There was a welcome break in the weather between Christmas and new year, and we ended up with a couple of sunny days in which some construction work could be done. Happily the two clear days were in succession and coincided with my brother staying over, so we got a lot done. I am eternally … Read more
we continue to enjoy rain and wind of biblical proportions, but I managed to get an hour or two on Saturday to cut the remaining osb splines. Saturday: merely damp The weather forecast looks grim for the near future so I have revised my plans and now will attempt to get the walls and roof … Read more
A surprisingly nice day today and I even saw the sun on a couple of occasions. I had a few more hours to finish the floor, which was good Re. the weather – I do realize the sensible thing to do would be to wait for dry conditions, but this is the only spare time … Read more
cladding I am still umming and erring about cladding, but out of necessity I have concluded already that I can’t afford a posh finish on all 4 sides, so the 2 sides that face the boundaries will be clad in Versapan boards and painted. These boards are cement particle boards that can be used externally … Read more
I finished clearing the site at the weekend and realized – rather belatedly – that: the tree I had planted 7 years ago will be pressed right up to the front of the new building a 3.6×3.6×2.7 meter building is actually pretty big These two things, combined with the pre-existing greenhouse and shed (not visible … Read more
… or why SIPS are a good idea Despite being constructed from flimsy individual components SIPs are very strong. This is because when the two OSB boards are laminated together with the insulating foam core they act like narrow columns – the columns can take the load without twisting and buckling because they are glued … Read more
Structural Insulated Panels – more than you wanted to know – Part I what is a SIP? A SIP is a prefabricated panel consisting of two layers of Oriented Strand Board (OSB) sandwiching a layer of expanded polystyrene or urethane foam. A SIP more on the technical details later – in the mean time: … Read more
For many years I worked as programmer and what I learned was that, although it was generally more enjoyable to leap in and start writing code, it was almost always a bad way to get a good end result. Far better to work out your design first and do the construction later. So I set … Read more
, planningPlanning permission in the UK governs the relationship of a building to its surroundings, including its external appearance, position and size. There follows a brief summary of the rules concerning garden buildings. If you are considering a building in your own back garden please do not assume this is correct – you need to … Read more
