03 Taking Down the Cabin

How to Dismantle Log Cabin

Taking down the log cabin and dismantling the logs. It was not an easy task to take down a log cabin, remove the roof and dismantle the logs. In New York, we built log cabins from kits. We have never taken one down before and put it back up.

Note from last blog post ending with us looking for a snow shovel in Tennessee. We were lucky enough to find that snow shovel we needed at Home Depot! Luckily, they sell them in the north as well as the south.

Before we even began the daunting process of dismantling all the logs; I wondered what we would find.  Spikes or no spikes? When we used to build log cabins in NY; we always used 12” spikes between the logs.

We had no idea if this cabin had spikes or not until we took off the roof. If it did, that would pose a problem and create more work. The issue with spikes in logs concerning removing them is the difficulty in able to retract them. The spikes are flush or even counter-sunk in order for the log courses to fit.

Taking off the Log Cabin Roof

Surprisingly, the roof came off fairly easily. We had the foresight to rent an articulating lull piece of equipment to assist in the roof removal. That machine proved valuable in moving the logs to the trailer also. I don’t think we would have had enough manpower to move all the 6”x 12” logs.

The logs were heavy and some spanned over 48 feet! We had to rent a 70-foot flatbed trailer to put the logs on. The trailer rental costs $310 a month. We wound up renting the trailer for 1 year and hired a driver to move the logs twice. That fee was $500 each time.

Removing the log walls

First of all, the logs did not have any spikes! For that, we were very relieved and grateful. But, before we removed the logs, I had an actual nightmare that the logs would be mixed up. As a result of the nightmare, I had to devise a plan to organize them.

Finally, I took a picture of the cabin with the roof off and used a house wrap made in the USA similar to Tyvek. I cut strips out of the house wrap and numbered them with a permanent marker. Therefore, each log had a number stapled on the inside and outside of the log.

We were able to take off all logs and load them onto the trailer. We had an extra little cabin which was actually the kitchen but most of the logs were damaged but we took them anyway hoping to find a use for them.

Storing the Logs from the Cabin

The moving men we hired to move us from GA to TN asked if we wanted to store the trailer at their place in GA for a small fee. We agreed and moved the logs to one of their homes.

After a few weeks, the person contacted us and said the neighbor complained and did not want to look at the logs and we needed to move them. We were able to leave a little trailer with 2×8’s that we took out of the cabin there in his yard.

Hiring a Tractor-Trailer Driver

We had to hire a tractor-trailer driver again and move the logs. We moved the logs to the house we were renting in TN but the landlord’s son decided he did not want them on his mother’s land we were renting after she told us we could.

  Again, for the third time, we had to hire the tractor-trailer driver to move the logs.  Each move was $500!

Storing the Log Cabin Logs

We were very fortunate to find a free and close-by place to store our logs. A small trucking business down the road let tractor-trailers store their rigs and trailers in his yard in-between jobs and allowed us to.

We stored our logs there for 9 months while we looked for land and tried to find a bank for financing. We feel this generosity offset the terrible mishappens we previously faced.

Theft of Our Lumber

After a month or so, we decided to move the small trailer with our lumber on it to this site also. A very bad tornado had just torn through northern GA and eastern TN and we were worried about our lumber. As a result of that, we decided to check on our building materials in Ringgold.

When we arrived in Ringgold, the lumber was gone but not too far. They were in the neighbor’s yard! The person who allowed us to store them had moved out and did not tell us. The neighbor stated he bought the lumber and paid cash from his neighbor and we did not have proof or a contract with the guy who sold them that they were ours.

The value of the lumber was $1500 and we were out the money and the lumber. Lesson learned. Go with your gut feelings!!

          Our logs were stored a few miles from here in 2011-Ringgold GA school when the tornado hit Georgia.

If you have not started at the beginning, start with Log Cabin Turned Farmhouse

The next chapter to this story is 01-Reclaimed Log Cabin and how we found our home.

Followed by 02 Purchasing a Log Cabin and all the trials we went through.

Further reading how we found land can be found 04 Finding Land For Sale.

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