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Garden Office

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Garden Office

Postby cadman_4 » 16 May 2020, 07:50

Hi All

Back again after a little break. The bike workshop got completed all bar the guttering which I was going to finish but family issues have stopped that for the time being.

However with the current Corvid-19 issues the office that I work in closed and everybody was asked to work from home. After a meeting with the directors I have now been given the choice to work at home permanently if I wish. Which brings me back here.

We have decided to create a garden home office as working in the house with the family around is too distracting.

First question if the day is would building to Mike's workshop quality suit a garden office that will be used 5 days a week by 1 or 2 people?

My initial thoughts after looking at the websites offering these is that yes it will but I thought I would ask the hive mind first

I would like to build this quite quickly but I only have a couple of hours in the evenings and then the weekends as I am one of the few that haven't been furloughed and am working longer hours than normal. So I don't think a concrete slab will be the way to go. I looked at the concrete lintel sketches and thought I could do something like strip foundations as i can mix the concrete and then a small brick wall bringing the height up to 150mm ish above ground level, I still ahve loads of bricks left from the workshop build.

Due to the location of the planned office (less than 2m from the boundary) I need to keep the roofline lower than 2.5m so may go for a flat roof, I have looked at the EPDM type materials but these look rather expensive, are they worth the money?

That'll do for now while I think on....
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Re: Garden Office

Postby Andyp » 16 May 2020, 08:36

John, the experts will be along so I am sure but in the meantime have you considered screw piles for foundations.
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Re: Garden Office

Postby 9fingers » 16 May 2020, 08:57

EPDM is definitely worth using and several eBay vendors are quite reasonable. The basic rubber has a 30 year warranty and is fairly straightforward to diy. Edge fitting can be expensive but not totally necessary if you design in drip rails and upstands into your roof structure.
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Re: Garden Office

Postby Mike G » 16 May 2020, 09:17

cadman_4 wrote:.......First question if the day is would building to Mike's workshop quality suit a garden office that will be used 5 days a week by 1 or 2 people?......


Hi John.

Yes, very much so. However, the weak-link in the insulation is the single skin brick plinth, so I would suggest adding 25mm of Celotex across the inside face of the walls and down over the plinth, and that should eliminate the cold bridging. You could then plasterboard directly over that and have a nice decorated wall surface.

EPDM is actually pretty cheap. It's cheaper than torch-on felt, for instance, and ten times as good a product. In fact, that's precisely what I am doing today.......putting EPDM on my bike shed roof. Where it gets expensive is with the plastic profiles for the edging strips etc. Leave them out, you don't need them.

How about dropping a quick sketch section through your proposed base on here so I can have a look?
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Re: Garden Office

Postby cadman_4 » 16 May 2020, 09:31

Hi guys

Thanks for the quick replies

Just clearing space for it today along with picking up my drawing board from the office. I’ll sit down tonight and sketch something out for you


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Re: Garden Office

Postby cadman_4 » 17 May 2020, 08:21

Ok so a quick sketch done yesterday

First one is with a raised floor

Image

Second one is a solid slab. I have included the 25mm insulation to the wall to reduce the cold bridge as Mike pointed out

Image

I was all for going down the raised floor route but last night we’ve changed our minds and I think we will go with the slab

The base is going to be 3m x 4.8m or 10’ x 16’ for the old school

The base will be within 1m of the boundary so I think we need to have some sort of fire resistance on the back wall


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Re: Garden Office

Postby Mike G » 17 May 2020, 08:32

I'd definitely put the foundation underground in your first drawing, and bring the bricks right to the outside of the slab in the second. That shelf of concrete will direct water straight through the lower mortar course. Don't turn up the DPC unless it is behind something which prevents water running down and into it from above. Obviously with a suspended floor you would need airbricks.

You need to prevent racking in the structure. Now, in my normal design this is done by sheathing the inside of the frame with OSB. You have left this off. If you do leave it off you will need to build diagonals into the frame, which is doable, but quite a lot of extra work. Or you could leave the OSB and fix the plasterboard through the Celotex and the OSB into the frame.

You can use engineering bricks if you want, but there is no need.
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Re: Garden Office

Postby cadman_4 » 17 May 2020, 08:51

Hi Mike

I’ll amend the dpc to suit. If I put the osb back into the inner wall will I need the vapour barrier to go any higher than the bricks. I put this in as I thought it would stop any moisture entering the celotex?


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Re: Garden Office

Postby Mike G » 17 May 2020, 11:03

If you have OSB you don't need (another) vapour barrier, but for absolute peace of mind you might use foil backed plasterboard.
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