PA - Wayne County mill finds comfortable niche in building log homes

Since the company made its first log home in 1989, business has grown every year.

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BY DAVID FALCHEK
STAFF WRITER

For generations, the Propst family has been unlocking the potential of rough logs by cutting them into boards and studs.

For the past decade, the family, which owns Estemerwalt Log Homes, has been doing dramatic things with logs: mostly keeping them intact to build log homes.

Their mill, just outside Honesdale in Wayne County, has found a comfortable niche in the custom-home business. Since the company made its first log home in 1989, business has grown every year. In 2008, when new housing starts fell by nearly 50 percent, Estemerwalt sales doubled to 47 homes, albeit they are growing from a smaller base. Some homes were even shipped to Denmark.

In 2009, they are already on track for continued growth.

The log home industry is small but growing. About 600 log-home producers in the nation sold 26,000 at the industry peak in 2005, according to the National Log Home Council.

Log homebuyers arent typical homebuyers. They are pursuing a rustic ideal a dream.

Theyve been preparing for years, some for their life, to do this, owner Kurt Propst said.

Most of his homes are sold within 100 miles, and most customers are like Clark and Winnie Cable, who had dreamed of owning a log home for decades.

When Mr. Cable retired from his job as an accountant in Philadelphia, the couple sold their summer home in Union Dale and half of their 50-acre parcel to use the proceeds to build their dream log home. Since 2003, the 4,500-square-foot home, including a finished basement, provides the perfect venue for entertaining their five children and 10 grandchildren at cookouts and major holidays.

I love nature and the outdoors, Ms. Cable said. Its part of the pioneer ideal, going back to Abe Lincoln.

Reluctant heir

Mr. Propst wears boots, a vest and fishing hat to work, living the relaxed, rustic lifestyle he sells. He wasnt supposed to be in the family mill business, which had been in Archbald since 1883 but relocated to its present location in the 1980s. He graduated from the University of Scranton and went into industrial sales. But travel kept him away from his family, so much so that his three daughters would get excited when a plane went overhead, thinking he was coming home.

Mr. Propsts father had surgery and needed help with what was then a hardwood mill. The chance to be home more with his family and help out was enough to convince Mr. Propst to saw and stack, rather than travel. As he cut and lugged wood with his father, he began to think of how to take the company to the next level. Hardwood prices are crushingly volatile. So he wanted to switch to the more stable softwoods such as pine. That transition was complicated.

Instead of the turning an oak, ash or cherry tree into cash within hours, softwoods require time to dry. That means millions of dollars of inventory, something a small operation cant do overnight. Softwood requires different equipment, warehouses and land to dry and store wood.

Mr. Propst moved the business to land his family owned near a lake his grandfather dubbed Estemerwalt a portmanteau of his childrens names: Ester, Emily and Walter and made that the new name of the company.

During this turnover, Mr. Propst received a video of a log lathe in action, spinning a rough log into a perfectly smooth cylinder. That was his epiphany.

How its done

After designing the home with the customer, Estemerwalt mills all the logs and other wood needed for the construction.

Watching Dana Heyn in a glass-enclosed box at the sawmill, its easy to see how the mill functions with about 20 people. With a control panel and two control stick, Mr. Heyn takes raw logs being fed from the right and saws them into boardwood. Each log falls on the bay and with flicks of his wrist, Mr. Heyn controls arms that roll the log, assessing straightness and length to get the most board-feet from the log. The log is then moved through a saw housing and after several passes, leaves as board wood. A 1.3 million BTU kiln runs on sawdust and by-products.

A builder hired by the homeowner constructs the home. The top and bottom of the logs are routed for a tight fit, firmly attached using staggered lag bolts. Foam sealant and caulk are used between logs.

Estemerwalt began by selling the logs, but Mr. Propst found that customers wanted to select all the homes fixtures, such as windows and shingles, through him.

Mr. Propst doesnt think his company is insulated from the economy, but points out his predecessors made it through two depressions. By diversifying into log homes, a small but growing niche in custom homebuilding, he thinks the company is on firmer ground.

Selling homes enables Mr. Propst to work with people, using sales skills honed in his past career. Rather than selling the wood components of a home to wholesalers, he can sell an entire home, a place to live.

While the recession continues, Mr. Propst remains hopeful he will sell more homes in 2009.

My father and grandfather pulled this company through recessions and downturns, he said. I figure I can, too.

Contact the writer: dfalchek@timesshamrock.com

Additional Information

Web Site: http://www.scrantontimes.com

Category: Forestry>Mill News

Region: Pennsylvania

Ad Running: 5/3/2009-6/2/2011

Ad Posted: 5/3/2009 1:04:53 PM

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