Garden office recommendations

[jdpjamesp]

Some of you may have seen my plans to board out our loft to use as an office. I've had a joiner in to look at the job and he thinks that this is not a good plan due to the way the place has been built. His main concerns is that the walls we'd be using to create an independent floor are not load bearing walls, and hanging off the ceiling joists wouldn't be recommended with the way they're configured. This guy's a friend by the way so I trust him.

So... it seems we might be forced down the garden shed route for my office and I was wondering if people had recommendations? It would need to be well insulated as we live in Lancaster and it gets mighty parky in winter, and it would need a reasonably high ceiling as I'm 6'5"! It doesn't have to be that big - in fact the smaller the better in some ways. I would need to get a desk in and maybe some storage, but not much more really.

Any ideas greatly appreciated. Don't really want to be spending more than £3k on the whole shebang.

 

[rmwebs]

Hi,

Take a look at the two related threads that are fairly high up in the General DIY section - both myself and OvineLoving are in the middle of building our garden offices.

If its any help, I'm building a 12x8 'Shire Dean Log Cabin' (Google it for info) t 44mm thickness (dont go for anything thinner as it'll suffer problems). My total expenditure so far is around £2.5k and all that I've got left to pay for is the Electrics hookup and paint (plus misc items such as skirting board, door stop, etc).

I've been blogging about my build at http://buildgardenoffice.blogspot.co.uk

OvineLoving has been blogging about his at http://buildingastudio.wordpress.com/

A few pointers that I'd advise:

- Dont be put off by the excessive price of ready built garden offices. These are actually usually a worse option as they are poorly insulated most of the time.

- You'll want at least 50mm Celotex on the walls and floor, and 75-120mm Celotex on the roof. Its expensive stuff, but whatever you do, DO NOT buy from places like Wickes, as they charge almost double the price per sheet. I managed to get some online from a company up in Yorkshire on eBay. Make sure you shop around as this will be one of your biggest expenses.

- Dont skimp on the insulation, you'll regret it later.

- You will need a Part-P certified electrician to bring a power source up from your house. This has to be steel armored cable (aka 'SWA Cable').

- Keep it under 2.5 meters in height or you'll need planning permission.

- Use a decent base such as concrete or HawkLok (I went for the hawklok option), dont try to just lay sand and then put the rafters on top as this will make the building deteriorate very quickly.

- Make sure you get double glazing as this will not only increase security, but will help to retain heat.


For the height issue, I went for a flat roof as it had a pretty decent height even after insulation and plasterboard ceiling. It slopes towards the back, however I plan on having my desk against the back wall so I wont hit my head. I'm 6'3" and have plenty of headroom in my building.

I'd advise avoiding B&Q or Homebase when looking for a building as they are overpriced. There are a lot of online providers that offer decent prices.

Thats about it I think. With your £3k budget, I dont think you'll be able to get a ready made garden office, so you'll need to go down the route that myself and OvineLoving are doing, and converting a 'log cabin' style shed. These generally have an interlocking system, which provides a really solid finish. There are no screws or nails, it all slots together. There is a decent example of this on a Youtube video, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dE8u7YUKuA (note: obviously its being used for a HUGE log cabin in the example, but the same type of wood and principal is used in all log cabins).

Hope this helps - please do feel free to as any questions and be sure to take photos of the build

 

[jdpjamesp]

Awesome post. Many thanks indeed. I'd seen OvineLoving's post but not yours so will check yours out shortly.

We have a decent place nearby (Broadoaks) in Lancaster that do all manner of cabins etc so may well look there as a first port of call. I'll certainly document what I can of the process if I can pursuade the OH it's a good idea (see my post in DIY Disasters!!) and raise the finances.

 

[jdpjamesp]

Looking at those Shire Dean cabins and I really like the look of them. Which size did you go for? I'm heading towards the 10x10 ft one as that'll probably leave a 2.5mx2.5m space once insulated, boarded and skimmed. Would that estimate be about right?

Also how would I go about estimating the amount of plaster board, wood and celotex I'd need to buy in addition?

My OH wants a full breakdown of probable costs so that she can decide whether it's worth doing or just going for a ready-to-go kit.

Her preference is this: http://www.logcabins.co.uk/keops_log_details.asp?ID=3

 

[rmwebs]

I went for the 12x8ft Dean with 44mm wood and double glazing. Came to £1704 (inc delivery).

When I was shopping around I had a brochure from the Keops people. The biggest downside I found was the prices. The insulation they use is basically just polystyrene blocks, which will be nowhere near as efficient as Celotex/kingspan type insulation of the same thickness. When doing mine I priced it up and it basically worked out cheaper for me to get the Shire Dean and insulate it myself with the proper stuff. I wasn't a fan of the internal toungue and groove either as I wanted the walls and ceiling to be plasterboard, so this allowed for that. I'm glad I did this as well as the wood used for the floor and roof is very sappy!

Size wise, one thing you have to be weary of is that the size is the wood length, and there is a good 10cm wood that sicks out in the corners (take a look at the corners of the photo on the keops link and you'll see what I mean). So while the size will show 10ft x 10ft, you'll probably end up with a 9ft x 9ft once you've got your insulation and walls up.

The place I ordered the Shire Dean from had a useful preview of this (scroll to where it says 'Footprint:' - http://www.elbecgardenbuildings.co.uk/Log-Cabins/Shire-Dean-Log-Cabin

For costings I basically picked up a Wickes partition wall guide (http://www.wickes.co.uk/content/ebiz/wickes/resources/images/gil/7.pdf) to figure out how many lengths of wood would be needed. My studwork wood was basically just Wickes own studwork-specific wood. It is a bit of a guessing game. Insulation wise, the floor of my 12x8 required 2 and a bit sheets of 50mm Celotex (they come in 2400mmx1200mm sheets).

I'm keeping a running total of all my costs so can put them together in a post for you if it would help

Rick

 

[jdpjamesp]

Thanks again for this, rmwebs. You've been a real help. Sadly the OH has now decided I will not be building my own no matter what plans I come up with. Apparently she couldn't deal with the stress of it or the amount of time it would take. Plus the fact she reckons I'll bodge it.

So we'll probably either be getting a Keops, asking them to build, or I'll just carry on in my corner of the bedroom. Probably the latter as she's suddenly decided it's because I don't want to be around her that I want an office that I can hide in all day. Grrr. Sometimes I seriously regret the metal on my finger and the 2 kids.

 

[rmwebs]

ooking at those Shire Dean cabins and I really like the look of them

Hi spammer. Why is your (broken) image a link to Amazon with an affiliate id embedded in it? You obviously know thats against both the DIYNOT rules, and is a violation of Amazon's affiliate program (you posted in a thread where the people are talking about offices, hence use computers 8+hours a day...we know how it works.)

I've reported your affiliate account to amazon in the hope it gets closed for being such an ass.

 

[OvineLoving]

My name is Ovine Loving and I approve this (^) message.