1930s Semi Refurb - Part 11 of ... (Summer House)

[dlockers]

Not interested in the project now

When's the baby's due date ?

Boy or girl, names picked ?

Haha - September. A boy to join the girl.

What size are the rods and nuts? Is there a nut on the bottom below the steel plate too or is the plate threaded?

M24. The construction of the rod involves 5 nuts and 2 plates - there is a plate concreted in 200mm from the bottom of the rod, secured by a nut either side. This stops the rods "pushing through" the concrete. And then two nuts up the rod give you the height. The plate then sits on the nuts and gives you the platform. You then put a single nut (not really required) to hold the joists straight.

Edit: my "jig" and tool to thread the nuts.

 

[dlockers]

So I'm out on Friday for Big Weekend and then depending on how I am feeling, the plan is to restart on Saturday 25th. I will be tackling the 6M wall and if I can lift it, the side walls. I have a pair of hands in my brother/nephew arriving Tuesday 28th and this is also when the doors come --- so success would look like roof on, rubber on, doors in. I think this may be too ambitious

Just debating interior designs now, as I have realised how little "shed" stuff I own (and intend to own), I may be better off constructing some small storage type cupboards at the rear (as I have almost 2 meters to the fence).

Keen to hear any thoughts or if you guys have seen something that looks cool!

n.b. I have zero money so this is more about plug socket locations than actually executing it in the short term

 

[dlockers]

Day 8 cross-post:

Had a decent push today. The doors randomly arrived too (scheduled for Tuesday; he said he was delivering in London and had them on the van just in case).

3m x 2m with integrated blinds.

Walls up - just need to build 2 smaller walls to take the RSJ.

Unfortunately I ran out of steam and time; the nail gun was way too loud to keep going.

This certainly isn't water tight; I just hope it doesn't fly off .

I am hoping to get a major push on Tuesday which'll see it fully water tight and doors sealed, but the weather is utter garbage again

 

[dlockers]

Brand new uPVC windows & doors? If so how much did you pay?

Looks great. Are all the walls treated 2x4's?

I went big on the doors - probably a bit silly - I hadn't realised soffits/fascias would be £350, and then cladding almost £600 (front only!) lol. So £3000 aluminium 3 leaf bifolds with integrated blinds.

The walls are not treated - they are regular C16. They are clad in OSB3 and then wrapped in breather, so they are "inside" wood. If they get wet I have a larger problem than the wood not being treated!

Edit: the front is C24 treated but that is because it is larger 5x3 stuff. I need to build the "dwarf" wall to hold the RSJ tomorrow AM hence went slightly bigger versus the other walls. Hoping to get the roof mostly on tomorrow!

 

[dlockers]

Day 9:

12 hours today

One man lift of the beam --- I went with the caber toss method to get it down the garden as my pregnant wife was totally useless at lifting it and her BF was playing on my PC

Roof joists in. Slight bow has annoyed me on left hand trimmer - will probably need to sawzall it off and start again - it has a slight curve in it due to a bow in the timber.

Secured for the next few days as the weather is just all over the place. Note the different membrane right hand side - £80 saved! The neighbor had a tiny offcut and I was only that much short!

 

[dlockers]

@dlockers what's your unit price for a 2x4 and a sheet of OSB?

11mm 13.21
18mm 11.20

I guess they shift a lot more of the 18 vs. the 11 so it is a bit cheaper.

 

[dlockers]

That's very good, half the price of a DIY store. Is it a local timber merchant?

And what about a 2x4?

Unfinished 2x4 is £7.15 for 3.6m. I ended up getting untreated and finished 2x4 from Materials Market. There is quite a size difference... worth bearing in mind (2x4 isn't actually any of the measurements lol).

 

[dlockers]

What size sheets….18mm 1.2x2.4 here is £22 a sheet

They were imperial so 1.2x2.4 but more like 1.23cm x 2.43cm (4ft x 8ft?)

 

[dlockers]

Yeah its quite a big difference in price there.

My project Im expecting will be 8ft wide by 16 ft long x 8ft tall. So that is roughly 4 sheets for floor, 4 sheets for roof, 12 sheets for walls. 20 sheets total. I would much rather pay 20x£11 (£220) than 20x£22 (£440).

Find a ma' and pa' type merchants is my advice. This is a family run merchant with 1 HIAB and 1 van; I talk to the guy over WhatsApp.

 

[dlockers]

Back to the 2x4.

You didn't get this from the same place as your OSB?

Did you only buy 3.6m lengths? Or did you buy 2.4m lengths for the walls to save on cutting/waste? If not, isn't that a lot of waste material from a 3.6m length?

3.6 was for the wall plates mostly. The 2.4m stuff I got from Materials Market because the merchant doesn't deal in finished 2x4. £3.36 ea

 

[dlockers]

Sorry dlockers, I'm looking on their website and I can't see 2x4 for £3.36 each, either treated or CLS.

Do you have a link please?



Re roof and floor. what size joists did you use? Im wondering if I can double up 2x4's instead of buying 2x6's or 2x8's?

How closely should I stick to span tables here? Im not building a house with a tiled roof which will take beds and wardrobes etc etc. Its an outbuilding for light storage and garden items. But, Im not sure how much I can safely deviate from recognised span tables.

It has gone up a bit - £4.25inc vat now. I paid £4inc VAT but I did order 38 of them (plus a bunch of other bits).

If you are building a "shed" then it's down to you and how much you want to spend really. I used treated unfinished C24 2x4s (so slightly bigger than the CLS stuff you get from Wickes) for joists in between the bearers using joist hangers. The actual bearers are 4x3 though (75x100 treated). These are much more expensive but seemed about 10,000x better.

I'd probably scrimp on walls (I used C16 finished 2x4) and overspend on the base construction. That's the bit exposed to elements/getting battered.

What size are you building?

 

[dlockers]

Ok I thought you'd said you didn't use treated 4x2's earlier in the thread?

Mine will hopefully be around 5x3m but I'll align it to 4ft increments to make the osb sheeting easy.

I'm hoping to lay my floor bearers on an existing brick foundation wall which was previously used for a sectional garage. So I'm just planning to span this directly with 2x6s and sheet on top. Your arrangement of ground pins was much more complex.

I fear I will be slightly over the allowed 2.5m height constraint because a sheet of OSB is 2.4m high which is the internal height I want. Add the 6x2 floor and roof joists and I'm at 2.7m total.

I used both --- treated for the floor (my merchant), untreated for the majority of walls.

You have no chance of getting 2.4m internal height without planning. The roof will be 4x3 + 18mm OSB + 25mm trimmers for the roof EPDM.

Timber alone I am in for ~£3k I reckon. Soffits and fascias I forgot to order are an extra £400! Cladding is super expensive too -- the front will be ~£600 and I haven't even quoted for side and rear yet lol.

 

[dlockers]

What's your internal height going to be?

If not 2.4m, that means you were trimming down osb wall sheeting?

Yeah I mean if trimming OSB is a no-go for you I'd avoid a build at all tbh. This was the state of my workshop by close of play lol:

I only took ~20cm off of the OSB on average though - as I wanted it to cover my floor joist (4x3) and chipboard (22mm).

 

[dlockers]

I think maximizing materials is a smart thing to do - but probably not to that extreme. OSB often comes in imperial (4ft) and immediately you're into cutting .

My front inside height is 2.2m, my rear inside height is 2.125m (75 drop over 3.5m).

 

[dlockers]

Slightly lower than a normal house room then. I could probably live with 2.2m. I also intend to have a slight fall front to back, so the lowest part of my roof would be at the back of the building, next to the boundary.

If I could double up 2x4's instead of using 2x6's for the roof, that would give me an extra 2" to play with.

I'd pay attention to span tables - that may be doable but I don't know. A sheet of 18mm OSB weighs 15kg - the rubber is like 60kg - add snow onto it and it gets quite heavy.

5x3 on the floor gives you an inch too?

 

[dlockers]

At the moment I've got them pin nailed (left angle, right angle - repeat underneath). I'll be adding either upside down joist hangars or grabbing some hurricane ties.

 

[dlockers]

Screw them into the top plate and the stud below, each joist should sit above a stud. So the weight of the joist gets taken all the way to the floor….

I wouldn't have thought driving a screw into a 38x89mm stud that already has 3 nails in is going to end well tbh.

 

[dlockers]

lol I am not tying down 4.2m 5x2 with 250mm structural screws to 38mm CLS. Joist hangers upside down/hurricane ties will be more than fine. Perkins are great though, their latest video looks awesome.

 

[dlockers]

Basically Welsh Man is talking out of his arse. No sane human would drive crazy expensive screws through a stud, double top plate and into a roof joist - when you can buy a joist hangar and some twist nails for under £1.50 and end up with a far better job.

 

[dlockers]

Day 10 - another long shift but got the roof trimmers on and boarded, and then laid out the rubber. Man that thing is heavy!

---

Got the roof boarded (glued and screwed) after a day wrestling with trimmers. I have got them perfect tho so it was worth it. I'm out 8mm over 6.4m.

Rubber hulked up a ladder - 70kg. Almost killed me.

Laid out temporarily

Pausing here for a bit --- rain again tomorrow and then on holiday for a while. I also did a first skim and primered the front room so will try and have a go at that.