Are kiln-dried logs such a technological breakthrough as log home companies market them to be? What does this technology do anyway?
Freshly felled logs will shrink as they slowly dry out. General rule of thumb is that it takes about 3 years of drying before logs can be used as log home raw material, without experiencing drastic settling.
This means that somebody has to attend those logs for 3 years before they can be used. Processing and storage costs keep on piling continuously. Few log home company has the resources to keep their own storages. Moreover, ramping the production up and down according the demand is very difficult if one has to think about raw material cycle.
It is pretty clear that log drying costs money. If outside party does this natural drying process, it will most certainly want to set higher price for their product than normal logs have. Therefore, big enough log home companies prefer to set up technology, which they can use to kiln-dry their logs. They can get logs cheaper and adjust the drying process according their production needs.
To the customer they can sell this money saving idea by saying that this way logs are high-tech products that cost more, but boy what a quality. Watch out the marketing terminology while shopping a log cabin or log home.