Since 1993, ecolog has been making dream homes a reality.
A BIT ABOUT US
For over 25 years, since our earliest prototype log buildings in 1993, EcoLog Homes has designed over 500 log home kits for customers across North America.
EcoLog Homes is a wholly-owned division of Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve Ltd. a privately-owned, 100,000 acre sustainably managed forest, which strikes a balance between the day-to-day requirements of an operational business and the long-term mandate of sustainable resource use and conservation.
Over the past 50 years, the 100,000 acres of timberland owned and managed by Haliburton Forest have been transformed from a depleted timber estate into a thriving multi-use operation, which contributes economically and environmentally to the long-term stability of the surrounding rural community, while providing employment as well as environmental benefits to all of its stakeholders.
Haliburton Forest was the first forest in Canada to be certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council and it continues to be certified today. Our customers benefit from the integrity of our operations by getting carefully crafted, environmentally conscious, economically priced log home kits. Their purchase directly supports the implementation of sustainable forest management in central Ontario.
HISTORY OF ECOLOG HOMES
The origin of EcoLog Homes is an unhappy incident at Haliburton Forest, but one of those unhappy incidents that our foresters and sawmillers turned into an exciting opportunity. In July 1995, a tornado ripped through our property and knocked down nearly 5,000 acres of trees in just two minutes. It was an awful mess and Haliburton Forest was left with a lot of timber to use up in a hurry.
While there was a market for our hardwoods, there was no market at that time for our Eastern hemlock. Rather than give up, Haliburton Forest decided to experiment, by turning the Eastern hemlock trees into square log timbers, then using those timber to form log structure for utility purposes.
Soon, visitors to Haliburton Forest were asking where they too could acquire these square timber log structures. Their requests were accommodated and EcoLog Homes was born.
We knew that Eastern hemlock had been used throughout the 19th century to build barns and we knew that many of the barns still standing had Eastern hemlock beams. We also knew that Eastern hemlock is still the building material of choice in certain communities – and that it is often used to build underwater structures and docks. Finally we knew that Eastern hemlock – unlike spruce or pine – is the hardest of the softwoods and that it has a high tannin content, meaning it is naturally insect and rot resistant.
So we have continued with our unique hemlock home tradition at EcoLog Homes, and we stand by our product and our wood of choice. One measure of our success is our long list of happy customers - and the other is the consistently high resale value of the cottages or houses constructed using the kits sold by EcoLog Homes.
A New, Yet Old, Way to Build Sustainably
WHY ECOLOG
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EcoLog kits mainly use Eastern hemlock from Haliburton Forest, a 100,000-acre sustainable forest. Haliburton Forest owns and operates three sawmills, and it is the single largest employer in Haliburton County. This means that when you buy an EcoLog kit, you are buying locally grown and locally-manufactured wood, supporting local jobs and the local environment.
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Wood has natural insulating properties, and Eastern hemlock is superior to most species. Wood is twelve times more insulating than concrete, and it is much less heat conductive than any metal and many synthetic materials as well. Log homes stay cool in the summer heat and cozy in winter due not just to the insulating qualities of the logs but also the effect of thermal mass storage.
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Properly designed and constructed log homes will outlive many types of structure – there are many examples around the world of such buildings exceeding 200 or even 300 years old. Our customers have found that EcoLog kits are popular on the real estate market, holding their value and out-performing conventional cottages and homes when resold or retained for the next generation.
OUR TEAM
MEAGAN HANNAN
Sales Representative
Territory- Northern Ontario and Western Canada
mhannan@ecologhomes.ca
(705) 455-7758
PETER REDMAN
Sales Manager
Territory- Central, Southern Ontario and Eastern Canada
info@ecologhomes.ca
(705) 754-4663