Timber Garden Sheds Australia
September 2026
Initially, we were only meant to deliver this cabin. But as is often the case, things change, so we ended up also installing this cabin. After we delivered the steel purlin base, the post holes were dug by Tom, the owner. We first installed the steel purlin base, and than went back to site a few weeks later and installed the "ORAN 20" cabin over a 3-day period.
Steel Purlin Base
Our most popular log cabin shed foundation is our steel base with adjustable stump tops. This is due to its relatively cheap price, its versatility, and the ease of installation - especially on sloped grounds.
We ALWAYS use height adjustable stump tops made by LEVELMASTER - the height adjustment is achieved by a 150mm M30 (!) gal steel thread (and NOT by manually lifting or lowering your cabin by removing tek screws and drilling new holes using tek screws - way too weak and very cumbersome!). Adjustments are done using a 45mm spanner or shifter (375mm), the entire cabin is effortlessly lowered or raised mm by mm.
Tom also wanted a 1.5m deck extension, which bolted onto the existing main cabin base frame. As an additional anti-rust protection, bitumen paint was applied to the stumps' lower sections.
Double Floor
To help keeping your cabin cool in summer and warm in winter, installing a double layer floor, with insulation bats placed in the cavity, is a great idea.
Just make sure you let us know you want a double floor BEFORE we deliver the cabin and start building, so we can organise the additional building materials needed.
The first layer of floorboards is screwed directly onto the steel purlins (image 1 and 2). Normally, the second layer and the insulation bats are installed after the first layer of logs, but due to a couple of showers we needed to wait with this until the floor cavity dried our properly.
Treated Pine Base Frame
A few showers during the first day of construction did slow us down a little - but that is mother nature. Luckily, the following days were all dry.
The first few rows of logs are always the most exciting part of the cabin build. After the hard work of digging post foundation holes, pouring concrete (we used a Concrete Taxi this time - worked well!) and installing the steel base frame, finally installing some timber logs is always a welcome change.
We opted to install the front deck after the cabin. For ease of access to the inside of the cabin we screwed down a temporary piece of floorboard.
Window(s) and Door(s)
For all 50mm wall log thickness cabins the door architrave (and a bit further up the wall the entire window) must be installed while the cabin is being built. The window is easily placed between the precut wall logs, and needs no further assembly other than the plastic hinge covers.
The door architrave needs to be installed before the log that connects the front right and left walls above the architrave. Note that the inside timber of the bottom "U" shaped architrave piece needs to be unscrewed and cut down to create an "L" shaped assembly. This will result in the bottom architrave sitting flush on top of the floorboards. For a neater final look, additional trimming might be needed to let your chosen floor coverings slide underneath the bottom inside architrave.
Threaded storm rods
Your cabin comes with a few threaded storm rods. These are inserted from the top of the log walls through holes provided in the corner log stickouts.
The top of the threaded bars feature two nuts and a large washer. These need to be recessed into the wall logs, so they do not stick out past the level of the top of the wall logs.
The images on the left show a recessed storm bar.
At the bottom of the storm bar, a large square washer is added, and secured with another gal steel nut.
Initially, the bottom nut is only loosely tightened with a spanner, about three turns. Within a day or two of the installation these need re-tightening as the logs have started settling.
Roofbeams
The roof beams supplied with our 50mm wall thickness cabin are a full solid 195mm (h) by 70mm (w). They are quite heavy, so you will definitely need a second person to install these.
Sometimes (especially with the ORAN 20 cabin) the roof beams end up sitting on top of the tongues of the wall log underneath, so they do not settle down far enough. To remedy this, simply cut off the tongues.
To secure the roof beams to the log walls, we pre- drill a 6mm hole through the centre of the roof beam, and insert a 200mm batten screw.
After all this is done, it's time to install the timber roof boards.
Roof Boards
The quality of the timber we currently get from our supplier in Estonia is simply awesome! Close to zero twisting, splitting etc, just a pleasure to work with. We do not use any European fixing hardware (except for the windows and doors) but rather source everything locally. For example, we replace the shiny chrome coated nails that are normally used for fixing the roof boards with proper galvanised 45mm screws. Yes, these take longer to install, but at least your roof will not peel off during tropical cyclones or any other strong winds.....
At the rear ends of the roof beams, we temporarily screw on scrap pieces of timber to help us aligning the first roof board and roof sheet.
Not quite done....
As is often the case, smaller bits still need to get done after the actual build is finished.
For Tom's cabin we were two MODWOOD decking boards short (?), plus the internal barn door still needed to be installed and adjusted. All good, though, it just meant that we had to go back to site a few days later to finish everything off 100%.
We are also more than happy to check on the "well being" of your cabin at any time in the future, as well as working on any issues that might arise.
We want you to enjoy your cabin for many years to come, and will do all we can keep in top condition.
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