Building a Log Cabin

Nightglow · 29 Jun 2012 at 22:54

Lt_Red said:
Good plan pulling up the floor boards and replacing with thick ply.

Can save you a lot of grief, I've seen floorboards twisted despite being screwed down, caused no end problems with the ply & tiles laid on top.

It's a longer job ,more expense using 25mm compared to 18mm, but the results are worth the effort.

The bathroom in my present house has 6mm ply laid over floorboards, it's terrible, boards are loose, toilet bounces slightly.
And when I removed the bath panel, the bath was only sitting on 4x2 bearers, done a temporary repair, by removing bath, & putting down a 36mm sheet of ply, until I have the time to completely refloor the room.

Lt_Red · 29 Jun 2012 at 23:02

Yeah my bathroom floor is 18 months down and its developed a really annoying squeak. Its screwed down to hell and back and the grout is still OK, but that damned squeak! Maybe I'm a perfectionist but squeaky floor boards really wind me up.

One day I will tear it up and re-do it. Right now I have other things on my list.

Lt_Red · 29 Jun 2012 at 23:36

Here we go I have tried to stitch together some images of the inside of the office after the skirtings, architrave and desks have been installed. As you can see I am not very good at this image stitching lark...

[edit] found a free bit of software which does it for you... [/edit]

churchhawk · 30 Jun 2012 at 07:30

Looks brilliant mate, well done

danza · 30 Jun 2012 at 08:19

I'm so very jealous, that looks brilliant.

Docaroo · 30 Jun 2012 at 09:18

Great work!! That looks brilliant!

Nightglow · 30 Jun 2012 at 09:47

Fantastic.

Looks right having the desk there.

Efour · 30 Jun 2012 at 09:48

Id love to build something like that, but there's been a recent spate of burglaries round here and I could pretty much guarantee the chavs would have a field day in a place like this.

Nightglow · 30 Jun 2012 at 09:52

Efour2 said:
Id love to build something like that, but there's been a recent spate of burglaries round here and I could pretty much guarantee the chavs would have a field day in a place like this.

What a shame, in some areas here it would get burned down within a week.

Lt_Red · 30 Jun 2012 at 19:21

Done! Now onto the more important matters - sorting out the nursery...

mcast · 30 Jun 2012 at 19:27

"Planning permission was first - usually you don't need it for cabins of less than a certain size, unless, as in our case, it would be within 2.5m of a boundary. We applied, drew drawings, bought maps of the Ordinance survey website (they wont accept googlemaps - bah) and waited."

I'm curious, does that mean if someone bought a few acres of farmland cheap, they could build a log cabin similar to yours without needing planning permission?

K1LLSW1TCH · 30 Jun 2012 at 19:31

I bet it smells awesome inside.

Lt_Red · 30 Jun 2012 at 19:34

mcast said:
I'm curious, does that mean if someone bought a few acres of farmland cheap, they could build a log cabin similar to yours without needing planning permission?

I'm not sure in green field land to be honest. I think as long as its not more than one storey, is below 2.something meters in height, does not have a veranda or balcony and is not within 2.5m of the fence then yes, but I could be wrong.

Its a complex field, have a look here: http://www.logcabins.co.uk/latest_n...to-planning-permission-permitted-development/

In any case a building of over 30m^2 of floor area will need building regulations and that complicates log cabins in terms of fire protection and insulation.

I am no expert though.

K1LLSW1TCH said:
I bet it smells awesome inside.

Actually it smells quite strongly of Cuprinol Wood Preservative at the moment

I jest, its a lovely new pine smell, the solvent aroma is almost gone.

mcast · 30 Jun 2012 at 19:48

Lt_Red said:
I'm not sure in green field land to be honest....

"To be permitted development, any new building must not itself be separate, self-contained, living accommodation and must not have a microwave antenna."

Thanks for that link, my question is answered.

Nice log cabin by the way, really nice.

Lt_Red · 30 Jun 2012 at 20:18

Its just suddenly struck me that I have not considered the rainwater harvesting freezing in the winter. The overflow pipes are OK as they are never full, but what if the hoppers freeze? The snow melt would likely overflow above the ice in the hoppers and down onto the concrete base and under the cabin, potentially causing damp/rot issues.

The DPM the cabin is laid upon (in addition to the one in the concrete base) is lipped up at the back where the hoppers are located so any water collecting on the "shelf" would be diverted away from the pressure treated bearers, so that's not all bad, but a direct overflow out the top of the hoppers may cause damage to the external walls.

Also, the final downpipe of the gutter is below the water line, so the melt water may back up the downpipe and the gutters themselves may overflow. That ones easy to sort though.

Hmmm.... Anyone know anything about this stuff? I guess I could insulate the hoppers with foil backed rockwool and gaffa tape...

[edit] I have just had a look at it and I think if the downpipes into the gutters are above the water line and that water freezes, the melt water collected by the gutter system would flow over the ice in the hopper and into the overflow system anyway... so long and the melt water does not exceed the capacity of the overflow pipe it should be OK. I think... I will cut the final downpipe section off to a few centimetres above the full water line. [/edit]

Nightglow · 30 Jun 2012 at 21:36

Lt_Red said:
Its just suddenly struck me that I have not considered the rainwater harvesting freezing in the winter. The overflow pipes are OK as they are never full, but what if the hoppers freeze? The snow melt would likely overflow above the ice in the hoppers and down onto the concrete base and under the cabin, potentially causing damp/rot issues.

The DPM the cabin is laid upon (in addition to the one in the concrete base) is lipped up at the back where the hoppers are located so any water collecting on the "shelf" would be diverted away from the pressure treated bearers, so that's not all bad, but a direct overflow out the top of the hoppers may cause damage to the external walls.

Also, the final downpipe of the gutter is below the water line, so the melt water may back up the downpipe and the gutters themselves may overflow. That ones easy to sort though.

Hmmm.... Anyone know anything about this stuff? I guess I could insulate the hoppers with foil backed rockwool and gaffa tape...

[edit] I have just had a look at it and I think if the downpipes into the gutters are above the water line and that water freezes, the melt water collected by the gutter system would flow over the ice in the hopper and into the overflow system anyway... so long and the melt water does not exceed the capacity of the overflow pipe it should be OK. I think... I will cut the final downpipe section off to a few centimetres above the full water line. [/edit]

I mention that in post 117.

Shimmyhill · 30 Jun 2012 at 22:51

When my water buts freeze its not too thick a layer of ice, you also tend not to get rain when its freezing so its never been a problem.

Nice build btw, wood is great!

Dmack · 30 Jun 2012 at 23:15

real life version of mine craft, good stuff

Lt_Red · 1 Jul 2012 at 12:57

Yeah I know you mentioned it Nightglow, I didn't quite click that you were referring to freezing.

Shimmyhill said:
When my water buts freeze its not too thick a layer of ice, you also tend not to get rain when its freezing so its never been a problem.

Thanks for the reassurance.

Combat squirrel · 1 Jul 2012 at 14:39

That is awesome mate, very very well done.