Questions & Fears about Log Homes

[fivestring]

"Go figure???"

I think they did. They based cost replacement on brick being more expensive. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[egon]

Doc:
It's the outside that's brick. That's the expensive part. In a fire all that has to be replaced.

Egon

[Richard]

We built a log home and the logs have settled, while at the same time, the stairwell (stick built and in center of house) has NOT settled, thereby pushing the stairwell "up" through the roof.

It's only settled a couple inches and the stairwell isn't going through the roof, but you get the idea. The drywall in master bedroom is going to have to be redone as well as 3 of the doors upstairs. I've kept trimming the doors as the house has settled. Today, the settling seems to have stopped and the 3 doors have an angle in the top of them that is about 2 inches. [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

I think had we used dried logs, our issues would have been GREATLY minimized. As it was, (after telling an engineer what we did) it seems we did the worst possible thing... when we had the logs on site, we "dutifully" covered them under a tarp so they would not get wet. He informed me, that was the worst thing we could have done, as the tarp trapped all the ground moisture and basically saturated the logs with it. He said simple sunshine woudl have been better, or, to stack them in the barn (on other side of farm).

Would I do it over... hmm.... probably not, but would consider it. Would rather put up a brick house and forget about some of the maintainence issues.

Richard

[egon]

Richard:

When we built all the non log interior walls were floating and had at least 6 inches room to work in at the top. Never had any problems with the doors as they also had lots of top space for settlement.

Egon

You guys are completely missing my point. Houses are insured for a certain replacement value. On our old house if it would have burned down the replacement cost would have been $330,000. On the house we moved to the replacement value was only $235,000. If both houses burned down they would have only covered a certain amount. On house A I was buying insurance to cover $330,000. House B I was buying insurance to cover $235,000. Yes brick is more expensive to repair but they wouldn't have paid more than the $235,000. Although the brick is more expensive there was less house to do. Their liability was $95,000 less. On either house with a fire significant enough to damage the outside it would have been a total loss. Just because house B was brick I wouldn't have gotten more than the $235,000 the house was insured for.

[Chillimau]

CowboyDoc,

Any difference in the risk of a total loss? My agent is always talking about buying a house as close to the fire department or fire hydrant as possible. Personally, that is about the last thing I think about when buying, just too many other factors that make or break the decision.

I agree given the same risk the only difference should be total amount of insurance.

Age of the home makes a difference too, I was talking with a friend of mine who is a farmers agent, a new home is the cheapest and they won't touch anything over 30 years old.

Gary

[TimSullivan]

Insurance companies underwriting practices and sometimes very hard to figure out. I will share this experience.

My wife and I have excellent driving records and had been with the same insurance company for over twenty years. We had three vehicles insured when I decided I wanted that sports car I always dreamed of owning. OK midlife crises maybe.

The short of it was that the liability on the Porsche was twice that of any of our other vehicles. I can understand more for theft, and collision but not the liability. The damage that my F250 could do in an accident would be far greater then that the little car.

The company’s explanation was very simple. “The car is a Porsche.” It took me three months of letters and phone calls to finally talk to an underwriter. After twenty minutes on the phone with the underwriter, the best he could come up with was it was company policy. The next day he called me back and made satisfactory adjustments to my rates.

The following year when I received my yearly bill the rates were back up. I called the underwriter and he told me he had tried but that the company really did not want to insure Porsches. No accidents in twenty years, no claims either, neither mattered to them. They were using the vehicle to identify high claims risk instead of our record.

[egon]

Doc:

It took a while but the nickel finally dropped.

Egon

We're actually five miles closer to the fire dept. and on a better road. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[Pat]

I have State Farm insurance currently and will likely have it on new house. I can qualify for a 15% or 22% homeowner's insurance discount if I use class 3 or class 4 shingles respectively from the list that State Farm publishes. The agent also told me that I would qualify for the "brick discount" if the house was over 50% bricked.

This seems to conflict with previous post regarding brick being more expensive to insure. Insurance sure can be confusing.

Pat