In April I had an unexpected addition to my family, (and by unexpected I literally mean a 7am phone call from my girlfriend to tell me she had a baby last night) anyway long story short my girlfriend and my new son moved in a couple of days later when they were discharged from hospital. This left me with a small space issue, what was my study would need to become the baby's room. however I work from home sometimes and kind of need some space for my PC's etc. So having looked into the possibility of extending my extension in the past I knew that not only would that be incredibly time consuming it was also way beyond my (very limited ) budget, and re mortgaging or moving wouldn't really be an option either so I decided to look into log cabin's / garden offices / large sheds. After trawling thru the web I found some things that were kind of suitable and around my budget. I went to find out about planning permission. I didn't think I needed it but couldn't afford to spend thousands of pounds to only have someone tell me I had to tear it down and start again. The web was filled with lists of things I couldn't do, but no real list of things I could, so I emailed the planning office with some questions about what I could and couldn't do. With their response I learned that as long as it met some basic criterion, like not being over 2.5m, and not being habitable space (as in a bedroom) I could do pretty much anything I wanted. So I set about drawing some basic sketches and booked an appointment at the planning office to discuss the details. After a visit to the planning office, I was told as long as you don't sleep in it, its under 2.5m tall (measured from the highest point of ground level) and under 15 m square I didn't need permission or building regs so I could build whatever I wanted using whatever material I choose. Before Pics I didn't like the idea of having a building built of untreated timber, neither did I fancy having to treat the building once a year. It also seamed overly complicated to insulate a log cabin in such a way I could happily use it all year round. Given that I don't really have the time or skill to build it myself this really settled it for me that I would have a brick (or block) built structure as I'd be paying someone else to build it anyway and the materials would be cheaper and longer lasting. I spoke to a builder who dropped in and looked at my plans and the space I had. He was keen to try out Porotherm (http://www.porothermuk.co.uk) clay blocks and after doing the sums They looked to be less the £50 more expensive for the materials and "should" save money on labour so figured I'd give them a go. First thing was to remove the existing fences and dig a foundation. 2 skips full of soil later, we had a hole and fill it with hardcore and 15cm of steel reinforced concrete. leave it to sit for a week, Then we can start with the walls / door. I chose I hardwood door as firstly I don't like cheap uPVC doors and secondly I wanted a standard yale type night latch so I could fit an electromagnetic door release later. I picked up a cheap mis ordered double glazed window unit off ebay. The first 2 courses of engineering bricks and the first course of porothem went in in a day. The rest of the walls / window went in the following day. a couple of days later the builders were back to put the roof on. Then quickly followed by the roofer who came and did the felt and the gutter. The pipe on the left is a duct for all the low voltage cables to come in by (planning for around 6 runs of cat5e (network, cresnet (crestron network), 2 x audio, control, spare) and 2 RG6 (one satellite one freeview) The twin and earth on the right is for an outside socket for the lawn mower. Then lastly (for the outside) a coat (or 6) of render to make it look a bit nicer This is pretty much the end of what I can afford to get some one else in to do, the rest will be down to me and my DIY skills. I've spoken to an electrician so I can get the cabling in place and then they can come and do the connections and the plasterer to come back and line the inside with Kinspan insulated plaster board. So my fist job was to get the cabling in for the lights (3 circuits, one for the main area one for the cupboard and one for an outside light) and get the insulation up in the ceiling. It's been a slow couple of weeks on this project between hosting BBQ's and camping (and work and general day to day life) I've had pretty much no time to spend on this until today. So I've finally finished the roof insulation. Filled the damage to the door (that the builder did because he had the door upside down ) Anyway here's a picture of the outside now the render has properly dried out and gives a much better idea of the final colour Had a fairly productive weekend. All the backboxes in for the sockets (mains and network and A/V) DPM down, and started on the wiring. All the Mains voltage is done and the sparky has said its all wired up okay. Unfortunately I've run out of cat5e so I'm a bit stuck until my new drum arrives (hopefully tomorrow), but I've also found out that the door leaks a bit so I need to fiddle the hinges slightly to get it to close better. This morning I've had the rest of the plasterboard/ insulation delivered so I now can't get into my dinning room so I think I need to pull my finger out! Well the floor is down, I've tidied the cables up on the walls and moved the stack of insulation and plasterboard down into the man cave so I can actually move in the dining room now. It's been frustratingly slow progress, but I have no free time and two kids to look after so any progress is good, the plasterer is booked in for Monday next week so fingers crossed we'll see some real progress next week. So it's been a while since I updated but... The plasterer's been and all the insulation and plaster board is in and skimmed and my cupboard's built (sans door for now) I've run six cat5e's and a coax (for TV aerial) back to the house (not quite as far as the main network hub but it won't take long to pull it round under all the kitchen cabinets.) I've started painting and the Sparkie is booked for tomorrow. Painting is still work in progress... but now I have power and more importantly lights!! I'd forgotten how much paint it takes to get an even finish on bear plaster, I'm 4 coats in and hoping one more will do it... *sigh* The photo's don't really show much but made some real progress over the past week... Painting finished and the floor cleaned up ready for the underfloor heating. The underfloor heating was a bit of a nightmare to lay. As I didn't know much about it I planned to start from the stud wall for the cupboard and run the cable thru this wall and then to the power point (fused spur) in the cupboard. I dutifully marked up the floor as the mat shouldn't go under any fixed furniture or too close to the walls. Unfortunately I hadn't;t realised you can only essentially do left hand 90 degree turns or full 180's If I'd started at the other end of the room this wouldn't have caused a problem but I wanted to make a lot of right hand turn's after a couple of hours of carefully cutting and turning I got the mat laid (but forgot to take a photo). Anyway laminate is now down, The UFH is tested and seems to be working (although I need to move the on wall thermostat as I'd tried to cut the back box in too close to the stud work for the the wall *sigh*. Skirtings are all on (just not in the cupboard) now to filling the joins sanding and painting. it really doesn't look like much , but this week, I've finished painting the skirting and stated moving stuff in. Just a book case and the server rack so far (and boxes upon boxes of stuff that's been cluttering up my house for what feels like ever.) This weekend I finally got my desk moved in. Unfortunately I've also moved all the crap that's been cluttering up my house and generally getting in the way So needless to say I've got a lot of sorting out ebaying and taking to the tip to do. I've stripped the rack out ready for the wheels Today is my first day working from home and so I'm really happy with the place (except for the mess ) The underfloor heating seems to be doing the job just fine and the insulation seems to be working well even on a frosty night it only dropped from 13 degrees c last night to 9 degrees c this morning and its back up to 12 after the heating's been on for an hour this morning.
That's really great! My garden is so small, that if I built something like that, then it would be an extension to my house Awesome project though, can't wait to see more!
The lawn was about 10m and is now down to about 7.5m. Eventually I want to knock down the old shed to make my garden look and feel much wider, but one thing at a time....
Very nice little space. It's good to see a project like this here. I'm just finishing up a new man cave for myself.
Looks good mate! But I'm guessing the lighting that use to come in through the door to the area in the house has now come down?
Not sure I understand what you mean? The door in the house opposite (this building is at the far end of my garden so doesn't effect the light on my house)?? This hasn't really made much difference as its only a little taller than the fence was, and its north (west) facing so never really got much light anyway. (and its a door / window to a utility room so I don't think there bothered about the natural light. As for progress, I got some more of the insulation up, and ordered the timber for the floor. nothing worth a picture.
Must have my bearings wrong as in the first pic, it showed the foundations near the kitchen door or something, the distance between the two looked very little. However, have just realised its not that tall.
Small update and quick question, is it better to keep editing the first post or should I post updates as new posts??
what ever floats your boat m8 as long as you inform people will look so edit as long as you bump thread
Super stuff - I'm rather envious. I'd be interested to know your approx total build cost, because I'd love to tear down one of my sheds and put up something of similar size.
