Log Home Boom…in Russia?

I monitor stories about the log home industry daily and most of the news that floats across my monitor is what you would expect. Log homes for sale, solving maintenance problems, log cabins of a historical nature, etc., but rarely does a story jump out at me.

My focus is the log home business in the USA and Canada and I honestly know very little about the European or Russian log home industry. Today I saw a story that made me sit up and pay attention and I thought I’d share it with you. On this side of the pond we’re dealing with a financial recession that has the entire home building industry struggling to remain afloat. Apparently, this is not the case in Russia.

In Russia, a log house is called an izba. What is amazing is that nearly 40 percent of single-family houses in Russia are being built of logs. The Association of Wood Housing recently reported that 7.3 million single-family wooden houses were built in Russia in 2010, a 25 percent increase over the last five years.
Read the entire story at The Moscow Times.

Log Home in Russia

This photo is from the story, and I would have to doubt that this is the ‘average’ log house being built in Russia, but like advertising on this shore, few manufacturers would showcase a mundane example of their handiwork. If you’re like me, this wasn’t what you were expecting from the Russian front.