Shed/ home office advice

GarfieldConnoll

Hi,

I want to create a home office in my garden. I know I could buy a specialised home office, but they all seem rather pricey.
I'm considering buying a wooden shed and insulating it/ installing power, etc.
The shed I'm thinking of is an Abwood:

http://www.abwood.ie/products/shed/standard.html

I'm thinking of the pressure treated delux version, with 22mm kiln dried planed weather sheeting with tongued and grooved roof and floor. For a small increase, they'll use thicker joists so I can install insulation. Abwood could provide a complete garden office 'solution', but I'm trying to do on a tighter budget.

For insulation I'm thinking of 30mm Thermaboard for the walls and roof (Abwood will insulate the floor) and then plasterboard or plywood for the interior.

I wasn't thinking of installing any heating. The entire shed will be only c.800 cubic feet, so I'm hoping the proposed insulation would be enough (with body heat) to keep it warm.

The standard roof is a felt roof (on top of the tongue and groove). Should I upgrade this? Would I be able to put slate on top in the future or would I have to do this from the outset (weight, design, etc).

So, if anyone has any advice on this, it would be much appreciated.

Questions that come to mind are:
1. Do I need to install a membrane between the wood and the insulation?
2. Is that insulation sufficient?
3. Any pointers on electrical supply/ installation?
4. Abwood (and others) say the shed can be placed on concrete blocks (no need for foundation). Would this be sufficient?
5. Any planning issues?

All advice appreciated.

Garfield.

PS. I searched this forum and 'Construction and Planning', but couldn't find anything similar. I hope this is posted in the correct forum.

G.

ircoha

I have a client who started looking at what u are at , then looked at a sheomra
http://www.shomera.ie/

and has eventually decided to go conventional block with high spec insul floor/ walls and vaulted ceiling: why? at the end of the day 'concrete built is better built':)

However it all depends on
ur budget
what u want to do with it in say 5 or 10 years and if u have the room for a 6m by 4m building

Hou1ie

Can't help with your query I'm afraid, but just to let you know I'm thinking of something similar. I was thinking of going with a metal shed rather that timber. I need to put the whole thing in a corner of the garden, and if its timber thats two sides of the thing that will never be painted properly again......

Hotwheels

How about a Porta-cabin, I've been thinking along these lines, I'm keeping an eye out for one, secondhand from a builder etc....

Should be good for 10 years or so...

Hou1ie

Tend to be too big for where I want it to go, plus pretty pricey. My accountant had one though and it was the business.....

jotoole

A friend of mine(therapist) got a home office for her garden recently also. She went with a crowd http://www.timberrrooms.com. She paid something in the region of 11.5k for a 12 meters square room which I thought was very reasonable. Thinking of following suit myself as also need some additional space to work from home. Had priced a traditional build but was working in the region of 25k.

I would be very interested to hear what other folks have paid for a similar size.

Hou1ie, did you go with the metal shed? How does the metal shed work out price wise?
Thanks

cnocbui

I wanted a shed but decided block and metal were too cold, metal being horrendous for condensation in this climate.

I ended up buying a log cabin that was intended as a garden office as I was attracted by the large glass area for letting in light. here is what I built:



It actually has three rooms internally. The two largest are separated by an identical pair of doors to those you can see.

Body heat would never be enough, to heat a shed, but a simple 2kw fan heater will warm up the largest room to comfortable in about 10 min.

Please excuse the window and door frames, that was a mistake on my part - too kitschy - I need to sand them back and make them match the rest.

argosy2006

check mate!

argosy2006

inside shipping container

cnocbui

I see your shipping container and raise you an attached sun room:

Hou1ie

@jotoole
Yeah, I went with the metal shed in the end. Build and install of shed was about 3.5K plus another 400/500 for the electrics. It does the job but I won't be posting any pictures on account of it looks like sh*t when compared to what cnocbui and argosy2006 have! Its small (but sufficient for my needs) and there's a few things I'd have have got done diffirent in hindsight. I'm not handy enough to be able to do any of it myself, so I was reliant on someone else doing it all for me. That somebody was making shed-loads (!) of sheds for farmers a while back when they were getting grants for such things but now thats dried up he's building garden sheds as a bit of a side line. To be honest, I felt a liitle short changed with what he done but I just had to get over it. I'm writing this from the shed now, have been in it since the new year and working from the bottom of the garden is just great....

BiancaBlaze

looking for a good opinion for finding and comparing building materials prices from the different builders providers, does anyone have any good deals to suggest.

we are planning to build a new garage for the old folks and aim to do it ourselves. We'll be needing concrete block prices and to buy roofing felt, most likely going for kingspan roof insulation as this seems best on the market, the garage will be more like a large shed. Will also probably need velux roof windows prices and low cost flooring possibly thermafloor insulation.

i've seen build4less.ie mentioned in a few different posts, are they one of the builders providers offering free delivery. all helpful opinions welcome