DIY Summer house advice please??

[Nick593]

I'm looking at making a summer house from scratch this summer/ autumn and I have been advised to get some blue prints.

I am a complete DIY beginner and have never built anything substantial, such as a summer house. This will be my first project.

Can people offer advice on the following;
- Where can I get blueprints for the project/ and construction guidance?
- Where can I get a list of materials?
- Can someone offer general advice on building something like this?
- Are there build threads on the forum?
- Will a DIY beginner likely be able to complete a job like this/ will I need much assistance?

Please can I have as much advice as possible, especially on the build, and where to start with planning?. This will be very much appreciated.

Thank-you

 

[OwainDIYer]

for a complete beginner you would be well advised to consider a kit - even if it's a bespoke one.

Also the price of timber at retail is such that it's often not cost-effective cutting your own compared to the firms that buy it by the containerload from Estonia and feed it through a computer controlled mill.

Look at eg Waltons or Dunster House (not everyone likes Dunster House though).

 

[Nick593]

Hi can someone point me in the direction of a book and/ or plans for for building a basic summer house/ log cabin?

Thank-you

 

[skotl]

Hi can someone point me in the direction of a book and/ or plans for for building a basic summer house/ log cabin?

Thank-you

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but the fact that you're having difficulty finding them yourself is because there seems to be very little usable plans out there.

I went through the same process as you, just before the summer - I wanted to build my own, figured it would be cheaper, and that there would be tons of resource on t'interweb about it.
Turns out that it is *much* more expensive to build from scratch, unless you're in the trade and already have access to trade prices. Plus I also googled all the obvious search terms and couldn't find anything that was enough to build the entire project.

So please do keep googling, and perhaps someone here will strike gold for you, but you should consider looking at kits as well. Also; do at least cost up all the timber you will need, at retail prices, and compare to the price of these kits - you may be horrified to find how much it will cost to go DIY.

Good luck, whichever path you choose!

 

[ntb]

http://freebies.about.com/od/homegardenfreebies/tp/free-shed-plans.htm

If you are a beginner I think you would struggle to do a decent job, especially on your own. It's not particularly difficult but you do need some experience, common sense and a resonable set of tools. It will take you longer than you expect too.

 

[s60tsy]

pre fab

 

[Nick593]

Hi, thank-you very much. This is only going to be a very basic project and there is no time deadline. It might end up as a shed with a corrugated iron roof for the mean time as the budget is very basic.

If planning and building etc goes well, I will share progress on here.

Thanks again