Finnlife Reikko Log Cabin

The FinnForest Riekko Log Cabin

The Finnlife Riekko Log Cabin is an attractive log cabin offering a good-sized space inside and the scope to create something very special for yourself and your garden.

Like all log cabins in the Finnforest range it is constructed using top quality Scandinavian White softwood. This comes from sustainable forests which are well managed, and where industry and the wildlife live in harmony.

Why buy the FinnForest Reikko Log Cabin?

Well illustrated, step-by-step plans are supplied with your log cabin making assembly more simple and more straightforward. The doors and windows come fully glazed making life easier for you. The wood is packed in protecting sheeting and comes packed in the right order for assembly

FEATURES

* Made from Scandinavian White softwood
* 28mm wall logs
* Timber joists
* Pre-cut floor & roof boards
* Roof shingles
* Ready made, fully glazed doors
* Reinforced corners and pre-cut wall battens
* All necessary fixtures and fittings
* Illustrated step-by-step instruction manual

DIMENSIONS

Height:9'5" (2.9m)
Width:9'7" (2.96m)
Depth:14'11" (4.34m)

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Build A Finnlife Riekko Log Cabin

Those lazy summer days may be beckoning, but don’t hurry to build your Finnlife Log Cabin. Allow the time to get to know how it goes together, and you're guaranteed to savour many years of hassle-free pleasure. No carpentry abilities are needed. Anyone can erect a Finnlife Log Cabin, although some tasks may need more than one pair of hands. Build times will change dependant on your skills and the number of people helping. Obviously you don’t have to do it without any help!

You might present this text to a carpenter then sit back until he hands over the keys to your finished Finnlife Cabin. Having said that, whoever gets the cabin built, the initial step is to understand fully these instructions. The plan is to be orderly and to plan ahead. Though Finnlife log cabins share many features in common, each model style is distinctive. This set of overall instructions cover the basics of wooden cabin construction and are applicable to all Finnlife cabins.

For features that are unique to your own Finnlife Cabin – such as 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 alter a slight amount from those found here.

Gravel option: Remove all organic debris prior to starting work on the foundations. Foundations should always be laid larger than the footprint of your Finnlife Log Cabin – 300mm wider in each 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 begin to construct you should check that you have a complete set of pieces. Tick 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 damaged in transit get in touch with the distributor, stating the Finnlife Log Cabin reference number displayed on the packing label of the transit packaging. As you check off every piece lay 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 visualize how the Finnlife Cabin is built and it means that pieces are available to hand when you need them. You can utilize the Building Plans and Parts List as a scheme to what goes where. Be careful not to lay pieces too close to the Finnlife Cabin footprint. Give yourself adequate room to work in.

Lay out the four sides of the door frame on a clean and level surface so that the doors open outwards. Loosely place them to match the completed 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. Put the joints together loosely and check THAT YOU CAN STILL OPEN THE DOORS prior to moving on.

Lay out the floor beams at uniform intervals in line with the layout in the Building Plans and Parts List. Where the beams meet with interior or exterior walls ensure they lie directly under those walls, ensuring that there is a lip for the internal room floor boards.

Cut the polythene transit packaging (or a sheet of commercial damp-proof membrane) into strips roughly 12cm wide. Cut a pair of strips for each floor beam ensuring that the strip lengths are about 50mm longer than the floor beams. When your Finnlife Cabin is completed you can then go back and cut off away any excess polythene/DPC membrane showing. Make Sure that floor beams are level and that the cross diagonals are equal. Equidistant cross-diagonals mean that your Finnlife Cabin is square. Lay one damp-proof strip beneath each floor beam and one above. Make sure that no part of the floor beam is touching the underlying foundations.

Persist with laying wall boards in line with to the layout of the Building Plans and Parts List you will have received with your order. The final few layers of side wall boards in some Finnlife Log Cabin are longer. The lengths increase in steps to give support to an overhanging canopy. Lay angled gable boards in sequence starting with the longest. Take care with the alignment of the angled gable boards. The sloped roof line should be symmetrical and even at both gable ends. Use nails at either end to fix each layer of gable boards to the layer below. Hammer nails in at an angle through the sloped ends of the gable boards.

Constructing the gable ends indicates a succession of openings for the roof beams. As every opening appears, tap in a roof beam. Make sure that the angled side of each roof beam lies flushed with the angle of the gable. Nail through into the gable boards to fasten. Tap the ridge beam into place at the apex of the gable ends. Fasten by nailing into the uppermost gable board. Slide ridge and roof beam extension pieces over the exposed ends of the beams at both ends of the cabin. Make sure that the upper surfaces of the beams and the extension pieces are flushed, then fasten by nailing from either side. Fix the wall board extension pieces to the ends of the topmost wall boards in the same way.

Roofing shingles are rectangular. The lower half of the face side is a decorative green with slits that split it into three flaps; the top half is black and coated with bitumen. With the exception of the first row, all shingles are laid with the green flaps at the bottom. Ridge shingles are made by cutting individual roof shingles into thirds. Lay roof shingles when the temperature is above 5°C. We suggest that you use a bitumen shingle adhesive on the underneath of the tiles. This would be an extra measure to ensure longevity of the shingle life.

Lay the first row of shingles with the green/black face uppermost and the green flaps at the top. Put the first shingle so that one side aligns with the right-hand edge of the roof and the black bitumen overhangs the eaves fascia board. Adjust till the edge of the black bitumen extends about 10mm out from the edge of the eaves fascia board.The 10mm overhang is known as the 'water drop edge'. Fasten the shingle with four clout nails driven through the bitumen patches on the shingle into the roof boards. End the row by laying more shingles edge-to-edge until the full length of the eaves is covered. Remove the excess from the left-hand end of the roof. Retain cut pieces for later use.

Start the second row from the left-hand end. Lay this row (and all subsequent rows) with the green/black face uppermost and the green flaps at the bottom. Line up the second row of shingles so that the lower edge of the green flaps are just proud of the roof edge. fasten with four clout nails driven through the lower green part. Locate these nails just below the line that separates black bitumen from decorative green. Properly located nails will be obscured by subsequent layers of shingles. Remove the final shingle to fit. Retain cut pieces for later use. Lay the first shingle in row three so that the mid-point of the left-hand flap aligns with the edge of the roof. Adjust its height until the tips of the decorative flaps align with the tops of the slits between the flaps in the row below.

Nail down the shingle. From now on each row has to be parallel with the row below to create an even pattern. Start each row from the left hand end of the roof. In each case the first shingle in the row must be offset to the left by half a flap, that is by 16 of its complete length. That means that the centre of the flaps of the current row will align with the gaps between the flaps in the row below. Continue laying shingle sheets from left to right, edge-to-edge, to complete a full row.cut off the excess from both ends and keep cut pieces for later use. Carry on putting rows of shingles from left to right, giving each row an extra half-flap offset to the left. If available, use the cut off pieces you have already saved as the first or final shingles in the row. When you reach the final row, the upper edge of the shingles will extend beyond the roof ridge. Bend the excess over the ridge and nail it down. Cut several roof shingles into thirds to create ridge shingles. Cut them by extending the slits between the flaps right through the bitumen layer. You may do the same with any trimmed pieces left over from lower rows. To finish each ridge shingle you should taper the half containing the black bitumen. BeginStart the taper at the point where the first slit ended. Complete it at the furthest edge of the black bitumen. Take the taper in about 10mm at either side of the bitumen.

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