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One thing that always seems to be missing from these videos (in general, because there are many of them) is step 0: how do you go about acquiring the land and the permission to build a log cabin on this land? I can't imagine that there's many countries in the world where there is no build code or other legislation regarding how or where buildings can be built. The last thing I'd want to do is spend an entire year building something that I would then be legally obliged to tear down.
If you're felling a large amount of trees in a forest, at the bare minimum you need the blessing of the land owner (if that isn't you). Most likely, you'll also need in addition to this a permit to fell trees to begin with, because land owners in most countries aren't free to simply fell any amount of trees they wish just because they own the land.
It's obviously an impressive feat to build a log cabin from scratch, but since this step is so often completely omitted, I have to ask myself whether this is because it's considered too boring, or because there are people out there who think that as long as you go far enough into the woods, you can do whatever you want because no one will notice.
About 70% of Sweden is covered with forests, so acquiring some land covered by trees should be fairly trivial assuming one has the money for it. An article about this particular young builder mentions he built it on land owned by his family[1].
I'm not entirely sure about Swedish regulations in regards to building permits, but based on a quick Internet search it looks like one may or may not require a permit, based on the location, size and purpose of the the log cabin, and as a rule of thumb one should check with the local authorities before starting construction. The Swedish rules seem to be more lax when the building is to be located in sparsely populated areas.
If it's anything like the rules in Finland there's probably a bunch of environmental and building codes that needs to be adhered to, but on the other hand this is a traditional build so it might be perfectly possible that he just needed to submit the plans and get someone to approve them.
[1]: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vastmanland/han-bygger-en-...
Just FWIW in much of the rural US you are largely exempt from building codes if you are building your own primary residence. The logic being that if you built it and you live in it and it kills you, well, you only have yourself to blame. This doesn’t apply for many town and city locations, though, as there are often local zoning controls that make you build cookie cutter garbage. But the smaller and and less regulated the area, the more likely you’re allowed to build what you want so long as you do it yourself and don’t sell it to anyone else.
> If you're felling a large amount of trees in a forest, at the bare minimum you need the blessing of the land owner (if that isn't you).
Great memories: I spend an entire summer building a primitive "log cabin" from young trees as a kid with a few friends in the forest behind my parent's house. After the cabin was nearly finished, we were chased one day by a group of adults (apparently the owners of the forest) and hid a few hours deep in the woods. We only returned the next spring, when we finished the roof. I remember how proud we were when we cycled to the hardware store one day and bought a cheap lock for the cabin door. We lost interest the next year, of course, but the cabin remained intact for years. The local kindergarten used to go there for a few years.
Buying an acre of forest in Northern Sweden is not expensive, less than $2k. Even close to Stockholm it's not much more than that, so it's really not a relevant concern if you are willing to spend a year building your own house.
As to building codes, they are very strict in zoned areas, possibly the strictest in the world, but it's much more relaxed in rural areas. Plus even in zoned areas you can always build a 30 m2 supplemental building. Plus a 15 m2 shed.
> considered too boring
Would you really find it interesting to watch the process of him signing the contract to acquire the land? I can't think of anything less exciting than that.
In Sweden, to acquire land you can contact a landowner, or a broker. For available land, see e.g. https://www.hemnet.se/bostader?by=price&housing_form_groups%...
The building codes are administrated by the municipalities. To find out more, one would visit the website of the municipality where one would like to build the house. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_municipalities_of_Swed...
It says here - in swedish - that it is on property that his family owns.
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vastmanland/han-bygger-en-...
I think it really depends on the country/province. Here in Ontario, it's pretty common to find little hunting shacks or small cabins out in Crown land. My understanding is all you need is written permission from the MNR, permission which understandably depends a lot on what you're building.
Interestingly, if you're First Nations, those laws don't apply to you and you can essentially build whatever you like on Crown Land, provided you can make the case it relates to your cultural heritage.
Your entire comment is stipulated on the idea that it is hard to acquire land/permission. What big city do you live in?
In many parts of world it is pretty easy to acquire land out in the middle of nowhere and basically do whatever the hell you want on it.
European countries often have minimums on what has to be allowed by the government. In my country (Czechia), a 25 square meters house without basement can be built on suitable land with only notifying the government, no approvals needed.
Definitely not possible in Germany just like that, there was / is a person who tried it (Marc Freuke, he was on TV quite often so I feel comfortable sharing his name) and got sued by the municipality. Building code here is already vicious, development plans are just as bad. You are not at all allowed to built on basically everything that is deemed "outside"/outskirts, there are some exceptions but a Jurte or Tipi or cabin is usually out of the way. Even if you own the land. Of course, it is a bit more complicated than that but that is the gist of it.
In essence, you will have a hard time trying to do this.
In some countries if you fell a tree without permission, you have to put the equivalent tree back. Such operation could easily cost million euro to restore the forest.
You can do anything you want in most rural CA counties (even Sonoma and Napa) as long as it's 120 sqft or less, no permanent foundation, electric or water.
I personally found his series a bit painful to watch as he's doing it all the hard way (which is his point).
Obviously the hard initial stuff is missing from these sorts of videos, because that isn’t glamorous. Content creators want to start from the things that will attract people's attention.
It is similar to how, for example, there are many videos for how to travel the world by bike and how you can budget for it daily, but extremely few of those videos explain that cyclists typically have to work really hard in some boring normal job for a while to save up that budget for their travels, and then the process of buying all the necessary gear can be long and frustrating as one has to compare various websites and wait for things to arrive by post. Who wants to watch that?
You are right, I have noticed this especially with the tiny house people. They build the house to save money and then park it somewhere. But where? Almost inevitably, it's family land, like a farm or something.
Other posters have noted this but Canada is almost unique because of its vast forested wilderness and sparse population. If you wanted to buy a parcel of forest somewhere and build a cabin, it wouldn't be a particularly expensive undertaking, so long as it's well away from an expensive urban area like eg the Lower Mainland of BC.
If you are remote enough it is unlikely that anybody will ever bother you. No civil servant, no matter how dedicated, is going to hike 100km through dense wild forest to deliver a fine.
The only time you're in danger with the law is when some logging company buys the rights to the land where your cabin happens to be and you're in the way of the clearcutting. But if you're far enough from any roads even this is extremely unlikely.
If you own land in the backwoods of rural Canada I doubt anyone who cares would know you've built the cabin. If there is no plumbing, power, road etc. and the cabin is under 500sq/ft and you have logging rights I can't imagine anyone has jurisdiction to oppose. Unincorporated land, no environmental impact, ownership of the property. I can't see a problem.
In most of the United States, you need no permit whatsoever to fell trees on private property. Yes, including clear-cutting your forest and selling it for lumber.
This is not a good thing though.
Exceptions apply in some localities, please check before cutting down all your trees.
A great excuse to drop a link to this legend:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke
Richard Louis Proenneke (/ˈprɛnəkiː/; May 4, 1916 – April 20, 2003) was an American self-educated naturalist, conservationist, writer, and wildlife photographer who, from the age of about 53, lived alone for nearly thirty years (1969–1999) in the mountains of Alaska in a log cabin that he constructed by hand near the shore of Twin Lakes. Proenneke hunted, fished, raised and gathered his own food, and also had supplies flown in occasionally. He documented his activities in journals and on film, and also recorded valuable meteorological and natural data.[1][2] The journals and film were later used by others to write books and produce documentaries about his time in the wilderness.
I'm really addicted to these rebuild-civilization-from-scratch youtube channels.
The one who got me into it was of course "Primitive Technology": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA/vid...
Which spawned a huge number of copy-cat channels which are all pretty good too:
Survival Skills Primitive: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChUP6B_3zcdFYZnOdMM21og/vid...
Primitive Skills: https://www.youtube.com/c/PrimitiveSkillsnet/videos
To see a log cabin built with skill and experience, I can really recommend this older film from Finland. It's a joy watching these men work.
Edit: hit the CC button if your Finnish is rusty.
Another very deep hole to fall into if you're into log cabin builds is Nik Rijavec's build here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMjAl_0yeKwUAQ2A3tQFcnA
And for the cabin/upcycling vibe, Modern Self Reliance: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClhInAMlPM1UcjD8lI4o7UA
And for more solitary living-off-the-land type stuff, Shawn James at My Self Reliance: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIMXKin1fXXCeq2UJePJEog
Is this guy using fresh logs? If so, expect lots cracks and settlement. The house will sink and shrink a lot. It would be better to cult the logs, let them dry out and settle several months before using them. Modern log buildings use oven dried logs.
Edit: I think cutting the trees video might actually be few years before building the cabin.
Edit2: In his latest video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsIgziUp1LE you can already see how some of the logs have bluish color several centimeters into the log. They have been getting wet at some point. Bluish and moldy is bad news.
"House museum. Traditional log house by traditional methods in 1980" (Finland). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajb9FMzmamw
If you enjoy this stuff, do check out "Alone in the Wilderness" with Dick Proenneke
Here's a clip
If you are interested in similar content, I recommend you check out youtube channel Advoko Makes. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc1ufNROdAxto9Fr0jnEE2Q
Pretty impressive. All with handtools except for the tractor and it was either that or bring a horse, and that's a whole lot of extra work, so I can't really fault him for that choice.
Funny to see how his axework improves over time, in the beginning unsure and shallow, then later on with much more force and confidence.
Spent last summer building a one room log cabin.
In the end I wound up using makita battery powered chainsaw. You can do precision work and quickly too.
I did not have any skill before and my vacation was short, but theres now a 5' by 12' cabin, 8' tall, on my yard.
This summer it's the floors, roof etc.
The video is much cooler of course, just saying if you want to try something with limited time.
I had help every now and then. Looking back it's a project for two people definitely. Logs are heavy and having four eyes is better than two, especially as a beginner.
Managed to make it through without being attacked by a single greyling. Quite the accomplishment
I cannot for my life find it now, but I saw a documentary on YouTube or similar a couple of years ago. It was oldish, from the 1960s or 1970s about the restoration of a historical farm in what I believe was a national park in the US. The farm house was build from planks and not logs as this house and the carpenters did it all from scratch. A very soothing film, as documentaries from that time often is.
Talasbaun uses real log working in their log cabin, which they are building for the purpose of moving from their current log cabin. This video seems misguided in comparison. https://youtu.be/ycRjXW2aW_s
Next time I’m complaining to myself that something is taking a long time, I’ll remember this video.
This video was in my recommended last night - I watched about an hour of it and was really intrigued I intend to watch the rest later.
It's not a new video. but HN posts about it just AFTER I watch it. Coincidences eh.
Someone has been reading Hamsun!
The Birth Of A Wooden House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV7pmE4MC-I
Might be one of my all time favorite videos - the story of a man building a beautiful cabin in Latvia I think, from scratch using traditional tools.
I feel really drawn to doing the same thing even though it's an impossible dream for a huge number of insurmountable reasons.
I am so excited to sit down and watch the OPs video - food for my soul - thank you for posting.
In a similar vein that people might enjoy is an old National Geographic documentary, following 4 friends who retrace the Yukon Passage through Alaska. Including: building their own raft to sail down the river, and wintering over in a cabin they build. Great watch.
Could someone more knowledgeable explain the concrete footing and foundation log barrier? I can't make out what it is between them...it looks like a burlap sack, but that can't be right. What is preventing the concrete from transferring water into the foundation log? There is obviously some material there, I just can't fathom what it is.
My first thought was "wait, did he provide food for himself too?" Seems he brought food instead of providing.
Which is fine, building a cabin on your own is cool as hell in of itself. But the title and video description sort of give the impression that he's living off the land alone, which doesn't seem to be the case?
It seems to me that either you do this "return to nature" alone, or there's a community inexorably sliding toward being a cult. There's nothing in between and then sadly, relationship of our whole society to nature suffers from this.
Where is the insulation? Methinks these Suedos have built or studied only barns. https://youtu.be/_3J5wkJFJzE?t=519
I've been watching these this year non stop, therse something insanely therapeutic about them.
They also work as a great vector to plan outdoor trips for after the lockdowns.
1 hour of this fellow carefully stacking logs and growing a very fine moustache in the process.
The (real) UnReal World experience
At 20:05, ... that is a rather inefficient way to use an axe to split logs.
This is so satisfying to watch!
He's using cement and a tractor for very critical activities... Both are fossil fuels derivatives. So although I find this work super nice, I can't help but see a contradiction.
So guy walks out into the forest to build an off grid cabin, just like his grandfathers used to and films it to the slightest detail, keeping placing the camera around for nice shots (like the one where chips fly right towards the lens).
I don't know... sounds more like "hey, I thought I'd make a hit video that would attract a lot of on grid feedback, unlike my grandpa', who probably wouldn't give a fuck about what the world thinks about his cabin".
Now don't get me wrong, it is OK to create a video on anything, including on how to build a cabin or your experience on building a cabin (which is different) or your experience on living alone for a year (I guess this is not what he did), but this just doesn't add up to me.
I want to ask what do you see that impressive about things like this, really. This guy got bored one day and somehow decided to fell a bunch of trees older than him to somehow not even finish the walls in one year?
And sorry but I am not able to find confirmation about him doing this in his own land which makes the whole situation a bit more awkward.