Prefab cabin kits are meant to give you the possibility to build your own cabin quickly and on a budget.
A good prefab cabin kit comes with a comprehensive set of drawings and instructions and, of course, all the materials necessary to put up the structure of the cabin.
Before we go into details of what should be included in the kit and what you can expect to achieve with it, let’s have a look at what a cabin really is.
Cabins come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
Most people agree a cabin is someone a place where to relax, where to take a break from everyday life.
It follows that the “cabin experience” is extremely “personal”.
Your idea of a cabin in terms of size and functionality is probably different from what another person would describe.
This is why here at Avrame we have 12 different models of houses that can work well as cabins.
What should be in the cabin kit
A good prefab cabin kit shall…
1) put you in the position of building your cabin without too many headaches.
If the building is too complex or the process for ordering is not too clear, you are going to have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out things… which, frankly, it is quite frustrating and unnecessary.
2) require minimum special equipment to be put together.
Otherwise, you are going to have to rent specialized machinery (crane, fork-lift, saw, …) or hire a carpenter/contractor to do the job.
For example, all Avrame cabins are engineered as pre-cut kits and the parts can easily be handled by two persons. The assembly requires no crane and even no cutting (well, almost none).
3) come with everything you need to put up the structure and make it weather tight.
There is nothing more annoying than realizing you miss some piece when you are in the middle of the construction works.
A good prefab kit should never let you down this way.
Once you start building up the frame, you should be able to get to the roof, install the windows, make the structure weatherproof WITHOUT ever having to visit the shop.
Good planning helps, sure… but most of the times the content of the kit is what makes the difference.
4) come with extras
although many prefab cabin kits allow you to build up just the structure of the cabin, it doesn’t hurt if the producer can offer you a bunch or extras to speed up your construction.
Examples of extras are:
- exterior kit (to finish up the roof and the facade of the building)
- interior kit (with stairs, doors and most of the material you need to finish up the interiors)
- accessories (fireplace, stove, ventilation units, …)
Not all producers offer this kind of options but some do. So it is worth to investigate.
At Avrame, exterior and interior kits are part of the standard offer.
5) come with detailed instructions and support
There is nothing worse than sitting on a pile of sticks and not knowing how they fit together… especially after you spent a considerable amount of money to get those sticks on your construction site.
So, every respectable producer of prefab cabin kits should provide a GOOD assembly manual and should be ready to offer support during the building phase.
Needless to say, you have to do some homework to figure out if the producer you are considering can offer all the five things listed above.
The cabin experience
What do you see when you imagine a cabin?
Most people think of a cabin as a place where they can find peace and tranquillity. Relax. Disconnect.
Sure, the location does most of the work but also the eye wants its part… cause we are very “visual creatures” and what we see shapes our experience more than we can think of.
One Architect once told me that the beauty of A-frames is that their architectural “feel” is unique. Their shape is in fact very different from the typical townhouse.
He said: “when I go to my A-frame cabin, my mind totally disconnects for the daily routine… because what my eyes see is something I do not see every day“.
There is some wisdom in that thought.
Yes, A-frame cabins are indeed unique.
We like that. We are proud to give people the possibility to build unique homes and cabins for themselves. We are proud to help them disconnect.
12 different models
The size of your cabin depends on your needs and on the use you are going to make of it (how many people will live there, for how long, in which period of the year).
With that in mind, we gave up on giving size advice and we worked on making available a wide selection of options.
Today Avrame offers 3 different series of cabins: Solo+, Duo, Trio.
The difference is in the size of the triangular frame and, consequently, in the interior volume.
Here are the sizes of the A-frames (width of the base):
- SOLO+ = 4.9 m /16.1 f
- DUO = 5.7 m / 18.7 ft
- TRIO = 9.6 m / 31.5 ft
Each series is available in several different lengths and each size comes with a different layout of the floor plans.
Given the bigger volume of the building, DUO offers a loft and TRIO a full-size second floor.Here are all the models offered by Avrame as prefab cabin kits:
SOLO+
DUO
TRIO
57
13,1 m2 / 141,0 ft2
30,0 m2 / 322,0 ft2
51,7 m2 / 556,0 ft2
75
17,0 m2 / 182,0 ft2
40,5 m2 / 435,0 ft2
71,5 m2 / 769,0 ft2
100
23,0 m2 / 247,0 ft2
55,1 m2 / 593,0 ft2
97,3 m2 / 1047,0 ft2
120
68,5 m2/ 737,0 ft2
121,0 m2 / 1300,0 ft2
150
139,8 m2 / 1495,0 ft2
As you can see, there is a wide variety of options to choose from.
Our suggestion is always to start by figuring out which series you want to build, then narrow it down by size and by floorplan layout.
Keep in mind that, in Avrame case, the floorplan layout of the cabin is fully customizable as the only loadbearing structure is the A-frame itself.
Conclusions
If you are shopping for prefab cabin kits you probably are at a point in your life where you want to have a break from the day-to-day frenetic lifestyle and you want to do something that will reconnect you to the true nature of being a man.
While building a modern shelter is a complex project, it does not have to be expensive or frustrating.
Prefab kits have been invented to make your life easier. Everything has been thought out for you in advance and all the pieces for the structure of the building are delivered to your construction site.
Just make sure you follow the recommendations given in this article and building your cabin will be a pleasurable experience.