TW Builds a Garden Room

Yeah you’d be amazed! If you’ve got a use like the garden that can keep it down pretty low or even just siphon into a nearby drain in the garden to save the overflow next to the structure?

@Silly_Savage can’t remember the sums but it’s basically roof space x how good your ground is at draining

breading mosquitoes

Sounds fiddly

growing roof

Really like these, exciting to follow your progress.

Cats also like them 💩

Free fertiliser I guess and better there than on the lawn.

Was just thinking, are you going just for grass or do you think you’ll plant wildflowers or something like in those wee seed bombs? Could be great for local pollinators!

Also pretty much any sized roof will "catch" a lot more rain than you expect. And even a pitched roof diverts most of that water onto two quite narrow strips.

A crazy amount. Our extension roof at the back can easily get 200L in a few hours.

This is why fucked guttering is so damaging.

10mm of rain last night in one hour.

5m x 4m roof.

1cm * 500cm * 400cm = 200,000 cm³ = 200 litres

I really need to put some on the front of our shed and create some sort of French drain or Soakaway to the flower beds. Already now the route along side it is turning into a slushy mess.

relatedly, does anyone have a reccomendation for an aesthetically pleasing water butt? I don't want to spend £200 but also am not a huge fan of the basic ones. Is there somewhere in between?

The spot I'm thinking of building doesn't have a drain, so may do well to install soakaways in the garden... More digging 😩 . It's under a tree but will still get the rain eventually

No.

I've bought sedum blanket - it has something like 20 different sedum type in it.

I'll be augmenting it with some of the best growers from my bike shed roof, which includes a few succulenty type things that I've been given by neighbours.

@fredtc

I looked at this for a while. There is a Welsh company (I think) that has very slightly less eye watering prices than others you might have seen. But they are still not cheap. Although if you are starting from scratch it's less bad once you've discounted the cost of a decent butt.

Your best option is to build something around a water butt and grow things to hide it. 9/10 you only need 2 sides to disguise it.

The easiest cheap way will be picking some discounted trellis.

Depending on location you could look at camo vinyl wrap. I stayed in a cottage where they'd wrapped the outside bins and coupled with a half screen it was surprisingly effective. Then maybe put some plants in front

Cats seem to avoid shitting on the bike shed roof - probably because it's where they like to sleep.

Squirrels do like to bury things there though - walnuts, acorns and the odd whole egg (shop bought, as you can see the datestamps. Fuck knows where squirrels keep their wallets though.)

Foxes like to shit there occasionally - I'm guessing when they feel very athletic.

And there's been the occasional big bird crop (I'm hesitating to suggest a owl), with bones and things in.

I'm regretting not building a soak-away when I dug the foundations - if nothing else, just to have the option.

Digging one now would mean having to lay drainage pipes around the perimeter, where I would have very little space to move.

Anyway - I'm now done moving 1,000l of substrate. Next I have to carry it up the ladder to the roof.

Where I have miscalculated and bought 2m too short of the £1.30/m protective geotextile, and it costs £60 for a pallet.

Hopefully the roofers down the road have something I can use, otherwise I'm stealing one of the the quilts from the spare bedroom.

Thanks for the considered and useful response. I think you're right that disguise is the best solution

https://www.freeflush.co.uk/products/water-butt-the-original-wallmounted-waterbutt-gardening

Still £120 though

That sounds fantastic mate, excited to see!

Carrying this stuff up a ladder was zero fun.

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The bifold doors have arrived though, and I have ordered a door blank and metalwork for the shed side.

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Really looking forward to seeing the progress. Good luck!

All of the protection blanket, reservoir mat and substrate is now down, and I have also done all the edges.

Sedum time at last.

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Aaaand we're done.

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