Designing and planning your new log home is an exciting time! This is the most essential part of any log home project. For many of our clients, this is the first time they have designed and or built their own home. Our goal is to make the designing process as fun and stress-free as possible for our clients. This is because planning the design is key to keeping any project moving forward on schedule and within budget.
Whether you choose one of our many floor plans or have a set of plans of your own, we are here to assist you in making sure you get exactly what you want. If you have an idea but do not see a design in our available plans, we can take your ideas, pictures, and or sketches and create a custom design home that takes into consideration all your wants and needs.
Our team of professional and experienced designers will sit with you one on one to discuss what your dream home will look like. In addition, we are available to help you modify any plan you have selected for the home you have dreamed about!
Please contact us or stop by and tour our beautiful showhome! We look forward to working with you and making your dreams of having a log home come true.
PRELIMINARY PLAN PROCESS
Once you have selected your plan from our Available Standard Plans, or have decided to design a custom home, we are now ready to take into consideration all of your changes or design ideas and create a set of Preliminary Drawings. These basic drawings show any changes you may have wanted to make to one of our standard plans, or the layout of the Custom Home using the information we have obtained from you. After we get an idea of exactly what you would like to see in your home design, we are ready to move on to the Preliminary Drawing phase of your project.
Here are the four steps in the Preliminary Drawing stage:
Plan Deposit: When you are ready to begin the drawing phase in the design process, we will require a plan deposit to begin the process of designing your home. We use the deposit to secure the services of our designers, and begin the drawing process. Your deposit will be credited towards your log package if and when you decide to purchase a home with us. Basic Floor Plans and Elevations: Once your plan deposit is received, our experienced draftsmen and designers will begin the drawing process of your project, taking into consideration of all the changes or features you would like to see incorporated into the home design. The Preliminary Drawings will consist of the basic floor plan, or layout of the inside of the home and foundation, and a set of elevations, or the look of the exterior of the home. We will use these drawings as the basis of the design as we move to the next step of the process. Redlines: Upon completion of the Preliminary Drawings, you will receive a set of the drawings for your inspection. The Redlining, or editing of the Preliminary Drawings, is a very important step in getting your project a step closer to your Final Construction Plan Set. At this time we ask you to look closely at your recently completed Preliminary Drawings and see if all the changes have been made to your satisfaction, or add any other changes to the plan that you may have at this time. This is the time to get your plans the way you have dreamed them to be and it is common to pass the plans back and forth to the designer several times to get it perfect. Getting your plans right before Finals can save you time and money down the line. Signing Off: You are confident that all changes to the Preliminary Plans have been made and you are ready to get your plans into Final Drawings. Again, we will go over your drawings and make sure all your changes and additions have been covered by our designers and that your project plans are exactly the way that you have envisioned it to be. At this point we will ask for you to sign off on the homes design and, once we have your approval, we are ready to move on to the Final Full Construction Drawing Plan Set.
FINAL DRAWINGS
After receiving your approval of the Redlining of the Preliminary Drawings and have signed off on all the changes that the design team has made, we are now ready to move to last phase in the design process – Final Full Construction Plan Set. We will now take your redlined drawings and produce your final plans for you and your contractor. The Final Full Construction Plan Set will include everything that you will need to get your project into construction. We will supply you with three copies of the construction set, with more copies available on request.
Your Final Full Construction plan set will include…
Foundation Plans
Floor Plans
Wall Elevations
First Floor Framing Plans
Second Floor Framing Plan
Roof Framing Plans
Elevations of each side of home
Detailed Section Plans and Connection Details
Basic Electrical Plan (to local code)
Programmed Log Package
In addition to your full construction plans, once you sign a contract to have us produce your Log package, you will receive a second set of plans that will identify every single log that is part of your project. Each log that comes out of our mill for your home will be tagged with an identifying number/letter that corresponds to a location on the plans called Stack Sheets, giving you the exact location of each log in the log structure that makes up your home. This will make it easy to see where any log will be positioned in your new log home.
ENGINEERING
Building codes vary from state to state, sometimes county to county within a state, and some projects will require structural engineering for building approval. While we do not offer engineering in house, we work with several different engineering firms to provide our customers with their services if needed. We can provide you with a fee schedule for your project at your request.
Milled Log Homes
Let us use our Long Log Advantage to create your Custom Manufactured Milled Log Home or Log Cabin!
Using our Long Log Advantage technology, we are able to manufacture full length logs for your walls and gables.
Timber Frame construction, whether Old-World style or the newly popular steel joinery, adds a natural element and character that differs from log construction.
Timber Frame homes offer the ability to have open floor plans, amazing trusses in entryways, great rooms and throughout the structure.
We visited 20-30 log home manufacturers and decided upon Bitterroot Valley Log & Timber because of their Long-Logs and expert craftsmanship. . . after completion we are more satisfied than we’d hoped due to their exceptional ‘service after the sale’ and expertise.
I contacted and eventually got proposals from eight different log home manufacturers and builders, the assistance you and your staff gave in helping us develop the design concept as well as architectural and practical ideas, was so mush more than anyone else seemed able to do.
You delivered on time as you promised, in fact you called to see if delivery could be earlier. The costs were exactly as you had quoted, no surprise. Everything you promised us happened as you said it would.
