Summer House - Help!

Adz160

Adz160

Adz160

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Joined
17 Mar 2014
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92
Where to start! So we purchased our new house back in December last year and eventually moved in mid-January. Prior to moving in we had to have the whole house re-wired, new boiler, re-do a section of the flat roof on the utility and re-decorate the whole house. Ideally we should have had the kitchen done at the same time but funds did not allow, we finally had the new kitchen installed last month. Now our attention has moved to our garden, we didn’t really have a garden to speak of at the old house; just a paved back yard and a grassed area out the front of the house. We’ve recently had a new 5ft feather edge fence put up the left and right hand side of the garden; which matches the fence at the rear of the garden. (This has made sure the garden is dog proof as ours is a proper escape artist!)

Below is a basic paint drawing of the garden as it stands now, the reason for this post is some advice on what to do with the summer house. The dimension are 19’8”ft x 7’7”ft, you’ll see from the pictures the double door isn’t up to much at the moment (we’re getting a quote on a new one). The windows are just basic with a single pane of glass, I think there just three that are missing glass. At some point the old owner who I presume built it has started to insulate some of the walls (see pic below). There’s also some sort of fuse box with trunking and plugs running along the back wall. I’m getting the electrician back soon to try and find where the underground electric cable goes to as I cannot locate it. The roof is half wood which is felted (back) and half plastic (front), as far as I can tell it’s water tight what with all this rain recently I cannot spot any signs of water on the floor or damp patches on the roof.

So we’ll hopefully have a new door in the next couple of weeks and I’ll put some replacement glass in the windows that are missing. I guess my question to you all is how would you go about insulating it? Would you do all the walls? Put a ceiling in the roof? I have basic DIY skills but would this be a task a novice could pull off? We could get someone to do it for us but I really want to have a go myself and save on paying for the labour. We’ve probably got a budget of £1,000 that’s for the new door, insulating/new interior walls and electrics. The end goal is to have a bar area in there and some sort of table and seating.

Looking forward to your opinions!

Thanks!

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I'm guessing you've got 50mm of rockwool behind each of those ply sheets. Which only really leaves the wood roof to insulate.

I guess the question is what are you trying to achieve? Do you expect to be using this building all year round and how often? Are you using it as a workshop or just for socialising?

The reason I ask is, you will struggle to improve the insulation of the transparent roof and the overall insulation will be limited by the stud thickness. You may be better off coming up with a good heating solution for when you need it. You can get camping wood burning stoves which might be nice for taking the chill off the summer or autumn evening after a barbeque. You'd just need a cut out through the wall for the flue.

http://www.belltent.co.uk/stoves_for_tents/frontier_stove/truly_portable_wood_burning_stove

I insulated a similar sized workshop but the intention was just to take the chill off when working so without heating if I spent the day in the winter it would pick up to cool rather than ruddy cold. I can't say the 50mm of insulation I put in all round would have helped me keep it warm though.
 
PlacidCasual said:
I'm guessing you've got 50mm of rockwool behind each of those ply sheets. Which only really leaves the wood roof to insulate.

I guess the question is what are you trying to achieve? Do you expect to be using this building all year round and how often? Are you using it as a workshop or just for socialising?

The reason I ask is, you will struggle to improve the insulation of the transparent roof and the overall insulation will be limited by the stud thickness. You may be better off coming up with a good heating solution for when you need it. You can get camping wood burning stoves which might be nice for taking the chill off the summer or autumn evening after a barbeque. You'd just need a cut out through the wall for the flue.

http://www.belltent.co.uk/stoves_for_tents/frontier_stove/truly_portable_wood_burning_stove

I insulated a similar sized workshop but the intention was just to take the chill off when working so without heating if I spent the day in the winter it would pick up to cool rather than ruddy cold. I can't say the 50mm of insulation I put in all round would have helped me keep it warm though.
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Just really want to tidy up the inside walls so they all match, plasterboard the ceiling? It would still need to be pitched as I'm 6ft 1" and if the ceiling was level with the beams my head would be touching it!

I doubt we'd use this building in the winter, but I like you're idea of a wood burner. We took one out of the house when we moved in because it wasn't fitted correctly. The main use for the space would be a little bar area with some storage cupboards a fridge we could turn on in the summer to store drinks. Some sort of seating area and maybe a tv? To be honest last week when the weather was nice it get's too hot in there but I suppose that's down to the plastic roof.

I'll have to draw up a plan, is there any free/trial sotware I could use to plan out the inside of summer house?

Thanks
 
Here are some final pictures of the finished summerhouse. It's taken around three weekends and a couple of days here and there in the weeks. Overall the prject ran smoothly, only real problem that came about was in the far corner behind the TV, with all the rain we had we noticed there was a leak. After taking a look on the roof we decided to re-felt the back of the roof due to a few tears here and there, luckily the front and large pitch of the roof is made of thick plastic sheeting.

I was going to buy a ready made bar that i'd seen on the bay, but my next door neighbour who's a carpenter and has done most of the work for me, built a custom made bar for me and even gave me the piece of granite worktop for free.


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Looks great. Love that bar! Is it all plumbed in for proper kegs with gas etc? My friend has just built himself a bar in his garden out of pallets, looks pretty good. Got his first keg in the other day but that was just a hand pump effort, think he wants to get some gas in and a proper pump in the future!

I know we're in the warmer months but how do you think it will fare in the dead of winter temperature wise, will it not be bitterly cold or will that wall mounted electric fire do the trick? A log burner could be a great addition if you wanted to go a bit more rustic!

Also, if its raining will it not make an almighty racket bouncing down on the plastic part of your roof? Can imagine it might be quite annoying if you're in there with friends chatting or trying to watch a film etc?

Screaming out for a projector in there though!!!!
 
Thanks for your comments :)

I'm afraid it's not plummed in, those bar taps are actually from the rainforest. They hold a can inside and there's an electric pump inside that dispenses the lager out. Had looked into getting a proper set-up but the cost was just too much for the use it would have.

We were in there till quite late the other night and it wasn't that bad in there, had the fire on and it was just enough heat. All the walls and ceiling have got 50mm of insulation in.

I hadn't thought about the rain hitting the plastic roof. We were in there for a while yesterday and it was raining but the noise wasn't overly excessive. But maybe if it was thundering down then it could be an issue!

I know I had hinted to the wife about a projector but looking at the price of them it's on the wish list!
 
Nice you've transformed the place! I'd get a proper hand pull key setup you don't need gass and chillers for real beer!
 
Look on ebay for a nice 1080P Projector. Can get one for around £350

Amazon for a Decent roller Blind for around £25 to use as the screen.

if you want you can go for a better screen but they cost more
 
R.O.S.S.I said:
That's what my mate must have in his. Only has the pump on his bar then the keg underneath. Looks and works spot on!
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best way for a home bar, you can always get an ice jacket for the keg if you want to cool it a little. It all gets really complicated if you start looking at larger with gas and in-line chillers etc.

You can also get a lot of different beers in small kegs from local brewers.
 
a1ex2001 said:
best way for a home bar, you can always get an ice jacket for the keg if you want to cool it a little. It all gets really complicated if you start looking at larger with gas and in-line chillers etc.

You can also get a lot of different beers in small kegs from local brewers.
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Most definitely, think we picked up a 60 pinter for £30! Helped that we know the chaps at a local brewery though :)
 
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You have a nice Man shed there-

Do those chairs recline as well as swivel - I need two and was looking at leather but like the look of those -Can you say where you picked them up from. ?
 
DXP55 said:
Do those chairs recline as well as swivel - I need two and was looking at leather but like the look of those -Can you say where you picked them up from. ?
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Yes they recline aswell as swivel. I was lucky really I stumbled across them on a local for sale page on Facebook. £60 for the pair
 
Adz160 said:
Yes they recline aswell as swivel. I was lucky really I stumbled across them on a local for sale page on Facebook. £60 for the pair
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Thanks - Will have to do a bit of searching unless you update them in next month and need to get rid of them :)
 
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