What Base is Best For Your Log Cabin
Log cabins with a construction using interlocking wood boards are best sited on a firm, level and stable base. This goes a long way to ensuring the walls built perfectly horizontal and vertical.
There are many ways to achieve these three key critieria, some more permanent than others but each with their own benefits.
So in answer to the question "What Base is Best For Your Log Cabin", our opinion would be "Any - as long as the base can successfully meet the firm, level and stable requirements. The choice will then be arrived at depending on your budget, cabin permanency and weight.
- Budget - Probably the cheapest option is to produce a timber base, much like found under a deck using joists spanning the length and width, supported at strategic points depending on the thickness of the timber used. The other end of the scale is a full concrete plinth - this involves excavating top soil, creating an enclosed area defining the size and shape of the plinth using shuttering and then filling the void with concrete. Much more involved and much more expensive.
- Cabin Permanency - Again using the two examples above, a timber base is much more easily removed than a concrete plinth. If the structure is only required for a temporary period, then the timber base makes more sense. If, on the other hand the longevity is more permanent, then the concrete option may well be considered.
- Weight - The requirements of the cabin for the base to function correctly will be greatly affected by its weight. A shed or smaller summer house will not make the demands on the base to stay firm and stable ans much as a larger cabin or multi roomed building. The base choice, therefore, should also give consideration to the structure to be built.
So, with the above in mind, let's see what construction methods you could employ :
- Timber Base
- Railway Sleepers
- Paving Slabs
- Concrete Plinth
Author - Martin Corby
Posted - 30 Sep 2012