Log Cabin paint advice please

mistersilks

Hi there, we've just built a log cabin from Tuin which is planed spruce. I found paint I like at Moose Farg but it's going to cost £200 ... I know not to use anything cheap but that seems a lot. I want grey with white windows and doors; has anyone had experience of anything they can recommend. Tuin have one on offer but the colours aren't right. Thank you

greyteam1959

Not many log cabins in the UK mate.

tori.k

Cuprinol garden shades do several different shades of grey and a white, you can usually pick up 2.5L for around £15

brightontraveller

mistersilks wrote: »

Hi there, we've just built a log cabin from Tuin which is planed spruce. I found paint I like at Moose Farg but it's going to cost £200 ... I know not to use anything cheap but that seems a lot. I want grey with white windows and doors; has anyone had experience of anything they can recommend. Tuin have one on offer but the colours aren't right. Thank you

Ask the seller of the cabin that you keep spamming :rotfl:

mistersilks

Not sure what you mean, was after genuine advice, the company was relevant as they advice to use only really expensive paint.

peterowe1

Maybe a bit late for the poster but not for anyone else looking for advice.

Unlike most other garden buildings the logs that form the walls of a log cabin are purely held in place by the double tongue & groove system that runs top and bottom of each log, and the overlapping joints at the ends of each log that form the corners. No nails or screws (the roof & floorboards are fixed in place with nails or screws).

Timber is constantly moving, expanding and contracting in line with atmosphic humidity known as relative humidity. A log cabin is designed to cope with this swelling and shrinkage as long as a good quality weatherproofing finish is applied to the timber. If a poor quality finish is applied, or worse, the timber is left untreated, then the movement can be extremely volatile causing gaps to appear between the logs, windows and doors to move out of alignment, and large cracks or splits to appear in the timber logs. I've even seen instances of the roof boards swelling so much that they've lifted up leaving a huge hole in the roof.

I've worked in the industry for over 20 years and have carried out a number of inspections on problematic log cabins and 99% of all the problems I've encountered were due to the application of a cheap or inadequate finish, no finish applied at all, or the application of only one coat of a good quality finish (normally 3 coats is a must).

In my opinion the posters cabin would have cost in excess of £2k or more and the £200 would have been money well spent on a good quality treatment to prevent issues that would cost a lot more to put right.

If anyone wants a nod in the right direction check out my personal favourite Timmersol Exterior Timber Stabiliser, and check out their blog too, it contains a lot of useful information about log cabins.

Hope this helps.