CNBC’s High Net Worth Discusses Concrete Log Homes

Mike Hegedus

Well from London to something very far removed log homes, new twist on that business. No trees are necessary, Mike Hegedus tell us how. This is concrete, and this is a tree, and this is a house made out of logs, but what are the logs made out of?

“You get all the grain detail, all the knots, everything that you need here, but what’s unique about this is it’s not made out of wood, it’s made out of concrete.” — Stewart Hansen, President, EverLog Systems

Hard to believe isn’t it, they look real enough to have bugs crawling out of them. Actually that won’t happen and they won’t catch on fire either.

“You get a much better fire rating out off a concrete log structure than out of a natural wood log structure.” — Pat Supplee, Architect, Studio Modera

While there is nothing new about concrete, forming it using a reverse molding process to look like real wood logs and use those to build houses, is new. Stewart Hansen is President and Co-Founder of EverLog Systems (formerly Cultured Log Systems) in Missoula, Montana.

Using their patented system they built their first home just three years ago, the toughest part was that first conversation with a potential buyer.

“You have to touch it, and you have to feel it. When we were telling people hey, we’re building homes that look like wood but are made of concrete. The first question is, what does this stuff look like, right?”

In the last three years they’ve built 30 custom concrete log homes, a very small slice of the overall log home market. 25-30 thousand are built annually, making up a 3.5-4 billion segment of the home building industry. But because they are high end custom homes the overall housing slowdown has had a lessened impact on their business, a business that has attracted attention from every sector of the building industry.

“It’s a much more durable material than wood, it’s going to last a lot longer.” — Pat Supplee

Basically it’s formed concrete!

“Right” — Stewart

It can’t be rocket science.

“Nope, nope, best businesses are pretty simple little businesses.” — Stewart

Simple… as concrete.

For CNBC’s High Net Worth, I’m Mike Hegedus.

These high end log homes made out of concrete are being built all over the country now with prices ranging from a half a million dollars to over five million.