View Full Version : Imported Log houses as a home?
Cinders392
09-Jan-07, 20:54
I have heard a few of my friends and family going on about how affordable it is to import log cabins or even just buy them in the UK. Especially for those who cant get on the property ladder. THeses are to be lived in all year round. There was something in the paper a few weeks back about anyone thinking of doing this to speak to some guy. Just wondering the pros and cons. I hear they are very eco friendly as they keep the house insulated good. Someone also told me there is someone up in the calder area who has built one but I couldnt find it.
What are your views on this option of housing? Do you have any information on it?
my mum has built one that was imported from finland in rogart, it is really nice. they always have people stopping to look at it, much to my mums annoyance.
it was a lot cheaper than a traditional built house and also is very eco friendly .
the one up at calder isnt what i would call a proper log cabin.
donnalee1994
10-Jan-07, 00:07
my family have log cabins and price depends on size of the cabin,very warm houses but need alot of up keep but very nice to live in
I recommend them whole heartedly. Ecofriendly, no decorating, no maintenance apart from a 4 yearly preserver, warm and cosy, perfect, go for it! :)
Bill Fernie
10-Jan-07, 01:59
There is a Canadian one at Staxigoe constructed in 2002. See photos and link to the web site at http://www.caithness.org/atoz/staxigoe/canadianhouse/index.htm
I understand the whole house came over in one giant packing case.
that dont look much like a log house to me from the outside of it bill.
the one my mum and her husband built is a true log cabin where the logs interlock together.
not sure how much it was but they did a lot of the work themselves to keep costs down.
Bill Fernie
10-Jan-07, 10:38
Yes you are right. I was confusing a log house with a wooden one. The Canadian house has very high insulation properties. I was too pe-occupied with that aspect.
Dog-eared
10-Jan-07, 12:50
I thought log houses were built of big logs , a far cry from a timber frame kit house with "log" cladding. Not the same thing at all.
The one down the back road in Rogart is nice but the biggest logs used for building in the North must be the Milton community woodland building and enormous log built dutch barn in the woods behind Milton pub (near Kildary ).
Well worth a look , its in a nice clearing you can drive into.
Useful for stretching the legs on the way home , and its only 3mins from the A9 if you use the northernmost Milton turnoff.
Here is a Log Cabin in Sutherland
>> http://www.northern-times.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/725/Canadian_log_home_creates_stir_in_Sutherland_marke t.html
MickT
Read about this a while ago and got quite excited until I saw the cost - ow! Looks great though.
Cinders392
10-Jan-07, 13:55
The house looks great! House prices up here or anywhere in the UK are crazy and anyone trying to get on the property ladder has a slim chance. Was just looking at options and there is many companies starting to do this now. However once you get land bought, pay to have it errected, VAT, transport, the list goes on it does add up.
my MIL is building a log cabin, next year just outside Inverness, whole thing done,3 bed, or 2 big bedrooms £60,000, i live in Milton and walk past the log cabin there everyday, its impressive isnt it:)
that one near lairg is a crazy price. the one in rogart is my mums one and i dont think it cost them too much really
Yes, it does seem expensive.
I would settle for this one which seems a lot cheaper.
>
http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm
but need alot of up keep
I disagree with you there, quite the contrary actually.
Yes, it does seem expensive.
I would settle for this one which seems a lot cheaper.
>
http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm
That house is fantastic - I would give almost anything for one like it. It's different, cosy, eco-friendly, absolutely perfect. The house of my dreams (sigh). So much nicer than all those horrid little kit houses that are popping up everywhere.
Certainly a home to sett you're sights on!
I like it too.
Yes you are right. I was confusing a log house with a wooden one. The Canadian house has very high insulation properties. I was too pe-occupied with that aspect.
But the Caithness planners don't seem too keen on eco-friendly wooden or log houses, in my area at least.
They seem to prefer "in keeping" house builds............though, as far as I can see, a white harled house with picture windows and patio doors bears as little resemblance to the old houses in the countryside around here as would a well insulated /logwooden one appropriately painted.
So does anyone have any explanations as to why some areas get permission for wood/log houses and some don't.....and is that going to change, do you think, when Caithness gets around to updating their local plan to fit in better with the new Highland one? ?
i think it took my mum about 2 years for them to get their planning accepted
i think it took my mum about 2 years for them to get their planning accepted
Seems to be different criteria on the west than the east of the County, as far as I can see......and it isn't always feasible to dicker with planning for years.
It strikes me that if they eventually accede to plans after a time to suit themselves.........what on earth are they doing in the meantime but being jobsworths?
jinglejangle
10-Jan-07, 22:17
we encountered difficulties when our planning permission was with council. we had to change the colour of the tiles so it was in-keeping with local houses - although when i pointed out that a local house had the same tiles as we wanted we were told that the 'rules' had changed and we would still have to change the tile colour! :eek: :eek:
Tonight there is a very strong wind with horizontal rain beating on the window and I'm sure that it is is just what is happening in Caithness but even harder than in my sheltered corner.
There is a group of whole log chalets some lived in all the year round in Kilchoan, Ardnamurchan which has a pretty similar exposure to most of the County but with probably double the rain fall. A number of years ago I chanced to visit the owner during a bad storm and she showed me where the horizontal rain was cheerfully working its way through the cracks which had opened in the log walls despite regular caulking to prevent this.
I would be very wary about investing in a wooden house of whole log construction in a windy maritime site, fine for an alpine or canadian inland location where generous overhanging eves can provide more protection to the walls.
Now if you really want a snug weather resistant building look at a Lewis black house, better still stand in side one in wild weather and appreciate three foot thick stone walls with rounded gables and the superb insulation of a thatch roof while sitting low on your stool with a dram below the peat smoke seeping through the roof which led Dr. Johnstone to describe a highland village as a "smoking dung heap".
Beware- even the cost of a plot is rising-and the one bedroomed dumps that were unsaleable even a year or so ago have now leapt in vlaue and been bought up by the buy to let/invest people. The former shopkeepers who retired have been getting in on this trade- and house prices continue to climb. Don't leave it too long, if you're not already on the ladder
Yes, it does seem expensive.
I would settle for this one which seems a lot cheaper.
>
http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm
That house is fantastic - I would give almost anything for one like it. It's different, cosy, eco-friendly, absolutely perfect. The house of my dreams (sigh). So much nicer than all those horrid little kit houses that are popping up everywhere.
It is awfully cute, isn't it? :)
Rather reminds me of a Hobbit's house! :cool:
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