal to

about an R12. insulation value. LESS WASTED HEAT

Most log walls are much thicker than six inches, resulting in substantial in- sulation and less wasted heat.

Muir keeps tabs on the log home industry through her annual publication Log Home Guide and notes a surge in consumer interest for this form of living.

“Log house living fits in with a society more aware of energy conservation and sound ecological practices.”

Covering the North American market the guide details many companics. Building styles covered include the Scandinavian chinkless method through to logs milled into kits.

Stories range from the firmly established Pan Abode system to a sur- prisingly new concept of mobile log homes. Ac- cording to the guide, the company uses logs selected from dry standing timber. They are then milled down to nine inches and shaped into concave/convex _fit- tings.

NO CHINKING

The logs require no chinking as the insulation used between the logs securely seals them together.

This rather un- conventional use of logs for building is getting a lot of attention south of the border. The structures look like log houses, have the same cnergy-saving qualities of tog houses, yet are transported down = the

ate

~~.

Log homes gaining in po

highway as are regular mobile homes and can be set on the same foundations as regular mobilo-homes.

“We act as a clearing house for a lot of new in- formation concerning tools, legislation, wood preser- vatives and much of the ancillary equipment that goes along with log home life,” said Muir.

Log Home Guide contains facts, figures and related stories of interest to the professional as well as the novice log builder.

The Log Home Guide is 186 colorfully _ illustrated pages of information on this exciting phenomenon. It is available for $7.50 postpaid from Muir Publishing Co. Lid., Box 100, Gardenvale, Que. H9OK 1B0.

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