Saunas
A cabin for a Camps Bay winter, a cabin for a Highveld hailstorm and a cabin for Umhlanga humidity are three d…
Read more →Cabins on hillsides and hardwood decks
Cape Town builds on mountainsides and Johannesburg builds on flat ground that gets hailed on. The cabin is the same idea; the engineering underneath is not.
Indicative band: 80 – 248 thousand ZAR, supplied and installed in South Africa.
Across the continent: Saunas in all eight countries →
Building on a Cape slope
On the steep plots of Camps Bay, Clifton and Bantry Bay we set cabins on galvanised steel posts bolted into the existing retaining wall, with the floor frame levelled above the fall. Nothing new is cut into the terrace and no load is added to a wall that is already holding the garden up.
Access is the other half. Panels are carried down steep steps by hand, often in the early morning, and that is a labour line in the quote rather than a hidden loading.
Building for Highveld hail
Summer hail on the Highveld dents cars and shreds thin sheeting. Roofs get a heavier gauge and a proper fall, glass is specified for impact where it faces up, and anything fragile lives under the eave rather than exposed.
We have replaced other people's polycarbonate roofs after a single storm. It is not worth the saving.
Wind, rain and the cavity
A ventilated rainscreen cavity behind the cladding, drained at the bottom, is what keeps a cabin alive through a Cape winter. Water that gets past the boards runs out instead of soaking the insulation, and the wind that drives it in also dries the cavity.
In short
- Galvanised steel posts into the existing retaining wall on Cape slopes
- Heavier-gauge roofing and impact-rated glass on the Highveld, because of hail
- Ventilated rainscreen cavity, drained at the bottom, for wet Cape winters
- Hand-carry access priced as its own line, not hidden in the cabin cost
Questions
Deck & garden cabins in South Africa
How do panels reach a steep site?
By hand down the steps, usually early morning. We photograph the route on the visit and price the labour honestly.
Will hail damage the cabin?
Not with the right roof gauge and glass specification. We have replaced other people's polycarbonate after one storm.
Does the timber go grey?
Pale timber silvers within two or three years unless re-oiled. Charred timber holds colour far longer. Neither affects the structure.
Also in South Africa
Other rooms we build here
Cold plunges
South Africa is the only market we work in where we regularly talk clients out of a chiller, and it is worth u…
Read more →
Backup power
Load shedding has ended — South Africa has now gone more than 475 days without it, and passed a full year with…
Read more →