Finnlife Seita Log Cabin

The Finnlife Seita Log Cabin has a veranda giving a quaint air to this log cabin and has been designed to use up the most space.

With its semi-glazed door and opening window this warming log cabin is a great place to while away the hours. The walls are made using tongue and groove 28mm timber with the corners finished in an interlocking design for further strength.

* Roof with shingles for long-lasting protection from the elements
* Half glazed doors
* Opening window
* Veranda with handrail
* Tongue and groove timber
* 28mm thick walls
* Interlocking corners for a sturdy construction

As with Finnlife Log Cabins, the Seita can come with underfloor heating.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
View dimensions in: Metric

Building Dimension
Seita 334.8cm 484.8cm 0cm 263.2cm
Seita with underfloor heating 334.8cm 484.8cm 0cm 263.2cm

Windows
Seita 1 front opening window
Seita with underfloor heating 1 front opening window

Door Opening Size (w x h)
Seita 0cm 0cm
Seita with underfloor heating 0cm 0cm

Material Pine
Cladding Style Tongue and Groove Interlocking Boards

Glazing Material
Seita Styrene
Seita with underfloor heating Glass

Floor Material Tongue & Groove
Roof Material Tongue & Groove

Cladding Width
Seita 2.8cm
Seita with underfloor heating 2.8cm

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Finnlife Log Cabins - Building Instructions

The lazy summer afternoons might be coming, but don’t hurry to build your Finnlife Log Cabin. Spend the time to get to know how it is put together, and you will savour many years of trouble-free pleasure. No carpentry knowledge are required. Everyone can build a Finnlife log cabin, although some jobs may need more than one pair of hands. Build times will vary depending on your experience and the number of people helping. Of course you don’t have to do it without any help!

It’s possible to present this document to a handyman then relax until he hands over the keys to your completed Finn Life Cabin. However, no matter who finishes the task, the initial step is to familiarise yourself with these instructions. The plan is to be orderly and to foresee the work ahead. Although Finnlife log cabins share many features in common, each model style is unique. These overall instructions cover the basics of wooden cabin construction and are applicable to all Finn Forest cabins.

For features that are unique to your Finn Life Cabin – such as dimensions, component numbers, building plans and component lists – you should refer to the individual 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 maydiffer slightly from those found here.

Gravel option: Get rid of all organic debris prior to starting work on the foundations. Foundations must always be laid larger than the base of your Finn Life Cabin – 300mm wider in all 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 start to build you should make sure that you have a full set of components. Check off every component against the component 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 component or that a component has been damaged in transit get in touch with the distributor, quoting the Finn Life Cabin reference number shown on the packing label of the transit packaging. As you check off every component lay them out on the ground around the site of the log cabin. Place every component near to where it will be used. Laying out aids you visualize how the Finn Life Cabin is built and it means that components are ready to hand when you need them. You can use the Building Plans and Parts List as a scheme to what goes where. Be wary not to lay components too close to the Finn Life Cabin footprint. Give yourself sufficient room to work in.

Set out the four sides of the door frame on a clean and level surface so that the doors open outwards. Loosely place them to match the built 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. Slot the joints together loosely and make sure THAT YOU CAN STILL OPEN THE DOORS prior to moving on.

Wall boards have been machined for a perfect fit. Before you use a wall board, it’s worth running a stiff-bristled brush along the grooves and poking the bristles into the joints to remove any stray sawdust. Dust-free joints ensure a better fit. Walls are built by laying wall boards in alternate layers at right angles to each other. Now move the location of the underlying, furthest floor beams. Slide them in a touch so that they do not extend externally past the edge of the wall, clear on the interior face of the wallboard. The adjustment creates a lip on which the log cabin floorboards will eventually rest.

When laying the roof boards, you will need to temporarily stick an eaves face board to the ridge beam as a guide batten, and use it to make sure that all roof boards finish in a flushed ridge line. Mark the mid-point line on the front and rear faces of the ridge beam. Begin 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 uppermost 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 every roof beam, driving 2 nails per board - per joint in at right angles to the roof slope.

Tack an eaves face 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 remove it later on. When making the Finn Life Cabin during the summer periods, we suggest leaving small gaps between the roof boards to accommodate expansion of the boards during the winter months. When building during the winter period we would advise knocking the boards together, to alleviate any gap appearing during the hot and dry periods.

Work through, board-by-board to the rear gable. Make sure that the eaves line
created 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 saw it length ways 5mm inside the marked line. Set it back on the roof and nail down. Take away the temporary guide batten from the ridge beam, then repeat steps for the other side of the roof.

Ensure that the eaves line created by the roof boards is approximately straight. If needed use a saw to remove it flushed. Attach the eaves face 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 created by cutting individual roof shingles into thirds. Set 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 additional measure to ensure longevity of the shingle life.

Set the initial row of shingles with the green/black face uppermost 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 face board. Adjust till the edge of the black bitumen extends about 10mm out from the edge of the eaves face board.The 10mm overhang is known as the 'water drop edge'. Fasten 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. Cut off the excess from the left-hand end of the roof. Keep cut pieces for later use.

Begin the second row from the left-hand end. Set this row (and all subsequent rows) with the green/black face uppermost and the green flaps at the bottom. Line up the second row of shingles so that the lower edge of the green flaps are just proud of the roof edge. fix with four clout nails driven through the lower green part. Locate these nails just below the line that separates black bitumen from decorative green. Properly located nails will be obscured by subsequent layers of shingles. Cut off the ending shingle to fit. Keep cut pieces for later use. Set the initial shingle in row three so that the middle 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 parallel with the row below to make an even pattern. Start all 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 centre 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.remove the excess from both ends and hang on to cut pieces for later use. Continue putting rows of shingles from left to right, giving each row an additional half-flap offset to the left. Where possible, use the remove 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 excess 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 finish each ridge shingle you should taper the half containing the black bitumen. BeginStart the taper at the point where the first slit ended. Finish 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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Finnlife Models

Finn-Life Seita Log Cabin

Finnlife Seita Log Cabin

Finnlife Log Cabins - Building Instructions

Finnlife Models