High spec garden building on a budget

[4Q]

TooLateForAName said:

Can you explain how these work and how you set them up?

I dug down 700mm with a post hole digger* at the locations where I wanted to support the frame at each corner and roughly 1.2m apart. Set the frame level and clamped some lengths of unistrut against it to keep them square to the frame and then filled the holes with postcrete.

Once it had set I checked the frame again for level and true and bolted the Unistrut to the frame with 12mm coachbolts. I got slotted unistrut as it was easier than drilling it to fix. It also meant that if I got any settlement I could adjust level again although there wasn’t any. I could probably have gotten away with just hammering in the strut but it wouldn’t have been as accurate as they’d likely run slightly off true.

• the manual kind like two small shovels with a hinge

Edited by 4Q on Monday 1st July 20:40

[4Q]

nitrodave said:

Wonderful and inspiring! Good job mate. I've been wanting to build a workshop in the garden, but struggling for time lately. It's the next big job I want to get started on at home.

Thanks, I'd recomend SIPS as a building method. I got the structure up from a standing start in a weekend. You can buy them new for £35--£50 each and they slot together really quickly. If you keep to multiples of standard panel sizes for your dimensions you won't have to do too many cuts. Once built and wrapped in membrane it's waterproof and you can clad in whatever you like at your leisure. I went with Cedral cladding rather than wood as being less than 5m from a boundary it had be non-combustible although wood would have been quicker and cheaper.

[4Q]

AlmostUseful said:

Brilliant projects, unbelievable finish for a <£5k build cost!

Although I tried to keep the budget sensible nothing was done "on the cheap", all the timbers used were treated, screws were stainless, plastered properly instead of taped and jointed, EDPM roof rather than felt, decent quality sockets and loads of them, etc, etc. I could have built for less if I tried but I wanted it to be future proof and outlast me as we were planning on staying here forever.

[4Q]

mcg_ said:

Looks brilliant OP.

Thanks

[4Q]

PartOfTheProblem said:

Great thread this, a really nicely thought out build, and I love the wrapping of the window frames!

Really excellent!

Thanks, the wrap wasn’t expensive either, maybe £20 or so. Make sure you buy it in a long enough length for for your longest pieces but also multiples of the length of shorter pieces so you don’t have to waste pieces where you can only cut for example 2.7 pieces as you can’t join them.

DaveCWK said:

+1 fantastic job. Just shows what can be done with a bit of eBay'ing & flexibility, opposed to working traditionally to an unflexible plan.

Thank you

Edited by 4Q on Thursday 9th April 19:16

[4Q]

I used a 9 x 2 beam across the span with two metal box section upright posts behind the door frame which you can just see on this picture. The lighter coloured 4x2 was just to fill the gap between the frame and the beam.

I drilled a couple of holes at the top to bolt to the beam and welded a 100mm plate to the bottom to spread the load and to screw to the floor


The wooden post you see on the picture you linked was just temporary until I got the metal ones in

Edited by 4Q on Tuesday 14th July 09:02

[4Q]

AyBee said:

Just come across this, looks great. What are the planning regs for something like this? Would love similar for bike training although definitely don't have the skills of the OP sadly!

It was under the size for planning. I have no special skills BTW just years of DIY (although I am an electrician which was handy for the electrics) The SIPS construction was a piece of piss as they just slot together on to wooden fillets. A self feeding screwdriver saved hours too. My dad and I knocked up the structure in a weekend and I finished it slowly over a few months of evenings and weekends.

[4Q]

Pheo said:

How did you find the performance of the EPS in the walls?

Excuse my ignorance, EPS?