A log house (or log home) is structurally identical to a log cabin (a house typically made from logs that have not been milled into conventional lumber). The term "log cabin" is not preferred by most contemporary builders, as it generally refers to a smaller, more rustic log house such as a hunting cabin in the woods, or a summer cottage.
Log construction was the most common building technique in large regions of Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Baltic states and Russia, where straight and tall coniferous trees, such as pine and spruce, are readily available. It was also widely used for vernacular buildings in Eastern Central Europe, the Alps, the Balkans and parts of Asia, where similar climatic conditions prevail. In warmer and more westerly regions of Europe, where deciduous trees predominate, timber framing was favoured instead.
There are several types of logs used for log houses:
Handcrafted: Typically made of logs that have been peeled, but otherwise essentially unchanged from their original appearance as trees.
Hewn logs: logs hewn by axe to an oval, hexagonal, octagonal or rectangular section.
Sawn logs: logs sawn to a standard width, but with their original heights.
Milled (also called machine-profiled): made with a log house moulder: Constructed of logs that have run through a manufacturing process which convert them into timbers which are consistent in size and appearance.