This article aims to give advice on purchasing your first log cabin. It discusses possible problems including wiring and planning permission and goes through a few major brands so you can make a decision on where and how to buy. The article is generally aimed at UK residents but providing you understand your own countries building regulations can be applicable to anywhere.
Log cabins are a huge investment, they can cost anywhere between £500 to £10,000 and each has its own unique properties. They are extremely versatile and can easily become the pinnacle of any garden or property. They have many uses such as pool house, hobby house, summer storage and a small flat. There are however, many issues you need to consider when planning to purchase a log cabin. The first and foremost is planning permission. Planning permission for log cabins is a somewhat uncertain subject. If you live in a national park, a conservation area, a place of outstanding national beauty or the Broads you will be under different rules to the rest of the country. If you are not sure always, always contact local authorities. Better they know to start with than coming around later causing trouble. That being said, building a log cabin should not be a stressful procedure. If you’re only planning on building a garden building then you can consider the following points so that you will know whether or not to apply for planning permission. A garden building should be ok unless; - Your house is a listed building
- It does not cover over 50% of your garden
- It is not used in connection with running a business
- It is not more than 4m high
- It is for use by the house occupants only
- Your house is closer to the road than the garden building
If your plan does however cross one of these or you are planning on using it as a full function building you will need to apply for planning permission as well as achieve building regulation standards. Even if your log cabin qualifies as a garden building it will still need to stick to the official building regulation if it is over 30 square meters. Building regulations are in place for your safety and are too detailed to fully explore here. You can easily find these on the internet but for your information the generally concern fire safety, sound proofing, ventilation and hygiene. You should always seek the validation of a professional for building regulations; it’s one of the most important steps in the construction. Considering what exactly you will need in the cabin is also very import from the offset. Some manufactures have cabins with predrilled holes for cables and plumbing but if not you will need to consider where all these will be thread in order to drill any holes accurately before construction. You should also remember that you will need to prepare a base, preferably from concrete so make sure to organise this as soon as you know the dimensions of your cabins floor.
Deciding which log cabin to buy may seem an easy task but once you begin to scratch the surface of retails out there you will see there is more choice than you imagined. My best advise is to choose the approximate size and style first, then find a log cabin that fits up to this or you will be so swamped with options you may end up making the wrong decision. Here are a few factors to consider when buying a cabin.
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