Hi Guys, Looking at getting a garden log cabin but I'm not sure what wall thickness I should go for. I think I'm ruling out 28mm, I'm currently looking at 45mm but I can see some companies offering as much as 70mm. I'm not log cabin expert and i know salespeople will say anything to get the sale. Is 45mm enough? it's going to be used as a chillout room, will probably have a tv etc in. One company are selling 62mm (warmalogs) which is supposedly 140mm equivalent but its an extra £1000 which I do like the look of but is it necessary?
My cabin is 44mm, its fine, better to spend money on insulating the roof and floor with 50mm PIR insulation. Which part of the country are you? If south then look at Skinners Sheds, they stock the range from logcabins.lv Also think very carefully about the base, lots of horror stories with concrete bases, prefer timber sub frame myself with ventilation under.
Been several good threads on log cabins on this forum. https://community.screwfix.com/threads/die-lorelei-2017.187656/ Cabin was from Skinners.
We're Milton Keynes area, we have Dunster House round the corner from us so we're currently looking at them, Frosts also have a few but for the money were opting for a specialist, we will check out skinners thank you, We don't want to stray too far in case anything goes wrong. We've already got a level concrete base down which my father in law kindly did for us, we've been told to make sure we get a cabin with pressure-treated bearers to allow the ventilation and prevent rotting timber. This is the one were looking at https://dunsterhouse.co.uk/premiumplus-severn-w5-0m-x-d3-0m. The standard 45mm is £2899 and with roof and floor insulation, it's £3133 which still comes in cheaper than the 62mm which is £4849. I didn't think to add insulation to the 45mm so thanks were defiantly leaning more towards the 45mm. Will be waiting to see if they have a January sale before making our final decision.
If you want to put shack on timber bearers, look at plastic timber, doesn't rot,attacked by creepy crawlies, or soak up moisture,& should last 50 years or so. https://www.filcris.co.uk/category/boards-posts-and-sheets/posts/square-posts https://www.kedel.co.uk/
Skinners only have a small selection of cabins on their website/catalogue, but they should be able to get any cabin from the logcabins.lv range. The cabin in the link that KIAB posted to is this one for example, from their DF range (under 2.5m height). https://www.logcabins.lv/logcabins/product-range/df-range/df-log-cabins-5-5m-x-3-5m-1493.html Lots of useful info on Tuin website too https://www.tuin.co.uk/blog/base-requirements-for-log-cabins/
The cabin comes with timber bearers already the only thing I was looking at as an addition its the rapid grid system, however, I'm not sure if that necessary as I've got a concrete base.
I looked at a similar style on Dunster >> https://dunsterhouse.co.uk/premiumplus-modetro-w5-5m-x-d3-5m . but I prefer the traditional front apex look. The problem I found is a lot of these companies are including the roof overhang as part of the cabin size which makes it look bigger initially but like with the one you've sent you can see in the image you lose a lot of internal space but thank you. I think I'm pretty set on Dunster House it's just about getting the rest right as its not a cheap investment, I'm happy to go up a wall thickness if in the long term its better value for money, I don't want to just do it for the hell of it. I would imagine as my kids get older they will takeover so i'am thinking long term.
IMO concrete bases for log cabins are the devils work, high risk of water getting under the cabin in the bearers where it has no where to go and in not much time will rot everything. Strongly suggest you look at making sure there is ventilation under the cabin and around the bearers so water can evaporate easily, and use DPC between bearers and concrete. The rapid grid system may be a good way of lifting the whole cabin up away from water puddling on the concrete base. Also you don't want the concrete extending beyond the cabin walls as water will splash back. Can use pea shingle to help reduce this but its not ideal. FYI, the 3.5m x 5.5m cabin I linked to is the cabin size, overhang is 80cm additional to that. Cost for that cabin is about £3k.
Thanks for sharing that link. I was just browsing and saw this post, I'm currently planning a log cabin build in my (sloping) garden on a raised timer frame. These look like a good option for the legs to the frame secured with concrete in the ground and then bolted to the timber joists. Are they as strong as timber in that respect? Thanks Andy