Hovis builds a garden office*

Hope it's all going ok in the run up to D-day.

If plywood, would you leave gaps between boards and if yes, got any ideas on how to fill them or make them look nice?

First choose whether you'd prefer white/painted walls vs wood. My vote is ply, but I assume MDF is cheaper. Would ply really expand so much as to need a gap? Not that I know much about it, but I thought being cross bonded or whatever meant expansion is minimal, especially once varnished/oiled.

If you are worried then first pryally's suggestion sounds good:

I would use plywood (birch faced) rather than MDF and run a router round the edges to give a 'V' joint between the boards as opposed to trying to hide the joints.

I'd go one step further and neatly fill the gap with black mastic - I reckon it would look quite cool, and you've clearly got the skills to do a clean job. Not really sure about copying the office design if you're likely to have sawdust, etc. floating around.

In an ideal world It would be white painted seamless walls but with the ability to screw everywhere. The only way I can think of to achieve this would be 12mm mdf first and then pasterboard and skim afterwards. This is double work and double/triple cost so I think I'm going to rule this one out.

The leaves choice of plywood or mdf. Cost for those are similar if I'm going for not Birch ply. Birch is like triple the price so that's not really an option. I don't really know of a way I could make painted mdf look decent at the joints so it's looking like that isn't so much of a good option either, so I'm leaning towards 12mm plywood now with edges made a feature of somehow. I saw one example someone was doing shadow gaps by painting the studs black then spacing the plywood with even gaps. That could work. Or the chamfer pryally suggested or filly the gap with black mastic as you just suggested.

with the ability to screw everywhere.

No time for that business when the sprog arrives!

A feature was my thinking, hence the black suggestion. A plus of ply is the option of multiple finishes - white, raw, tint varnish, etc.

On balance I reckon painted underneath shadow gaps with the chamfer is the way to go. Plan your route, set up a roller and paint, and the painting will be fast. Masticing every line will be looonng. As it fills quite big gaps, if any imperfections arise you still have it as a fall back.

A left field suggestion I saw on a BBC interiors thing is floor lino/vinyl. I'm not 100% about putting it everywhere (ball ache plus breathability maybe?), but in a block along the back wall (maybe the side with no window to) would give you that seamless white look you originally wanted. Practical to clean too.

No idea of cost, but I'd have thought one colour vinyl wouldn't be prohibitive. Especially as you could prob go for less good quality stuff as it won't see footfall.

I was about to suggest wood strips over the seams.

But anything like that is gong to look like a cheap port-a-office job, even if you're using really nice wood.

As would vinyl, to be honest.

How about making the panels smaller (400mm, not 1200), and shiplap / fake shiplap them. Or tart up the edges.

Veneered MDF?

Another thought...

... what about running 1200mm x 2400mm ply horizontally? The horizontal line (whatever you decide) would be less visually jarring and more continuous.

On the large back wall that could give you 2 x 2400mm pieces with one main "feature" join (if you are set on not just butting them together), then the vertical join line on the last ~1m piece is probably going to have stuff in front of it anyway right? Or else do 3 x 2m.

I guess the other way of looking at this is to revisit why you actually want wood walls rather than plasterboard. Anything heavy that is screwed to the wall is probably going to be fixed to the batons underneath right? So do you actually need the endless flexibility of being able to screw light-medium weight objects anywhere?

I guess the other way of looking at this is to revisit why you actually want wood walls rather than plasterboard. Anything heavy that is screwed to the wall is probably going to be fixed to the batons underneath right? So do you actually need the endless flexibility of being able to screw light-medium weight objects anywhere?

Yeah this also crossed my mind last night. Given that the stud pacing is only 400mm and I know exactly where they are, am I being silly with instance on wooden walls. Maybe I am. Plasterboard is fragile though and it being primarily a workshop will mean I will no doubt bash some wood into it eventually and put a hole in it.

I've never drywalled before. How does it work with regardings to plastering, can you just plaster over the joins or do you need to skim the whole thing?

Have you considered something like Fermacell? stronger than plasterboard, doesn't need skimming, just a bit of filling and painting.

Interesting, I never heard of it. How are the edges done?

Didn't end up using it for my build in the end, so I am purely going on specs and reviews.

Apparently some people get the edges good enough that once painted you can't see joins, if not there is a jointing compound you essentially fill with.

This thread has some interesting discussion on it.

1200mm x 2400mm ply

1220 x 2440 you mean

Because fuck you and your accurately measured centres for plasterboard sizes.

Get ripping!

If it was me I would paint every other stud black and run 795mm strips of ply vertical.

For what it’s worth plywood walls were the choice of the curators at Louisiana museum of modern art when speecing their new exhibition design studio. For the same reason of being able to hang stuff everywhere and change it all the time. They got full size boards with a gap at the joins iirc.

Yeah its crazy that OSB and ply is imperial and plasterboard is metric. I elected for 400mm spacing for the back and front wall so I had lots of strips of OSB to cut to sit centres on the studs. For the side walls I went 16 inch centres because I was getting impatient and didn't want to cut the OSB. Would mean I'd have to lose 30% of every plasterboard should I go down that road for the side walls.

I think 9mm OSB comes in metric sizes, but the normal thicknesses are all 8'x4'.

If anyone knows of a manufacturer making imperial sized platerboards let me know!.

Purely for aesthetics? That would lead to 400mm of waste for every plywood sheet?

Perfect width for making shelves :)

One of my sidetracks, my wife suggest I make some raised planters to help accommodate the piles of soil I have accumulated during all the digging works. Quite a simple construction, oak sleepers screwed together with big stainless screws diagonally from the inside, following by some beech dowels that connect through the lot to give it some strength. The perfectionist in me wasted another few hours by planing it all smooth and then sanding it (they were very rough sawn to begin with). I stapled some dpm on the inside to keep the soil from direct contact with the wood, hopefully it will last longer this way. I finished up with some coats of wood presever and then finally a coat Osmo UV Cedar coloured oil. Bit more vibrant coloured than I was expecting but I'm sure the sun will do it's thing soon enough.

Am quite pleased with how it turned out. I'll fill it up with soil and let the cats shit in it all winter so it will be nice and fertilised to start growing some vegetables next year.

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They look great.

Where'd you get the sleepers from? Were they straight?

They were from Howarth Timber but I would not recommend at all. They were cheap for a reason I guess. Some were 90mm thick, some 110mm. More waney edges than I'd like. I lost several hours fucking around with laying them out so the bad sides were inside or back edge, and then a lot of planing to get rid of the bows. I'd spend more and go with someone else, or go to the store yourself and pick them out rather than couch shopping like me.

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The end result looks lovely though, well done!

Time for an update.

Since last time:

1. Bifold doors in. Suprisingly easy to get it installed and operating smoothly. Suction cups were a must. Took me a while to figure out why they wouldnt work smoothly without the glass, but somewhat obviously it turns out the glass is part of the structure and is used to square up the door sashs.

2. Drainage connected up and gutters in. Hooray for dry surroundings

3. Baby

4. Front cladding in. Took a while but it turned out rather tidy. Things to note are, figure out the spacing beforehand so you don't get any nasty details at the windows and edges. Despite me thinking long and hard about it, I still didn't quite get it the way I wanted. Cedar is lovely.

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congratulations on you wonderful office!

and also on item 3.

I love the cladding on the underside of the overhang! Looks great.

Baby also.

Looking fantastic! x 2!

Congrats mate!