This started back in October 2017 when my wife and I thought it would be a good idea to build a “shed” for a pool table and a couple of pinball tables. I also decided to remodel the garden at the same time, “how hard could it be?” This is what we started with.
After a couple of weekends with a chainsaw I had removed most of the bushes around the edge of the garden and had cut down the bay tree. Bonfire built and ready for November 5th.
Nice bonfire on November 5th. 1st valuable lesson learnt, don’t use petrol to start a fire, the ball of flame that engulfed me was quite spectacular and warm, thankfully no harm done.
In early summer 2018 I started to level the garden. I took a week off work and hired a mini digger. My youngest son and I had great fun on this and by the end of the week we ended up with a huge pile of dirt. I got a quote to clear this and it was £5000, sod this thought I, I will clear it myself. 6 x 12 yard skips and a torn calf pushing the barrow up the ramp into the skip and I had managed to clear this pile.
Wood ordered and delivered. I used a local timber yard and the delivery driver helped me carry all of this to the back garden. What a nice chap as they normally just dump stuff on the drive.
This is the concrete base at the bottom of the garden. This was one of the few jobs I got someone else to do as I have no experience with concrete and thought this would be an expensive and timely thing to fix if I got it wrong. This was 2 days work for 3 local landscape gardeners. They worked hard and shifted 14 tonnes of hardcore by wheelbarrow. The base is 6m x 4.5m x 150mm.
The basic frame in place. This all came together very quickly and I was well chuffed with how well it all fit. I put a damp proof course between the wood and the concrete base and it is attached to the concrete with anchor bolts.
9mm water resistant OSB board on the outside. Roof joists and firrings attached.
18mm OSB for the roof. I was originally going to build a warm roof on top of this but was starting to get worried about the height so I changed my mind and decided to get insulation sprayed inside instead.
Breathable building wrap applied and EPDM attached to the roof. Getting the EPDM onto the roof was difficult, this stuff is heavy, particularly as I went for the thicker one. A lot easier to apply than I expected though and I would definitely use it again.
Door in place and roof trim applied.
Battens in place ready to attach the outside finish.
I went for cheaper shiplap around the back and sides as this won’t really be seen and I used a slightly more expensive log lap on the front. If I did this again I would definitely buy a pre-treated wood as it took me weeks to treat the back of all these planks with Osmo oil before I attached them to the building.
Outside pretty much finished now. Just a couple of final pieces of trim to put in place. This Was the point at which the council turned up. Even though I had discussed the work with neighbours and let them know what I was doing someone had still put in a complaint. Thankfully the council were impressed with my work and research. They even suggested I could have put an apex roof on if I wanted it higher. They also said that the neighbours do not have a right to a view of my garden. At least I don’t need to worry about this any more and neighbours seem reasonably happy.
On the inside I have 100mm Celotex (I really hate this stuff, hope I never have to use it again). You can see the spray foam insulation on the ceiling, I found a local company who do this for a lot of canal boats, only took a couple of hours. A layer of plastic sheet to cover floor, ceiling and walls, this may be slightly over the top but everything I have read has made me completely paranoid about interstitial condensation.
18mm tongue and groove for the floor with a layer of 9mm OSB below this and 6mm foil backed insulation below this.
Used vinyl click flooring for the final finish.
Plasterboard fitted and taped and filled joints. Painted with white paint, I won’t do this again as it took about 6 coats to get decent coverage. You can also just about make out the recessed LED strip light.
Since this photo I have completed the flooring and had someone in to install the electrics. A couple of bits left to tidy up and skirting to install but I have had to put the room on hold for a couple of weeks as I need to get the garden finished for my wife’s 50th in August. Once this is done I will be ready to buy my first pin almost 2 years after I started. Hopefully it will have been worth the wait.
I was going to install an oil filled electric radiator but the room does get quite hot in the sun. It is not too bad with all the insulation but I am now thinking I need something that will cool in summer and heat in winter. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what might be best?