Dunster House Log Cabnis, nice cabin shame about the ingrained dirt

wright_to_do

We ordered a Sofia log cabin on July 10th. Since then we have had excuse after excuse for non-delivery. Most appear to be lies. Their 'Live help' has been offline for a few days now, and we can't get through by telephone. I may be paranoid, but is there a possibility that they have run off with everyone's money?

Are there many other people still waiting for delivery?

cruger

Anyone had any dealings with Albany Sheds log Cabin or workshop type sheds?
They do not sell online but through retailers such as garden centres.

Dave_xke

MPwannasavemoney wrote: »

oh well looks llike we are being too fussy - thats it then will just have to get the builders to sand it down - yet another unforseen expense.

Now the lead on the windows is starting to oxidise, what do we do about that?

Lead always oxides on windows once it has been in contact with the oxygen in the air, clue is in the word 'oxidisation' short of cleaning the lead with wire wool every week there is nothing you can do it's a normal chemical process. If you have leaded windows on your house they will go the same way.

Dave

Dave_xke

ColinCG wrote: »

Hi Dave xke, hope you post back as I would really be interested in your experience of Dunster House and their product this coming 13th/14th June. I'm looking at ordering a smaller Rhine Plus 300. I need a space outside of the house to work from all year round and it seems like a good choice. But having found this thread I'm a little worried.

I've gone on their website and I do notice all of the positive reviews against each product, but also note that if you go into the Review area there are quite a few negative 1 star posts aswell, so it seems to me they are not hiding negative reviews...

Also, if not Dunster House, would anyone recommend another log cabin company? I'm at a bit of a loss as what to do...

Many thanks, Colin.

Colin,

Cabin was an Avon 5 mtr x 3 mtr,

My reply has probably come a bit too late for you. I didn't want to post too early in case something did go wrong after a period of time. It has also taken me a lot longer to complete than I originally thought because I decided to go the cheapskate route and not buy the insulated building but do this myself. This is not easy because I quickly realised that nothing can be attached to the inner walls of the cabin because it is constantly expanding and shrinking depending on the weather. Summer when the moisture content in the air is low it shrinks and winter (now) with the dampness it expands.
I also partitioned it so it is 3/4 gym and 1/4 garden shed.

Onto the cabin. The cabin turned on the day it was supposed to and although I had arranged for my oldest son to be here to help me because the Euro football was on at the time and the driver was Polish we had a chat about the football and before I knew it he was helping us drop the cabin in the back garden. I can see why they say they will only do a kerbside delivery because many terraced houses do not have easy access to the rear garden where I have a detached house with very easy rear access.
What can I say about the cabin, I did the whole build on my own, every single plank, window and door. The whole cabin clicked together like Lego, I had one twisted plank but had two spare so that wasn't a problem, I also changed the design and took one window out of the side so there is two in the gym part and none in the shed.
I moved this window to the rear of the gym which allowed me to chop the twisted plank and use it. Dunster supplied me with extra planks to blank this window out which cost me an extra £100.
I had more than enough nails, enough roofing timber to do half of the roof again.
I( can easily understand how people can get into trouble with this build the instructions are not 100% clear but adequate if you have gained as much experience as I have building kitchen extensions and recently a bedroom extension over my garage. I work as an engineering manager for a large gas utility company in the UK and have nothing to with Dunster house at all.
6 months since the cabin went up all is as good as the day I finished the build. The only fault I did have was one of the windows was bent as my dogs back leg, I used a large piece of steel and clamps to try and force it somewhere like back to the correct shape so I could at least get the glass in, 4 weeks later it still wasn't right but close enough to get the glass in and the beading on. The reason I didn't go back to Dunster with the problem was all the customer care complaints I read on here.

Maybe I got lucky and got a good one who knows, a colleague at work said he was after a log cabin as a workshop I said I would hesitate in recommending Dunster purely because of the complaints on this web site but then I really couldn't recommend anyone else either.
I have a couple of tips for anyone erecting a cabin of any sort, nothing should be bolted down tight, the cabin must be able to move as the humidity changes. There are storm supports supplied with slots in these must not be overtightened at any time the same with the slots in the windows and doors there are also slots that allow them to move freely as well don't over tighten them either. If you do the wooden planks will warp.
The website and instructions say you should be an experienced at DIY before contemplating building these sorts of cabins and that is certainly true.

One more thing to add if you want to put shelves up in the cabin you need to mount them on similar supports to that of the storm braces because they will also stop the planks from moving.

Overall, I am more than happy with the quality of the cabin, the ease of erection and six months since it was completed it is perfect. Anyone who lives around the Worcestershire area or anywhere else for that matter who wants to see it is more than welcome - just drop me an PM if it can be done on here? or mention it on the forum.

One thing that does irritate me on an earlier post someone else wrote a post to say they were happy and got slated for being a troll (someone who probably has ties with Dunster house) that then got me thinking either they will think the same about this post or even more worryingly competitors are slating Dunster on here because they seem to have a very high market share.

Who knows?

Dave

chromedome

I purchased a Carsare 2.5m x 3.5m log cabin with roof/floor insulation and upgraded double-glazed windows and doors. I too was nervous about ordering from them due to the large number of complaints about their customer services but, as I drive past their Bedford facility on the way to my parents', I called in to look at their show cabins. They looked pretty good, so I took the plunge, figuring if I had issues I could go in person to make sure they dealt with me.

Delivery was on time and the two guys carried all the components into my garage (3-4m from the roadside). They went through all the parts with me, although at breakneck speed, and there was no way I had time to count all the boards.

As I was building it myself, it sat in our garage for ages as the weather was so bad. Eventually I got started, and it all went pretty smoothly. One annoyance was that although they do indeed give you extra components to allow for the odd split or twist, the one thing on mine that was bowed was a wall top beam which has a chamfered edge, and there was no duplicate. Rather than deal with their CS, and as it wasn't a huge distortion, I dealt with it myself using ratchet straps. It hasn't proved to be an issue now that the cabin is complete (so far). Everything else went pretty much OK; their instructions leave a lot to be desired, but if you are pretty handy and take your time, it should be OK.

One design issue with my particular model is that the end window is not shielded by an overhang, so in bad weather rain can run down behind the slot-in frame. I am therefor going to run a bead of sealant around the join, as well as add a wooden lip over both that join and the top of the window.

So, overall I was pretty pleased with the result. If you get lucky and have all your parts present and correct, and you are competent at DIY, then you should end up with a nice cabin. But I have to say, I would have been a lot more cautious if it wouldn't have been easy for me to go and hassle them in person. There were plenty of cabins on palates at their unit, so I would have refused to leave until I had a replacement part in my hand. As it was, this wasn't necessary.

Jue_xx

I'm gutted to read this thread. I have searched and searched for a cabin sized 8.5m x 3.5m or thereabouts, for use as a home gym and games room, and the only one I have found is supplied by Dunster House, at a price of around £5k. We were going to place an order straight after Christmas, but the reviews of their "Customer Service" has put me right off. I cannot risk spending that amount of money with a company who apparently don't give a &*$% about their customers.

PLEASE can someone suggest another supplier of something similar to this?:

http://dunsterhouse.co.uk/log-cabins/85m-x-35m-modetrosup-sup-350-grande

notobemessedwith

WARNING - DO NOT BUY FROM DUNSTER HOUSE!
I bought a Dunster cabin and had it installed in 2010. The roof leaked after 1 year. I complained and managed to get them to put a new roof on. 1 year later in August 2012 the roof leaked again. So started the battle. Everything everybody has said about them is true...they are a nightmare to deal with. They refused to come out and inspect without an up front fee of £250! I wouldnt pay and had it inspected privately.
LISTEN TO THIS... The cabin design is UNFIT FOR PURPOSE. They put shingles on a roof that is too low a pitch and mechanically fixed them making holes in the membrane!! Hence the water settles on the roof, finds its way under the shingles and down through the roof.
I threatened them with court...they were not bothered.
Eventually I held the Credit card companies responsible. It has taken me 5 months BUT I have now received a FULL REFUND.
DO NOT BACK DOWN. Go to the consumer Bureau and get their help. DO NOT LET DUNSTER GET AWAY WITH THIS.

theroth

I'm very interested in the roof pitch issue - Dunster claim this allows more interior height and nearly all their cabins have a shallow roof pitch. Can you give more detail about the pitch being too shallow? Who did your survey? What is the minimum pitch and how should you fix shingles if not with nails?

notobemessedwith wrote: »

WARNING - DO NOT BUY FROM DUNSTER HOUSE!

LISTEN TO THIS... The cabin design is UNFIT FOR PURPOSE. They put shingles on a roof that is too low a pitch and mechanically fixed them making holes in the membrane!! Hence the water settles on the roof, finds its way under the shingles and down through the roof.

dmw2013

We took delivery of a large home office at great expense from Dunster House. I can only agree with the customer service but it was difficult getting the size of cabing we required so went ahead. The fittings that came with the cabin were of the lowest possible quality. The roof felt was for a garden shed roof with a life expectancy of 3-5 years. Maybe they had learnt that they can't use shingles on a pitch less than 8 degrees so there is not other option, there are other options and we have had to go to the added expense of putting this on the roof. The timber and main shell are fine and reasonable quality although due to design I am extremely concerned for its durability. Generally you get what you pay for unfortunately in this instance I feel we are not getting value for money. Be extremely careful what you take delivery of as there is no way the man on the van (2 lorries in our case) will lift a finger other than slide it off the lorry to the kerb....literally. Go hire a couple of the local Colts Rugby team to save yourself.

31michaelgardens

Hi All,

Lots of mixed feedback for Dunster House. Can I ask if you all paid the asking price or did they negociate to get your custom. I am considering purchasing a DH Log Cabin and want to get a feel for the price I am likely to pay before making a decision.

Many thanks,

Micky.