A building log is a traditional full-timber construction material made of log. Straight butt logs of good quality are selected as building logs. A building made of logs has a simple and “breathing” structure in terms of humidity balance.
There are many types of logs, but the same principles of log hewing apply to all of them. The log is provided with cuts along the length of the log and in the corners so that the tiers of logs can be stacked on top of each other to make up a dense wall structure. Round logs are cut with a dog neck corner joint while planed logs and sawn logs are provided with a straight corner. Various types of dovetail corners and tooth corners are used in traditional construction methods.
The corners are the main structures that hold a log building together. When the longitudinal connection between logs ends in the corner, the joint must be made warm and secure. This is why the joints of the surfaces resting on top of each other must be made so precise that they can be sealed tight with a very small amount of stuffing. A load-bearing partition wall carries most of the load of the roof and therefore needs the best possible support from the external wall. This is why a load-bearing partition wall is connected to the external walls with a proper corner joint even though a dovetail groove would be used in the other partition walls.