Garden cabin leaking water

[mini Anaconda]

Hello all,
My first post having just bought my first house.
I have a cabin in the garden (already there when I moved in) which is only a few years old but is leaking water through the wood as shown in the photos all around the cabin.

Exterior of the cabin is painted (albeit a few years ago I imagine) and the roof has a decent overhang with gutters fitted.

What would be the best course of action? I assume a repaint on the outside but any recommendations of products to use?

Many thanks in advance

 

[JohnD]

Show us the outside, and the guttering, especially above the wet patches.

Go outside and look at it during rain. I strongly suspect water is dripping or running down the wall.

Paint is not a waterproofer.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Another one of these threads!

Timber cladding is never waterproof.

 

[mini Anaconda]

Another one of these threads!

Timber cladding is never waterproof.

Not a very helpful or friendly post for someone who has just joined this forum. If you read my original post I was asking for suggestions to improve the situation, not make it waterproof. If I wanted it waterproof, I'd use bricks.

Show us the outside, and the guttering, especially above the wet patches.

Go outside and look at it during rain. I strongly suspect water is dripping or running down the wall.

Paint is not a waterproofer.

Thank you. Will provide some photos when the rain stops!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Attach a breathable membrane to the outside with staples, fit vertical battens and then another layer of horizontal cladding, your shed won't leak anymore. Painting won't fix it.

 

[endecotp]

If you read my original post I was asking for suggestions to improve the situation, not make it waterproof.

No you didn’t, you wrote:

What would be the best course of action? I assume a repaint on the outside but any recommendations of products to use?

“Best course of action” is a but vague, but “make it waterproof” seems like a reasonable interpretation to me.

Anyway: since you don’t want it to be waterproof, you could just leave it as it is. It won’t fall down.

Repainting the outside might reduce the amount of water that gets through, if that’s what you want to achieve, but it might not and it certainly won’t last forever. I’d use an exterior gloss like Dulux Weathershield. Or rather I wouldn’t, I’d try to make it waterproof per post #5, but that’s just me.

 

[jj4091]

If that's the only area that is leaking I would have a look at the corner posts. It may need a bead of silicon running down the outside of each one.

 

[JohnD]

"Log" cabins usually have the boards notched at the ends so they interlock, and the ends stick out at the corners. They do not have a corner post. The 'logs" are T&G or have a loose tongue so it us difficult for water to get inside along the flat wall.

If the gutter had failed at the corner joint, water could run down the corner joints of the "logs" and give the leak pattern we see.

 

[JohnD]

You can just make out the interlocked corners on this one. They call it a log cabin but you can see it is really flat boards. I think they are imported as kits from Finland.

I have stayed in real log cabins in Wyoming, they are much thicker and need either a loose tongue, or clay in the joints to prevent draughts,

 

[JohnD]

Here we are.

The ones I've seen have a simple square notch, this picture shows improved angled cuts where gravity helps pull the boards together,