Garden office heating

[oldbutnotdead]

Up to you what you hang off the end of the line in the shed, WiFi router would work fine, hardwiring is always favourite but sometimes impractical.
Powerline LAN is garbage, avoid. Wireless boosters can be good (I bought a couple of cheapies to run timing data at a racetrack, was getting decent performance at 100m range.

Your 4mm power cable (is it SWA?) at 17 metres will be fine for a 2kw wall heater, IT ket, lights and an occasional kettle. No hot tub tho.

Your installers are having a laugh (well they don't want the job and don't know what they're doing). To start with, I'd try an external access point (you can get some that only require mains, they connect to your internal WiFi and repeat it outside). If that's not a success then try a different access point ( Amazon ). If all else fails, you'll have to dig that trench (which is the hard bit). Throwing duct and CAT5E in and terminating is a doddle, definitely not £420 plus VAT.

 

[Notch7]

Also, to run a WiFi cable f4om the house to the cabin is super expensive - is it possible to get by on a booster for video calls

I tried all the wireless options then ended up installing a network cable, I just clipped it to the fence, not ideal but once in you don’t notice it with all the plants in the border.

 

[Fender Stratoplaster]

Quite pleased with the cabin so far, still need to complete the decking, gutter and electrics.

Has anyone got any tips for floating acoustic insulation? We will put rubber flooring down to help but I'm hoping to crank my guitar amp a little in there without it leaking completely through the walls

 

[Fender Stratoplaster]

Just an update - we are now looking at Cork insulation, to affix to the walls. Given the timbers will flex over time - would Cork insulation that is glued to the timbers likely come away from the walls?

Otherwise would a few nails in one or two spots on the timbers with some allowance for the timbers to flex be a better option?

 

[Mike13]

I suspect it is likely to crack over time, the height changes with the seasons.

 

[MisterBoy]

Just an update - we are now looking at Cork insulation, to affix to the walls. Given the timbers will flex over time - would Cork insulation that is glued to the timbers likely come away from the walls?

Otherwise would a few nails in one or two spots on the timbers with some allowance for the timbers to flex be a better option?

If this is a Tuin-style log cabin you must NOT affix anything to the wall that vertically straddles logs. Ours reduced in height 6" in the first few inches and only by a lot of a forethought did we avoid cables ripping off the walls, windows being crushed, etc. We had to argue a lot with some of our contractors to get them to do it right but we can actually see how it's moved and it would have been ruined otherwise.Yours is less tall but even so any kind of attempt to panel the inside with boards will lead to disaster unless you do it properly.

Apologies if this was already covered I only skimmed the thread.

 

[MisterBoy]

Powerline LAN is garbage, avoid

I don't agree. We had it in a previous house and it was pretty solid. Depends on your wiring I suppose But looking at the distance a WAP seems reasonable, even a home mesh WiFi setup. We got a couple of devices to provide a private directional wireless link to our cabin instead but the distance was further.

Did anyone already tell you if you'll need the electrics inspected and Building Control notified? I forget the rules if this has to be up to code (it won't be) once you get it wired.

 

[Fender Stratoplaster]

If this is a Tuin-style log cabin you must NOT affix anything to the wall that vertically straddles logs. Ours reduced in height 6" in the first few inches and only by a lot of a forethought did we avoid cables ripping off the walls, windows being crushed, etc. We had to argue a lot with some of our contractors to get them to do it right but we can actually see how it's moved and it would have been ruined otherwise.Yours is less tall but even so any kind of attempt to panel the inside with boards will lead to disaster unless you do it properly.

Apologies if this was already covered I only skimmed the thread.

Thanks, I was actually reading up on the Tuin site about their recommendation for affixing to the walls - this article:

Expansion and Contraction in Log CabinsTuin Blog

www.tuin.co.uk

Our cabin is from creative cabins but I imagine the same sort of principles apply where ours is Tongue and groove timber

From the article above I'm thinking if we had cork board insulation, if we secured a vertical batten at the top horizontal timber and the bottom with a slat and bolt and washer like he suggests for shelves, then attached the timber to that batten it would allow the insulation section to move up or down as the cabin wall does so? Is this a crazy idea for such a large section?

How did you do it in the end?

 

[MisterBoy]

Thanks, I was actually reading up on the Tuin site about their recommendation for affixing to the walls - this article:

Expansion and Contraction in Log CabinsTuin Blog

www.tuin.co.uk

Our cabin is from creative cabins but I imagine the same sort of principles apply where ours is Tongue and groove timber

From the article above I'm thinking if we had cork board insulation, if we secured a vertical batten at the top horizontal timber and the bottom with a slat and bolt and washer like he suggests for shelves, then attached the timber to that batten it would allow the insulation section to move up or down as the cabin wall does so? Is this a crazy idea for such a large section?

How did you do it in the end?

We actually did this for a full stud wall... 3x2 timbers, skimmed plasterboard, on a 6m long wall. We used those batten things (6x1" finished timber I think) and built the whole wall on top as normal. We watched the roof get lower and lower towards the top of the wall (you need to leave a gap which we stuffed with soft insulation) but it never touched and no cracks.
In fact we even have a window and we can see the wall move up and down relative to the window over the seasons which is really weird.

Just be really careful, it's very easy to miss something. We had 2 misses - a sink splashback started bowing off the wall and split before we could sort it. And one bit of cable conduit inadvertently got attached to the wrong place but we spotted and fixed in time.

I assume you left a gap at the top of the windows, that was probably designed in - are the windows basically held in sandwiched by the fascias instead of screwed in all the way round?

 

[Fender Stratoplaster]

We actually did this for a full stud wall... 3x2 timbers, skimmed plasterboard, on a 6m long wall. We used those batten things (6x1" finished timber I think) and built the whole wall on top as normal. We watched the roof get lower and lower towards the top of the wall (you need to leave a gap which we stuffed with soft insulation) but it never touched and no cracks.
In fact we even have a window and we can see the wall move up and down relative to the window over the seasons which is really weird.

Just be really careful, it's very easy to miss something. We had 2 misses - a sink splashback started bowing off the wall and split before we could sort it. And one bit of cable conduit inadvertently got attached to the wrong place but we spotted and fixed in time.

I assume you left a gap at the top of the windows, that was probably designed in - are the windows basically held in sandwiched by the fascias instead of screwed in all the way round?

Im not sure about the windows, I'll have to have a look later - but the installationw as done by creative cabins themselves so I presume it's done in a way that compensates for movement and flex

With the insulation the idea is really just to gave the cork panels bare, primary purpose is sound insulation so I can crank up the guitar without annoying the neighbours or waking the baby!

Floor insulation and roof insulation has already been installed by the company, we just need to get some rubber flooring or Cork flooring

We had all our electrics run already and are going to install an electric radiator, they ran the cable aroind the edge of our garden so I think we will try the wireless booster option first and see how far that gets us.

The distance from the router to the shed is probably 30 or 40 feet

 

[MisterBoy]

I suppose one option is to essentially hang stuff off the top of the wall?

Well my only other advice is to watch it like a hawk for expansion/contraction problems. Really go round every cable and wall-mounted thing once a week for the first few months as if you catch it early it's far easier. Our electrician wasn't really familiar with the Tuin-endorsed techniques so it's quite possible there could be a snag here and there.

 

[Fender Stratoplaster]

As we are getting into the winter months, I'm looking back at getting our cabin insulated - thanks for all the advice so far

From what I have read, the best option I think would be to fix treated wooden battens to the top horizontal timber of the cabin, with slotted holes further down which allow the further fixings to move as the cabin flexes...

I've attached a picture from the Tuin site on what they recommend

We want to attach cork insulation panels to these - if there are the wooden battens behind the insulation panel I suppose there will be a slight void of some sort... is this a problem for moisture etc.? Will there need to be some lining behind cork panels or does it not require them?

Thanks

 

[foxhole]

Converted summer house to home office for a client, underfloor heating , insulated all round , but this doubled the existing depth of the wall which were finished with panelling.Glazing replaced with double glazing units .Hexagon so a real pain with all the angles .WiFi was fine with s as signal booster

 

[big-all]

my thoughts
cork is not a good insulation material as its normally a sub 12 mm material, yes it will stop a surface feeling cold whilst letting heat escape as it has minimal insulation qualities ???
If it's perhaps 50 mm thick it may reduce a bit but suspect sub 6mm so no real value but purely a guess
dependent on heat source, you provide suspect 75-100 mm high spec insulation needed to be effective and a perhaps 1.5-2 kw constantly available to give quick heat up and maintain s comfortable level ??

 

[Fender Stratoplaster]

my thoughts
cork is not a good insulation material as its normally a sub 12 mm material, yes it will stop a surface feeling cold whilst letting heat escape as it has minimal insulation qualities ???
If it's perhaps 50 mm thick it may reduce a bit but suspect sub 6mm so no real value but purely a guess
dependent on heat source, you provide suspect 75-100 mm high spec insulation needed to be effective and a perhaps 1.5-2 kw constantly available to give quick heat up and maintain s comfortable level ??

Thanks - so if I have this right, idea would be to put breathable membrane first on timber tongue and groove walls. Then, put a vertical batten and a slatted section to affix Celotex 50mm insulation to the wall and allow it to move up and down as the timbers flex... Finally, instead of plastering the Celotex insulation, glue thin cork panels to give it a cork effect finish

Does this sound like it would work? Anything to be careful of in terms of moisture getting trapped at all between the cork and glue etc. or stopping the breathable element?