True North Log Homes

We toured the factory in March, 2016, retired and moved north to western New York in June, and began construction on our "forever home" in September, 2016. Wow! What an exciting first year of retirement! The design we developed with True North is beautiful, and the engineering that has gone into these homes is amazing! Mark Wrightman, our sales guy, was a genuine pleasure to work with, and the staff at TNLH was responsive and most helpful whenever we needed them. We moved in July 1, 2017, and within hours (literally!) hosted a large family reunion to rave reviews! The house is just a bit rustic (it is a log home!), warm and comfortable, and elegant all at the same time! Even our adult children, who thought we had lost our minds when we announced we were moving north, have fallen is love with it. Spectacular!

We are building a log home with this company now. True North Log Homes is a truly Canadian company with the best work ethics one can hope for in our time. By reading the reviews, I realized that it would be helpful to understand the building process to avoid some frustrations which are inevitable in such a large project. Let us start from the design stage. The company has quite a large selection of standard project plans. However, you are here to build a dream home. Therefore, some significant revisions will be done and the team of engineers will help all the way through it. Every revision of the initial project includes a lot of drawings and checks against the building code. Understand that your project will mutate into something unique and different from everything the company has built before. Therefore, check together with the team all dimensions, 3D models, and elevations. I recommend putting scaled cutouts of your furniture on plans to be sure that everything precisely as you like it. Do not forget to check vertical dimensions as well! True North Log Homes company makes most of the material necessary for the project. The company is responsible for the functional supply chain of parts that they do not make themselves. They have organized tours of the factory which I highly recommend to understand what is going to be delivered to a construction site, how it will be labelled, and packaged. The delivery schedule is critical as well as the site preparation. Log Project Management (LPM) is a subsidiary of True North Log Homes. They do not make homes, they build them. If you want to develop the project with another builder, it is highly possible. We decided to hire LPM for our project. LPM shares the same work ethics of several generations of Muskoka entrepreneurs. They love the land and want to make it better. I know that you are going to ask True North Log Homes about the construction cost and they have no idea. It is not because they hide something. The design team does not know about any part of the home which is not included in the delivery package – HVAC, all electrical, plumbing, IT and security, landscaping, internal doors and closets, drywalls, floors and many other things. LPM has an only vague idea based on the previous experience. Therefore, the construction budget is your responsibility! Take it seriously to avoid significant cost overruns. You are building a high end home. I highly recommend hiring all trades assuming that they are going to finish the entire project because all the customization you wanted translates into limited drawings and verbal communications. Your plumber will be the only person remembering where all things are. A new one will have an incredibly hard time finishing the project. Another requirement is the dedicated local project manager on the site at least three days a week for the entire project. Otherwise, everything will move very slowly, the trades will ask you for advice and I expect that you will have no idea. It is also required by the building code and insurance. Good luck! You envisaged it and reality will exceed your expectations.

We absolutely love our Cottage! More than happy with the experience with True North, we would highly recommend them. Customer Service is second to none before, during and most importantly after purchase!

True North Log Homes helped turn our dream home into a reality. Our home is a solid built home and TNLH uses quality wood products. All the logs are cut and treated in the factory, you need to take the tour if your a log home enthusiest, their patented log system is very unique. All deliveries were met, and we actually had enough assorted pieces of wood surplus that my husband could make railing posts and wood trim for all our windows, and some custom wood coverings.Their after build service continues to be excellent, and we've been in our home for three years. Thanks B & T Evans

Repeatedly told our dream retirement home would be x amount. Paid drawing deposit and got a quote....OOPS. That was only materials and not labour...so our dream home just increased by ~70,000.00. If anyone doubts this, more than happy to share emails. When escalating, a sales and development manager would not respond to my questions via email, insisting on a phone call. Why, when I cannot trust what is written, could I trust what was said? We asked for a partial refund of our deposit as we had no faith in this company however wanted to be fair to the drawing and sourcing people. No reply to that at all. VERY disappointing. Again, if you would like details, happy to send correspondence proving this.

We purchased our True North Log Home in March of 2015. The dream of living in a log home on a property with a sunset view became reality a few short years later. Working with the team at True North was a pleasure and always felt like you were their #1 priority. We had looked at other log home manufacturers over those years, but True North was the ticket to a pretty much maintenance free log home life. We wouldn't trade the experience of this build for anything. It was definitely a dream come true. Loving every minute of it.

My husband always dreamed of building a log home - owning one is even better. We enjoyed working with the True North designers, engineers and management team to create this dream. Our family has enjoyed living in our home for the past 12 years. The same level of customer service and attention to detail continued when we built a log garage to complement the home. Currently working with them on our new boathouse and an addition to the existing cottage as our family is growing as well. We appreciate the ongoing support and quality of product and technology offered.

We came to True North Log Homes in June 2020 to discuss building a new cottage in 2021. We had a wonderful meeting with the sales rep, and provided them with a copy of a plan we liked. Weeks passed, and we did not receive anything further. We had our Architect draft the plan, hoping this would assist and we provided that to True North in CAD format. Months passed, and although the sales rep was very diligent in updating us, we still did not have a rendering or pricing. 8 months later to the day, we are still waiting for final pricing. I do believe that the product is quality, however, we decided today to move on, leave the design deposit and find an alternate builder. We are cognizant of the restrains during COVID, but having gone out of our way to attend meetings hoping to move this forward it is just not happening. I do applaud the efforts of the front line staff, and hope that the design/estimating Dept can come to grips with their effect on the customer base. This is in no way malicious, but certainly relevant for customers hoping to build. We stood ready for 8 months to sign a deal.