Just curious if this method is used in other regions of the country.

This is NE Oregon, where there used to be a considerable amount of sawmills. I see lots of outbuildings, cabins, and even homes that are built in this fashion, probably just by utilizing mill ends, leftovers, rejects, etc.

The joints in outbuildings are usually left exposed and visible, but I've seen older homes that have walls framed like this but then sheathed on both sides. Can't even tell once the finishes are on that the walls are stacked like this.






Is this common anywhere else, or just a regional thing?

I've never seen it here in eastern N.C.

Lots of logic in that... FOR THE TIME PERIOD.

Nails were expensive... Wood was not.

Bat insulation did not exist...

Strong and easy to build... etc.

Are they still building like that? I would assume not, but I have certainly been wrong before.

To answer the question, I have seen them in hollers before, mostly in Buchanan WVA, but a few out here in the Lynchburg area too.

Look at the grain in that wood.
Not widely available today.
Interesting build design, never seen it in the south east.

To build a "typical" 8' modern wall you would use 12 pieces of 2x4x8'... plus drywall, siding, insulation.

To build the wall shown would take 64 pieces of modern 2x4x 8 foot lumber.

If 8/4 it would be 48 as shown.

Good lumber was MUCH MUCH cheaper back then.

I built some small rental cabins like that.

I used mostly 'mill ends' that were 14 to 24 inches long.

For floor and roof sheeting I used 1x6, 1x8, 1x10 and 1x12 mill ends cut to 16 inches.

Rafters and floor joists were the old telephone pole cross ties that had once supported colored glass insulators. If I recall they were either 10 or 12 feet in length and about 4x5 inches w/h.

I got those for free when they were being removed along the railroad, glass insulators intact.
The mill ends cost me $10 per pickup bed full when dumped in by the front-end loader at the mill.

It was a time of little cash flow for me.
I rented out those cabins for years and eventually sheeted the exteriors with 2 inch foam board and OSB.

Everybody liked the butcher block appearance interiors.

It'd take a few truckloads to complete a cabin but with nails and rolled roofing included they cost less than 4 or $500 each to construct.

Never seen this before but just simple lap joints. Roof pitch looks like 3-12 pitch or less. Any pics of the inside?

I bet there is a lot of live edge showing inside.

That stuff is mill scrap.

Seen one of them up here only cuz the guy got access to a bunch of military base spare lumber otherwise it's a waste of 2x4s and you better have a spray foam factory as you're going to fill in every crack I think they used felt or something on that old one I seen they call it a piece of s***

Mine were in my campground and used as summer rental cabins.

KOA stole my idea and started building Kamp Kabins in their campgrounds.



I was years ahead of them.

Tide Change;
Good afternoon sir, I hope your part of the world is getting the mild winter we're having up here thus far and that you're well.

In our part of south central BC, I have seen a couple smaller houses or better said cabins built like that and an octagon house built with full dimension 2"x 6" planks that way.

If I was to guess at their age, I'd say just post war, perhaps pre, but somehow I don't believe they were made as far back as the Depression.

On the octagon house, the roof was sheathed with some sort of metal that was from the printing industry as there were either flyers or newspapers on it as I recall. Please understand it was nearly 40 years back that we saw it so I'm reaching back into the time machine big time for this.

In the earlier days when this area was settled, boards were quite expensive apparently, as we'd see logs from cabin bases, but any and all boards were pulled up and used elsewhere.

There's a local church in the small village we're closest to, there's a church which was initially 16 miles up the mountain in a mining camp. In order to salvage the wood, they actually blasted the church with dynamite to loosen the boards, then they took it apart moved it into town and reassembled it, where it stands today near where our daughter and her husband's place is.

https://blastedchurch.com/story/

Here's a link to some photos of it today.

https://okfallsunited.ca/

Back to that method of construction though, if I'm not wrong, the prairie grain elevators that I recall as a kid were built with wood on the flat like that or at least some of it was. Again the way back machine isn't quite firing on all cylinders, but when they were taking the elevators down, they salvaged tons and tons of wood from them.

Sorry for the meandering response, but for sure Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Dwayne

They were as common as weeds here in Northern Calif. The logging railroads used to employ 'trackwalkers' and they had a cabin every 6 or 7 miles and would inspect and do minor maintenance on their section. Usually it was some old bachelor type, often times with an injury and those cabins were the center of his world. Most of the cabins interior walls were done in newspaper and or cardboard for insulation. What could be seen of the newspapers made for some interesting reading in later years. McCloud River Lumber Company, because of the snow, used 2 man trackwalkers. One spring in the late 30's they had to shut down, too much snow, everybody went to town. One of the trackwalkers partners got hurt in a car wreck and they discovered at the company hospital the trackwalker was a woman. Her partner got quite a ribbing for not discovering the fact over the course of a whole winter.

I remember reading about someone who bought an old farmhouse in New England somewhere. It had siding that was junk. They pulled the siding off to replace it and found the walls were made like that but of 6x6 oak. If I remember right, they got a professional to finish the wood and didn't reside it. I would have done the same.

Welcome to Termite Town

😃

Fortunately, termites ain't a thing in cold dry climates like NW Montana.

No heartworms or fleas for my mutts either.

Pest Control mf'ers gotta make a living off the hard stuff like spiders and bats.

Pretty cool to see.

Unless you had a way to get scrap 2x4s it wouldn't make sense with today's lumber prices.

-Jake

My hunch is the millworkers back then built some of these structures Johnny Cash style.

Throw the rejects in the back of the pickup truck after your shift, eventually you have enough lumber to put up your barn / machine shed / outhouse / whatever.

I've never seen it exactly as that here in the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes region. We build like that, just don't make em into 2x4's - keep the whole log round lol.

Hi Dwayne - pretty cool story about the church, thanks for the links. Merry Christmas to you and your family as well.

I'd like to see somebody try that with the crooked crap lumber we get at lumber yards today. It would look like a drunk monkey built it.

Ha I was thinking the same thing.

Part of that is because so much of our lumber now comes from tree farms. They cut trees at a younger age and younger trees will warp more than old growth. Most of those old buildings were made from old growth.

Nor the Piedmont.

As a forester, I have to say that this is largely true; at least when it comes to southern pine timber and lumber. Can't speak to what is being done in other regions.

More ‘Out West Bliss’

no bugs, no groids, dogs allowed in Natl Parks, elk shed laying about, 180” mule that stop at the wave of a hat, pronghorn that stand still for 30 mins while ya set up a tripod, every ditch teeming with salmon
😂😂

No cockroaches either..

Free firewood for the takin'

Free Christmas trees for the cuttin'

It's simply a gd utopia

Elk horns, lots and lots of Elk horns...

I've never seen that type construction here in Tennessee.

Do you suppose for the window cutouts they drill and pin both side or just build the hole as the walls go up?

They call it cribbing, old grain elevators were built that way.

Sure takes the pain out of having to locate a stud to hang a deer mount......

A friend has a house with solid ship lap, inside, and out.

The grain bins inside the elevators were built that way with 2x6s or bigger. It was necessary to hold the pressure when the bin was pretty tall since a big quantity of grain can act somewhat like a liquid and push on the walls of its container. Took a lot of wood to make a tall elevator.


Jerry

Yeah but, we gots Fireballz. So there's that.

I saw an old preserved 1870's jail cell made that way.

You're only half right

Typical cribbing only requires every other board

mine buildings in high snow areas. and a flower bed in Idaho.

rot fast if too much moisture..

Mine building is over a hundred years old, and was the payroll office.. suppose it was bullet resistant...

I've never seen it here in the NC mountains, and I love to inspect old houses. It would be easy to build that way, and pretty well insulated.

Saw a new home circa 2001 built near Greensboro NC. Evidently the "builders framer " could not differentiate between an 8 ' and 9' high wall on the blueprints so he used built up 2x4s to go from 8 to 9 foot to cover his mistake . My dad would call that class of individual a shoemaker, Looked like crap but the Bldg Inspector passed it .

And cribbing is temporary...

A 747 in Prudhoe Bay taxied off the runway apron. Cribbing to almost touch the wing then airbags to lift. Water and let freeze to build a ramp... out in no time...

A crib will hold corn cobs. Grain? Not a chance. It will flow like fine sand. That will be empty in no time. It takes a strong solid wall to hold grain.

This is a grain elevator showing some of the x-bracing for strength

tide,

cool stuff.

I searched but cannot find a picture of the construction method used in a house I rented a room in while attending school in NorCal. Old mill town, redwood was abundant and cheap. That house existed by 1904 or so as I saw it, and other mill worker housing , on historic pics at the local museum.

Wish i could find pics. I found out how it was built after 3 earthquakes above 5.0 hit in 24 hrs and cracked the doorframe. Landlady's insurance paid for the fix, dude came out and pulled out the door and frame. NO STUDS! as in zero, not for the door frame or anywhere in the original section of the house.

3 layers of 10 or 12 inch wide, 1 inch old growth redwood boards, run diagonally in opposite direction every layer. They just cut a hole where they wanted to put a window or door and nailed the frames into the butt ends of the cut.

Very active earthquake area and that method must have worked well as the house was standing some 90 years after it was built and the landlady had been there for decades and said that's the first damage since she'd been there.

Would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Repair guy said it was like that in the houses along that street and other mill towns from when lumber was cheap and available. Wish I'd have been smart enough to take pictures.

The elevators were built like a log cabin, no gaps.

There are quite a few line shacks and cabins out in central Nevada built on the same principle...only out of railroad ties, easy to heat, in many cases just a wood fired cook stove, short on windows though, either by design for heat retention or difficulty cutting ties. Nothing quite like a dirt saturated tie to ruin a sharp saw.

that stewing in creosote vapors probably killed off the crabs from the monthly visits to the bawdy houses in town too.

In 1972 the wife and I lived in Zig Zag, the neighbor behind our place was building a stack framed house, with 2x10 outside walls and stud framed inside walls. The builder worked at a mill and got all the outside wall trim wood free!

Pretty cool. Can't say I've ever ran across a house or building like the OP posted.

Looks like rough cut lumber or as was done in the old days, a true 2x4. Wonder if it's something like chestnut or locust? Can't imagine most other woods would hold up untreated. Surely there is others, but those 2 hold up to the elements and chestnut would've been around yet in all likely hood when that old place was constructed.

The OP said it's in NE Oregon. Most of that country is pretty dry. As long as it's sitting on rocks or cement to avoid contact with the soil, pine or fir can last a long time. I've seen many abandoned shacks here in so. Idaho where it's dry and some have the wood in pretty good shape for being 100+.

Just saw a show on I think First Alaskans, where they did this with local trees. Looks like they cut to 6X6 and just stacked them up. Course this was a small cabin (guess 10X10) but it went up fast and was plenty sturdy. Gives a good overview of how it was done.

Never seen it in Colorado and I've seen most of the old ghost towns and some 19th century towns still occupied. I think you are right. Makes a lot of sense when 2x4 materials were cheap and abundant. Easy to build, structurally sound and good insulation.

I wonder if they are actually 2"x 4".

With that type of design, I wouldn't think there would be much need of a king stud.

I wonder, how they finished the inside of the building.

When I lived in Montana, I had a person ask me and the fellows I worked with, if we would build him a garage like this. I asked him, why would you prefer a building built like that over conventional way of building.
His reason: Because he didn't know how to build anything the conventional way. He didn't know how to frame for a window or a door, or layout for studs in a wall.

I tried to get him to relax. This is why you hire some professional for the job.

We built him a nice garage.

Take care.

Near all similar structures I've seen were old granaries.

That’s pretty cool. Cant say I’ve seen it before.

Might start hoarding some scrap lumber😁

I just (November) bought 40k BF of White Pine logs...

It will be hitting the mill in January, if anyone wants/needs some please drop me a PM (I need about half of the job).

The wood will be in Brandywine, WV (25 minutes from Harrisonburg VA). I will be very cost effective. It will be green when you get it.

I think the affordability of the method died when OSB gained momentum in the mid 80's.

Prior to the demand for OSB, slab wood and various lengths of 'mill ends' were in abundance at the local mills near me.

I bought slab wood to cut up and sell as firewood in my campground. I paid $10 a bundle which would be a heavy pickup load at 8 to 12 ft in length.

That's when I took notice of the available 'mill ends' which included every size of dimensional lumber. Most all of it had some 'live edge' which appeared to be why it was culled out and cut off.
That was also $10 a truck load.

After they started making OSB, everything went in the chipper.

The last of the cheap wood I could get from the mills for firewood was 'spin offs'. Those were big fat logs they used for cutting veneer. They'd stick those logs in a machine that spun them up against long blades to cut the thin layers of wood for the manufacturering of ply wood.

If the logs didn't hold in the machine and 'spun out' and couldn't turn they were scrapped.

They upped the price to $20 a bundle for those but in short time they got a chipper strong enough to handle them and that was the end of that.

Quite a few older grain elevators in Minnesota were constructed like that. Hell for stout...never seen a tornado take one down.

I have built 8 log cabins. The key to long-term survival of an all-wooden structure is to have massive roof overhangs. I go with at least a 4 foot roof overhang on all sides. Let the metal roof take the beating, of the rain and snow, and the sunshine.

The cabin in the OP has one foot roof overhangs. Better than no overhang but not good enough.

They're stout alright. What you can't see in many of the old elevators is the cross bracing. They aren't just a big room. Grain is really heavy and will push the walls out. Many of them used steel rods going through opposite walls.

I painted an old grainery built in 1913 i believe here in south dakota. It was quite tall, maybe 80 ft?? It was built that way and straight as an arrow all the way up. Had been through 3 tornados. Very sturdy structure.