TW Builds a Garden Room

on-site welding

Forgive my ignorance but what needs welding? The flitch beam?

I assumed that was just bolted together.

It's the door frame that is being welded on site, otherwise it would be too awkward to move it into the garden from the road.

The door frame is because I am loathe to spend £2+k on fancy bifold doors, only to have them stick when the timber expands / contracts

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Hold on to your hats, folks - Things have happened at last!

Side wall and inside wall frames are complete.

Monday I'll build the rear wall frame, and then get the front wall frame as far as I can, ready for the steel on Tuesday

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Holy shit

Rear wall and front wall (minus steel flitch beam header and door frame) all done.

As are my shoulders, neck and back.

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Steel now delivered, welded, painted, installed and bolted.

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And a new problem - I am incapable of lifting the wall up by myself.

There's ~150kg of steel, and similar of wood.

Time to invite family to stay...

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prop the bottom and then use ratchets to the top to try and slowly pull it up?

edit: or even a little hand winch

does rely on having something in a position that you can connect the other end to of course.

Do you even lift?

I'm hilariously weak - Parenthood, injury and lockdown have not been kind.

HTFU TW.

There, someone had to say it.

something in a position that you can connect the other end to

This is lacking, unfortunately.

I could build a cantilever - It's not as if I don't have the wood. I have been subtly vetoed, however - I'm already solo-building on license, as I had said that I would hire someone in to help, but just went ahead and started by myself.

I have my brother heading over on the bank holiday. If that doesn't work, I quite like the winch idea, and I could always get a long rope back to the house.

I guess you could do it with a bottle jack and a pile of breeze blocks, slowly jacking up, propping, moving jack etc. but I reckon it would take a load of time.

I would tie a long rope to the back of a car and pull...

This is really cool

need a hand? lol

He needs to lift it, not crush it with a strangling embrace

Is that not what build with love means?!?!

What if i give Dan a loving embrace to encourage him to lift it?

What if I lift Dan lifting it?

Fixed.

Big lifting done - my brother and I ended up drafting in my neighbour, as if you can, then why not?

Just as well, as there was a tendency for the base to slide out when we lifted, and things could have gone a bit awry if it had just been two of us.

Then it was a case of lots of squaring up, banging in big nails (I love nail guns so much), and the walls are all done.

For the rest of the week, it's going to be rafter time.

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Lovely job! Do you have enough space behind the rear wall to put cladding on it?

Wow, that's big. What % of your garden is this occupying roughly?

Yep - there's space behind to fit me and a second fix nail gun.

The floor area is ~20% of the overall garden.

Although I always knew the measurements, and have had the floor down for a year, it's only standing in side the walls that I can really appreciate its size.

This is serious business

Today is rafter day.

The roof has a 1.5 degree fall, meaning that to fit over the 95mm top plate, I need a ~2.5mm depth on the opposite edge.

Sawing that it going to be rubbish, so I've built a router jig, which I tested this morning.

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Seeing the end result, I'm now not going to bother at all - The rafters and plate can squish a bit instead.

They'll be held in with truss clips in any case, and by half a tonne of roof.

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