FAQs

1. Are wooden houses durable? How many years may serve wooden house?

Wooden houses are durable in nature. Properly maintained house will serve "faithfully" for centuries.Today, with the advent of technology there are many opportunities include your house in order, and 100 and 200 years. For an example in Norway are homes, have been used for six hundred years. The market offers a durable roofing, protective materials, paint - just follow the wooden house just as we follow the clothing, footwear and the apartment.

Prefabricated homes are built according to a very accurate project at the factory, under the roof, instead of being built in the field. This allows you to avoid the rain and other natural phenomena impact of materials, so these homes are of good quality and will last for a really long time.

The wooden house has a higher chance of withstanding an earthquake. After the earthquake in Japan city of Kyoto, the vast majority of the remaining houses, were wooden frame houses.

2. Do fires are a concern in wooden houses?

The wood itself is flammable, but if it's coated with special materials, wood is burned as fast as cement (not burning). If log construction caught fire, it burns more than a brickwork – structure of the house remains not bent and stable for a longer period of time. In such house can be a long time for evacuation.

There is no house, which would be completely non-flammable. If someone wants to burn the house, then burn and in a brick house. Smoking in a bed is the most common cause of the fire so much as for brick as for wooden hoses. It's a matter of elementary fire safety, which must comply with in any home.

3. Do wooden homes place any special demands on utilities (pipe lines, sewer, plumbing, etc.)?

No, all traditional solutions work fine with wooden houses.

4. How much does a wooden house settle and shrink over time?

In the first few years logs shrink because they lose their natural moisture content through evaporation and compression while adjusting to their new position. The shrinkage depends on the profile of the logs used. For solid log profiles the settlement is about 3-4% for every meter of height. If glued laminated log profiles are used you will have settlement around 1%. Since the settlement is taken into notice during the engineering process you can move into your new home right away.

5. Does not appear mold due to moisture in the bathroom?

Wooden houses should have drains, protected from moisture underground, water, central heating, drainage system around the house.

6. How much does a wooden house cost?

It is very difficult to quote per square foot as there are so many variables which affect the cost of a home. Some of these variables include: location, wood species and size, the detail of the plan, the number of corners, the intricacy of the floor and roof system as well as any special feature or individual touches you might want to incorporate into your luxury home. If you have an idea of the size or a rough plan of what you want, Mano Vila can provide you with an approximate price. Please take a time to communicate with us on the implementation of your dreams.

Frame homes compared with homes built in other traditional technologies and with the same thermal characteristics are significantly cheaper. Frame wall 1,7 times cheaper than a wall of blocks and 2,2 times cheaper than brickwork.

Belt pile foundation for frame buildings is 1,5-1,7 times cheaper than the foundation for massive brick buildings.
Also you save by building a log home, because such houses don't need wall decorations.

7. How energy efficient is a log home?

Most building codes only recognize "R" factor which does not take into account the micro climate of a well built log home. The tree regulates indoor climate by natural ventilation of the premises and maintaining them constant moisture. Therefore, in the wooden house you can live without insulation and people did so for many years.
Logs are natural insulators and have the unique ability to act like thermal batteries. This means they can store heat during the day and gradually release it at night – making them perfect insulators.

Houses built with solid log walls can be between 5 to 15% more energy efficient than standard brickwork houses according to the National Bureau of Standards and The Research Center of the National Association of Home Builders of US. This is due to their thermal mass effect when used in residential construction. It is not a coincidence that they are very popular housing options for people living in cold climates like Alaska.

8. Is a wooden house require constant maintenance?

To preserve the natural beauty of a log home, routine maintenance is essential. The natural elements as rain, wind, sun, where your home is located and the quality of product used will determine how often you will need to refinish or reseal home. Regular home's exterior maintenance, inspecting logs for large cracks that catch water, etc. will assist in avoiding costly repairs in the future.

A wooden house must be re-grouted, re-painted and cleaned approximately every 5 – 10 years.

9. Do we build wooden houses from unique plans/projects?

Yes. This is one of our key assets. We will always find the best solution for every client. We will make the price estimate for you if you provide us your home project.

10. Can i change your home floor plans?

Yes. All of our wooden houses floor plans can be customized using our standard floor plans as a starting point. Clients can make changes and adjust design concepts to suit their own needs by utilizing our design team. You can also submit your own plans for us to build your very own world-class Mano Vila Home.

11. What makes a log home so special?

Log homes are distinguished by the solid wood they’re built with, the way that wood is stacked to form the walls. They’re hard to spot but easy to recognize. To people who admire these homes, they represent a way of life.

Wood is appealing because it combines strength and beauty. Wood is a natural, organic material, whose color, texture, and other traits distinguish it as a special building material.

12. Does wood species matter in a log home?

Yes, because different types of wood have different attributes, mostly affecting the aesthetics of particular logs, such as colors and grain patterns. The size and shape of trees used for logs also determines their use. What’s more, the choice of wood species can affect the cost of a log package.

But there is no one wood that is superior to all the others. If one wood were the best, surely all or at least most companies would use it. The truth is that more than two dozen species of wood are commonly used for log homes. Each has its advantages, but no one species clearly outperforms all the others. What usually determines the species of wood that a particular company uses is whatever it can get enough of regularly, usually locally.

13. Will the wooden house has a good sound insulation?

Brick / concrete house's sound insulation is better than wooden houses. However, if even in concrete homes you can hear the next door neighbor speaking or walking, if not properly taken care of the sound insulation. It doesn't matter what kind of house are you constructing, in order that not occur the above-mentioned inconvenience, it is necessary to use the appropriate technical solutions to increase the sound insulation.

14. Are you afraid that the panel house not breathing?

The goal of professional builders is to build an airtight house as possible and any "breathing" through the outer walls and the gaps between them, determines the worse home's energy efficiency. House premises must be ventilated using natural or mechanical ventilation.

15. Does wooden house exposed beetles?

Not only bark beetles, termites, wood borers, mold, fungi and other organic formations represent a danger to the wooden house. Thanks to technology, we have in its arsenal a wide range of tools from pests. They can protect the wooden houses not only from fire and pests but also from putrefaction.

It is also important that the wood should be thoroughly dried. Once the wood is dry these insects are not attracted to the logs.

16. What kind of log house is warmer - rectangular (milled) or rounded (turned)?

Thermal properties for 23 cm round (turned) log is similar to the 20 cm square (milled) logs, since the merger on both walls is 16 cm.

17. Must all walls of my new log home be constructed of wood?

No. Other materials are frequently used to introduce different colors, textures, and patterns to contrast with the natural wood grain. Materials that can be used range from stone, drywall, stenciled plaster, ceramic tile, wallpapers and others in any combination.

end faq