A log cabin is one of the cheapest ways to add proper usable space to your garden. Office, summerhouse, spare bedroom, workshop. Whatever you use it for, the roof is the bit that decides whether it lasts thirty years or starts smelling of damp by year five. Most cabins arrive with cheap mineral felt as standard, and that felt is usually the first thing to fail. It cracks in frost, blisters in heat, and the laps let water in the moment they lift. If you're re-roofing a cabin, or building one from scratch, you've got two far better options: EPDM rubber or GRP fibreglass. We stock both, we've supplied both to cabin owners for years, and here's how to choose between them. Why felt fails and rubber and fibreglass don't Timber cabins move. The logs expand and contract with moisture and temperature, which puts constant stress on whatever's covering the roof. Felt handles this badly because it's applied in strips with joints, and every joint is a future leak. EPDM goes down as a single sheet with no joins across the whole roof, so there's nothing for the movement to pull apart. Fit an EPDM membrane properly and it should still be doing its job in 50 years. GRP is different but just as stubborn: the resin cures into one solid laminate stuck to the deck, and the topcoat takes sun, boots and bad winters without complaint. With either one, the job's done. You won't be back up there. Option 1: EPDM rubber roofing For most log cabins, EPDM is the easier of the two. It's a one-piece rubber sheet that you glue down with water-based deck adhesive across the field of the roof and contact adhesive around the edges and upstands. No flames, no resin, no mixing, and it's forgiving of cooler weather, which matters if you're fitting a roof in a British autumn. For smaller cabins and garden buildings, our SkyGuard shed roof kits start at around £70 and include everything you need. For bigger cabins, the Classic Bond EPDM flat roof kits come cut to your dimensions, or you can size one yourself with our EPDM kit builder and get the membrane, trims and adhesives priced in one go. Never fitted rubber before? Our EPDM online training centre walks you through the whole job on video before you order, so you know exactly what you're taking on. Option 2: GRP fibreglass roofing Fibreglass gives you a harder, more rigid finish. If your cabin roof doubles as anything you'll walk on, or you just want the toughest surface available, GRP is the one. It also looks sharp: a smooth grey or black finish with neat preformed edge trims rather than a wrapped rubber edge. Our 600g heavy duty GRP kits are the standard choice where the roof will see foot traffic, and the 450g kits suit cabin roofs that only need to keep the weather out. Both come with resin, catalyst, matting and topcoat. You'll want edge trims such as the A200 drip trim to carry water into the gutter, and if you don't already own rollers and brushes, our roofing tool kits cover that for a few quid rather than a trip round three shops. One honest caveat: GRP is more weather-dependent than EPDM. You need a dry day and reasonable temperatures for the resin to cure properly. Watch our fibreglass video tutorials first and you'll see the full process, including where beginners usually go wrong. What about apex and pent roofs? Both systems work on flat, pent and apex cabin roofs. EPDM handles a ridge with a simple overlap detail, and GRP laminates over a ridge as one continuous surface. If your cabin has an unusual shape, ring us on 0800 612 7903 before you order and we'll help you spec the right kit rather than guessing. Two things to check before you start Most garden cabins fall under permitted development, but there are limits. Anything within 2 metres of a boundary is capped at 2.5 metres high, which is exactly why so many cabins have low-pitch or flat roofs in the first place. The Planning Portal's outbuildings guidance sets out the full conditions, and it's worth ten minutes of reading before you commit to a roof build-up that adds height. A cabin roof is low, but low roofs still put people in hospital. Falls from ladders account for a large share of fall injuries in the UK, so read the HSE's guidance on safe ladder use before you go up. Level ground, secured ladder, no overreaching. Boring advice that works. Ready to sort your cabin roof? Browse the EPDM kits and fibreglass kits, have a look through our other guides, or give us a call on 0800 612 7903 if you'd rather talk it through. Order by midday and most kits go out the same day.
