The nerve!

Looks fantastic, by the way, fellto!

Pro level work there, looks great!

Oooh nice. We'll be joining in with the fun in a few weeks as we have just had our offer accepted and the mortgage is now at the conveyance stage. So excited!

Congratulations!

Thanks Pipez. I've also applied to a TV show, the type where they do up the gardens. Should be a laugh

Anyone installed electric underfloor heating? We're chewing it over, gas is around 1/3 the price of electricity so is a clear winner, but we've a small home. Trying to decide.. thoughts

Had electric underfloor in South Africa, it's a pleasant way to heat but quite expensive to run. I've heard of underfloor that uses pipes and a boiler.

That'll be water, cheaper to run but technical to install.

Moved into our new home late July and did a lot of work to the interior of the house. Didn't even get started in the garden but was hoping to find a cheap winter deal on a good quality summer house/studio. That has been a major disappointment as even with the deals it turns out that it would cost me in the region of 4 to 5K minimum (£) for something relatively small.
I was wondering how difficult it might be to build one myself? I'm reasonably handy but no expert. We already have a concrete base of about 11 foot 6 inches square from a previously demolished outbuilding, which I could extend, but that space seems reasonable to me for an extra room to chill in the garden.
I even wondered whether to just use that space to grow stuff in a greenhouse, but they're quite expensive too.

Just popped in hoping for a bit of advice. Cheers.

No idea about what your local regulations say about building stuff yourself, but it's not actually that hard, if you're willing to accept your lack of knowledge and ask for advice.

Having a concrete slab is a great start, as that a major expense avoided. I take it you're not interested in having any plumbing in a space that small, so it's really just a case of knocking up a timber frame, roofing it, and lining it inside and out. None of those things are hard, although there's some knowledge you'd need to acquire about how exactly to do that, and how to keep water out around windows and doors, which you definitely need to do thoroughly.

One thing to watch out for if you do go that route is to make sure doing it yourself is actually cheaper. Tradesmen can often get good discounts on materials from suppliers, as they're valuable repeat customers, so sometimes the savings aren't as high as you might expect. Another catch is if you end up buying new tools for the job, that can add a cost that tradesmen can spread over many jobs, although you end up with toys, so there's that.

Mostly, you just need to do each job with the next jobs in mind - wall frames need to be laid out with fixing points for the internal and external linings in mind. If you're running electrical wiring in the walls, you need to do that before doing the internal linings. It's not rocket science, but it requires mindfulness the first time around, and just becomes obvious on a second or third go-around.

Perhaps the biggest lesson I've learned, having built a few buildings myself now, is that it's always good value hiring plasterers, because even if you save money doing it yourself, plastering is shit work. Indescribably awful. I'll probably do it myself again some day, then kick myself for not hiring someone. I hate it with a passion. YMMV.

Not sure about the state of things in the UK, but a source of cost saving that can add character is to avoid the high cost of windows or doors by using recycled building materials from houses that have been demolished or remodelled. Sometimes that can end up being similarly expensive though (especially for things with real historic character), so always compare costs rather than assume.

The_Piper wrote:That looks nice. Lots of wall space for maps, trinket shelves, things like that. Pictures of squirrels. Did you move the staircase over?

OlivierK wrote:No, he's naughtily taken the "after" pic from the opposite end of the space.

The_Piper wrote:The nerve!

OlivierK wrote:Looks fantastic, by the way, fellto!

laklak wrote:Pro level work there, looks great!

Thanks gents! And just in time for the appraiser, I’ll let you know how that works out.
Kitchen is next where we need a second bathroom and possibly the bathroom upstairs at the same time as working on the kitchen will expose the upstairs bathroom plumbing. The missus and I were also discussing building a workshop for me out back which I’m keen on.

Ironclad wrote:Oooh nice. We'll be joining in with the fun in a few weeks as we have just had our offer accepted and the mortgage is now at the conveyance stage. So excited!

Ironclad wrote:Thanks Pipez. I've also applied to a TV show, the type where they do up the gardens. Should be a laugh

Ironclad wrote:Anyone installed electric underfloor heating? We're chewing it over, gas is around 1/3 the price of electricity so is a clear winner, but we've a small home. Trying to decide.. thoughts

Congrats, Ironclad! Really exciting. The upside to the garden shows is that they do indeed pay for everything. The downside is that sometimes what they build is more for theatrical effect and not built to last. So beware.
As for in floor heating, I recommend it, I had it at my last rental and it was fantastic, especially in the basement as it kept the damp out. Best thing to do would be to calculate out the upfront and operating cost of both. If you have a small, well insulated place it might be a wash.

OlivierK wrote:
Perhaps the biggest lesson I've learned, having built a few buildings myself now, is that it's always good value hiring plasterers, because even if you save money doing it yourself, plastering is shit work. Indescribably awful. I'll probably do it myself again some day, then kick myself for not hiring someone. I hate it with a passion. YMMV.

This. It’s the worst job in the world. I wish we had had the dosh to have someone do all the mudding and taping, but we had enough for only two rooms. Not only is it better as it is shit work, they are so much faster at it than you. Nothing is worse than having to deal with week after week of plaster dust and mess in the house.

Plastering is horrible, and it takes a while to get decent at it. Did the exterior stucco on our rental unit before we sold it, just on one portion of the building, it was never ending.

felltoearth wrote:

Ironclad wrote:Oooh nice. We'll be joining in with the fun in a few weeks as we have just had our offer accepted and the mortgage is now at the conveyance stage. So excited!

Ironclad wrote:Thanks Pipez. I've also applied to a TV show, the type where they do up the gardens. Should be a laugh

Ironclad wrote:Anyone installed electric underfloor heating? We're chewing it over, gas is around 1/3 the price of electricity so is a clear winner, but we've a small home. Trying to decide.. thoughts

Congrats, Ironclad! Really exciting. The upside to the garden shows is that they do indeed pay for everything. The downside is that sometimes what they build is more for theatrical effect and not built to last. So beware.
As for in floor heating, I recommend it, I had it at my last rental and it was fantastic, especially in the basement as it kept the damp out. Best thing to do would be to calculate out the upfront and operating cost of both. If you have a small, well insulated place it might be a wash.

Thank you for that. What do you mean by "a wash"?

It’ll come out even.

I found this when looking for contraptions like this for ideas about making my own. Not because I'm lazy, but when
I do my neighbor's I walk it with the snowblower, and it's like .4 miles round trip. It takes a while. Plus just to be funny. I have an extra snowblower that doesn't blow snow very well, maybe I can convert it into a "touring cart"

What do you think of this backsplash behind my cookstove? It's an old piece of galvanized steel roofing.