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Granny Flat – a log cabin is the perfect solution

Brittas One Bed Granny Flat

Your granny flat needs to be easy to heat, low maintenance and inviting. You’ll get all of these from a Timber Living Log Cabin. Take a look at our range of One Bed Log Cabin Granny Flats here.

cosy log cabin granny flat with verandah
The perfect granny flat

Log Cabin as a Granny Flat – The Benefits

If you’re lucky enough to have a large garden, there are huge and obvious benefits to building a granny flat. Of course there’s the emotional support (which goes both ways, we find, with customers of ours who have built Timber Living Log Cabins for grandparents), but we will steer clear of that discussion.

But there are lots of other benefits worth considering when contemplating building a granny flat:

  • Cost: The cost of building a free-standing log cabin is going to be roughly half the cost of a block-built lodge or extension of similar size. The main reason for the reduced cost is a big reduction in the labour element when building the cabin. Most of our work is done by machine at the factory, and that’s where the main savings arise.
    And of course, the financial side of moving into a granny flat, and selling the home place, or avoiding Care Home bills hardly needs to be stated.
  • Speed of Build: Your cabin can be built in three weeks, from breaking ground to completion. How long will it take a builder to build a block building of the same size? Four to six months maybe. That’s a big difference!
  • Cost of Heating: A timber cabin, with a four inch, insulation-filled cavity – now that’s a great combination when it comes to heating. Lots of insulation, and timber walls that also act as an insulator, and don’t have to be heated up in the way block walls have to be. Just thinking about it makes you feel warm!
  • Space and Comfort: We have a wide range of cabins of all different sizes and configurations, so you can as much space as you can afford, the only restriction being the size of your garden. And since the price per square foot is half that of any alternative, its going to be a lot easier for you to get what you’re looking for.

One Bedroom or Two Granny Flat?

Deciding on the number of bedrooms in your log cabin is an important decision, for a number of reasons. For obvious reasons, if you’re in the position to afford a larger cabin, you need to decide whether or not you should go for a two bed and a reduced living area, or a one bed with a larger living area. At the time of writing, our Limerick Two Bed Log Cabin is coming in at €38,000, and is a real bargain. If you have the space for it, and the budget, its the one to go for.

two bedroom log cabin plan

Of course, there is the initial cost of buying and installing the log cabin. And then there’s the additional costs of furniture, fixtures and fitting, and decoration. (The fewer curtains you need to buy, the better!) Don’t forget that the area available to you for building might be the main restriction on your number of bedrooms – no point in buying a 10 metre by 6 metre log cabin if you only have a garden big enough for a 6 metre by 4 metre cabin!

Log cabin granny flats are easy to heat

Heating is usually a main concern when it comes to Granny Flats, and indeed, any log cabin we produce. “How efficient are log cabins to heat?” is a question we often have to answer. Well, you can put most forms of heating into a log cabin:

  • Oil or Radiators
  • Solid fuel or gas Stove (with or without back-boiler)
  • Electrical storage heaters
  • heat pumps
  • Underfloor heating, even!

From a cost point of view, heating your log cabin is easy. We can supply you with a seven inch wall, which includes a four inch cavity, filled with insulation. We also have four inches of Kingspan insulation in the roof, and Kingspan in the floor too. All of this is included in the price on the website. A well-insulated log cabin means low heat loss, and low heat loss means low heating costs.

Another important factor in heat retention in any building is the air tightness. By default, our log cabins pass the air tightness test. I had the Two Bed Log Cabin Show house in Boyle tested for air tightness, and it was well within regulations – in fact it was about one and a half times as air tight as regulations demanded at the time. This is very good from a heating point of view. If you have a draughty building, those draughts will remove heat from your building, and Granny certainly does not want that!

Can I fit a stove in my log cabin?

You sure can! Have a read of our blog “Can I install a stove in a log cabin?” You’ll get all of the stove answers you’re looking for. We have a log burning stove fitted to our log house showroom in Boyle, with the flue going through the roof, but there’s no reason why you wouldn’t put a gas stove in, with a horizontal flue. Wood pellet stoves are also a good option, with their high efficiency, and timer and thermostat options.

Stove in a log cabin
A stove is the perfect addition to a log cabin

Additional Costs when Building a Log Cabin

You’ll get a price for delivery, build and insulation of your log cabin from our website. (Make sure you give us a call and ask for our BEST PRICE!)

Extra costs which are not included in our price are, among others, the base (5 inch concrete base), electrics, plumbing and heating.

Visit our log cabin showrooms

We have show rooms in Tullow, Co Carlow, Boyle, Co Roscommon and Carrigaline in Cork. Come and visit us soon to see how good our cabins really are. Give us a call 05991 81039 to arrange your visit.

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