Getting ready for Spring/Summer 2025 - Maintenance Tasks!

Published by Colette Ogle on 12th Feb 2025

Whilst your new building may be sitting pretty in your new spot of luxury, the work does not stop there! Log Cabins require regular maintenance to make sure you do not encounter any problems, if you keep up to date with the maintenance your building will last much longer than you expect! Whilst a no-maintenance building would be wonderful, this would lose all the characteristics of timber that we know and love!

What treatment do I use?

Firstly, you will need to choose a suitable and high-quality treatment for you Log Cabin. Both the inside and outside of your building will need treating in different types of treatment, a basic fence or shed paint will unfortunately not be adequate to provide the best of protection for your purchase. For the exterior of your building, we recommend either a solvent or water base product with a life of 8-10 years that requires multiple coats. The type of finish that you want will decide which product you choose, a solvent-based stain such as Sadolin Classic will mean the knots and characteristics of the timber remain visible whereas a water-based paint such as Sadolin Superdec can be mixed to any solid colour to suit your garden. We believe either product will give your building the protection it needs. From years of experience, we do not recommend the use of a clear treatment on the exterior of your building as this rarely offers much form of UV-protection and will eventually cause the timber to grey and water ingress will begin to show – it is also extremely hard for even the best of decorator to see where you have been. For the interior of your building, we recommend a polyurethane coating which is also available from Sadolin. This coating provides a protective layer that prevents dirt marks and stains should you spill any liquid as well as protection from greying and rot.

When do I need to re-treat my building?

Next Summer - As we have explained, over the seasons each individual timber will expand and most importantly contract. During the summer following on from when the building has had its initial treatment and protection, as the wood will have dried out large amounts you will likely notice parts of the tongues and bare wood becoming visible. We believe that once these tongues become visible it is important to treat them with a touch up coat, not only for protection but for cosmetic purposes, no longer will you have to see bare wood every summer! There is also no harm in applying a touch up coat on the windows and doors in the hard-hit areas, in fact we recommend this at the bottom of the glass areas. You may notice in the months after your building has been fitted that a few splits may appear. As with already present splits, these can be filled over, sanded and painted if you wish.

Natural Movement in your building:

Adjusting your doors: With Log cabins being designed with floating frame windows and doors, it is expected that sometimes the expansion and contraction may cause them to move from correct alignment or out of square. To allow for this the doors are provided with simple-to-use adjustable hinges, these can be used with a small allen key.

Wind the top hinge inwards or outwards to bring the doors closer or further away from each other. Wind the central grub screw inwards or outwards to lift the door up or down as required. Wind the bottom grub screw inwards or outwards to bring the door closer or further away from the frame.

Guttering:

We find that if you are using the building throughout the year even during the rain, then guttering would be a suitable option to prevent water from dripping onto your head and splashing up the walls of your cabin. If your building is near grass, you may also find that dirt is splashing up your building. Some customers however do feel it is unnecessary when they have good drainage around the building and rarely use it when the weather is not great. Our teams will always be happy to provide you with a price for fitting guttering should you require it!