Norwegian Log Home Builders Compare Notes with Owner of Andersen Log Homes
Gail DeBoer, Staff writer
The Pilot-Independent
Posted Thursday, May 08th, 2003

Six visiting Malmlaft "lafters" (log home builders) checked out construction and design details on the interior of the Andersen's home.  

A log cabin built on the fjords or in the forests of Norway may look a bit different from a log home built on the lakes or in the woods of Minnesota, but there are many similarities and commonalities.

That's what Jon and Beth Andersen, owners of Andersen Log Homes near Walker learned April 24, when 11 "lafters" from Malmlaft AS, a log home manufacturer from Alvdal, Norway, visited their operation for half a day.

The visit was arranged by Michael Peyton of Washburn, Wis., project manager for Northern Vision Construction Services (NVCS), who joined the Norwegians for their tour of Andersen Log Homes.

Three years ago a NVCS client, Gary Madsen, bought a Norwegian-built log cabin from his cousin, Ola Oyen, CEO of Malmlaft. The cabin was shipped to Bayfield where Peyton's crew helped four Malmlaft "lafters" erect it and finished the project. A close relationship sprang up that led to several exchange visits.

This year Malmlaft treated 11 crew members to a U.S. trip. One request was a visit to a U.S. log home builder.
Peyton was impressed with an Andersen cabin he'd seen near Herbster, Wis. After e-mailing Jon and Beth, a visit was arranged.

Ola Eggset, one of four men who founded Malmlaft AS in 1987, and Jon, whose ancestors came from Norway, exchanged information on log home building and log styles, while the others checked out features of the Andersen model home south of the Y and later, Jon and Beth's home on Leech Lake.

Eggset and his friends started Malmlaft in 1986 after a government official contacted him to ask if there was a market for log homes.

"A couple of my friends knew the technique, so we started to build them," he explained. Malmlaft has 13 other employees with an average four to five years' experience. It takes a year to learn and three to be proficient.
Malmlaft builds 15 to 20 homes a year. Most are cabins 300 to 600 square meters in size, sold in Norway and nearby European countries. Shipping costs prevent Malmlaft from selling in the U.S. market, Eggset said.

The "lafters" work indoors year-round in large buildings. They use red pine, sustainably harvested by loggers. Because the trees grow so far north in Norway, they grow more slowly, are older (average 130 years) and smaller in diameter. The average log is 8 inches thick.

Logs are debarked by machine, are cut flat, inside and out, at a sawmill, and are left round on top and bottom. The logs are dried naturally indoors for one year with maximum shrinkage of 2.5 percent.

While a college student studying business administration at Bemidji State University in 1980, Jon Andersen took a summer job as a log peeler for a log home builder from British Columbia.

After a year, the man asked Jon to apprentice with him. Jon decided to make a drastic career change.

"My father could've killed me," he recalled. "But a few years later, he wanted to buy a log home from me." In 1989, Jon started his own business, Andersen Log Homes.

Andersen's crew of six men builds eight to 10 homes a year and works outside year-round. They use white pine from Minnesota, Wisconsin and occasionally the upper peninsula of Michigan. The firm leaves logs rounded inside and out. Logs are hand-debarked and peeled, and the inventory is used within a year.

Jon and his workers build homes using the interlocking v-notch or "Norwegian notch."

As for shrinkage, a typical 9-foot wall settles about two to three inches. The average tree is about 80 years old when cut. Andersen's also uses trees from natural disaster cuts, such as the 1999 BWCA blow-down.

"This kind of craft has been done in Norway for 800 to 900 years, handed down from father to son," Eggset stated. "There was a time from about 1930 to 1990 when log homes were out of style; considered outdated. Now there's a renaissance. Since 1990, the number of log home companies has exploded!"

Malmlaft recently received a grant from the Norwegian government to create a training program for log home builders.
Many of the log homes Malmlaft sells are vacation homes, "since Norwegians have so many vacations, with all the [revenue the country gets from] North Sea oil," he smiled.

Asked what the Andersen model home would cost, Jon estimated $200,000 fully finished, with basement.
In Norway the same house would cost much more, Eggset said. In addition to shipping charges, the kroner has been strong against the U.S. dollar, making it harder to sell their products here.

The two men also compared wages, benefits and workers compensation. In Norway, workers comp is covered by the federal government. In the United States, workers comp varies by state, which makes it hard for firms with high workers comp costs to compete with firms with lower costs, Jon said.

The Malmlaft crew arrived in St. Paul April 23 and returned to Norway April 28