Finnlife Suoja Log Cabin

The Finnlife Suoja Log Cabin is the multi-use hall that never closes.

The Souja log cabin is from only the finest quality softwood from highly sustainable Scandinavian sustainable forests. It features wall logs in alternate layers together with windproof tongue and groove joints which give a weatherproof building.

Why buy the Finnforest Suoja Log Cabin?

* Made from precision-cut top quality Scandanavian White Softwood
* 44mm wall logs - provides additional strength, insulation and resilience to cope with extended year-round use
* Timber joists
* Roof shingles
* Ready made, fully glazed doors
* Reinforced corners and wall battens
* All necessary fixtures and fittings
* Illustrated instructions

Dimensions:

Width:
Internal: 3.1m
External: 3.8m

Depth:
Internal: 5.07m
External: 5.36m

Ridge Height:
External: 2.7m

Area:
Internal: 17.81m²
External: 20.36m²

See your preffered stockists for extras such as underfloor heating.

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Build your Finnlife Suoja Log Cabin

The long summery evenings might be beckoning, but don’t hasten to build your Finnlife Log Cabin. Take the time to figure out how it goes together, and you're guaranteed to savour many years of hassle-free pleasure. No carpentry abilities are required. Everyone can erect a Finnlife Log Cabin, although some tasks may require more than one pair of hands. Construction times will alter dependant on your skills and the number of people helping. Obviously you don’t have to do it alone!

You might show this text to a carpenter then take it easy until he delivers the keys to your finished Finnlife Log Cabin. However, whichever person gets the cabin built, the initial stage is to familiarise yourself with these instructions. The plan is to be disciplined and to foresee the work ahead. Although Finnlife log cabins share many options in common, each model style is exceptional. These general instructions cover the basics of wooden cabin construction and apply to all Finn Forest cabins.

For features that are unique to your own Finn Life Cabin – such as exact dimensions, part numbers, building plans and part lists – you should refer to the separate 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 larger than the base 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 commence to erect you ought to check that you have a full set of parts. Check off each part against the part 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 part or that a part 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 part set them out on the ground around the site of the log cabin. Put each part near to where it will be used. Laying out aids you visualize how the Finn Life Cabin is built and it means that parts 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 set parts too close to the Finn Life Cabin footprint. Give yourself ample room to work in.

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

Note again that if your Finn Life Cabin includes partitioning walls, also Place the full-height wall boards that form the bottom layer. Refer to the Building Plans and Parts List for help. Pay particular attention to the location of any notches in the wall boards of multi-roomed cabins. The position of these notches determines 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 loose. If needed, 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 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. Momentarily lift the full-height wall boards so that you can drive screws into the three remaining corner joints into the outermost floor beams.

Begin laying the second set of wall boards. Bear in mind that the wall that contains the door will consist of two distinct wall boards with a door-width gap between. To ensure a smooth fit, you should knock each set 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 taken receipt of 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 fascia board to the ridge beam as a guide batten, and use it to make sure that all roof boards terminate in a flushed ridge line. Mark the mid-point 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 top end of the roof board must be flushed 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 fascia board temporarily with nails to the ridge beam so that one edge is flushed with the marked mid-point line. Do not hammer in all the way. You will have to take it out later on. When making the
Finn Life Log Cabin during the hotter months, we advise that you leave small gaps between the roof boards to allow expansion of the boards during the winter months. Where building during the winter time we would recommend hitting 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 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. Place it back on the roof and nail down. Take away the temporary guide batten from the ridge beam, then repeat steps for the opposite side of the roof.

Ensure that the eaves line fashioned by the roof boards is approximately straight. If needed use a cut to trim it flushed. Attach the eaves fascia boards perpendicular to the roof boards, and flushed 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 divide it into three flaps; the upper 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 thirds. Place 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.

Place the first row of shingles with the green/black face top and the green flaps at the top. Place 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. Alter until 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'. Secure 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 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. Place this row (and all subsequent rows) with the green/black face top 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. fasten with four clout nails driven through the lower green part. Put 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. Retain cut pieces for later use. Place 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 aligned with the row below to make an even pattern. Start every 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 middle 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 hang on to 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 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 make 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. Begin 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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