What is a U-Value?

Throughout our website, we show the U-Values for the variety of materials and constructions we use – but what is a U-value?

A U-value is a measure of how fast heat will pass through that material or construction, so the lower number, the better the insulation. U-Values are measured in W/M²K (Watts per Metres²Kelvin).

Some garden building companies claim that the 70mm walls on their cabins are thick enough to provide excellent insulation, but this isn’t true. Timber is nowhere near as good an insulator as materials such as polyurethane, which is designed precisely for the job of insulating. This can be seen in the graph below, where our 130mm TripleTherm insulated walls have significantly lower rates of heat loss than a 70mm timber cabin:-



U-values for roofing are slightly different. A U-value for a roof will be typically higher as heat rises and so a roof will let more heat through, unless it is well insulated.

We offer roof insulation that comprises of an 11mm MFP/50mm Polyurethane sandwich panels on top of our 19mm roof boards. Some competitors offer roof insulation using much thinner timbers and insulation boards, and this graph below demonstrates just how much better our roof insulation is compared to standard roof boards, and the competitions cheap, thin roof insulation



Very few competitors offer floor insulation, yet this is the place you will feel it the most when walking around or sitting in your log cabin. Under floor heating is becoming very popular in new build houses. The reason for this is that heat rises, so start at the bottom and work up. The same should be said for insulation. We offer two types of under floor insulation. The first is a 25mm polyurethane sheet suspended below our normal 19mm floor boards; the second is a MFP/Polyurethane SIPS sandwich panel which is used on our Deluxe Rapid Pad base. Both offer excellent levels of insulation compared to timber flooring.



You might be thinking “how does this compare against my home?” Well below we include some U Values of typical brick construction. As you can see, our timber and our TripleTherm buildings compare fantastically to brick alternatives, for nowhere near the cost. A single skin brick garage has nowhere near the insulation value of a timber building. Also our TripleTherm log cabins beat the insulation value of traditional Brick/Cavity/Breezeblock wall used in house construction for many years and even has a similar value to modern house construction, with nowhere near the cost!



Typical House Construction - 102mm Brick Wall / 50mm Air Cavity / 100mm AAC Blocks / Mineral Wool / 12mm Plasterboard