Wooden Sidings of Log Houses

At the end of the X-joint log house era sawn timber (milled logs) were used rather than crafted timber. At this time it also became the fashion to fasten wooden boards to the exterior walls of dwelling log houses (not utility buildings). Using exterior boards made it easier to have corners without protuberant joint heads, so the dovetailed corner joint was now used on new houses instead of the older types of corner joints. Siding of the exterior walls with wooden boards of the dwelling houses began in the 1890’s - board and batten. The wooden boards were applied vertically. This was practical since the logs were laid horizontally. The boards were attached directly to the logs. The gaps between the broader boards were covered with narrow boards (see image below). Siding with vertical boards became a traditional method of applying exterior sheathing as a further means of weather protection in Sweden.  However, the the X-joint heads had often been covered with boards even before the 1890’s though. The reason for this was to protect the joint heads from rotting. In the beginning of the 20th century it became common to build houses with a frame of timber, so- called timber-frame houses.

Painting-work/Coloration

Painting of farmstead buildings didn’t begin until the 19th century. Before then it was uncommon to have painted buildings in the countryside. The paint that first of all was used was a red paint called Falu rödfärg. Falu rödfärg (Falu Red Paint) can be traced back to the 16th century. In the 17th century painted houses were an sign of wealth and high social status. The red brick buildings on the European continent served as a model.  Wealthy farmers often painted their dwelling house with the more expensive yellow paint that was common on larger estates and manors. However, the farm buildings were painted with Falu rödfärg. Falu rödfärg was cheap and the paint gave the buildings a better protection against bad weather than the unpainted buildings, which conduced to make the red paint popular. Falu rödfärg was a type of paint similar to whitewash.  Today Swedes see the red painted buildings with white corners in the countryside as something very typical Swedish, even as national symbols,  but the tradition with red painted buildings isn’t older than the 19th century. See image to the right - a red cottage with white corners. Photo Hans Högman, July 2008. Falu Red is still widely used in the Swedish countryside. The color pigment in Falu rödfärg is a by-product from Falu Copper Mine, Falun, Dalarna province (W). Falu Copper Mine is very old. It might be from the Viking age but the earliest found document about the mine is from the 13th century.

The X-joint Log Houses were

introduced in America by Swedish

Settlers

The traditional Swedish log house became a model for many settlers’ dwellings in America. The X-joint log house building technique was brought to America by Swedish settlers in the middle of the 17th century. The first X-joint log houses in America were built in New Sweden (possessed by Sweden between 1638 to 1655), the Swedish colony along both banks of the Delaware River into modern Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The craft was quickly adopted by other colonists and settlers. In the centuries that followed, the log cabin spread out from the Delaware Valley when German, English, Scots-Irish, Scandinavian, and other Pennsylvania colonists moved to the west. The Swedish the log houses became a model for the frontier style log cabin. Very few examples of New Sweden's homes remain today. The photo to the right are from the New Sweden Farmstead Museum, USA. Photo: Ken Peterson, USA.

Other Ways of Constructing

Houses

The building material used for houses and buildings was greatly engraved by the natural material that was available in the regions. Log cross jointing was the natural way of building houses in the woodlands, .i.e. areas with lots of pine and spruce trees. In regions with mostly deciduous forests, houses built with framed horizontal boards or planks (skiftesverk) were the most common type of house. This was a building technique that was adapted to the short and crooked oak wood. These buildings had vertically mounted staves with horizontally fastened planks or boards. A technique called “korsvirke” (half-timbered houses) was used in areas with very little woodland. This was a technique that needed very little wood. Timber were only used as a framework with walls made of daubed clay. Prior to the 1850’s it was very unusual to find stone houses on farmsteads and in small towns.

Skiftesverk

Houses built with framed horizontal boards or planks (skiftesverk) were common in southern and western Götaland region and on the islands Gotland and Öland’s farmstead buildings, especially on utility buildings and simpler buildings. The walls consisted of thick posts mounted vertically on a sill with a top plate holding them together. The vertical posts had notches on opposing sides and in the space between the posts, horizontal boards or planks were fitted into the notches. Dwelling houses in this style were normally built with oak but also with pine. Smaller and warped pieces of wood could also be used to fill the space between the vertical logs. The image to the right is a "skiftesverk" building at the Oktorp farmstead, Halland, now at Skansen. 1800's. Photo: Hans Högman, August 2008.

Korsvirke - Half Timbered Houses

A ”korsvirkeshus” was a half timbered house with a frame of logs and walls filled with bricks or daubed clay (lerklining). The walls were strengthened with diagonals struts at exposed spots like corners and doors. The space between the logs had a vertical skeleton or framework, similar to a wood lath wall prior to plastering. This skeleton was held together by wounded straw ropes to keep the clay in place, when clay (cob) was used as a filling. A frame with its filling was called “bindning” and this type of constructions was sometimes also called “bindningsverk”. The vertical logs in the framework were placed on a sill. The clay used was blue clay mixed with sand, straw and chaff. Even cow-dung could be mixed in. Clay walls were a bit vulnerable and had to be renewed now and then. Half-timbered houses with clay walls was primarily used in the countryside of Skåne province but also in western Blekinge and southern Halland where the whitewashed clay walls gave the countryside a characteristic touch. The image to the right is of  Skåne farmstead, Skansen - a "korsvirke" house. Photo: Hans Högman, August 2008.

Stone Houses

Before the middle of the 19th century it was unusual to find stone buildings, both in the countryside as well as in small towns. Before then stones (granite or bricks) were mostly used as building material for churches, town halls, palaces/castles, estates/manors and military fortifications.  However, around the 1850’s rural areas also started to use granite as building material. One reason was that the blasting techniques were developed so stones could be split into blocks. Mostly farm buildings were constructed with stone. With the industrialization of brick production in the beginning of the 20th century, bricks replaced granite as building material. Still in the 18th century, it was only in Stockholm and a few other larger cities where stone houses dominated. The building to the right is built with limestone, which was a common building material on the island of Gotland. The roofing is saw grass. The image to the right is of Russgiftet from Gotland, Skansen. Photo: Hans Högman, August 2008.

Preservation of Old Houses -

Historic Buildings

Many old historic log buildings are being preserved at various places in Sweden. We have for example open-air museums like Skansen in Stockholm, Gamla Linköping (Old Linköping), Wadköping in Örebro, Norra Berget in Sundsvall, Murberget in Härnösand etc. Further, there many privately or publicly owned historic buildings and farmsteads open to the public such as museums or cultural centers, for example Grassagården in Strängnäs, Callanderska gården in Mariefred, Karlsgården (Karl farmstead) in Järvsjö, Kaplansgården in Härkeberga, Enköping, Kvekgården (Kvek farmstead) near Enköping, Gudmundstjärn farmstead in Medelpad. Then of course there are local history centers (hembygdsgård) throughout Sweden.

Skansen, Stockholm

Skansen is the oldest open-air museum in the world, founded in 1891 by Artur Hazelius. It is located on the island of Djurgården, a royal park near the city center of Stockholm. Over the years about 150 historical buildings (farmsteads, houses etc) have been moved from nearly every part of Sweden and re-erected at Skansen. Most of them date back to the 18th and 19th centuries. The Town Quarter shows what a Swedish town looked like in the mid-19th century. The idea behind Skansen is to show how people lived in former days in different parts of Sweden. Visitors to the houses and farmsteads are met by historical interpreters in period costume. They often demonstrate domestic occupations, such as weaving and spinning. Skansen is the largest and most well-known open-air museum in Sweden.

Gamla Linköping (Old Linköping)

Gamla Linköping is an open-air museum in the city of Linköping, Östergötland (E). Here we have about 80 buildings collected  from the city of Linköping and its surroundings. About 50 of them have their original interior and are open as museums. The idyllic small-town atmosphere of Old Linköping tells of life in former days.

Wadköping, Örebro

Wadköping in Örebro City is an open-air museum and a town district in the central parts of Örebro, Västmanland (T). The open-air museum was founded in 1965 when Örebro celebrated its 700th birthday as a city. With its old log houses Wadköping portrays the older settlements and town environment of Örebro. There are houses from the 16th, 17th, 18th and the 19th centuries in Wadköping moved here from all parts of Örebro.

Norra Berget, Sundsvall

Norra Berget is Sundsvall’s city park, and one of Sweden’s largest open-air museums with historic farmstead buildings as a remembrance of how country people lived on farms long before the age of mechanized farming. The city park is located at Norra Stadsberget, the northern city mountain, just north of Sundsvall’s city center, Medelpad (Y).

Murberget, Härnösand

Murberget is a large open-air museum in Härnösand City, Ångermanland (Y). Here are several historic buildings and houses in a proper environment telling us about life in Mid Norrland during the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. A neighbor to the open-air museum is the Västernorrland Länsmuseum (Västernorrland County Museum).

About finding old X-joint log houses in

Sweden today

It isn’t difficult to find old X-joint log buildings in the Swedish countryside. All older buildings in the countryside are built with the X-joint technique. However, at the end of the 19th century it became the fashion to fasten wooden siding on the exterior walls of X-joint dwelling houses, so you don’t necessarily see the actual logs today. X-joint barns, cow sheds and utility buildings etc, haven’t been covered with siding though, so they can be seen in their original appearance. There are X-joint dwelling houses on farmsteads that haven’t been covered with wooden siding, however there aren’t that many and therefore not always easy to find. The majority of the X-joint dwelling houses without siding are dwellings that have been kept in their original appearance as historic buildings. Almost all old X-joint log houses are painted today but there are still a few that aren’t and have their original platinum hue made by the weather throughout the centuries. It is even more difficult to find X-joint log houses in cities but it is still possible, especially in older smaller towns. However, log houses in cities been torn down or been victims of fire.

Modern X-joint Log Houses

Until the middle of the 1900’s, construction of wooden buildings was a common skill. However, after World War II, construction of houses was drastically changed. The old skills were replaced by industrialized and technological construction methods and the old skilled craftsmanship of building log houses was more or less forgotten. In modern building, lumber has become a stock line. The old advanced knowledge and craft that earlier was so characteristic in log building wasn’t passed down to modern times in any greater sense.   X-jointing faded out at the end of the 19th century. At that time more modern building techniques came into use, for example timber framework with boards. Later in the 1950's/60's prefabricated houses dominated in the building industry. Once the foundation is ready, complete prefabricated sections on walls are lifted on to the foundation with a crane. This is quick and the roof is mounted during the same day. In the 1950’s the X-joint building technique was revived when the construction of summer cabins/summer cottages quickly grew.  Today, there is a large production of X-joint log houses in Sweden. It is once again the fashion to have a log house. Today’s log houses however, are prefabricated, ready to be shipped to customers and assembled in a short time. The image to the right shows a modern X-joint log house. Photo: Hans Högman, August 2008. There are many courses today in Sweden where you can learn the craft of building log houses. These courses are open both to professionals as well as amateurs and are very popular.

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Related Links

• Photo Gallery Log Houses

Source References

1. Nationalencyklopedin 2. Byggnadsvård, Skansen 3. Knuttimring i Norden, 1986, Red. Göran Rosander, Dalarnas Museum 4. Uppländsk knuttimring, särtryck ur Uppländsk bygd, 1940, Nils Ålenius. 5. Timringstekniker, Högskolan Dalarna 6. C-Uppsats, "Knuttimring" av Lars Hedman, 2003, Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, Uppsala universitet 7. De gamla hantverken - redskap och metoder från självhushållningen tid, John Seymour, 1984. [Eng. originalets titel: The Forgotten Arts]. 8. Byggnadsvård för landbygden - Timmerhusens uppbyggnad, Länsstyrelsen, Västerbotten 9. Timringskonsten en tusenårig tradition, Länsstyrelsen Dalarna 10. Hantverksbladet, Timmerväggar, Skellefteå Museum Top of page