TW Builds a Garden Room

Top work TW - you're making me want to rip mine apart and start again.

Would agree that it's not necessary to cut the birds mouths for such a shallow pitch. Had to google truss clip - I hadn't seen them before but they look like a nice way of doing it. I just used 4 x 100mm nails spiked through from both sides of the rafter toe nailed towards the centre but I guess with your top plate having steel in it that's not possible. Oakwood garden rooms use joist hangers upside to hold them down.

This is shaping up great! Do you (or anyone else) need any Tyvek? I have probably 65-70m of a roll left over from my build. Probably have some tape too. And some vapour barrier.

I could indeed! I've not even got to the working out stage yet, let alone ordering it.

I guess you need to work out the external wall area?

There's another bit of 2x4 to go above the flitch beam as well - I could have toed the beams in, but there's a 1m overhang which could catch a breeze.

Where the beams are doubled up, I'm using upside down hangers (as double width truss clips don't exist, apparently), and I've butchered some older single hangers to use as straps where there are joists with limited clearance between them (where they overhang the side walls).

you're making me want to rip mine apart and start again.

Yours looks great, though!

Roof fun.

About half way screwing down the OSB, but I've run out of screws.

And it is hot as bollocks on the roof.

And my thumbs barely work.

Hopefully, the boards will be up and trimmed today, and I can but the sides up tomorrow.

The aim is to be watertight by the weekend, bar the door which needs to be measured when everything is walled up and not moving.

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Looking good 👍

All of the OSB is now up.

Just waiting on wrap to be delivered, rubber to be delivered, and skylight to be delivered.

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I feel like a total amateur reading this thread

Wrapped & rubbered!

[Edit] Although it would seem that I am not able to upload images any more.

Roof has been EPDMd - Just waiting on another tin of contact adhesive to finished the edges, but it is otherwise watertight, and has a drain hole in it.

The skiylight is also in place & waterproofed - Lifting was made easier with a Genie Lift, but it was still a little fraught. Luckily (with a little planning), all went well.

Walls & (wooden sub-) fascia are wrapped, awaiting being battened. The PVC fascia will go up when I have clad the overhang, as it would otherwise get in the way.

I am putting in the order for the rear window & bifold door, and then thinking about cladding.

[Edit 2] Images are working again. Huh.

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Lessons learned:

EPDM gets really hot. I've burned the skin off my arse crack.

Knees can stick to EPDM. I've taken the skin off my knee.

You can burn skin off knuckles too...

EPDM by itself does not support the weight of an adult. Try and remember where you put the big fucking hole for the window, and try not to step on it.

Looking good. And I'll be sure to remember the skin burning cautions!
Did you get your EPDM from rubber4roofs? I've just opened my delivery up to start fitting the gutter trim and there's no trim joiner or polly pins. Not particularly a problem as I got some polypins with my fascias and the joint in the gutter trim won't be seen, but wondering if kit included them?

Looking good.

Cheers!

Did you get your EPDM from rubber4roofs?

I did. They are a bit bollocks at making sure that everything is included in the delivery.

First, they forgot half of the corner patches, then they forgot the penny roller, then they forgot another patch.

And their estimates of glue needed are way off.

In the end, it was cheaper to get a few tins off ebay, although I'm pretty sure that bog standard Evostick contact adhesive would have been fine for the edges.

A word on the patches - They bond immediately, and a faff to keep flat.

I also didn't price in the need for mechanical bonding strips at the edges, which I need because I have upstands the entire perimeter. Worth the £200, though, as I don't want the roof to turn into a trampolines when it pulls away from the uprights.

What made you go for a full upstand with internal drain rather than gutter?

Do you know where you're getting your bifolds from?
I installed mine at the weekend. Goddamn that was a ballache. Got the frame perfectly laser aligned, fitted the sashes and had no end of difficulty getting the bastard traffic door to close properly without catching. Ended up tightening/loosening screws to pull the frame back and forth until it kinda just happened. No science to it at all!

What made you go for a full upstand with internal drain rather than gutter?

At some point (likely next year at this rate), I'll be putting a growing roof up there, which means 60ish mm deep of stuff (geo-textile, reservoir sheet, sub- and soil) - Having an upstand means it won't all just fall off at the edges.

I'm not looking forward to fitting the doors (from slideandfold.co.uk) as in addition, I'll need to drill through 5mm steel to fit them.

Ah yeah nice. I had planned a green roof but with 2 big openings and a relatively long span I don't think it'll take the weight unfortunately.

My doors are from slide and fold as well. The 'instructions' are hopeless - clearly meant for people who have installed these things before. It's definitely a 2 person job!
Drilling steel should be fine with some decent HSS bits.

ETA I ordered slideandfold's expressed doors and the lead time was 6 weeks, not the quoted 10 days.

Brief update, as it's been a while (not that I've done a huge amount...)

Insulation is complete, and I have put up a bunch of shelves and things in the shed side.

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And the roof is complete to the point of needing nothing else done to it.

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Except that I am not going to leave it alone, and I've now got a load of growing stuff to hoik up the ladder.

I've decided to go for a rolled mat solution for the living roof - growing my own sounds good, but would probably end up costing just the same, if not more, and I'd prefer this to be just done.

At this point, the roof is pretty much the most expensive thing in the build (including the triple bifold door), but is going to look (I hope) really good.

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Super exciting, and looking great! Is the first pic of those 3 a roll of lining to put on before the topsoil?

I have a sparks coming next week to do the first fix, and I'm still waiting on the door.

I shall also be hanging a shed door soon, once I source some fuck off hinges.

Thanks!

There's actually a blanket that goes underneath that too, to protect the roof rubber - this one acts as a reservoir and root barrier.

It has the benefit of retaining a lot of the rain that falls, meaning that I can have a water butt, rather than faffing about with a soakaway.

Nice! That sounds like a great system, and handy to avoid the soakaway, ends up taking way more room than you expect!

Are you planning to do anything with the collected water?

Do you need a soakaway over a certain size of draining roof or something?

Are you planning to do anything with the collected water?

Plant watering, mostly. Although I expect I'll just end up breading mosquitoes.

I've used the official BackOfAnEnvelope™ lookup tables, combined with a bit of wishful thinking.

I've seen the water coming out of the downpipe, however, and am pretty sure that it would fill a butt pretty quickly.