Log cabins built like buildings, not flat-packs.

It depends on the footprint, how you intend to use it and the finishes you choose, and on what the ground turns out to require once we survey it. Our cabins are priced as complete buildings, covering engineered foundations, an insulated envelope, cladding, glazing, a decorated interior, certified electrics and heating, so you are comparing a finished room rather than a flat-pack shell. Book a free consultation and we will survey the garden and send a fully itemised Cost Proposal.

Because a kit price covers the timber shell and very little else. A mass-produced cabin has no engineered foundations, minimal or no insulation, no vapour control, no certified electrical supply and a bare interior, and the planning and Building Regulations position is left with you. A custom cabin includes all of it, built and certified by one accountable team. The gap in price is the gap in what you actually receive, which is why a kit cabin often costs more once it has been made genuinely usable.

Many log cabins fall under Permitted Development, provided the cabin is single storey, stays at or below 2.5m overall height within 2m of a boundary (taller roofs are possible further away), sits behind the front of the house, keeps total garden coverage below 50%, and is used for something incidental like an office, gym or studio. Flats, listed buildings, conservation areas and properties with Article 4 directions have different rules, and sleeping accommodation always needs consent. We check the planning position for your exact property as part of every Cost Proposal.

A detached log cabin under 15m² with no sleeping accommodation is normally exempt. Between 15m² and 30m² it remains exempt only if it is single storey and either sits at least 1m from every boundary or is built substantially from non-combustible materials. Over 30m², or with any sleeping use, Building Regulations approval is required. Electrical work is always designed and certified regardless of size, and that certification is included in our packages.

Yes, and this is the single biggest difference between a custom cabin and a kit. A mass-produced cabin is usually set on timber bearers laid over existing ground, which is what causes the twisting, sinking doors and damp floors that show up within a few winters. We survey your soil, levels and access first, then engineer a base of ground screws or reinforced concrete pads to suit, so the building stays level, dry and square for its whole life.

Yes. Every cabin we build has an insulated floor, walls and warm roof, double-glazed doors and windows, vapour control and thermostatic heating as standard, so it performs like a room of the house in January, not just July. Most catalogue cabins have none of this, which is why they run cold and damp in winter and stifling in summer. Air conditioning, underfloor heating and ventilation packages are available for gyms, offices and busy work-from-home setups.

Yes. We offer dry bar, kitchenette and full bathroom packages, including tanked shower rooms. Water and waste runs are priced by distance from the house, and where a kitchenette and bathroom are combined we carry out a planning and use review first, because a fully self-contained annexe is treated differently by the council.

In practice the terms describe the same thing: a standalone, insulated building in the garden used as an office, gym, studio, bar or guest space. Log cabin usually implies a timber-clad exterior, while garden room suggests a more contemporary finish. What matters far more than the label is how it is built: whether the foundations are engineered, whether the floor, walls and roof are insulated as a system, and whether the electrics are certified. We build both to the same specification and let you choose the look.

A typical custom log cabin takes around three to five weeks on site once the design and any planning are settled, depending on size, groundworks and the specification of the interior. Design, survey and the permitted-development check run before that. We agree the programme with you at proposal stage and bill weekly against completed, signed-off work.

A properly built cabin on engineered foundations, with a ventilated cladding zone, correct vapour control and a single-ply or EPDM roof, has the same sort of life expectancy as an extension, and it is maintained the same way: periodic retreatment of the timber and the usual gutter and roof checks. A flat-pack cabin on timber bearers is a different proposition, and the failures tend to appear in the floor and the door frames first.

Yes, we design and build detached log cabins, garden rooms, home offices, and self-contained annexes. Many fall under Permitted Development, though some require planning permission depending on size and use. We handle the full process from design and planning through to foundation work, construction, and finishing.