Timeline: Log cabins in time for Christmas!
Log cabins are one of the most versatile garden buildings – they can be used for leisure and relaxation or as an additional room to your home. By installing insulation, lighting and heating, a log cabin can be habitable all year round – as a home office, workshop or even a place to house your sauna or Jacuzzi!
As well as being a useful addition to any grown-up garden, there are also designs of log cabins aimed at children – perfect playhouses and a safe retreat to get the kids out of your hair for a few hours! With Christmas coming up, a playhouse could also be the perfect present. Installing a log cabin is a fairly easy process – most come in flat-pack kits which you can build yourself at relatively low cost.
Here are five simple steps to getting your log cabin installed before Christmas.
Stage 1 – Identifying your needs
The first thing to do when thinking about your new garden building is to decide what you’re going to use it for. The building’s purpose will determine the size and shape of structure you need, as well as things like wood types, insulation needs and roofing. Will your cabin be for work? Log cabins can make excellent home offices away from the noise of the house, and can be equipped with electricity and heating relatively easily. If you’re not thinking of work and need a place to relax, log cabins are perfectly suited to house a home sauna or Jacuzzi – much better than stripping down to your swimsuit in the cold outdoors! Cabins for this purpose can be a little more unusual, with hexagonal and circular designs on offer. Alternatively, your log cabin may be for your children – playhouses are very popular and the vast range of designs available means your child could be the envy of the neighbourhood!
Stage 2 – Choosing your design
Once you have determined a use for your cabin, you need to start designing it. There are many styles of log cabin to choose from, ranging from the traditional square designs to hexagonal and circular – for children there are even more shapes, including Swiss cottages, stables, army huts, palaces and even mini replicas of your own house!
Log cabins equipped for saunas come in different shapes and sizes depending on the style of sauna and the person capacity. Sauna cabins can cost less than £1000, rising to £2500 for a four-person cabin complete with infra-red heaters, digital controls and CD player. Small log cabins suitable for home office use can be installed for less than £900, but can go up to £4000 for a larger building.
Stage 3 – The perfect gift from Santa!
When it comes to children’s playhouses, the sky really is the limit! Not only are the designs extremely varied, you can also order bespoke playhouses tailored individually to your exact requirements. The vast range of designs also varies the price – a small basic playhouse costs less than £200 and usually looks like a wooden cottage. There are variations on the cottage theme – a girl’s cottage playhouse with shutters and curtains costs around £550, and an army base camp hut costs around £1300. Swiss cottages with an upstairs bunk will set you back a little more, at around £1500.
Designs for kids can get even more elaborate: fairy tale cottages painted in pastel colours are on offer for around £6000, gothic style cottages complete with leaded windows cost around £8000, Tudor houses with two floors can costs upwards of £10,000! Some companies will even design and build mini replicas of your own house, complete with interior design, electricity and heating. These houses are priced to order, but I think it’s safe to assume you’d probably need a mini mortgage as well!
Stage 4 – Rules & Regulations
Garden buildings generally do not require planning permission, but there are guidelines to consider before building your log cabin. The structure must be no closer to the road than your existing house, must not cover more than half of the garden and can be no more than four metres tall. Cabins must also be at least five metres away from the house and playhouses must comply with the EN71 toy safety standard. Additionally your garden building must be solely occupied by the homeowner – so you can’t rent it out! If you are running a business from your new home office, there are also business regulations to consider before setting up.
It’s always best to check with the local planning authority before building any structure – and remember to check with the neighbours. If they think the building detracts from the view of their own garden or is out of keeping with the area, they can complain to the council and you may be forced to take your cabin down.
Stage 5 – Construction and the finishing touches
Most log cabins come in flat-pack kits and are easy to assemble yourself. Make sure the ground is dry and that you store the wood under waterproof sheeting until you’re ready to start building – this way it won’t warp in the rain and construction should go smoothly. If you don’t fancy building the thing yourself, most cabin companies have professionals on hand who will assemble your kit at an extra charge.
Once your log cabin is complete, you can start thinking about the practicalities inside. There’s no interior decorating with a log cabin – you just need to consider the times of year you will be using it and what you will be using it for. Do you need electricity and heating for the winter? If you don’t need heating, you may still need insulation and cladding – most cabin companies will offer these as extras to their standard services. Floor and ceiling insulation adds around £160 to the price of a log cabin and cladding will set you back an extra £1000.
A log cabin may seem like a big DIY job, but most take a maximum of one day to install and the wide range of uses for a cabin makes it extremely worthwhile. Whether a relaxation space for the adults or a playhouse for the kids, it’s something the whole family will enjoy!
Visit www.cabinquoter.co.uk to help you choose your supplier.
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