UK Log Cabins Info Blog Archives -

5 April 2025 By uklogcabins

Maintenance free garden buildings

We all enjoy our garden rooms, but they all need maintenance, which most people don’t enjoy! If only there was an affordable maintenance free option for garden buildings! Please read on……

There are 3 areas of a timber garden room that generally require ongoing maintenance –

Roof
Walls
Joinery (windows and doors)

Garden building roofing

There are many types of roofing materials used on garden rooms, the most common being shed felt. This has a very limited lifespan and can easily be blown off by strong winds. We recommend using either –

Felt shingles (for apex style roofs) which come with a 10 year manufacturer’s warranty (and an expected lifespan of up to 30 years)
EPDM rubber roofing which comes with a 20 year manufacturer’s warranty. Unlike most garden building suppliers, we use uPVC edge trims and not timber strips. Timber strips will inevitably rot after a few years.

Walls – Maintenance free options

Most garden buildings are clad with timber boarding. This, of course, requires regular maintenance with preservative, painting or staining, and possibly replacing any rotten timber cladding boards. Even with regular painting, the walls will look tired where the sun will bleach the paint or stain. Not forgetting that the timber could possibly warp, bow, expand and contract through the different seasons.

There is another, no so well known, reason that timber may not be the best solution. UK Building Regulations state that any garden building measuring larger than 15 square metres internally AND closer than 1 metre to any boundary must be constructed of “non-combustible” material. Timber is definitely combustible!). This therefore limits the useable area within a standard garden building. It is not always practical to build a garden office, log cabin or even a large shed that far away from a boundary. Building into the garden wastes all of that spare space behind it.

So what’s the solution to resolve the above wall issues?

There are a couple of different types of “non-timber” cladding –

Composite cladding (made from a mixture of recycled wood fibres, recycled plastic, and bonding agents)

This resolves the maintenance issue (as they are maintenance free) as it comes self-coloured in various colours and just needs hosing or wiping down every now and then. However, it doesn’t resolve the combustibility issue. This type of cladding only achieves Class C or Class D according to the strict rules applied by “EN 13501-1: Fire Classification of Construction Products and Building Elements”. Only Class A is defined as being non-combustible, everything else is classified as being combustible to some degree….

EN 13501-1: Fire Classifications for building materials

Hardie Plank cement fibre cladding

This option resolves both issues, meaning it is “maintenance-free” (it comes in many colour options and has a guarantee for 15 years) AND has a fire rating of A2-s1-d0, which is the highest possible fire rating for a coloured facade/cladding product. This means it’s non-combustible AND won’t contribute to fire spread.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown:

A2: Indicates the reaction to fire and behaviour of the material (as shown above).
s1: Refers to the smoke production.
d0: Classifies the material in relation to flaming droplets/particles.

What does the “S” relate to?
The “S” part of the classification refers to smoke emission (or release) during combustion: S1 is classified as the quantity/speed of emission as being weak. This is the highest classification available.

What does the “d” relate to?
The “D” part of the classification relates to the creation of flaming droplets when exposed to test conditions. Test data reported no flaming droplets within a 600 second test period.

Trouble-free, fully compliant maintenance free garden buildings

Our range of framed garden buildings clad with HardiePlank (cement fibre boards) achieve everything you want from a maintenance free garden building. You can be build it anywhere in your garden (as long as it occupies no more than 50% of your garden) and fully comply with the 2 very important regulations that you need to commonly comply with….

No more than 2.5m high (planning permission – http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/outbuildings/miniguide)
If larger than 15sqm (internally) and closer than 1m to a boundary, a garden building needs to be made from substantially non-combustible materials.
Any garden building exceeding 30sqm will need to fully comply with Building Regulations, including the base (building regulations – https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/43/outbuildings/2)

Joinery (windows and doors)

Windows and doors are the most vulnerable and time consuming part of a garden room. They are moving parts and they are very time-consuming to maintain (painting etc). We offer the ultimate solution for this – uPVC windows and doors. They require no maintenance at all other than a bit of a clean every now and then.

Easibuild Garden Buildings

Our range of framed “Easibuild” garden buildings (garden workshops, summer houses and garden offices) all have optional upgrades for the maintenance free options as listed above –

HardiePlank cladding.
Different roofing options.
uPVC windows and doors.

See how our maintenance-free timber building walls are constructed:

Hortons garden building wall cross section clad with HardiePlank

Our framed buildings look great when using HardiePlank cladding. The wood grain effect looks like a natural timber board, but without needing ongoing maintenance AND with the fireproofing built in!

UK Log Cabins framed building clad with HardiePlank

24 August 2024 By Keith Lynch

Adding an extra window to your log cabin

Hortons UK Log Cabins can upgrade your existing log cabin in numerous ways. One of the simplest is adding an extra window to your log cabin. Whether that is to get a better view or to introduce extra light into the cabin (or replace).

This customer sent us a photo of her existing log cabin which didn’t get any morning sun. Therefore she asked us to add an extra window so her studio could benefit from this extra light. You can see where there was a picture hanging on the wall which was the required size and position for the new window….

New cabin window to replace painting on the wall — External face of the log cabin where the new window is to be cut in

External face of the log cabin where the new window is to be cut in

As you can see, this enhances both the external look of the cabin and also the internal space which now looks much lighter. Adding an extra window to your log cabin is not expensive and is relatively quick and easy to do. After a couple of hours, the job is complete (this job in the photos above took about 1 hour).

Options for new cabin windows and doors

We can also add uPVC joinery to your existing log cabin, all shapes, designs and sizes of doors and windows. Beware of double glazing companies saying they can just insert new or replacement timber or uPVC windows and doors into your log cabin! They are almost certainly not aware of the movement and settlement cycle of a log cabin – not allowing for this will cause all sorts of problems with your cabin (gaps in wall logs, gaps around the windows and doors, leaking walls, etc).

31 August 2023 By Keith Lynch

Static caravan chassis

Static caravan chassis can support any of our log cabins or timber framed buildings. This then makes them comply with the caravan act. The caravan act has certain rules which you must adhere to. The main one (apart from the size limitations) is that the building must be able to be “transportable”. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to have wheels. It can have lifting eyes such that a crane can lift it onto a lorry which then transports it.

Choices for mobile home chassis

Not all sites have good access or level areas to site caravans. This is why we have developed a full range of steel chassis to cater for any eventuality.

Prefabricated steel chassis

Mobile home and park home twin wheeled chassis, made to any size

This is the traditional solution for park homes and static caravans. They come complete with twin wheels for stability whist manoeuvring. Plus a draw bar so a vehicle can push or pull it into position (usually a tractor). And additionally, jack legs which stabilise and level the structure once in position. We deliver directly to site, so good access is necessary to get you the property with a large artic lorry. You will also need the appropriate machinery available on our arrival to off-load the chassis.

“Knock-down” steel chassis kit

Mobile home chassis kit - bolt together on site

This kit is ideal for sites without good access for lorries. Or for sites that don’t have roadways to get to the actual site position within the property. We deliver them in kit form. This means that a long and wide lorry doesn’t need to deliver the chassis to your property. The parts are delivered individually to your address. You can then carry / transport these bite size parts to where you want to site the mobile home, park home or static caravan. All parts are in the kit which you will need to assemble it, including the nuts and bolts. So you will just need a few basic tools to assemble the chassis.

Build your mobile home or caravan chassis on site – no access restrictions!

You won’t need any heavy machinery like you would with a traditional wheeled chassis to move it to the build site or to actually build it.

All terrain steel chassis

Park home chassis suitable for any site - any size

Sometimes the ideal site will be on the side of a hill where there are great views. This usually creates a lot of extra work or it’s possibly not even feasible to transport a caravan to it. We have the solution. It is easily possible to build all of our of all terrain kits onto our adjustable concrete plinths.

Only a minimal amount of work assembles each of these plinths, even if the ground in very uneven. The metal shoes have a certain amount of adjustment (50mm). But if you need extra height adjustment, we can then provide extra concrete sections. These simply insert under the cap sheet and build it up to the required height. There is virtually no extra work required to add these concrete “shims”. Once the piers are complete, it is then just a case of assembling the steel chassis on top. The next stage is to cut and fit the heavy timber, which come with the kit. Finally fix the OSB deck over the whole area and you have a really strong level platform. Then you’re ready to build your timber home onto it.

Mobile home options

Once your steel static caravan chassis is complete, you can build any of our timber buildings and cabins onto it and comply with the caravan act. You can then take it one step further and build a fully insulated Twin Skin log cabin. This then makes it compliant with BS3632 which governs how warm the mobile home or park home needs to be.

Do you own a park home site and need a number of chassis ,or actual park homes complete with chassis? Please contact us as we can offer discounts for multiple orders.

20 May 2023 By Keith Lynch

Garden sheds Horsham

Come a view our garden sheds Horsham display site in Sussex. We have a number on display including basic sheds, pressure treated sheds, tall workshops, heavy duty storage sheds. Whatever you need your shed for, we have the solution – we sell sheds for every requirement.

Small storage sheds on display at Horsham

Our shed range starts with small tool tidies and garden stores. Sometimes you only need a small shed to store a few garden tools. Nothing fancy or big but you don’t trust what you see on the internet. You can come and visit our shed showground to see what you are buying. We are sure that you won’t be disappointed, especially as our sheds include installation as well!

Apex and pent sheds on display at Horsham

Everybody who sells garden buildings, sells both pent and apex sheds – some good, some best avoided! If the price seems too good to be true……you know the rest! You’ll probably end up with 4 fence panels for the walls. And roof so weak that it starts bowing at soon as it’s built. Our sheds from Shedlands are truly value for money. They are the best value for money available – strong sheds aren’t the cheapest, but ours are by no means the most expensive either (far from it).

Workshop sheds on display at Horsham

Everyone has a different idea of what a garden workshop is. Some may say it’s just a large shed – not always the case as well sell small workshops as well! On the other hand, some customers are looking for a taller than average shed with good access via double doors. We definitely sell these, we have a couple of different workshop sheds on display. One of them being our Easibuild workshop which is the strongest garden shed that you will find.

Many shed options available

As with all of our sheds, we offer a pressure treated option, thicker cladding options. Also, and unusually with sheds, a factory painting option as well. There are many colours to choose from –

Shedlands paint colour chart — Paint colours available for your garden shed (factory painting or tins to buy)

Stronger framework – our sheds come with 38x50mm framing as standard. But, we can offer 50x50mm or even 50x75mm framing upgrade options for really strong sheds.

Cladding options – all of our sheds come with 12mm shiplap cladding as standard. However, there are other options available at very economic rates. Pressure treated Tanalised 15mm shiplap, 18mm shiplap and 19mm loglap cladding –

Tanalised garden sheds from Shedlands — See our garden sheds Horsham

Window and door options. Our sheds come with standard layouts but you can change these if you want to suit your particular garden layout. Adding extra windows or doors is also an option as well as wider doors (single doors or double doors).

9 May 2023 By Keith Lynch

Renovate your log cabin or buy a new log cabin?

Renovating your existing garden cabin could save you a fortune. Hortons are experts in all things to do with log cabins – we can renovate your log cabin. We can refurbish your existing log cabin to look as good as new (or sometimes better). The most common jobs that need doing are –

Rotten logs

The most common problem is that the bottom logs have gone rotten. There could be a number of causes for this – lack of maintenance. Rain splashing back onto the cabin from an over-sized base. Leaves or dirt piled up against the cabin wall and many more reasons. Pretty much every cabin company will say that this is terminal and you need a new cabin. Any tradesman that visits, and who knows about interlocking log cabins, will have 2 thoughts. Either say that it’s not possible to change these logs. Or that they could cut the logs out and splice new pieces back in. Beware of contractors who say they can fix it. Ask if they have worked on log cabins before and how they intend to change the logs.

We have the solution, we can renovate your log cabin walls properly –

Hortons UK Log Cabins CAN change the logs. We have specialist tools and equipment that actually jacks the whole cabin up! Meaning that we can drop the bottom rotten logs down from underneath the walls. It is then a simple case of fitting the new logs back in from underneath. Then letting the cabin back down onto the floor again. Using this method we can even add logs to your log cabin to make it taller, which may make it a lot more useable. Running machines and gym equipment, for example, usually needs a good amount of headroom. Another course of logs may make all the difference between having to be careful not to hit your head on the ceiling or not.

No other company has this purpose built equipment to jack a log cabin up in order to repair or replace rotten logs. So beware of anybody saying they can do this – you might end up with a pile of fire-wood in your garden! This is because when lifting a cabin up, it will push and pull itself out of square. And there is no easy solution, no matter how you try. It won’t go back down onto the existing floor. With no easy way of resolving the problem other than bringing heavy plant (diggers etc) in to physically push and pull the cabin into position. Probably causing all sorts of damage in the process.

What are the limitations?

It doesn’t matter how large or heavy your garden cabin is. Each one of our air jacks can lift 5000kg and we use a number of them! However, it is not just a case of jacking the building up. Cabins need to be square and level, which it won’t be if we just randomly jack it up. Our equipment keeps everything in line and square. But we can also fine tune to the nearest millimetre whilst lifting.

Repairing a log cabin, new replacement wall logs and floor — 1 – log cabin lifted up and suspended on “stilts”, floor, floor bearers and rotten logs removed.
2 – New damp proof membrane installed.
3 – new wall logs installed, new floor bearers and floor boards laid, cabin set back down. Just re-hanging the windows and doors, adjust them and it’s all ready to go and will give many more years of enjoyment

Leaking roof

Fix a leaky roof. We can strip the existing roofing material off of the roof and replace to suit all budgets. Felt roll, felt shingles (10 year guarantee), EPDM rubber roofing and many more options are available.

Sometimes the roof has been leaking so long that the roof boards or even the roof structure has suffered and started to rot as well. We can totally strip the whole roof off and build a new roof with your choice of roofing material.

Repairing a damaged roof. Sometimes there is localised damage on a roof (a tree branch has fallen onto it for example) – we can patch a roof if needed.

Doors and windows

Doors and windows don’t work / are rotten / need adjusting. We can undertake any of these tasks. We sell a range of windows and doors. Timber as well as uPVC windows and doors and even aluminium joinery including bifolding doors. If you need to replace your windows and/or doors anyway then we can offer much more. Rather than straight replacements, we can even change the layout to make it more suitable for your needs.

Rotten or bouncy floor

The floor has gone rotten. If you are lucky, it is just the floorboards that have rotted which is a relatively easy fix. If you are less lucky, the floor bearers have also gone rotten. This is probably caused by an inadequate base and/or no damp proof course installed when the cabin was originally built. But, the problem being that the whole cabin is built on top of these bearers. We can use our lifting equipment to lift the cabin up off of these rotten bearers. And then replace them and lay a new floor as well. In extreme cases, we can lay a new concrete base under the cabin whilst it’s jacked up in the air. Before laying a new damp proof course and new floor bearers. And then lower the cabin back down onto this new base structure and finally laying new floor boards.

Renovate your log cabin can be the best option

All of the above sound expensive (some are and some are not so much). But all are cheaper than buying a new cabin. This is especially the case when factoring in the cost of demolishing your existing garden building. Plus getting rid of it. Even before the adding in the further costs of installing the new cabin and all of the other associated costs that come with it. Not forgetting the extra hassle and disruption as well. Build costs, painting costs, installing new electrics, possibly a new base, etc all add up.

Enquire about how we can renovate, repair and improve your log cabin

Maintenance free garden buildings

Garden building roofing

Walls – Maintenance free options