

Strongly influenced, Jim Began designing log homes with the same massive timbers. But, it was only after returning from Vietnam that his future in log homes began to take shape. While still a young man, Jim started his own excavating and construction company. As a child he helped his father build their family’s home. Jim Barna was involved in construction nearly his entire life. This fact makes a log home an attractive and environmentally conscious building option for the future. In fact, according to the Log Home Council, log homes are as much as 15 percent more energy efficient than stick-framed homes. A log’s innate thermal mass, or capacity to store the heat, works as a barrier to impede the progress of heat flow through your log home’s wall – so heat stays inside during the Winter and outside in the Summer. Conductive heat flow refers to the movement of heat through a material such as wood. High thermal mass means improved insulating properties for your home.

As a natural product, wood also offers some natural resistance to sun and moisture conditions, while regulating temperatures and improving air quality. In addition to its beauty and versatility, wood is considered as “green” building material – a renewable resource. The wood is typically exposed and visible on both the exterior and interior of the structure, adding a natural elegance and comfortable charm to the home. Wood is strong, long lasting and beautiful. The primary material used in log home construction is solid wood-the most versatile natural building material in the world. Where style once reflected the location of the log home, now the style reflects you. Choices of wood, architectural style, accessories and more available wherever you live. Today, with advances in transportation and technology, the style of log home is determined mostly by the owner’s style and taste. Log homes in the Midwest and Northeast tended towards smaller logs, tightly fitted together with no chinking. Large, round logs with saddle-notched corners were predominantly found in the Rockies.

Flat logs with wide bands of chinking and dove-tailed corners were Appalachian. In the past, individual characteristics of construction identified a log home as belonging to a particular part of the country. Log and timber homes have an architectural style and aesthetic unlike any other type of residential dwelling. The design and construction of modern log homes and timber homes follow many of the basic engineering techniques from decades ago, but new technology has made them easier and faster to build, more energy – efficient and architecturally unique. Log homes and Timber frame homes are fundamental American structures, combining construction techniques and materials from the earliest pioneers. We have a unique family heritage of passion for the outdoors that is evident in every home we build and it’s a spirit you will feel each time when you walk into yours. It’s a way of life that is understood most by Jim Barna Log & Timber Homes.
