Hovis builds a garden office*

I have two big thick blue ones in the garden. They've been there for about 20 years. Usually full.

No cracks or splits. Plus I'm in the freezing north (well north of London - East Mids).

Would be nice to use stainless screws yeah rather than nails, in case I need to make some adjustments, will probably do that cheers.

Does anyone know what my options are in terms of being able to control wall and downlights on the exterior of the building but from the house? I'd like to avoid running cable into the house and a switch, was thinking it would be nice if there was some kind of smart system I could switch them on and off with a remote, or my phone? It's about 25m from the house.

I'd go for non-stainless outdoor screws. Stainless screw are too weak/brittle and should only be used where the screws will be visible and even there I'd consider some sort of coated screw instead. And as @russmeyer says: Torx all the way.

Quinetic do wireless switches

If it'll be on the same network then Hue (and others I assume) will let you control any lights from your phone.

I don't know if there is a restriction on the distance for switches, I think they go through the network so I assume not.

Hue is the answer - assuming you're running internet down there.

Ideal setup would be something like:

1. Run ethernet to the shed / office
   
2. Have an access point (google wifi etc) in the shed / office
   
3. Setup a hue bridge for the house
   
4. Install Hue bulbs on the outside / inside of shed / office
   
5. Control from app
   
   

This is what we did for our garden office in the last house as it was used as an office.

This is my plan too (with one extra step)

1. ethernet to the office
   1a. install a switch
   
2. AP off the switch
   
3. - 5. Hue & Sonoff & other IoT nonsense
   

True - we only needed wifi down there so just ran a Google Wifi hub directly from the socket but a switch is always handy.

I've been getting lazier and lazier since I got the roof up with regards to packing up and locking away my tools at the end of the day. A couple of days ago I left my fancy festool dust extractor out overnight.

Mistake. Some foxes decided they really liked its rubber coated power cable. The fuckers chewed right through it in at least 5 different spots. It's a really nice flexible cable that coils up inside the extractor so I don't really want to replace it with some normal cable, and the direct replacement costs 65 quid.

Annoying.

you probably need to build some kind of garden structure, a shed or something, to keep your tools in...

Something with walls? Door?

Ridiculous.

Update

I'm knackered. Too hot to be digging holes but thats what I did for the last 3 days. So since last time I have:

Roof window- this was all sorts of fun. Elected not to use a weed cannon and instead constructed a 4m ramp and dragged it up with a rope. Bit of silicone, drop it on and its done.

House wrap - This is a breathable membrane that keeps the walls watertight, but also allows moisture to escape should it find its way in. Basically a Gabba for buildings. Thanks again @dt for letting me have your left overs. I actually still have loads left believe it or not so if anyone wants it.

First fix electrics - A mate of mine did this for me. 350m of wires and a bit of cursing at me for the amount of electrical points I wanted but it's more or less done. Maybe I have gone overkill on the number of sockets but I really wanted flexibility with equipment location so it is what it is.

Flower bed destruction - I dug up a knackered bricked up flower bet by the house where my armoured cable for electrics will eventually go. Currently sitting in a couple of skip bags until I construct some new ones after which the soil shall go back in. Will be doing this out of oak sleepers.

Fascias - These are 5m lengths of PVC. By pure luck the stock depths fit my roof height perfectly so no rips were required. Lots of nails and fear or heights but they are more or less done. I left the bottom row of nails loose so I can later bend them outwards a bit so I can get my soffits inside.

Soakaway - The big whole in the ground is where rainwater from the roof will go. Thanks @HoKe for swinging by and providing the motivation and manpower to finish it off. I went below the waterline so am a bit nervous with how well it will work, but is massive so fingers crossed there shant be any flooding

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I'm enjoying these updates.
I'm building a smaller version at the moment and it's great to see your approach. I'll be raising the walls and wrapping with membrane today (weather permitting).

It's really coming along now - how long until you're plastering?

Any particular reason you went with the roof window on the same side as the doors? I would have thought that side would already have enough light and that the other side would benefit more from the additional light...

Not sure. Baby is due in 4 weeks and my goal is getting the exterior completely finished before I start doing the inside (winter is coming). I may not do the inside for a long time, all depends on how good a father I am really. I'll line the walls with 18mm MDF actually, will be a lot more useful for workshop purposes than plasterboard. Will paint them so shouldn't be all that different than if it was plastered visually. I don't know how to make the joints smooth though. Current thought is flexible caulk down the gaps and filler over the screw heads. I am undecided about the ceiling, could plaster that, or use a thinner MDF, but I worry it might sag?

Reasons for the skylight where it is that my main workbench and table saw will be directly in front of the bifold door for dust reasons. I wanted the skylight above the workbench. The other side of the building, the window side will have a desk under the window with a PC and monitor etc for my work from home days, and then behind that will be wood storage most likely so no real need for skylight. Having said all that, I wish I had put in a second (or even third), they aren't that expensive.

Next step is soffits, cladding, guttering then bifold doors and windows. Probably oak sleeper planter boxes somewhere in the middle of that as the piles of soil sitting around the garden is ridiculous and neither I nor my wife are particularly pleased about the state of it all.

Makes sense re: the window then.

I guess the main issue with the MDF walls will be expansion? I assume you'll need to build in a decent tolerance. If it's anything like the office we had in our garden, it'll get fucking hot in the summer.

Are you thinking about ventilation / heating / cooling? If you're planning on doing office work etc in there during the day, i'd definitely consider an AC unit that heats as well as cools. Something wall / ceiling mounted at the back would work a treat. It would also keep the humidity down and reduce some of the issues with the wood shifting.

Looking great!

When are you thinking of ordering the cladding? I'd read somewhere that it's not a great idea to do it mid summer because of how much it will expand when it gets damp during winter - it said to do the cladding between summer / winter.

Yeah I was thinking I would like 2-3mm between panels for expansion reasons and caulking that. How much insulation did your one have? Also was it a concrete base? I'm going to play it by ear regarding a combined AC unit. Part of me thinks that all the insulation will keep the heat out. The other day it was really nice and cool inside it compared with the shaded areas in the garden, I think the roof insulation is not allowing the sun to directly heat it up. I also am thinking the concrete slab has a lot of thermal mass and is constantly in contact with the ground so has a cooling effect too, although that will be offset by the 50mm of insulation I'm going to put on it.

I dunno. Lots of theories, I have no idea. In practice it might be the total opposite so will go a year with an AC or heater or anything and observe and then put something in if I need it.

Whoops, ordered it this morning! Hoping to start on it next week. Weather is cooling then so hopefully that won't be an issue... I'm planning on oiling it all up and sealing the edges before I put them up so hopefully there won't be too much expansion.

Speaking nof which, does anyone know of a cheap and cheerful spray option for this? Would be great if I could just lay all the panels out on the floor and spray at it rather then endless brush action.

Mine was not on a concrete base but on piles.
According to the company that built it, the insulation values were:

Glazing on Windows and Doors – U-Value 1.2
Walls – U-Value 0.41
Ceiling – U-Value 0.22
Floor – U-Value 0.35

I think the issue you'll have is that it'll really heat up once you get the glazing in and, once that heat's in there, whatever insulation you have will keep it hot.

We had windows all the way across the front of ours and had to put blinds in otherwise it was pretty much unusable from May-September. That then just made the windows sort of pointless as you had the blinds closed.

I wish we'd had AC put in...

Flower bed destruction - I dug up a knackered bricked up flower bet by the house where my armoured cable for electrics will eventually go.

Are you putting network in too?

:/ Which way was it facing?

Yeah. Got 75m of cat6 cable ready to be unrolled. I've ordered a flexi duct I'm going to run it and the armored cable through for extra protection from future me.

Fully south facing which doesn't help.

I guess the point is that the efficiency of your insulation will work against you with a building like this because of the high % of surface area taken up by glazing.

If you have no way of cooling the building then you have to block the glazing to reduce the heat, which negates the point of having the glazing in the first place...