Garden Office/Studio

[OvineLoving]

Hi all,

In much the same vein as rmwebs I'm currently going through the process of building one of those 'log cabin' thingies in the garden. Unfortunately mine is for my wife rather than myself but nevermind.

Having sought help and advice here I thought my progress and experiences may be of interest. So far I've only got as far a documenting the laying of the slab but will hopefully have something to say about the structure in the next few days.

http://buildingastudio.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/background-and-context-6/

Have a look and let me have your thoughts/comments/questions.

Cheers.

 

[OvineLoving]

All,

For info I've added details of the basic structure we put up. Hopefully it's getting to the meat of the build now and should be a bit more interesting.

http://buildingastudio.wordpress.com/

Cheers

 

[OvineLoving]

Hi,

I've now completed the historical record by writing up the exterior finishing (now up-to-date as of Saturday). Have spend the last couple of days building out the interior and will post later in the week when it's complete.

Cheers

http://buildingastudio.wordpress.com/

 

[OvineLoving]

Hi all,

I finished the internal battening today in preparation for the electrics and insulation.

http://buildingastudio.wordpress.com/

 

[rmwebs]

Just taken a look at the progress - its looking great!

I'm pretty jealous...mine doesn't look as nice as yours!

I really need to get on with it, we've had crap weather over the last couple of weeks and its meant that I was stuck only being able to do little jobs. I came very close to hiring one of those big gazeboes to shove over the entire garden at one point

Can I ask what your plans are for ceiling insulation? I've got a bunch of 100mm celotex for mine, however there will be no room for an airgap above. I've got a brethable membrane fitted to the ceiling and was planning on putting the celotex as far against the roof planks as possible, to create a sort of 'warm roof' system. The joists are around 12cm in height, and the incluation is 10cm in height, and from what I gather an airgap of 2cm would be nowhere near enough for a standard cold roof, hence the warm roof option. The obvious problem here would be condensation, so an internal vent into the room would be needed as far as I can tell.

 

[OvineLoving]

I've got 130mm roof joists so have gone with 50mm roof insulation to give me a (nearly) 50mm void in the roof. I'm planning to take off the facia boards later and drill a number of small holes behind them (perhaps covered with fine mesh to stop insects) to aid ventilation of the roof space.

Sal was keen to keep as much headroom as possible hence why I'm boarding in between them rather than over the top. This would have been considerably easier I feel.

At the moment I'm not terribly convinced by my breathable membrane taping around the joints and, I reckon, it's going to be of limited use pretty quickly. To my untutored eye your 'warm-ish roof' solution may well be a better one.

 

[rmwebs]

No idea which roof would be better. I was planning on doing a similar thing to yours - have the Insluation between the joists, and then an air gap with vents, however I screwed up the order and basically Needed up with 100mm Celotex for a 120mm joist. Once the 10mm Celotex was up, it was pretty much an air tight space, so I basically now have some sort of warm-roof retrofit. No idea if it'll work, I know that I've now got to have a vent on the inside of the room though to prevent the condensation buildup. I ended up putting the breathable membrane covering the entire ceiling, including joists, before putting the Celotex up. I then used Celotex foil tape around the joints and edges to create a sealed roof. Theoretically it'll now stay damp free as there will be no air up there.

Just about to upload some more photos as I've just finished the roof. Next on the list is plaster boarding the ceiling, then battening out the walls (the sloping roof meant I had to wait till the ceiling was done before I can get an accurate level on the height of the stud walls).

 

[OvineLoving]

Hi all,

I've done the wiring and fitted a bunch of the insulation, blog updated with photos.

http://buildingastudio.wordpress.com/

Cheers

 

[rmwebs]

Great update!

Out of interest, what kind of price did your electrician quote? I've got one coming to give me a quote next week, however I'm getting him to also do the sockets and such as I'd not have a clue where to start.

Cheers,

Rick

 

[OvineLoving]

£25 an hour or £160 for the day plus materials. He reckons about a day and a half for the work below.

The materials he's providing are:
~ New consumer unit (~£70)
~ 15m of armoured/SWA cable (~25)
~ Some conduit

The work he has to do is:
~ Tidy up the existing electric feed from the house extractor fan (!)
~ Run the cable from the house to the back of the garage along the side of the house, through a short trench, and internally to the garage.
~ Fit the new consumer unit in the garage.
~ Run conduit between the garage and the studio
~ Wire the faceplates on 10 sockets (3 in garage, 7 in studio)
~ Wire up the lighting (three fluorescents in garage, spots in studio, and 2 external lights)

 

[OvineLoving]

Insulation has been finished and plasterboard put up ready for the arrival of the electrician. Here's hoping that I've correctly interpreted his instructions!

http://buildingastudio.wordpress.com/

 

[pd123]

Hi all,

I've done the wiring and fitted a bunch of the insulation, blog updated with photos.

Hi, great job. which insulation did you use, what is the thickness and is it tight to the out wall? i thought there needed to be about 25mm gap between out wall and insulation. did you line it with standard p/board or go for damp proof? asking because i need to insulate a mates shed and i dont know whether to go with airtec 4mm double sided insulation or soething thicker (max 25mm). and dont know whether to go with p/board or ply wood.

any suggestions?
thanks

 

[garethcooper9]

Good progress. Could you share some inspiration and ideas about the interior design. I would love to see some of that

 

[OvineLoving]

Hi all, another update:

http://buildingastudio.wordpress.com/

@garethcooper: The interior is going to be very muted due to Sal being an artist. If she has bright colours in her studio it reflects of the canvas/walls/computer/etc and stops her getting the colours she wants.

It'll be a beige and white masterpiece!

 

[rmwebs]

Nice update - really taking shape there! I see you're going with carpet - will this be a light/white colour too?