Log cabin news Archives - GardenLife Log Cabins

New: Bespoke timber building service from GardenLife

by Mark Bailey | Apr 16, 2014 | Log cabin news, Website updates

It’s great to dream. Stuck in traffic or unable to get a seat on train, your thoughts turn to different lifestyles. An office in your back garden. Setting up your own cafe or online business. A log cabin in the countryside.

But really these thoughts don’t have to be dreams. Thanks to technology, the internet and wifi, you can work from pretty much anywhere. You can also find brilliant ideas and inspiration online for starting your own business, building an online empire from your back garden, changing to a job that would let you move out of the city, or simply transforming your home and garden.

Many of GardenLife’s customers have used our timber garden buildings to turn their daydreams into reality – from setting up a stunning home office, to gaining an art studio or a dining space for 16. And the different designs on our website cater for all tastes and all purposes. Occasionally a customer comes along who wants something a bit different however – maybe bigger than even our largest log cabin. Or with thicker timber. Or that blends different designs and uses together – a garage and office combined, or a two-roomed teenage hangout.

The good news is that we are happy to help. In addition to all the various timber garden buildings on our website, GardenLife offer a bespoke timber building service that really does bring daydreams to reality.

Our custom-built projects have included timber shops and cafes; lodges with several bedrooms or features such as balconies; eco-friendly timber offices; large log cabins and wonderful garden rooms. The versatility, durability and beauty of timber is so great that it’s possible to do some inspirational cabin projects without having to sign away months or years of your life and earnings.

As an alternative to going completely bespoke, it may also be possible to adapt one of our standard timber building designs by purchasing extra doors, windows or internal walls.

Designing a bespoke timber building
To design and manufacture a bespoke timber garden building, GardenLife first need a rough floor plan showing the size, number of rooms, and approximate position of doors and windows.

Other information is useful too – say, you like two different designs on our website and want to blend them together. Or love a specific design but want to add another room or change the specifications – for example, we recently manufactured a version of our Laggan garden room with 88mm timber. All those details will help us work out an initial price estimate.

We also have a few basic requirements for our bespoke designs:

The floor area must be at least 12m square
We can only do square or rectangular bespoke designs. Unfortunately, we cannot do bespoke versions of octagonal or corner designs (though if you look around the GardenLife website, you’ll find these do come in several sizes and dimensions, so there is already plenty of choice)
Log thicknesses can be: 44mm, 70mm, 88mm, 114mm or, an amazing, 134mm
Doors and windows must be double-glazed (though there is a choice of glass thicknesses)

So, with those few minimum requirements in mind, it’s time to start dreaming. Look at magazines, websites, TV programmes other people’s back gardens, and all around you, to start planning and thinking. The home office that you spot on Pinterest or the log cabin holiday home that you see on your travels could easily feature in your life too! All you need do is get in touch with us and tell us your requirements.

Log Cabins – A cheap and easy way to add space !

by Mark Bailey | Jan 28, 2013 | Log cabin news

New more relaxed planning regulations are set to make making improvements to your home simpler and less hassle. Those looking to expand living spaces by building conservatories , loft conversions and extensions should be abloe to do so more easily when new much talked about planning regulations come in to force. What is not talked about so much however is the average cost of undertaking such projects and the difficulty in raising finances to complete them. The average cost of adding a conservatory to your property is £22,000.00 (Ref Your Money – Daily Telegraph 15/09/12)and a loft conversion even greater at £33,800.00. New concrete garages come in at an average of £14000.00. Should homeowners not have these kind of funds readily available they may struggle with extra lending from their mortgage providers and or other banks. New banking guidelines have made new applications for borrowing open to much greater scrutiny and some homeowners may find they might not even qualify for their existing mortgages should they apply for them today. New planning policies may therefore be set to come in to place but with financing options becoming so much more difficult we question whether they will have much effect in stimulating smaller building and construction projects that they have been designed to do.

Here at GardenLife we have found an increasing trend towards creating this space with log cabins and other garden buildings – a much cheaper and hassle free option to adding some space to your property. Certainly with the costs of moving increasing so much over the past few years there is more emphasis on improving rather than moving ! Please have a look at our extensive range if thinking of going down this route but dont have large funds to take on the more expensive options.