Insulating A Log Cabin

Our Cabins do not come insulated as standard. However, we do recommend insulating the roof and floor. Please see this page for more advice:

Advice on how to insulate your log cabin

We do also offer our own insulation kits that might be of interest, please see these below:

• https://www.tuin.co.uk/insulation-kits.html 

Walls:

We do not recommend to insulate the walls of the cabin, as you would be at risk of restricting the natural movement of the timber. Therefore, we recommend to go for a thicker log, as the thicker the log the better this will be at retaining the heat inside the cabin.

If you were to insulate the walls of the cabin, you would need to create a floating frame that allows for the movement with an air gap to ensure moisture can't build. Please see the below for how this can be achieved:

• https://www.tuin.co.uk/blog/expansion-contraction-in-log-cabins/#Expansion_Contraction_in_Twin-Skin_Log_Cabins 

Floor:

With the floor insulation, this is done between the floor joists of the cabin, and is then covered by the floorboards. If you have opted for our flooring inside the cabin, the floor joists have a height of 44mm, so a 40mm insulation board works best between the joists. 

It is also a good idea to use a damp proof membrane on top of your base dished up inside of the foundation beams. The insulation boards and joists will then rest on top of the DPM.

Roof:

When insulating the roof of the cabin, we advise this should be done on top of the roof boards. This is because when insulating on the inside of the roof boards, moisture could build and overtime this can cause the roof to sag. 

For the pitched roof cabins, you can install the shingles straight on top of the insulation boards, you would just need longer clout nails to be able to do this.

However, when doing this on a pent/flat roof cabin, the EPDM glue will not stick to the insulation boards, so you would need to clad over top of the insulation first, with ply or osb.

Alternatively, if it is not possible for you to insulate on top of the roof boards, you can do this between the roof purlins inside, you will just need to bare a few things in mind. Such as leaving air gaps to allow for ventilation, please see some examples of this below: