Log Cabins UK

Log cabins make great all year round homes even in the UK and in fact, they are basically small houses but instead of bricks, you have logs!

They are built to a very simple design and can sometimes be referred to as log houses as well as log cabins. Although Log cabins and log houses are built from the same materials they do have their differences; log cabins are usually constructed with round rather than hewn or hand-worked logs where as log houses tend be a one story structure, with an almost "less finished" appearance (unlike the log cabins) as these were originally built with the intention of being impermanent.
 

When people think of log cabins, they tend to immediately think of rustic and rural North America with their traditional log houses and barns? Well, did you know that log cabins have there roots in Eastern Europe and possibly even originated in Scandinavia around the Bronze Age (probably around about 3500 BC). They are built by stacking tree trunks one on top of another and then arranging them in such a way as to overlap at the corners and then notch the logs at the ends. Hundreds of years ago the traditional design was to insert moss and other soft materials into the joints to make them more weather tight and they would even throw over animal skins! But as you would expect in most parts of the world today especially in the UK, other, more practical materials other than moss and animal skins are usually used!

People still like to have a sense of tradition and surprisingly log cabins are still a popular choice of housing in some parts of the UK, Europe and America. They make a great alternative to the regular style homes that you see today and are much cheaper to build, run and can even look very striking especially in the colder regions of the north. They can still be built using logs of varying thickness to add to there appeal, plus the thicker logs provide better insulation. You can either buy ready-built cabins or even build your own with a pre-milled log cabin kit if you wish, with the added benefit of being more money efficient.

If you are thinking of buying a log cabin in the UK that is already constructed for you there are a few things that you may need to think about first; it may seem obvious but you need to make sure that you have enough land and measure everything! You will also need to think carefully about its positioning and which direction your log cabin is facing before you build it and you will need to make sure that there is somewhere near by where you can obtain services such as electricity, water and a sewer, as you can image these things are very important unless you really want to go wild and get back to nature. Once you have found the perfect spot you can quite easily buy log cabin kits online, these are becoming more popular than buying a pre-built log cabin from another owner as you can have it built to your own tastes plus you get the added pleasure of creating a home all of your own.

What ever you decide to do you will usually have to obtain a building permit of course, which for log cabins should be a simple process. However, building permits may vary from county to county.