Garden office

ozdemirozgur

Hi,


I have a garden office in my back garden which was built by previous owner, with timber frame, concrete base, and flat roof. The roof is leaking and there are some problems with the roof.


I would like to turn it into a proper garden office, but not sure where to start? any experience?


kind regards, Ozgur Ozdemir

Ebe_Scrooge

What are the problems with the roof ? It may just need re-felting, which is a fairly simple and cheap DIY job. You need to establish the cause of the leak first, and take it from there.

ozdemirozgur

Thanks for your reply. Before actually deciding on felting, I would like to check whether the existing structure is good enough to spend any money on it. Is there any way to understand how good is the timber frame?

Ebe_Scrooge

A visual check will be OK for a garden structure. Lift the felt around the point where it's leaking, and have a look. It will be obvious if it's rotted - if it's basically sound then you should be good to let it dry out then re-felt.

ozdemirozgur

Hi,


thanks for your reply, I actually found a roofer to replace the sheets, and the felt. During my roofer search, I met 2-3 of them and all suggested to convert it into a garden room/office as they said the structure was pretty good, with timber framed, large area around 30 m2, and concrete flooring etc.


I am not sure about whether this is a good idea, and also what it might add value to the house vs cost/effort required.


Does anybody have any experience in converting garden sheds into summer house/garden room etc?


Kind regards, Ozgur

SailorSam

There are a few sites that may give you ideas.

http://www.icreatables.com/sheds/office-shed-convert.html

ritesh

Hi, I converted three exisiting garages, joined together, into a garden office. It was a single skin brick standard garage so created an insulated cavity block wall, for which i needed new footings and replaced the exisiting roof (asbestos) and created a new warm deck roof with fibre glass roof. The floor was insulated and screeded.

I could have just done away with a new cavity wall and put in timber studwork, but I prefer solid walls.

We have electrics, internet and telephone installed in stalled in there as well.

Relatively straight forward job.

ozdemirozgur

not sure if I can attach some pictures here ?


This has a timber frame, not brick at all, and a torch felt roof. what is the best way of insulating the walls which are currently just sheets attached to the frame ? and the again the best way of insulating the floor which is concrete solid floor.

SailorSam

It could be awkward insulating the walls, it's easy enough to get 3" battens and put blocks of polystyrene between them , then plasterboard on top. But how much interior space are you going to lose ? So it may be a better idea to read up about putting the insulation and cladding on the outside. And if it were me i'd prefer a pitched roof that would then make insulation easier.
It all comes down to cost.

ritesh

SailorSam wrote: »

It could be awkward insulating the walls, it's easy enough to get 3" battens and put blocks of polystyrene between them , then plasterboard on top. But how much interior space are you going to lose ? So it may be a better idea to read up about putting the insulation and cladding on the outside. And if it were me i'd prefer a pitched roof that would then make insulation easier.
It all comes down to cost.

Agree, insulating from outside would be better if you are able to.

With respect to roof you have options; cold deck, warm deck or change to a pitch roof.

ozdemirozgur

I have a flat roof, so there are sheets are attached to the joists, then there is underlay, and felt on top. I believe this is called a warm deck. my plan is to get some insulation between the joists, and they will be attached to the roof sheets. they can be covered with plasterboards inside. So from bottom to top it will be plaster board or something similar, insulation material between joists, sheets attached to them, then underlay, and felt.


does it work ? anything I should be concerned ?