Finnlife Teeri Log Cabin

The Finnlife Teeri log cabin is a part of the Finnforest Finn Life range.

At any moment you could be either outside enjoying the sunshine, or in your Finnlife Teeri Log Cabin playing games and enjoying a refreshing drink. Occasionaly you want time for yourself in the Teeri's secluded rear room; rather you want to be centre stage in the L-shaped main room. During the week it's back to business - your able to use the Teeri for hosting events too! Never a dull moment.

Finnforest log cabin components are precision-cut from top quality Scandinavian softwood for an immaculate fit. The timber comes from well-managed forests where indigenous wildlife and forest industries co-exist. Building your Finnlife Teeri log cabin using the excellent plans supplied is simple and straightforward. The result is a professional-looking job that you'll be happy to call your own.

· 28mm Log Thickness
· Square Roof Shingle Tiles
· Perspex Glazing
· Made from Scandinavian White softwood
· 38mm wall logs
· Timber joists
· Pre-cut floor & roof boards
· Roofing shingles
· Reinforced corner and wall battens
· All necessary fixtures and fittings
· Illustrated instructions

Look out for optional extras:

· Guttering Kit
· Underfloor Heating

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Build your Finnlife Teeri Log Cabin

Sumptuous, long summertime days may be enticing, but don’t rush to erect your Finnlife Log Cabin. Allow the time to work out how it is put together, and you'll certainly enjoy many years of trouble-free pleasure. No specialist skills are involved. Anyone can erect a Finnlife Log Cabin, although some jobs may need more than one pair of hands. Construction times will vary dependant on your skills and the number of people helping. Of course you don’t have to do it alone!

It is possible to present this text to a carpenter then relax until he delivers the keys to your great new Finnlife Log Cabin. However, whichever person completes the work, the immediate step is to read carefully these instructions. The plan is to be systematic and to foresee the work ahead. Though Finnlife log cabins share many options in common, each model style is distinctive. These general instructions cover the basics of log cabin construction and are applicable to all Finnlife cabins.

For items that are unique to your Finn Life Log 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 Finnlife Helppo, Finnlife Helsinki, Finnlife Joki, Finnlife Kesa, Finnlife Pori, Finnlife Seita and Finnlife Valo
be aware that certain instructions may alter slightly from those found here.

Gravel option: Get rid of all organic debris before you start work on the foundations. Foundations must always be laid bigger than the base of your Finnlife Log Cabin – 300mm wider in all 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 build you ought to make sure 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
Finn Life Log Cabin reference number displayed 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. Set every piece near to where it will be used. Laying out aids you visualize how the Finn Life Log Cabin is built and it means that pieces are available to hand when you need them. You can use the Building Plans and Parts List as a guide to what goes where. Be careful not to set pieces too close to the Finn Life Log Cabin footprint. Give yourself sufficient space to work in.

Set 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 identical. Place the one with the Lock RECESS AT THE TOP AND BOTTOM. Ensure that the door cills go behind the doors. Slot the joints together loosely and make sure THAT YOU CAN STILL OPEN THE DOORS prior to moving on.

Note again that if your Finn Life Log Cabin includes partitioning walls, also Set the full-height wall boards that form the lowest layer. Refer to the Building Plans and Parts List for help. Pay specific attention to the location of any notches in the wall boards of multi-roomed cabins. The position of these notches decides 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 necessary, adjust the internal floor beams to keep 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 Ensure that the structure is square by cross-examining 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 layer of wall boards. Bear in mind that the wall that houses the door will consist of two distinct wall boards with a door-width gap between. To ensure a snug fit, you should knock each layer 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 received 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 tack an eaves face board to the ridge beam as a guide batten, and use it to ensure that all roof boards finish in a flush ridge line. Mark the middle 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 uppermost end of the roof board should 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 middle line. Do not hammer in all the way. You will have to remove it later on. When constructing the
Finn Life Log Cabin during the summer periods, we suggest to leave small gaps between the roof boards to accommodate expansion of the boards during the period when it's colder. Where building during the winter period we would recommend tapping the boards together, to minimize 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 stick out beyond the rear gable. Tack it down lightly and mark on the beneath where it meets the ends of the ridge and roof beams. Remove the final roof board and saw it length ways 5mm inside the marked line. Set 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.

Ensure that the eaves line fashioned by the roof boards is reasonably straight. If necessary use a saw 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.

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 fashioned by cutting individual roof shingles into three. Set roof shingles when the temperature is above 5°C. We recommend 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.

Set 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 face board. Adjust till the edge of the black bitumen extends about 10mm out from the edge of the eaves face 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. Complete the row by laying more shingles edge-to-edge until the complete length of the eaves is covered. Remove the excess from the left-hand end of the roof. Keep cut pieces for later use.

Start the second row from the left-hand end. Set this row (and all subsequent rows) with the green/black face uppermost and the green flaps at the bottom. Align the second row of shingles so that the lower edge of the green flaps are just proud of the roof edge. fix 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 ending shingle to fit. Keep cut pieces for later use. Set the first shingle in row three so that the middle 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 aligned with the row below to create an even pattern. Start all 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. Where possible, use the cut off pieces you have already saved as the first or ending shingles in the row. When you reach the final row, the upper edge of the shingles will extend beyond the roof ridge. Bend the extra 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 other trimmed pieces left over from lower rows. To complete each ridge shingle you should taper the half containing the black bitumen. Start 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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