To build a cinema man cave!

[Marsden132]

Hi all,

I am an electrician by trade but have a fair bit of diy work building with wood! Might not sound amazing but i managed to build myself a nice big decking and a fence haha! Gotta start somewhere i guess

Anyway to my question, i am wanting to build myself a 16m x 3m shed man cave type thing i have two questions

Im trying to keep costs down (as im only a poor electrician ) and have read online and youtube that instead of paying for a concrete base you can use cut into garden and pat rubbel down in many areas and place concrete blocks down to act as a base i can get all these for free!! So thats the base sorted

Now the main question is the floor... is 4x2 suitable if i have enough support below with my concrete block/rubble base! Or do i need to go higher with 5x2 or 6x2 or 7x2 - the shed will literally hold around 3 two seater sofas, projector, surround sound and thats about it (a basic cinema room)

After that am i then to build timber walls out of 3x2 or 2x2? Insulation again i can get free second hand over time

I would be using tanalized timbers, the floor i would use sheets of mdf, and carpet ontop. And for the roof i was just going to build a frame ontop slightly slanted with mdf ontop and then felted

Does this all sound sufficient bearing in mind am after saving as much as humanly possible ha!

The idea is to have it built over a years time to get bits done in the summer i was also wondering what to clad the extrior with i had a look at waterproof osb2 boards (believe thats the name) again being cheap.. but looks ugly anyone else any good cheap ideas?

So basically

1) is 4x2 sufficient with enough concrete base down
2) what can i clad it with

 

[motorbiking]

have you checked to see if you need building control due to it being over 15m2?

personally i'd be looking at fabricating my own sips particularly given the use.

 

[Marsden132]

Hey, i checked apparently as its only covering 30% of my garden its classed as a shed still apprently one builder told me no idea as i say am sparky by trade

What are sips? You any idea on the 4x2's being sufficient mate?

 

[r896neo]

Whilst i admire your efforts to keep costs down you are in danger of building a nice scrap heap rather than a useable building, also i am assuming you meant to type 6x3m rather than 16m

You need to up your spec a little to achieve anything that will last more than a couple of winters The current spec is not even really suitable for a shed that size never mind anything nicer.

Base You could get away with compacted hardcore and a few blocks laid on a bed of concrete or coarse mortar.

Floor wise you can use 4x2 as long as you support it regularly enough, bigger joists will lift the whole thing higher off the ground meaning steps in the door etc.
If your using blocks then along your 3m length i'd aim to support your joists every metre so each edge and one in the middle but every joist will need this. Better than blocks would be old concrete fence posts or old concrete lintels as these can span a number of joists. 3 six foot lintels would get you all the centre supports and then because you are using a joist along the edge perpendicular to the floor joists it only need supported every metre or so too.

Floor wise Moisture resistant chipboard will be cheaper and better than 18mm mdf. Plus mdf is probably second only to plasterboard as a terrible material for using in sheds You could also use osb.

The walls forget your 2x2 and use 4x2. Using a skin of something on the inside like ply would also help the strength. Dont put plasterboard in it.

For the roof you'll need 4x2 assuming it will have a pitched roof. Probably more if your having a mono pitch or flat roof. Lay the roof deck in osb. You should add a few ceiling joists just to form a basic truss, it would help the rigidity of the whole thing no end.

Cladding wise if your careful you could clad the whole thing in a breather membrane and tape the joints then use counterbattens and apply a cladding over the lot of whatever you like. This theory would mean the breather membrane would do the majority of the waterproofing and the cladding is purely to protect it and sheild it from the worst of the weather.

The other option is to just clad straight on but if you do this the cladding is the waterproofing so you must use a waterproof profile like weatherboard or shiplap. But you can use this direct on the studs.

If you plan to insulate the first option will be much better.

 

[motorbiking]

I build something similar myself a couple of years ago.. Cost me about £4k.

See step by step here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/35335911@N07/albums/72157677489147560

I used a concrete base, insulated + dpm - it cost approx £500 in concrete.
I used largely 4 x 2, but spacing and cross bracing is key a lot of the supports were doubled up. Spacing was approx 500mm
I used marine ply for hidden walls, which I treated with wood stain/paint. I used 18mm OSB for roof and floor.
I clad it in standard t&g, but I treated it with wood preserver before painting.
Insulated with celotex 100mm and plaster boarded inside. 50mm celotex on the floor + 50mm polystyrene in concrete.
Under 15m2 floor so didn't need building control. 2.45m high so no planning needed. If it was bigger, I would have needed building control
window and doors off ebay both double glazed.

 

[noseall]

Whilst i admire your efforts to keep costs down you are in danger of building a nice scrap heap rather than a useable building.

+1

 

[Marsden132]

Thank you all so much for your help and time, i really appreciate it! These will help me so much when i begin the project and i am really grateful! Ever need any electrical advise dont hesitate to ask ! Plus i work for electric board now too so any advise on that side of things main incoming etc same again dont hesitate

 

[noseall]

Thank you all so much for your help and time, i really appreciate it! These will help me so much when i begin the project and i am really grateful! Ever need any electrical advise dont hesitate to ask ! Plus i work for electric board now too so any advise on that side of things main incoming etc same again dont hesitate

Your 'shed' seems like the place that you will be storing garden equipment rather than human beings, electrical equipment and homely furniture. It's difficult to build on the cheap so you need to start thinking about upping the quality or else you are going to be very disappointed.

 

[motorbiking]

assuming you are spending min. £3k on the cinema and want your room to have reasonable base acoustics from the sub without ****ing your neighbours off. i'd seriously look at a concrete base and walls with at least 70mm of insulation. if you are using loft roll rather than celotex, then 100-120mm walls would be better

 

[Marsden132]

I build something similar myself a couple of years ago.. Cost me about £4k.

See step by step here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/35335911@N07/albums/72157677489147560

I used a concrete base, insulated + dpm - it cost approx £500 in concrete.
I used largely 4 x 2, but spacing and cross bracing is key a lot of the supports were doubled up. Spacing was approx 500mm
I used marine ply for hidden walls, which I treated with wood stain/paint. I used 18mm OSB for roof and floor.
I clad it in standard t&g, but I treated it with wood preserver before painting.
Insulated with celotex 100mm and plaster boarded inside. 50mm celotex on the floor + 50mm polystyrene in concrete.
Under 15m2 floor so didn't need building control. 2.45m high so no planning needed. If it was bigger, I would have needed building control
window and doors off ebay both double glazed.

Looks amazing what wood did you use to clad this in? Cheers

 

[motorbiking]

the parts you can't see were marine ply painted with wood stain paint. the cladding was a cheap non treated t&g cladding, which was untreated. I then gave it two coats of fence preserver before painting it with an outdoor fence paint.

the key thing is to design an overhang on your roof which makes a huge difference to how waterproof the building needs to be.

 

[Marsden132]

Nice one yeah thats a great idea and love the lights too! Amazing well done with it!