Outdoor Projects

So the garden office project is progressing nicely. Perhaps slower than expected but it’s starting to look more like a quality construction rather than a bunch of stud walls.

The breather membrane was stapled to the frame and roofing batons nailed onto the vertical studs. Suddenly the shed looked substantial and permanent. The temporary tarpaulin has been replaced with the EPDM membrane. This has relaxed in the sun today and the creases have almost all come out. Just a couple of hours and some glue will finish this off.

Had a star find on eBay and finally bought the stainless steel nails for the larch cladding. I was shocked at the initial price of £15 a kilo! But managed to get this down to £5. Stainless steel won’t bleed into the wood or discolour over time.

Finally the sliding patio door frame was fitted and is ready for the two giant double glazed doors which will be fitted on Monday.

Now it’s lighter in the evenings I’ve had time to get the ply on the roof. I’ve chosen to go with 12mm external grade ply as it’s stiff enough not to bend under the weight of the rubber EPDM roofing membrane.

The ply went up without  any issues and is screwed at 300mm centres into the CLS rafters. Building the roof to exactly fit 4 full sheets of ply saved time and no cuts were required.

Sitting up on the roof was less scary than I had imagined and the overall structure is very stiff.

Next step over the next couple of days will be to staple the breather roofing membrane onto the external face of the walls and then nail the batten to the uprights. This will provide a gap behind the larch cladding to allow any moisture to escape.

Since my last update I’ve been fortunate to have some spare time to crack on with the timber frame. My friend Ross has been kind enough to help out with some extra man power and welcomed expertise.

The frame is now finished and today the roof rafters were cut and fitted. Birds mouth cuts were easily cut with a jigsaw and everything slotted nicely into place. The timber frame is very level, all credit to the quality of the base.

400 screws, a litre of glue, 70 lengths of 3 x 2 and 12 lengths of 4 x 2 have gone into the build so far. Have found a good source of 2nd hand insulation and some cheap flooring so will be busy sourcing over the next couple of weeks.

Next steps this week are to fit the plywood roof and wrap the frame in breather membrane. Not sure if I will get around to nailing on the 50 metres of baton but we’ll see. Roll on weather tightness.

Had a busy weekend with the garden office construction. The floor joists and back wall timber frame is complete and two of the three sides are now up.
Spending time getting the base level was very worthwhile as the build is going up fast and is surprisingly straight and true.

The roof is pitched at 6 degrees and looks exactly as I pictured in my mind.
Hopefully the rest of the timber frame will be up this week and then it’s time to roof and wrap.

The budget was originally £1000, but I quickly realised that even sourcing some of the more expensive components through salvage or second hand this might be a little tight. I have spent the last 3 months trawling ebay and this has saved me a considerable amount.

Windows and doors are expensive so I came to the conclusion that having just one huge glazed unit was the way to go. A star find was a new hardwood framed 2400mm wide double glazed unit for £5! Quick trip to North London to collect and this was sorted. The shed door will be made from a simple timber frame and clad to blend in with the rest.

The concrete base was a huge cost I hadn’t planned for. Initially my thoughts were around £100 but due to having to save time the ready mix came in at £220. I think this could have been £60-80 cheaper by hand but was that worth a full days work for two people?

The timber frame, roof and floor is coming in at £320. A large chunk of that is the 4 sheets of 12mm ply. The rest is 70 lengths of 3×2 CLS timber and enough 18mm water-resistant chipboard for the floor.

Cladding was another eBay find with 4 metre lengths of 20mm larch shiplap cladding for £5 each. Usually this quality of timber is around 4 times the price I paid. If you want a bargain start hunting on salvage site and eBay and be prepared to hire a van and collect.

The roof is going to be EPDM (ethylene propylene diene Monomer (M-class)) rubber as it’s easier to lay than felt. Total cost £110 with glue. I will talk about how this goes in a separate post.

The final large cost is insulation. The roof will be traditional glass fibre which I bought from an offer at work for 1p a roll. I know we can’t all be this fortunate! The walls will be 25mm Celotex. This comes in at around £12 a sheet.

So along with fixing, fittings, plasterboard and electricals which I have budgeted another £100 for I’m hoping the total build to come in at £1200.

Wish me luck!

So today with a little help (ok a lot) from my friend Ross and my father I finally completed laying the concrete slab for the garden office.

The slab is 4.6 x 2 metres and I used scaffold boards for shuttering. These weren’t quite long enough so were joined by a short length of board and 8 screws to keep it all solid. All of this we staked using 50x50mm driven 450mm into the ground. Each corner was squared off using a large builders square and sides kept straight using a builder string line. Finally it was levelled on each side, back to front and across the corners.

50mm of hardcore (rubbish found around the garden) in the bottom of the giant hole later and then 2 hours of hand compaction. A wacker plate would have been easier but we are trying to balance costs and time. Finally 500kg of ballast and another hour of compaction to level it all off.

So we cheated a little by buying in concrete mixed on site, but I can’t recommend BarroMix in the New Forest enough. I envisaged it taking a good full day for the 3 of us to hand mix the 1.5 cubic metres of concrete required. BarroMix come to site and mix you just the right amount to order. 30 minutes and about 30 wheel barrow trips later and we had filled the shuttering. In the end we used 1.75 cubic metres. My tip would be have 3 wheelbarrows as we did and be prepared to work your socks off for an hour!

So the concrete is laid and drying nicely. Hopefully by Tuesday it will be set enough to start laying down some timber.

PS Big thanks to Crystal for supplying lunch and refreshments. The chicken casserole was delicious!