Planning a Self-build garden room - online resources/books?
Discussion
Hi all,
After getting a quote for £32k for a rectangular box garden room with lead times of 3 months plus I've decided that if I'm going to miss this summer I will take my time and do it myself with a goal of it being ready for early summer 2021.
I'm not a complete novice with woodworking and shed construction but I'm going to take my time planning and building this one so it's of comparative quality and finish to a commercial product.
I know I can get lots of information via Google/YouTube but I'd love some personal recommendations for sources of information and best practices - websites, videos and books would all be brilliant!
Huge thanks in advance.
After getting a quote for £32k for a rectangular box garden room with lead times of 3 months plus I've decided that if I'm going to miss this summer I will take my time and do it myself with a goal of it being ready for early summer 2021.
I'm not a complete novice with woodworking and shed construction but I'm going to take my time planning and building this one so it's of comparative quality and finish to a commercial product.
I know I can get lots of information via Google/YouTube but I'd love some personal recommendations for sources of information and best practices - websites, videos and books would all be brilliant!
Huge thanks in advance.
There's lots on YouTube but Ali Dymock's series is excellent. Linked from his website but lots more resources on there: https://www.alidymock.com/
I'm kinda semi-interested in this as I've contacted two local guys, one talked the talk on the phone but then didn't even bother showing up - the other guy (who built our porch) came round but hasn't come back with a quote yet (five weeks ago).
I feel like with some decent research and some guidance I wouldn't mind a go myself - I have done lots of DIY/some construction over the years.
Edit: just reread the thread title - I did a garden room over a decade ago! I want to do a proper extension ...
I feel like with some decent research and some guidance I wouldn't mind a go myself - I have done lots of DIY/some construction over the years.
Edit: just reread the thread title - I did a garden room over a decade ago! I want to do a proper extension ...
Edited by uk66fastback on Wednesday 24th March 13:00
i've a copy of this, nicely set out with clear instructions..
https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-to-build-a-sh...
https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-to-build-a-sh...
Oakwood garden rooms, amazing resource on youtube and facebook. Really helpful community in the facebook group.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChqWFbSX8STP_c8W0...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3043587272414632/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChqWFbSX8STP_c8W0...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3043587272414632/
I've just watched up to episode 9 of the Ali Dymock vids.
Perfect - pitched at just the right level (ie marginally above idiot) for me.
Nailgun - it's on the list.
Basically the savings I make from building rather than buying the garden room can be added to my workshop tool pot.
The garden room is part of a bigger project budget - I've just ordered a 7m x 4m log cabin workshop from Dunstan House that will be my workshop to give me the space to build the garden room.
Man maths is awesome but I know that the savings I make will be based on months of free labour on my behalf
Perfect - pitched at just the right level (ie marginally above idiot) for me.
Nailgun - it's on the list.
Basically the savings I make from building rather than buying the garden room can be added to my workshop tool pot.
The garden room is part of a bigger project budget - I've just ordered a 7m x 4m log cabin workshop from Dunstan House that will be my workshop to give me the space to build the garden room.
Man maths is awesome but I know that the savings I make will be based on months of free labour on my behalf
Edited by maturin23 on Wednesday 24th March 22:32
Planning is everything. The more thought you give it early on, the better the result will be.
Primary choice is between a SIPs or traditional sticks construction. There are various threads at the moment about both approaches. The advantage of a SIPs construction (particularly if you specify your own kit from somewhere like SimplySIPs) is the speed of construction and thermal isolation. The disadvantage is a slight lack of flexibility in style construction methods. For example, I've decided to go for a "high end" build with a breakfront and steel framework to support my doorset, and a lantern roof. This has forced me down the stick build route. If I was doing a standard rectangular box garden room I'd go with SIPs.
Choose your location. Building more than 2m away from any boundary gives you greater building height options within Permitted Development, which translates to a nicer space internally. Keeping under 30m2 gross internal floor area keeps you out of Building Regulations. Also understand how dealing with any slopes in your site can work to your advantage - or not.
Then choose your base - concrete slab, augured piles, ground screws. Lots of options, depends on the above factors.
This is the look I'm targetting for my build, it has diverged significantly from the cedar clad box I originally proposed to the boss!
I'm not as quick as Pheo, but I've got a few details which add time - particularly the breakfront and lantern roof. I've got my walls up and insulated and roof structure on in 11 days work so far (not including the slab prep), should be watertight in another 2 days (1 day to build up the warm roof and another for the GRP).
100%, absolutely, if building from sticks then buy a first fix nailgun. I'm using 90mm nails for the frame and 60mm for stitching the sheets.
Primary choice is between a SIPs or traditional sticks construction. There are various threads at the moment about both approaches. The advantage of a SIPs construction (particularly if you specify your own kit from somewhere like SimplySIPs) is the speed of construction and thermal isolation. The disadvantage is a slight lack of flexibility in style construction methods. For example, I've decided to go for a "high end" build with a breakfront and steel framework to support my doorset, and a lantern roof. This has forced me down the stick build route. If I was doing a standard rectangular box garden room I'd go with SIPs.
Choose your location. Building more than 2m away from any boundary gives you greater building height options within Permitted Development, which translates to a nicer space internally. Keeping under 30m2 gross internal floor area keeps you out of Building Regulations. Also understand how dealing with any slopes in your site can work to your advantage - or not.
Then choose your base - concrete slab, augured piles, ground screws. Lots of options, depends on the above factors.
This is the look I'm targetting for my build, it has diverged significantly from the cedar clad box I originally proposed to the boss!
I'm not as quick as Pheo, but I've got a few details which add time - particularly the breakfront and lantern roof. I've got my walls up and insulated and roof structure on in 11 days work so far (not including the slab prep), should be watertight in another 2 days (1 day to build up the warm roof and another for the GRP).
100%, absolutely, if building from sticks then buy a first fix nailgun. I'm using 90mm nails for the frame and 60mm for stitching the sheets.
Thanks chaps - I'm definitely going to be doing some planning. I will have time as I need to submit a planning application this week
Time to get on Sketchup.
The summerhouse will be 3m tall, over 10m2 in floor space and both the workshop and the summer house will be about 60m from the back of the house. As we live in an AONB (Wessex Downs) these are multiple factors than mean planning permission is needed.
I was planning on doing a simple stick design, warm-roofed rectangular box - pretty much as per the Dymock vids - as this was what we'd decided to go for from Smart Garden Buildings. Dimensions will be roughly 5.3m x 4.3m - but need to do some tweaking based on the standard sheet, insulation and wood lengths - I hadn't really considered this prior to watching the vids last night.
Not sure whether to have sloping joists or use firring strips yet.
I'm torn between these two twin sets. I've got an old 12v Makita drill that has been brilliant but the batteries are getting tired. Never used Milwaukee. Might need to watch some aVe vids.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/milwaukee-m18-cblpp2a-5...
https://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dlx2336st-18v-5-...
Time to get on Sketchup.
The summerhouse will be 3m tall, over 10m2 in floor space and both the workshop and the summer house will be about 60m from the back of the house. As we live in an AONB (Wessex Downs) these are multiple factors than mean planning permission is needed.
I was planning on doing a simple stick design, warm-roofed rectangular box - pretty much as per the Dymock vids - as this was what we'd decided to go for from Smart Garden Buildings. Dimensions will be roughly 5.3m x 4.3m - but need to do some tweaking based on the standard sheet, insulation and wood lengths - I hadn't really considered this prior to watching the vids last night.
Not sure whether to have sloping joists or use firring strips yet.
I'm torn between these two twin sets. I've got an old 12v Makita drill that has been brilliant but the batteries are getting tired. Never used Milwaukee. Might need to watch some aVe vids.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/milwaukee-m18-cblpp2a-5...
https://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-dlx2336st-18v-5-...
maturin23 said:
Also wanted to say - please post photos chaps - happy for this to be a general resource thread rather than about my build specifically.
Could anyone suggest a suitable nail gun to buy?
I picked up the milwaukee framing nailer and its the best thing ive ever bought in my life. Ive been building an over engineered little shed to practice for the actual garden room. The nailer has been a god send.Could anyone suggest a suitable nail gun to buy?
Edited by maturin23 on Thursday 25th March 12:09
maturin23 said:
Also wanted to say - please post photos chaps - happy for this to be a general resource thread rather than about my build specifically.
Could anyone suggest a suitable nail gun to buy?
I'm using a DeWalt 18V first fix nail gun. Probably put about 1000 rounds through it so far and no jams yet. It does the job and can pretty much keep up with me when stitching sheets of ply.Could anyone suggest a suitable nail gun to buy?
Edited by maturin23 on Thursday 25th March 12:09
Here's a mini digest of my build so far. Happy to do a more detailed build thread if anyone thinks it's worthy.
The brief details are:
- done under Permitted Development, have obtained a Lawful Development Certificate to prove it
- 6m x 5m, 29.95 m2 gross internal floor area to skate under Building Regs, though am intending to build as close to regs as possible
- insulated concrete slab base
- breakfront design to add interest to front
- 3m x 2m lantern roof in centre of room
- steel goalpost arrangement to support folding doors and minimise movement
- aluminium roof lantern and folding doorset and glazed panels
- entablature to front of building with detailed cymatium profile and taenia moulding
- external cladding to be render carrier board with thin coat render system
- roof in GRP
- internally room will be half panelled to walls and engineered oak floor.
This project is a prime example of feature creep, started out as a suggestion to put a 3m x 4m standard cedar clad box into a corner of the estate as part of some relandscaping works I'm doing concurrently, this became a 6m x 5m room then we decided that the contemporary look of most garden rooms didn't set well with our period property, so decided to make the room a bit special. Added a roof lantern to the design and decided to go all aluminium for the glazing. After checking out some of the commercial "off the shelf" options and being a bit disappointed with the head height and internal finish, decided to build it myself and maximise internal head height.
Target location was a sloping site so by digging down to level (around 500mm) according to the PD rules we can get this height back internally. This has enabled me to have a 2.3m internal head height to the room, a warm roof design, and a lantern and still squeak under the PD constraints of 2.5m for top of eaves and 3m for tallest point.
Here is a sketch design for the front elevation. Outer windows are fixed panels, inner set of 4 inside the breakfront will be a folding arrangement of some sort - either bifold or "slide and fold" system.
Site clearance
Dug out, 12ton of MOT laid & compacted, sand blinding added, DPM, 100mm PIR insulation, DPM and mesh laid, shuttering built and braced for the pour. I'm also building a small patio (6m x 4m) in front on the building so we prepped that with just 70mm MOT and shuttered for a 75mm slab. Dug a trench 150m to house to enable electricity supply and two cat 6a cables to be pulled through. Also dug a soakaway for the rainwater, and put a French drain around the back of the slab.
Concrete poured. 10m3 pumped the 150m from the front of the house, luckily it was downhill. This process nearly became a bit emotional due to the concrete delivery being too wet for the first 4 cubic metres, but some hard graft rescued the situation.
Services duct. The ducting is green because it only carries the Cat6a cable; the power is taking a different route via a shed elsewhere in the garden.
We (myself and the digger driver) got all this done just before Christmas. In January the weather was a bit crap so I focused on my relandscaping project - building some paths around the garden (not least to get to the new room!), levelling the land, digging some borders, installing lights etc.
March 1st comes and the weather looks better for a few days so decide to crack on with the room proper.
Day 1 - steel goes up with the help of a Genie lift. Bolted the steel together on the ground then lifted and squared up before bolting to the slab.
End of Day 2 - stud walls up. The side walls are taller to form a parapet around the front 3 sides of the building, and to disguise the sloping roof. My design has the joists off hangars at the front so we can have floor to ceiling glazing, sitting on the rear wall at the rear. Put a double sole plate and top plate on for strength. Studwork is built out of 6" x 2" timber for extra strength and capacity for insulation in the walls.
End of Day 7 - sides sheeted up with shuttering ply (only a couple of quid per sheet pricier than OSB, but much stronger). Roof joists and most of the trimmers in place. Using joists tripled up and bolted together around the lantern roof opening. 100mm PIR put in all walls.
End of Day 10 - Lantern roof kerb built, front false parapet up, extra 40mm PIR added to inside skin, firrings on and subdeck down. Threw some DPM on top and battened down as showers incoming this week.
Next jobs - first fix electrics (I'm using a smart lighting system to control the lights and a bunch of circuits for lighting around the garden), build up the warm roof, lay the GRP and then dress the front and side with the entablature made from accoya.
The brief details are:
- done under Permitted Development, have obtained a Lawful Development Certificate to prove it
- 6m x 5m, 29.95 m2 gross internal floor area to skate under Building Regs, though am intending to build as close to regs as possible
- insulated concrete slab base
- breakfront design to add interest to front
- 3m x 2m lantern roof in centre of room
- steel goalpost arrangement to support folding doors and minimise movement
- aluminium roof lantern and folding doorset and glazed panels
- entablature to front of building with detailed cymatium profile and taenia moulding
- external cladding to be render carrier board with thin coat render system
- roof in GRP
- internally room will be half panelled to walls and engineered oak floor.
This project is a prime example of feature creep, started out as a suggestion to put a 3m x 4m standard cedar clad box into a corner of the estate as part of some relandscaping works I'm doing concurrently, this became a 6m x 5m room then we decided that the contemporary look of most garden rooms didn't set well with our period property, so decided to make the room a bit special. Added a roof lantern to the design and decided to go all aluminium for the glazing. After checking out some of the commercial "off the shelf" options and being a bit disappointed with the head height and internal finish, decided to build it myself and maximise internal head height.
Target location was a sloping site so by digging down to level (around 500mm) according to the PD rules we can get this height back internally. This has enabled me to have a 2.3m internal head height to the room, a warm roof design, and a lantern and still squeak under the PD constraints of 2.5m for top of eaves and 3m for tallest point.
Here is a sketch design for the front elevation. Outer windows are fixed panels, inner set of 4 inside the breakfront will be a folding arrangement of some sort - either bifold or "slide and fold" system.
Site clearance
Dug out, 12ton of MOT laid & compacted, sand blinding added, DPM, 100mm PIR insulation, DPM and mesh laid, shuttering built and braced for the pour. I'm also building a small patio (6m x 4m) in front on the building so we prepped that with just 70mm MOT and shuttered for a 75mm slab. Dug a trench 150m to house to enable electricity supply and two cat 6a cables to be pulled through. Also dug a soakaway for the rainwater, and put a French drain around the back of the slab.
Concrete poured. 10m3 pumped the 150m from the front of the house, luckily it was downhill. This process nearly became a bit emotional due to the concrete delivery being too wet for the first 4 cubic metres, but some hard graft rescued the situation.
Services duct. The ducting is green because it only carries the Cat6a cable; the power is taking a different route via a shed elsewhere in the garden.
We (myself and the digger driver) got all this done just before Christmas. In January the weather was a bit crap so I focused on my relandscaping project - building some paths around the garden (not least to get to the new room!), levelling the land, digging some borders, installing lights etc.
March 1st comes and the weather looks better for a few days so decide to crack on with the room proper.
Day 1 - steel goes up with the help of a Genie lift. Bolted the steel together on the ground then lifted and squared up before bolting to the slab.
End of Day 2 - stud walls up. The side walls are taller to form a parapet around the front 3 sides of the building, and to disguise the sloping roof. My design has the joists off hangars at the front so we can have floor to ceiling glazing, sitting on the rear wall at the rear. Put a double sole plate and top plate on for strength. Studwork is built out of 6" x 2" timber for extra strength and capacity for insulation in the walls.
End of Day 7 - sides sheeted up with shuttering ply (only a couple of quid per sheet pricier than OSB, but much stronger). Roof joists and most of the trimmers in place. Using joists tripled up and bolted together around the lantern roof opening. 100mm PIR put in all walls.
End of Day 10 - Lantern roof kerb built, front false parapet up, extra 40mm PIR added to inside skin, firrings on and subdeck down. Threw some DPM on top and battened down as showers incoming this week.
Next jobs - first fix electrics (I'm using a smart lighting system to control the lights and a bunch of circuits for lighting around the garden), build up the warm roof, lay the GRP and then dress the front and side with the entablature made from accoya.
Edited by PhilboSE on Thursday 25th March 18:25
Fantastic stuff Philbo.
I'm vacillating between a full concrete slab, a ring, or the blocks that Dymock uses.
I've got plenty of hardcore down there from unburying the remains of a tennis court, but the thought of barrowing down hundreds of bags of concrete and sand, ruining my lawn and back in the process has been edging me towards a concrete-light approach.
I'd totally discounted using a concrete pour from a lorry as the plot is 140m from the road (with a 10m drop) - I'm really surprised that worked. How did they deal with the concrete still in the pipe? Did it get sucked back up or did you treat it like a toothpaste tube and squeeze it all out?
I'm vacillating between a full concrete slab, a ring, or the blocks that Dymock uses.
I've got plenty of hardcore down there from unburying the remains of a tennis court, but the thought of barrowing down hundreds of bags of concrete and sand, ruining my lawn and back in the process has been edging me towards a concrete-light approach.
I'd totally discounted using a concrete pour from a lorry as the plot is 140m from the road (with a 10m drop) - I'm really surprised that worked. How did they deal with the concrete still in the pipe? Did it get sucked back up or did you treat it like a toothpaste tube and squeeze it all out?
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