Tree diameter for cabin building? (Wasilla, Willow: work, art, places)

[dreamdriven78]

I'm wondering if anyone knows how thick do the trees get arround southcentral area, exactly in this area if anyone is familiar with it it's about 10 miles west of delta islands and about 20 miles west of willow:

Click to enlarge


I'm going to be building a cabin on the Gem lake property, so such information as tree diameter and hight in this area would be absolutely invaluable for me. Thanks everyone.

[earls]

have you figured out how you are going to get to the property yet?
your google must be better then mine I could not get the maps you did. I did get Lockwood lake and looks like very wet area.
You must have a really good carpenters ability to build a cabin in this area.

[dreamdriven78]

What I'm trying to do first is to gether as many variables as I can to create a formula on how to succesfuly acomplish the whole thing, if you know what I mean. Because if I get to the property first and find out that the timber is not suitable for building a cabin - I've lost time and money... In this case I'll have to buy the timber and haul it to ther property. The more I know beforehand the smoother things will be...
About the map, if you download Google Earth Google Earth you can find pretty much anything and zoom in to it very close, that's how I've found my property, I had no idea where it was, only the PDF file from the DNR website which described the property and lots arround it. So I just looked and looked and found the lake that resambled the one on my pdf files. Then I overlayd the pdf copy http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/mlw/lands...ed+Information over the google earth image and it was an exact match, I could even see the road names arround the property, I may post this image later. Even though there are road names which is weird to have in a remote area, it's still a puzzle on how to get there. I wonder in what area have these guys Building a log cabin in Alaska, preparing the land and peeling logs. built their cabin?

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by dreamdriven78

I'm wondering if anyone knows how thick do the trees get arround southcentral area, exactly in this area if anyone is familiar with it it's about 10 miles west of delta islands and about 20 miles west of willow:

Click to enlarge


I'm going to be building a cabin on the Gem lake property, so such information as tree diameter and hight in this area would be absolutely invaluable for me. Thanks everyone.

Spruce is what you will use for building a cabin, don't use birch. Birch is great for heating the cabin because it is a hardwood, but it cracks and splits when dry so it would not be good material to use for building a cabin. The black spruce in that area usually vary between 4 and 6 inches in diameter, with a few as large as 8 inches in diameter. It is a very wet area you are talking about, lots of muskeg and permafrost. I think you will be hard pressed to find enough suitable spruce to build even a small cabin.

I think you might be better off buying a cabin kit in Willow or Wasilla that uses pre-treated, pre-shaped cedar logs and hauling the material to your cabin site in the late winter so you can begin building in spring.


P.S. An 8" diameter, 10' long, "wet" black spruce log will weigh approximately 450 pounds.

[earls]

Thanks for the Google earth link!
Get this book 'One Man's Wilderness' an Alaskan odyssey from the journals of Richard Proenneke. -
ISBN 0882405136 - This is about a man that did what you are planning.
Maybe someone can recommend a book on building a log cabin. You will have to use the materials available and your wont be able to build the same year you cut anyway well you shouldn't. You won't be able to contact the author he died in 2003.
I notice there are water and sewage restrictions have you checked on how this affects you?

[Rance]

It would greatly help if you could re-size your pictures. It's taking me 10 minutes just to view the page. Preferably thumbnails that will expand to full size when clicked on. They load much faster...especially for those on dial up.

[Marty Van Diest]

There is no way you are going to get around actually going to the land to find out what you have. Go there with a wall tent and take a good look. It think it will be mostly birch. How big of a cabin do you intend to build?

The first time you go you should just plan to camp. Get a good tent with a wood stove and set up a good camp. You will enjoy it. Then you can find out how much spruce you have and if it will be enough for a cabin.

You can build out of cottonwood, alder, or even birch. But spruce is better. If you think a green spruce log is heavy, try a green birch log, it will break your back. Most people cut all their logs and let them set for a year before building so that they are dried out.

You might want to contact Friesen Custom Cabins. He specializes in building cabins in places like this. He has built a lot of them out in the Susitna Valley Area.

[dreamdriven78]

Thanks guys for advises. Here is a better picture of the property and the forest.









and here's 2 images of land that I found to be for sale on some site which is the land to the left of my property, I would say about a mile left of it it's on that Beejay lake so you can see the trees better, let me know what you think:

[stiffnecked]

I honestly think those are nice pictures. You'll never know what's there until you visit the land in person. It should be frozen enough now that you can take a snow machine trip out there. Hopefully it should be frozen enough. As they say seeing is believing

[Marty Van Diest]

Those photos appear to show almost all birch trees. You can see stands of scrub black spruce both north and south of your property in the google photos.

Those grey trees on Beejay Lake are birch in the spring before the leaves are out. The black spruce there near your lot is only good for fence posts. The birch is really not very good for building a cabin with, although it has been done.

If I were you I would plan to build a frame cabin and haul in all the lumber by snowmobile. That is the way almost all the cabins in that area are built. If you go up there during spring weekends you will see load after load being hauled in by snowmobile.