Cabin vs Home Extension: Why Choose a Kitset Cabin
Everyone who has ever owned a house has, at some point, pondered if it’s time for an improvement. By improvement, it could either be getting something bigger, or putting in a home extension wherever it could be done. Today, however, many people with this line of thought have another option in their mind: “Am I doing home extensions or am I doing kitset cabins?”
The rustic and comfy atmosphere of cabins has never failed to capture the interest and imagination of people throughout the years. This was only limited before by the fact that most people believed building anything resembling a cabin was hard work, although this is no longer a limiting factor today. Professional builders are now able to construct kitset cabins in almost any location conceivable, and this is a fact that has delighted cabin enthusiasts to no end.
Why Would People Pick a Kitset Cabin Over a Home Extension?
As with any kind of renovation, improvement, or construction to be done at home, there are a number of important considerations to weigh. These include:
Expenses
Modifying the home in any way is never cheap. In fact, the cost is one of the top limiting factors to the renovation plans of every homeowner today, second only to allowable space for modification. More often than not, the cost and availability of construction materials have put a halt to many renovation and construction projects, with some being put on hold indefinitely until such time as more funds are available.
The cost-effectiveness of kitset cabins in this aspect becomes very evident when it comes to overall construction expenditure. Steel and concrete will always cost more than wood in any country, which is why a cabin made of wood may just be the space and cost saver you have been looking for in your quest for additional usable space to add to your property.
Climate Control
While it is true that the power consumption of air conditioning units today is somewhat more efficient than back in the day, since units today run on inverters, the outright purchase cost is still somewhat steep. Add to this the expenses needed for the additional piping, insulation, and all the other incidental expenses required. Structures made of concrete or metal will most certainly need air conditioning if anything living is to be housed inside, which makes this consideration an added burden on construction costs.
In comparison, wood comes with its own climate control. Properly treated, wood will prevent indoor warmth from leaking out during the cold days and inhibit outdoor heat and humidity from coming in during the summer season. This is another bonus to having a kitset cabin made of wood as an additional living space.
Impressive Durability
The land will shift from time to time, this is an inevitable fact. Houses mostly made of concrete and metal will most certainly bear the marks of having been through one earthquake too many, with cracks and dents showing the damage. On top of that, vibrational damage has been shown to be progressive in many instances, with one crack giving birth to many more cracks over time, further weakening the structure.
Wood has always withstood the test of time and weather. On top of that, wood is fibrous, which is an excellent diffuser of vibration and impact damage. This is why you are less likely to see damage to wooden structures from quakes and tremors than you are to see in concrete buildings and metal structures. Wood is also a favourite for designers and interior decorators due to the inherent flexibility of the material. Wood could be shaped and sculpted to a certain extent, making it the ideal interior decorating material for many homes. While concrete does offer a measure of similar versatility in shaping, certain limitations, such as becoming brittle when there is little of it, prevent concrete from being as useful as wood in this aspect.
Natural Insulation
Most people would think that static electricity would only be a problem in workplaces where there are many electronic devices. Depending on the location and the fixtures inside the home, static electricity could also be a problem within the house as well. It is not uncommon for people to experience varying degrees of electrical shocks in houses primarily made of concrete or metal.
A house made mostly of wood, however, prevents these unpleasant shocks because of the natural insulation properties that come with it. Many have actually been spared grievous injuries from electrical accidents thanks to having wooden floors and walls.
Faster Building Time
There are many cabins that boast of being constructed completely from wood, with absolutely no nails or screws used in fastening the pieces together. This is not because of concerns over affordability. This is due to the immense versatility of wood as a construction material. This also accounts for the faster build time involved when the structure is mostly made of wood. There is no need to wait for anything to set, unlike the wait time needed for concrete to harden when it is poured in.
Wood is so easy to use in construction that carpentry has become a full-time hobby for many people. In most cases, projects involving wood would have been finished far more quickly, with the carpenters and builders admitting that they took their time with it as they wanted to savour the experience of building with wood.
Unlimited Building Potential
For those with the proper mindset and planning for it, a kitset cabin is not just fit for being another room or space apart from the house. It could also be the workplace away from work, which is perhaps every working person’s dream. It provides more than ample privacy and space to be a legitimate office space or any space that is associated with most types of work. People have also used kitset cabins as workshops since wood is also a good sound insulator, muffling the droning noises caused by machinery.
People who use kitset cabins as their personal workspaces also admit that there is a certain air of creativity that comes with working inside a wooden structure. Whether this is just a mindset of people who do work in cabins or there is a real explanation to it, the productivity that becomes evident from the experience is well documented. To prove this point, many people involved in creative work, such as writers, artists, and directors have expressed great interest in the cabins for sale in Auckland market listings, where they may very well create their next big masterpiece.