Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Peter Sing stands in a display model of his log home.

Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Peter Sing holds one of the components used in log home production at his mill site.

Photo courtesy of Sing Homes
Sing Home log panels were used to build this home in Leavenworth owned by a retired couple from Western Washington who wanted about 3,000 square feet of living space.

Building a better log home

McCleary craftsman will present his technique at Seattle Home Show

SARAH JACKSON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Saturday, February 9, 2002

MCCLEARY -- Peter Sing walks in the rain between wood-filled warehouses, his smiling face shielded by a baseball cap as he steps around puddles.

Rich aromas of pine, fir and cedar waft from saws carving, trimming and perfecting one of Sing's most prized, patented inventions -- "the Sing log."

"This is international headquarters," Sing says, half-jokingly, stepping into his simple on-site office in McCleary while production of Sing Homes moves along with the help of men and machines in nearby buildings.

Sing -- family man, inventor, businessman -- started his enterprise on Bainbridge Island and moved it, two years ago, to McCleary, where wood stacks high today.

Over the past decade, Sing has delivered his invention -- specially, designed wooden prefab homes -- across the United States and around the world, slowly but steadily.

Customers from Olympia to Arizona to Seoul, Korea, have built homes with Sing's wood design.

Next week Sing will erect a life-size featured home at the Seattle Home Show at the Stadium Exposition Center, showcasing a 769-square-first floor and with "prow" style elevation and a 200-square-foot loft at the 58th annual home and garden extravaganza.

Log-based Legos

Though Sing Homes are in fact made of logs, the structures are in few ways typical of the log home market.

Sing himself considers the Sing Home a "mosaic house."

Small cut logs -- not round timbers -- combine to form panels which shape the house, which is based in part on principles of standard frame construction.

But Sing homes don't require drywall or siding.

Sing logs work a lot like elongated Legos. Interlocking pieces join permanently with glue and screws that go in predrilled holes.

"Glue and screw, that's all you need. You don't need a hammer," Sing said. "It's almost impossible for a woodworker to imagine. This is a hybrid of all the houses put together."

Recognized by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Sing's product and multiple manufacturing processes use small, quarter-sawn logs to form thick panels.

Each piece essentially contains two walls.

One stack of quartered logs -- fused together with glue in the production process -- forms the exterior wall, another stack forms the interior wall. Spacers in between connect the two walls, leaving room for insulation and wiring.

Any curvature (or wane) on the wood is turned to the inside or the block to conceal the imperfection.

"See all the defects? No good," Sing says, showing a preformed panel in the main production warehouse. "But look at here."

There's nothing but smooth wood on the other side.

They're small, imperfect trees in disguise, their blemishes and wane turned away.

Assembly required

Dale Steward, production manger for Sing Homes, said pieces are usually shipped in 4-foot-by-8-foot-long pieces.

Many small trees, however, might be pieced together to make the panel complete, using Sing's patented and secret technique.

"This is an 8-foot log here, but it started as a bunch of pieces about a foot long," Steward said. "It's making a silk purse out of a sow's ear."

Wood for the panels gains strength when it's kiln-dried at Sing's kiln and mill facilities in Hoquiam.

Sing's wood can be dried evenly -- reducing moisture to about 12 percent throughout -- because the pieces are so small.

Drying allows Sing to mix different species of trees, creating what he calls a "symphony of Northwest wood" cut to create a "dimensionally stable" straight grain.

"This is called a reject, but it's still good quality," Sing said. "Every Sing log we try to cut right through the heart."

Cutting through the heart or center of the wood releases tension normally trapped in larger logs, which hold different levels of moisture.

"The quality is in the cutting," Sing said. "There's plenty of small trees around. This is actually better than the old-growth tree. This is a way to use our abundant resources."

Home construction today, Sing believes, hasn't advanced technologically or in harmony with the environment.

"One hundred years ago we had plenty of old growth matter," Sing said. "Now it's dwindling."

Sing's entire process aims to make homes stronger and longer lasting by decreasing settling and shrinking -- common disadvantages when building a traditional log home.

Kiln-dried wood

Doug Johnson, who built a Sing home for his family between Eatonville and Yelm in 1999, said he chose Sing log panels because he had heard about the natural shrinking -- sometimes up to 10 inches -- in more traditional log homes.

"Peter's were kiln-dried logs, so that was the big factor," Johnson said. "All and all, the house came out pretty well. It didn't shrink a whole lot more than a stick home would shrink. We like the look of it."

While most contractors could easily understand the building process going into a Sing home, inspired buyers could do it themselves to save money.

"Anybody with any kind of construction experience," Steward said, "they'll fly through it."

Sing said his homes cost about 20 percent more than standard frame homes. Price, however, can be even less if customers build on their own.

"This is so simple," Sing said. "Almost any contractor can do it. Mom and pop can do it. It's affordable -- if they (buyers) want to do it themselves."

'Sing Village'

Sing first thought of using smaller logs when he was a patron of the Seattle Home Show years ago.

Talking to a log home builder from Montana, Sing realized it would be possible to use what lumber sellers consider economy grade lumber -- high in wane -- to build stronger and more stable homes.

Though most of his clients live outside of Washington, Sing hopes his company will gain a stronger local presence eventually.

"This is exciting," Sing said. "The story behind this is more than just a house. It's environmentally sound. I'd like to have Olympia become a Sing Village."

The Sing display home at the show also will feature Sing flooring, more than an inch thick and based on the same principles of Sing log wall panels.

The Weathervane Window Company of Kirkland will provide the windows for the house. Seattle Lighting will install a chandelier, and Amish Touch of Silverdale will provide the furniture.

Showgoers will be able to view the home's interior from a raised deck platform and a custom stairway by Northwest Mantel.

Barbara Bratsberg, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Home Show, said while there won't be a kitchen and bath in the home, it promises to be impressive.

"This is probably the grandest exhibit they've had before," Bratsberg said. "The house is actually going to be furnished and decorated."

Mike Kalian, managing director of the show, said the unique building technique will appeal to do-it-yourselfers who can put up the homes without cranes or other heavy equipment often associated with traditional log home construction.

"He's been doing this for a long time," Kalian said of Sing. "It really neat what he's doing."

Sarah Jackson writes for The Olympian and can be reached at 360-704-6871 or olyjax@yahoo.com.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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