Dunster House Auval 400 Log Cabin

It would appear that most reviews of Dunster House log cabins are on their web site and therefore subject to editing by Dunster House and having just purchased and built the Auval 400 with bi-folding doors I thought my experiences may be of some use to other potential buyers / builders.

There are a small number of independent reviews on the web which all comment on the customer service provided by Dunster House. I have to agree that when purchasing from them there is no room for negotiation. They provide a standard model with a number of options but try deviating from those options and you will get a resounding NO from the company.

The only problem I had was that I wanted the cabin delivered to an address that I rent out in Wimbledon when I live in Mirfield in West Yorkshire 220 miles away. The web site would not allow me to have a different delivery address to that of the card holders address and I therefore, after endless negotiation with their sales office by phone and a resounding 'No Can Do', ended up trailing to their showroom in North Lincolnshire to be able to place an order in person and have my credit card processed on site.

I find it difficult to believe that a company as large as this has no flexibility and it isn't as though the goods are going to be delivered through the post to a remote unregistered address. They come on a company owned flat bed truck. There is usually at least 4 weeks delay between placing the order and having it delivered, which is enough time for most transactions to appear on a credit card statement and if a large log cabin turned up at my door and I hadn't ordered it I would send it away. There has to be an easier system than having the customer run around. Ask for proof of ID to be sent. A utility bill or two would solve the problem.

Having placed the order I waited five weeks for delivery (they were out of stock of the bi-fold doors) but I duly received a phone call from dispatch offering me delivery on the day I had asked for when placing the order. I was told it would be a morning delivery before 12 noon and it arrived just after 10:30. There was one driver and between us we offloaded the lorry onto my driveway. The driver would not wait until I had checked everything, which admittedly would have taken a long time as there are over 1000 parts make up this cabin. I signed to say I had received the cabin but it had not been checked. I was also given the instructions on how to assemble the cabin which was broken down into two sets, the generic log cabin instructions and the specific ones for my cabin. The bi-fold doors also came with their own instructions.

During the five week wait for the cabin my son Chris had installed the foundations using a method we discovered on the Internet (see http://www.shedbases.com/acatalog/SB-Log_Cabin_kits.html) He dug holes and put in a hardcore base followed by two hi density concrete blocks topped off with a paving slab. The whole area was then covered with a waterproof membrane and the 'Shedbase' units placed on top of the pads. The advantage here is that you can get a perfect level, which is vital before you start building your cabin and it proves extremely stable.

You will need to read the Dunster House instructions a few times to fully understand how the cabin goes together. Dunster House say on their web site that you need to be a confident DIY person and that is very true. In fact I would go so far as to say you need to be very good at DIY especially when some of the logs are warped and don't fit together very well. If I have a criticism it would be that some of the interlocking sections of the logs are not machined as well as they might be and there were a number of cases where I had to chisel away excess wood to make a perfect fit. One other tip here when building this size of cabin with bi-fold doors is that you will find that if you get a long log that runs down the side which is twisted slightly it will stop the short logs placed either side of the bi-fold doors from sitting correctly. The instructions say to screw the first three logs from the ground upwards to the door frame. We not only did that but put an additional screw in places higher up where necessary if the short logs were not sitting correctly. Once you have got the roof on you can remove the extra screws you have put in and the holes are covered up by the rubber weather strip that goes around the door.

We insulated the floor of our cabin but bought the insulation board from Wickes which was half the price that Dunster house charge for the same thing. A bit of ingenuity and a few screws held it place before we put the floor down. We also wired the cabin for electricity at the same time drilling through the 45mm logs to hide the cable to the light switch and overhead lights. Its time consuming but well worth the effort. Another tip here is that there is enough of a gap at the roof apex between the boards to run a lighting cable. Just remember to be careful when you nail the boards to the roof joists in that area. Drill a hole through the joist to pass the cable and connect your lighting. Once the roof is covered with shingles or felt it will be watertight and the cabling perfectly happy. We used heavy duty waterproof cabling for garden use just to be on the safe side.

For our roofing we bought superior roofing felt from B&Q. Again it worked out much cheaper than buying from Dunster House as indeed did the mini guttering which we fasted to the rear of the cabin. The latter is available from B&Q or Wickes, although the Dunster House version does come with two water butts, but even then at over £160 it's still expensive.

In our case we went one step further kitting out the interior of the cabin out with two cupboards and a bar area, all of which we designed to be free standing and only attached to the cabin walls by two screws. It's important not to attach anything to the cabin walls that will stop it from expanding and contracting in the changing climates. The cabin has only been up for a couple of weeks and you can already see signs of things settling and expanding due the wonderful April weather.

One extra that we did buy from Dunster House was the timber treatment for the outside. They supply enough to paint the cabin twice and ours came in one 5ltr tin and two 2.5ltr tins. The advantage here is that if you want to apply a second coat a few weeks after the initial one you don't have an opened tin with the possibility of the contents going dry. A nice touch.

I have read a couple of reviews where it's stated that the customers were short of logs. I find this difficult to believe as we received 1 extra 4m log, 1 extra 3.5m log and 4 extra 4m lengths of tongue and groove which could be used as either roofing or flooring. There were also a far more screws and nails included than you really need. There were however a couple of bits which took a while to identify as they were not shown in the instructions. One turned out to be the side window locking catch and the other turned out to be an optional trim for the side window. We found no mention of these in the instructions but worked it out on the basis of common sense and deduction!

The end result of our 4 day build (Lord knows how the Dunster House installers manage it in a day but perhaps that reflects the number of complaints after the team have left) was a strong well built cabin. I would have no hesitation in recommending the product but you will need to be good at DIY and take your time to work things out. A power screwdriver and a drill for pilot holes are essential. You may have problems with the company if you need customer service. We didn't and managed without any input from them at all. There will be logs that have splits and knots but as they say on the web site wood is a natural product and we were able to hide any log that wasn't perfect by sorting through them first. They went at the back and sides of the cabin where they won't be seen although there were only about 4 out of the 85 logs that fell into this category.

There are cabins that are much more expensive and therefore I would expect them to be better machined and the wood to be of a better quality but for an excellent value for money product I would have to recommend that you purchase from one from Dunster House.

P.S. I note that the cost of my cabin has gone up by nearly £600 since we purchased it back in February 2011 compared to now May 2011. Prices are high when demand is high in the summer. Wait till the low season and see if you can bag a bargain.