This snowy cold icy week has got me thinking about my ageing parents, where they currently live is up a steep driveway and at the first sign of snow and frost becomes very slippery and dangerous to drive on, nothing we can really do to change it without massive expense. So has anyone got any recommendations for log cabin/annexe manufacturers. Can do alot of the construction and building myself so a kit would be idle. But want something better than a glorified garden shed tho ! Thanks in advance
Log cabin/annexe recommendations
- Thread starter Landrover
- Start date
- Location
- America's dairyland
Tell them not to drive in the snow??? Sliding into a ditch seems like the last thing I'd worry about with my mother, with phones and some traffic on her road, sitting stuck in the snowbank is not the worst place to be stuck.
As far as log cabins, I hate them. Traditional wood framing limits the affects of wood expansion and contraction, log cabins amplify it. Very hard to seal, poor insulation value. Don't fall for the "thermal mass" nonsense unless you live in a high elevation arid climate.
As far as log cabins, I hate them. Traditional wood framing limits the affects of wood expansion and contraction, log cabins amplify it. Very hard to seal, poor insulation value. Don't fall for the "thermal mass" nonsense unless you live in a high elevation arid climate.
suffolksmallholder
Member
- Location
- Suffolk
suffolksmallholder
Member
- Location
- Suffolk
Dan used to do courses. Particularly proper ‘log-cabins’
SS
- Location
- America's dairyland
A timber frame or SIP structure is entirely different. I was thinking of a full or dressed log American or Scandinavian style log home.
suffolksmallholder
Member
- Location
- Suffolk
18” round logs with those amazing corner joints is what Dan does. He studied on Canada.
I’m currently having an octagonal building milled. Douglas fir is the medium. I have drawn it up on my board and it will be a suck it and see build with the help of two ‘Mill-wrights’ (windmill builders) and my boatbuilding/timber framing skills. Still a suck-it-and-see though!!!
Watch this space, or disaster area
SS
- Location
- Shropshire
Happened to see this today.
Granny annexe 2.0: Chic, pre-fab models are soaring in popularity
Factory-built annexes are cheaper than a bungalow and allow older people to stay close to family - even radio DJ Tony Blackburn has installed one.
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
Funny things old people, not seen my ageing neighbour ls for ages que -15 and three inchs of snow ice they out in vehicles …… ffs just stay in and let yoof get your shopping etc …. But na
- Location
- Lorette Manitoba
We’ve been digging deeper into different types of wood frame and log cabins as our boat in only cabin got flooded this past spring. All seemed simple until you start asking the questions. Found a lot if the log look cabins are big garden shed with little or no insulation and fir the amount of materials you get it’s extortion. MentionEd was sip panels and the next step is ICE. Ice is an entire home that is so well sealed it’s only uses 40% of the heat required compared to a regular home. Pre engineered panels lock together then the outer cladding of choice on the outside. Building a log cabin in the wetter uk environment id think would be difficult to seal up and retain its looks. How would a bank see it as a long term mortgaged property with a shorter life span??
suffolksmallholder
Member
- Location
- Suffolk
IMO you need to build one big enough to then shrink internally inside with 200mm of insulation. This combined with good eaves overhang will make a good building.
OR: build a well insulated brick barn with a hand cut timber trussed roof. Live comfortably in this. You won’t then be penalised for a timber building being a home.
SS
- Location
- Lorette Manitoba
We have the added issue of having to boat materials in during summer or across the ice in late winter. Where this cabin is is in a very high snow fall area too. Not uncommon to have 6 ft of snow by the new year. Nit a project I’m looking forward too. The idea of the secluded cabin in the middle of no where was great until rebuilding with its associated problems. If it wasn’t such a great place to have to watch kids play it would be sold to the next man with the same romantic notion of living off the grid.
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foxbox
Member
- Location
- West Northants
We've had a 3 bed log cabin as a holiday let for over 10 years now and it's superb, we'd certainly consider the same again if we were looking to add another let and I'd happily live in it too. Ours uses a small LPG gas boiler for hot water (ASHP wasn't really a thing for hot water in the UK when we built it) and 2 towel radiators in the bathrooms, the rest of the cabin is heated with an ASHP into the main living area and a heat recovery system moving air around the cabin. It stays warm in winter (it'll comfortably exceed 20c below -10c outside) and cool in the summer as the ASHP will run as air con, the insulation and roof overhangs help a lot with this too. Ours is twin skinned, so the outer walls and roof go up and down depending upon the humidity and season, whereas the inner skin is stable. We've got plastered walls and ceilings with no cracking and the triple glazed windows have never been an issue either.
If we did it again we'd go ASHP for everything, beyond that and a more modern layout there's not a lot I would look to change. We made the mistake of getting planning for a footprint before finding the manufacturer and as a result our footprint dimensions differed from the standard plans the company used which was a bit of a pain but it all worked well in the end.
Ours came through a chap called Mark Barber and was our own modification of one of the standard designs available at the time. From memory it arrived on two curtain siders and was watertight in less than 2 weeks after we'd put the foundations in. That was a faff in itself as the council insisted for a long time that we went 3m deep with them
.
If we did it again we'd go ASHP for everything, beyond that and a more modern layout there's not a lot I would look to change. We made the mistake of getting planning for a footprint before finding the manufacturer and as a result our footprint dimensions differed from the standard plans the company used which was a bit of a pain but it all worked well in the end.
Ours came through a chap called Mark Barber and was our own modification of one of the standard designs available at the time. From memory it arrived on two curtain siders and was watertight in less than 2 weeks after we'd put the foundations in. That was a faff in itself as the council insisted for a long time that we went 3m deep with them
.
- Location
- Lorette Manitoba
Looks really nice. Wish I could get it dropped in at our site.
suffolksmallholder
Member
- Location
- Suffolk
Woodenways are offering a course for those serious about building a log cabin;
www.woodenways.com
SS
Woodenways |
www.woodenways.com
- Location
- Newcastle upon Tyne
Maybe the American ones are different from Scandinavian. I have lived in a log house for 22 years. It is always warm with no draughts. It is bright and airy and has required much less maintenance than a more traditional house. The insulation level is fantastic and it stays warm in winter and cool in summer.
A huge amount depends upon where the timber is grown. Timber grown at a British latitude would last no time at all whereas the logs grown around the Arctic Circle will last generations, nevermind decades.
I supplied log houses for 12 years and the timber used was second to none.
Please consider the planning implications. Will it be a building, or will it be a mobile? Will they be living in it independently or will they be reliant on the main house for meals and/or bathing? Will it be in the garden of the main dwelling or elsewhere on the site.
Annexes are one of the most misunderstood and enforced against developments in residential planning.
Annexes are one of the most misunderstood and enforced against developments in residential planning.
- Location
- America's dairyland
Depends what you're comparing it to. Wood studs in an insulated wall are considered bridging and seriously reduce the insulation value of the wall. Making the whole wall out of solid wood only makes it worse.
Here, and Scandinavia most houses are stick built with small wood framing, because wood is relatively stable along the grain. But it expands and contracts much more in the width measurement, meaning real log cabin will shrink and swell twice a year, up to a couple inches. Terrible to seal and maintain to modern standards.
- Location
- Newcastle upon Tyne
My apologies I only have experience of living in one, building them and designing them for 20 odd years. I will bow to your greater experience.
- Tags
- gas lpg maintenance sip