Finnlife Helppo Log Cabin

U.S. Ranch-style livings brings the big country to the back of your home!

The Finn Life Helppo Log Cabin's horizons are so broad, you may think you're in Montana. Here, the possibilities are truly endless. There's plenty of room for storage and also room for play - the Finnlife Helppo Log Cabin also gives you all the time in the world to enjoy the views. If you want, you can still keep yourself busy. Walk around the veranda and see the world from a different angle.

Why buy the Finnforest Helppo?

* Made from precision-cut top quality Scandanavian White Softwood
* 34mm wall logs - provides additional strength, insulation and resilience to cope with extended year-round use
* Timber joists
* Floor and roof T&G
* Roof shingles
* Ready made, fully glazed doors
* Reinforced corners and wall battens
* All necessary fixtures and fittings
* Illustrated instructions
* Roof colour is Green and shingles are square

Dimensions:

Width:
Internal: 3.73m
External: 5.70m

Depth:
Internal: 2.83m
External: 4.50m

Ridge Height
External: 29.70m

Area:
Internal: 10.57m²
External: 25.65m²

This log cabin is also available with underfloor heating from selected stockists.

Return to top

How to build your very own Finnlife Helppo Log Cabin

Relaxing, lounging summer days may be beckoning, but don’t rush to erect your Finnlife Log Cabin. Take the time to work out how it is put together, and you will savour many years of hassle-free pleasure. No construction skills are required. Anyone can build a Finnlife Log Cabin, although some tasks may need more than one pair of hands. Construction times will vary depending on your experience and the number of people helping. Obviously you don’t have to do it without any help!

It is possible to show this document to a professional builder then take it easy until he hands over the keys to your great new Finn Life Log Cabin. However, whichever person completes the work, the initial stage is to get to know these instructions. The plan is to be orderly and to plan ahead. Although Finnlife log cabins share many options in common, each model style is distinctive. These overall instructions cover the basics of wooden cabin construction and are applicable to all Finn Forest cabins.

For features that are unique to your Finn Life Cabin – such as exact dimensions, piece numbers, building plans and piece lists – you should refer to the individual Building Plans and Parts List. If you are building cabins Finn Life Helppo, Finn Life Helsinki, Finn Life Joki, Finn Life Kesa, Finnlife Pori, Finn Life Seita and Finn Life Valo
be aware that certain instructions may be different a slight amount from those found here.

Gravel option: Remove all organic matter before you start work on the foundations. Foundations must always be laid bigger than the footprint of your Finnlife Log Cabin – 300mm wider in every direction and 6” thick when using dense type gravel. For dense gravel foundations you should use retaining boards to keep the gravel in place and dense.

Before you start to erect you ought to ensure that you have a full set of pieces. Check off every piece against the piece list in the Building Plans and Parts List as you remove it from the transit packaging. In the unlikely event that there is a missing piece or that a piece has been broken in transit get in touch with the distributor, quoting the Finnlife Cabin reference number shown on the packing label of the transit packaging. As you check each piece set them out on the ground around the site of the log cabin. Lay every piece near to where it will be used. Laying out aids you see how the Finn Life Cabin is built and it means that pieces are ready to hand when you need them. You can utilize the Building Plans and Parts List as a scheme to what goes where. Be wary not to set pieces too close to the Finn Life Cabin footprint. Give yourself adequate space to work in.

Lay out the four sides of the door frame on a dirt-free and level surface so that the doors open outwards. Loosely arrange them to match the built frame. The top and bottom jambs are not quite matching. Place the one with the Lock RECESS AT THE TOP AND BOTTOM. Make sure that the door cills go behind the doors. Slot the joints together loosely and ensure THAT YOU CAN STILL OPEN THE DOORS prior to moving on.

Note again that if your Finn Life Cabin includes partitioning walls, also Lay the full-height wall boards that form the bottom layer. Refer to the Building Plans and Parts List for assistance. Pay specific attention to the location of any notches in the wall boards of multi-roomed cabins. The position of these notches shows where the interlocking walls go.

Screw one end (5mm Dia x 100mm length wood screw) only of one half-height wallboard to the underlying outermost floor beam by driving a screw (supplied) through the base of the corner joint. Leave the other three corners free. If needed, make adjustments to the internal floor beams to retain an even spacing between them. Screw the half-height wall boards (5mm Dia x 100mm length wood screws) to the rest of the floor beams. 10.5 Check that the structure is square by comparing the lengths of the cross-diagonals. If necessary, you can adjust by pivoting the four linked wall boards on the one corner that you have already screwed down. Temporarily lift the full-height wall boards so that you can drive screws through the three remaining corner joints into the outermost floor beams.

Start laying the second level of wall boards. Bear in mind that the wall that contains the door will consist of two separate wall boards with a door-width gap between. To ensure a tight fit, you should tap each level down on to the layer below. Do not hammer wall boards directly. Use the provided assembly piece (a short length of wall board with a matching joint on the lower surface) to take the blows. In the event that you have not been supplied with an assembly piece then any scrap piece of wood will offer adequate protection for the tongues. Do not hammer too hard.

When laying the roof boards, you will need to temporarily stick an eaves face board to the ridge beam as a guide batten, and use it to make sure that all roof boards terminate in a flush ridge line. Mark the centre line on the front and rear faces of the ridge beam. Start nailing roof boards on one side of the roof, starting from the front. The leading edge of the first roof board should be set 5mm from the ends of the ridge and roof beams. The topmost end of the roof board must be flush with the temporary ridge-beam guide batten. Nail each roof board to the ridge beam (V-Joint facing downwards) and each roof beam, driving 2 nails per board - per joint in at right angles to the roof slope.

Tack an eaves face board temporarily with nails to the ridge beam so that one edge is flush with the marked centre line. Do not hammer in all the way. You will have to take it out later on. When constructing the Finnlife Cabin during the hotter months, we suggest that you leave small gaps between the roof boards to accommodate expansion of the boards during the period when it's colder. When building during the winter time we would advise knocking the boards together, to reduce any gap appearing during the hot and dry periods.

Work through, board-by-board to the rear gable. Make sure that the eaves line
fashioned by the lower edges of the roof boards is as straight as possible. The ending roof board may project beyond the rear gable. Tack it down lightly and mark on the underside where it meets the ends of the ridge and roof beams. Remove the final roof board and cut it length ways 5mm inside the marked line. Lay it back on the roof and nail down. Take away the temporary guide batten from the ridge beam, then repeat steps for the other side of the roof.

Check that the eaves line fashioned by the roof boards is roughly straight. If necessary use a cut to remove it flush. Attach the eaves face boards perpendicular to the roof boards, and flush with their upper surface. You need one piece for each side of the cabin. Fix by nailing into the ends of the roof boards with 50mm nails.

Lay ridge shingles precisely over the ridge without creasing. Start from the front of the Finnlife Log Cabin by putting a ridge shingle evenly across the roof ridge so that the tip of the green edge is flush with the leading edge of the roof boards. Fix by driving two clout nails through the black bitumen on either side of the roof ridge. Lay the second and subsequent ridge shingles so that the green half completely covers the bitumen of the preceding shingle. In each case, drive clout nails through the black bitumen to fasten. You will have laid the ending ridge shingle when there is no black bitumen showing after you have trimmed it flush with the rear gable. Nail it to fasten.

Return to top

Finnlife Models