The short answer is YES, It is absolutely worth getting a garden log cabin. It is one of the best things I’ve ever purchased, and I think most people would find a garden log cabin a great buy.
Benefits Of A Garden Log Cabin
I can only tell you about the benefits of a log cabin for my particular circumstances and the type of cabin I have. I’m sure loads of other benefits could be listed.
1) The cheapest way to add a room to your house
For many people, a garden log cabin is going to be by far the cheapest way of adding an additional room to your home.
One of the reasons I started to look into getting a log cabin was because adding an extension to my house was so bloody expensive. I was looking in the region of £50,000 for an extension!
For an all-year-round log cabin in the garden, I was looking at £15,000. It actually ended up costing me about £10,000 as I assembled the cabin myself and took a few shortcuts, which paid off.
2) A garden log cabin makes the perfect home office
I found it a bit of a struggle when we were all sent home to work during the COVID lockdown days. As mentioned above, I considered extending the house so I had a proper home office to work from, but the cost was too high. Instead of the extension, I went with a log cabin at the bottom of my garden, which I believe has turned out to be a much better option than an extension.
– Better mental health
Even though the cabin is only about 30 meters from my backdoor, I feel like I am leaving the house to go to work. There is now a clear divide between my home life and my work life. It has made a big difference psychologically, I feel much better mentally about it.
– Few Interruptions
When I worked in the house I was constantly interrupted or distracted. It was especially bad during the school holidays when the kids expected me to entertain them, help them do stuff and taxi them around. With the cabin being separate, the interruptions and distractions were reduced drastically. The kids know that if I’m in the cabin, then I’m at work and can’t be disturbed.
– Privacy
My job isn’t particularly confidential, but there are times when I might have a slightly heated discussion or joke with colleagues on a call that I would rather my kids didn’t overhear.
3) Adds value to your home
I spoke to an estate agent about what value, if any, my garden cabin has added to the house value. He told me that before COVID, a garden cabin didn’t really add much value to a property, but it would make the property more saleable. Since COVID, people have been actively looking for properties with a home office that can be used all year round, and this has meant that log cabins in the garden add value. He reckoned that my garden log cabin had probably added up to £20,000 to the overall value of the property…..which is nice:-)
4) Great for the kids
During the working week, I use the cabin as my home office. In the evenings and the weekends, my kids use it as their playroom. They can shout and scream while playing video games with their friends online, play loud(ish) music, have mates around, and they don’t cause a nuisance to me or my neighbours.
The Negatives Of A Garden Log Cabin
To be honest, I haven’t found any significant negatives to having a log cabin. The things listed below are really minor niggles and nothing major.
1) Hot in the summer and cold in the winter
I’ve found keeping the inside my log cabin at the right temperature quite difficult. The front of my log cabin has big glass windows, which are great for letting in the light. But, during the summer, it means it’s like a greenhouse and can get hot.
When the temperature drops in the winter months, the cabin loses heat quite rapidly, even though it has both floor and roof insulation and 44mm walls. It does mean that I find I am manually having to turn the heater on and off as the thermostat does not react quickly enough to the changes in temperature. Here are my tips on how to keep a cabin warm in the winter months
2) Trips to the house
My cabin doesn’t have running water or a loo. This means I have to make several trips to the house during the day. In the summer, this isn’t a big deal, but in winter, when it is horrible weather, it’s a bit of a pain in the arse.
3) Noisy when it rains heavily or hails
It rains quite a bit in the UK, but fortunately, really heavy downpours and hail, which cause the most noise, are fairly rare and don’t last.
When it rains ‘normally’, I can hardly hear the rain on the roof.
For information, my cabin roof is made up from:
- Roof boards – 19mm
- Insulation – 50mm
- OSB wood – 9mm
- Polyester felt.
I’m quite sure if you only have roof boards and a felt roof the rain noise would be much more disruptive.
4) Leaky window seals
On really nasty windy and wet days, when the rain is horizontal, I have found that the seal at the bottom of the windows starts to leak. A friend with a cabin (a different model from mine) has the same issue.
Conclusion: Pros and Cons Of A Garden Log Cabin
Originally, I held back from getting a log cabin as I had read quite a few negative comments online. For example, they get damp, require continual maintenance, are prone to insect infestation, are difficult to keep warm (partially agree) etc.
I also incorrectly saw log cabins as glorified sheds and that they couldn’t really work as a practical living space. I now know a cabin is much more than a posh shed and that all those negative reviews, at least in my experience, are unjustified.
I think many of the negative comments about log cabins are probably from people who didn’t properly research and plan or were sold a poor-quality log cabin.
Frequently Asked Questions: Garden Log Cabin
How to build a log cabin?
Most log cabins in the UK are assembled from a flat pack. I’ve built two flat pack log cabins and they were both a lot easier to assemble than I was expecting. Both cabins took me between two and three days to assemble from the flat pack. However, I also added my own insulation and painted the cabin which took quite a few additional days
How to insulate a log cabin?
Neither of the cabins I’ve assembled came with insulation, so I had to add my own roof and floor insulation. Adding insulation requires a bit more effort and cost, but it is essential for all-year-round cabin use. check out my article How To Assemble A Log Cabin for details on adding insulation to a log cabin
How much is a log cabin?
Log cabins vary greatly in price from a £1000 all the way to £10,000s. The main factors that determine the price of a garden log cabin are:
- Size and layout of the log cabin
Larger log cabins with more complex layouts or additional rooms typically cost more. - Material quality
The type of wood used and its quality significantly affect the price. Durable, high-quality timber that is resistant to rot and pests, such as cedar or Scandinavian spruce, tends to be more expensive. - Insulation & energy efficiency
Cabins that have double-glazed doors & windows, and built-in insulation will all bump up the costs.
Many other associated costs also need to be taken into consideration, like: foundations, finish & fittings, insulation etc
