Today I did something in the house...

Last week I nearly finished a nine-month-long saga on the back garden.

Like half of the country, we decided to fit a home office in the back garden.

I've mentioned in other threads that I'm in a terrace, so everything has to come through the front door. I was insistent therefore that this was the last time I was changing anything in the back garden.

So we ordered a timber building that was split into an office and separate shed. We ordered in July, and were told it would take until November. OK. Long lead time, but demand is through the roof.

Turns out I never took any great pictures of the existing shed. And that I'm generally bad at taking pictures

This is actually the best picture I could find of the old shed/garden, taken while we were getting an extension done.



The little fence and sleeper wall I had put in myself. The builders created a small patio area between there and the house. The house is just in a weird place on a slope, so the rake on the garden is ridiculous, about 10 degrees. The fence was there to stop any small children coming barrelling down it and hitting the hard ground.

I have some prep work to get done before the new office arrives, but I still need my old shed, so I leave it as long as I can. 2-3 weeks before it arrives should be OK. So October? Nope, delayed. November? Delayed again. "It'll definitely arrive before Xmas". So on the first week in December, I am in the back garden pulling down a bearna shed. Wasn't too cold on the first few days thankfully.



The area where the bearna was, wasn't too bad. But the new office is bigger, so I needed to carve out a larger section. I have a lot of leftover material from previous works; slabs, blocks, wood.

A full concrete base would have been ideal, but the thought of barrowing tonnes of poured concrete through the house - or paying someone else to do it - was just a non-runner. Don't buy a terrace, kids.
Just throwing the office onto blocks wasn't ideal either though. So I took an idea from my highly-qualified brother; create 300mm-deep concrete "feet" for the shed to stand on. This should prevent any sinking without having to create a huge concrete base.

So I dug nine holes 300mm deep and 400mm wide and made a passable attempt at ensuring they were all at the same level. You can see three of them at the front here;


I got "just add water" bags of concrete from Brooks and set about mixing them and pouring them.
You can see four filled holes here;


18 bags of concrete later and the holes were all filled. The difference in height between one corner and the other was 20mm. Which is **** if you're a builder, but when you're a sap standing in the sleet in December in a pair of wellies, digging holes by hand, mixing concrete by hand and grimacing with back pain every five minutes, then I'll take a 20mm difference any day.

So I threw blocks down on top of the concrete feet and then levelled the area between the blocks.



There are more than nine blocks in the picture - the other blocks are just "extra" support.

Broke down the bearna shed and threw it in a skip. So aside from the big pile of wood, this was the view out the back window.


And then I find out the new office won't arrive before Xmas after all. It "might" be January. So that was the view out the back through Xmas and New Year. And all of my tools and stuff were down the road in my in-laws shed. That was pretty annoying.

Eventually in February after many consecutive days of pestering the company, the office arrived.



Oh crap, it's feckin huge. Especially sitting at the top of the slope. Never mind. I built some makeshift steps up to it for the time being just so I wasn't dragging mud everywhere.

It has an insulated wooden floor, but you don't want to walk around on the planks. Carpet tiles, €100, 2 hours work. Job done.



So what next? We need proper steps for it. Not some wood thrown in front of it and paving slabs on blocks. Also, the patio isn't big enough. And the garden slopes too much. Right, let's just do it all in one go then. Push the patio back, level(ish) the garden, build steps.

I took last week off and got to it. For some reason I didn't take photos the first day. This is the end of the second day;


I disassembled the sleeper wall that was there, dug out 600mm of the garden (throwing the soil back up the slope), then rebuilt the sleeper wall in the new position. You can see the old discoloured sleepers and the new ones to raise the height of it. What you can't see behind the table is a big concrete "blob" I discovered under the soil. Possibly part of the old stables that were here when the estate was built. So I had to rent a Kango hammer to break that out. Five minutes work, but the best €30 I ever spent.

End of day three. I was in quite a bit of pain from all the digging and hauling, so I took it pretty easy that day. Just finished the sleeper wall, and my wood arrived for the steps. You can also see me testing out an idea for a step from the patio into the garden. If I mortar between those blocks will it look decent?;


Day four. Put down the paving slabs. Didn't fit. Bugger. When I was rebuilding the sleeper wall I was meticulous about testing all the way along that my paving slabs would fit in the new gap. I discovered that the slab I picked to "test" just so happened to be the ONE slab in the garden that's different to the rest. It's 10mm smaller. So I forced the slabs in, and it looks messy. But this is the kind of thing you could get bogged down in poking at for hours. I did my best and cracked on.
I dug out in front of the shed and built box steps, you can see the frames sitting in front of the shed. The original plan was 2 steps, but after some measurements, I decided 3 steps was better, and I had just enough wood to do it.



Day five. I finished the steps. The bottom step sits on pea gravel supported with a honeycomb frame. I'm hoping this mean it drains well while will providing enough support. Originally it was just going to be under the step, but I reckoned it would be a good idea to have the gravel extend about a foot out from the step so you don't have this soggy grass patch at the bottom of the steps, just gravel. I didn't have enough gravel to fill that in though, so that's for later.
I've never build anything like this before, I am disproportionately proud of how well they turned out.


Only one thing left; tidy up and level the garden. Here's that backbreaking digging again. I also needed a walkway from the patio to the shed, so the insanely heavy paving slabs made another appearance.


I didn't get fully finished. It started raining pretty heavy towards the end and I was just raking sludge, so I abandoned. I have since powerhosed all the slabs and it's come up really nice.

I'm going to replace the stone step in the patio with a wooden step to match the ones at the shed. I have the wood left over to do it. I'll then redo the patio; get a consaw and cut the slabs to fit, and line them all up nice. I need to finished levelling the garden before I can seed it for grass. I'll keep a small slope towards the house for draining, but there's a "hump" in the middle that needs to be flattened out. Drier weather this week should help make that easier.

Did you assemble the building yourself ? Did it come flat-packed, some crack bringing in through the house but well worth it. Will you need a gutter on the front or just see how it goes ? Great to have a covid project done and dusted. Presume you have power and WiFi out there. How are you heating it ? A few internal snaps of both areas would be nice. Well done and thanks for sharing !

Good stuff. So it is an A roof i.e. falling to front and back ? Just monitor build up of water and don't underestimate the splash effect when the run off hits the ground. Will the run off to front run down onto your decking steps ? You can get smaller than standard nice grey gutters that would look fine with down-pipes on gables. Maybe they could initially go into a water butt if you have room and then piped in planter bed down along fence to nearest RW gully. Any plans to give it a lick of something, I assume it is treated timber.

seamus wrote: »

I was going to fit gutters, but my wife doesn't want them. I'm concerned about water gathering at the back of the building mainly, but also making the steps slippery.
She makes the good point that the water has been running down the garden for years with no issue. If I am doing them, I'll need to run the pipe all the way down to the shore at the house, which is fine, but obviously a bit of work. So we'll see how we go without first.

Looks good !! Fair play.

Other option re above, dig a soak pit to the right of your muck patch there and fit a down pipe and gully to the right hand side of your shed leading back into the soak pit. Probably as much work as running the pipe (actually more work) but neater.

Did the same myself when forming my base (although the soak pit was existing from my extension build) .....all i need is the shed now

Is it now just sitting on the bottom chord of two factory made trusses?

Also, just spotted that the material used under your tank is chipboard- better to use solid timber (t&g floor boarding) or a good quality ply or OSB3 board.

Fair play to you for taking it on yourself. Planning the exact same myself but will be getting a plumber. Need to increase water storage as 5 adults shower most mornings and tank runs out. Probably just add a second tank. What are you going to sheet the larger area with ? I guess cut to fit through trap door ?

Fine Cheers wrote: »

Fair play to you for taking it on yourself. Planning the exact same myself but will be getting a plumber. Need to increase water storage as 5 adults shower most mornings and tank runs out. Probably just add a second tank. What are you going to sheet the larger area with ? I guess cut to fit through trap door ?

Yeah, it’s not rocket science and the actual disconnection & reconnection is quite straightforward, and greatly eased by the use of tectite fittings. I’ll be using 18mm chipboard or OSB, cut to width. I’ve a styra I installed yrs ago so can get approx 4’ widths and keep to full 8’ lengths as plenty of head height to manouever. In your situation, you say the water is running out; is the water heated by immersion cylinder or is shower electric?

20/20 wrote: »

Hope this aint a silly question, but I have been meaning to upload pics of the wet-room I made during lockdown.
What format do I upload them as ? I would like the pictures to be seen on the page rather then just links for people to click.
If anyone could help please.

multiple formats including jpg/jpeg/png bit size restricted (1-4MB depending on your preferred format) which means you typically have to reduce the size I’d say if the pics were captured on a modern phone at default settings. Easily done though and many ways to achieve this these days. One easy way is to gmail the pics to yourself as this client has an integrated quality reducer. You can add pics in literally no time. Plenty of lads here will be happy to assist you if you’re having issues.

Fine Cheers wrote: »

Fair play to you for taking it on yourself. Planning the exact same myself but will be getting a plumber. Need to increase water storage as 5 adults shower most mornings and tank runs out. Probably just add a second tank. What are you going to sheet the larger area with ? I guess cut to fit through trap door ?

you need to reduce water consumption, flow reducers on showers

Shower is mixer type fed by immersion and cold water tank. The cold runs out occasionally.

Just a small DIY job yesterday, but one more step to completing the water feature. I ran a string of solar powered LEDs along the back wall and part of the right boundary wall. They were still going strong at 4am.

The lights on the left wall (shed) have been there a few months and the new ones I think help make it look nicer.

Calahonda52 wrote: »

you need to reduce water consumption, flow reducers on showers

Fine Cheers wrote: »

So if you use a link does it embed the photo so that you see it instantly as opposed to an attachment ?

When you have your attachment added, hold it down, copy it, open the image icon, delete the http:// that’s pre-entered, paste what you copied, save.
Job done.

So where are the Network cables going from here?



in the image above; you can see a double socket on the right side of the kitchen radiator,
the cable feeding to this socket as most usually do; is coming directly down from the ceiling in a straight line.

I purchased an additional wall plate which has a double and singe DIN,



at this point we had the plan that we wanted to create a breakfast bar in this corner of the kitchen, so we searched online for some parts and found ikea had everything we wanted for the remainder of the job,

Ikea Shopping List:

UTBY Leg Item: 201.175.51
https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/utby-leg-stainless-steel-20117551/

EKBACKEN Worktop Item: 004.090.13
https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/ekbacken-worktop-matt-anthracite-laminate-00409013/

FIXA Worktop support fitting Item: 702.746.28
https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/fixa-worktop-support-fitting-galvanised-70274628/

Purchased two of those Picture Ledge above.

MOSSLANDA Picture Ledge Item: 202.917.67
https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/mosslanda-picture-ledge-black-20291767/

Purchased two of those Picture Ledge above.

FIXA 260 Piece Screw & Plug set Item: 001.692.49
https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/fixa-260-piece-screw-and-plug-set-00169249/

PERSILLADE Plant Pot Item: 003.157.26
https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/persillade-plant-pot-dark-grey-00315726/

CHIAFRON Plant Pot Item: 004.833.62
https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/chiafroen-plant-pot-in-outdoor-light-blue-00483362/

FEJKA Artificial Potted Plant Item: 704.668.11
https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/fejka-artificial-potted-plant-in-outdoor-hanging-eucalyptus-70466811/

&

FEJKA Artificial Potted Plant Item: 403.495.31
https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/fejka-artificial-potted-plant-in-outdoor-hanging-40349531/

also
SJALSLIGT Set of 3 Cactus decoration Item: 003.432.82
https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/sjaelsligt-decoration-set-of-3-green-00343282/

Total Ikea Bill excluding delivery was: 148.50 euro

I then measured up the wall to the desired height of the new socket,
used a spirit level to trace the size of the metal wall plate on to the wall, then first used a flat head screwdriver and hammer to trace around the lines in order to gently break through the plater before introducing the big chisel to the block work,
trial fitting the wall plate until it recessed deep enough to complete.



when i met the white plastic conduit inside the wall, i gently cut in to it using a snips; taking very small nips at it to best avoid cutting or damaging the cable contained inside,

when the cable was revealed inside the newly chased out hole; i disconnected the original socket below; and gently pulled this cable up out of the original socket plate in to the new socket plate,

i cut back this length of cable and fitted the new socket, followed by purchasing another length of the same cable to daisy chain from the newly installed socket down to refit the original socket in the wall below it.









Conduit then fitted along with two seven meter pre-terminated CAT7 RJ45 cables the sample pot of Neon red paint was used to mark the areas where cables and pipes are inside the walls to insure no nails are driven when the skirting boards are being fitted after tiling.





Filled all areas with highly recommended Ronseal Big Hole filler, its very light and easy to sand, drys out solid but very easy to sand, then hardens like rock when paint is applied.





on with the painting then painted three walls with Dulux Dapple grey aswell as a bit more sanding where required.



followed by three coats of Fjord green which my wife purchased online from Carlow paint hub; She found them on Instagram, one 3 Litre bucket was sufficient.

Fitted the five port clipsal plate with keystone RJ45 inserts to the living room





The next step was awaiting for the IKEA delivery which landed yesterday, as per shopping list mentioned above.