ALI DYMOCK

Ali: Hi Adam, thank you for sending your build in!

Tell me, what was your motivation for building your own garden room and what was the intended use?

Adam: One of my hobbies is making and painting Warhammer figures and wargaming terrain. I also paint (on canvas) occasionally. In my old flat I had a spare room dedicated to hobby activities and storage but when we moved house I lost that space. 

So the project was basically to reclaim the man cave – in our house it’s always the ‘man cave’, or simply ‘the shed’, never a garden room. Other than that, it was an interesting challenge to build something like this myself.

Ali: So clearly you’re a deft hand at painting, did you have any experience in carpentry or other trades prior to the build?

Adam: Well, I’ve grown up around tools and have a very DIY inclined family. At uni I used to take great pride in making my own stretcher frames for canvas and I’ve built a few simple projects like shelves and garden planters. I think it helps immensely if you are comfortable with power tools and numerate enough to plan dimensions, but beyond that, if you do your research, then you don’t actually need trade experience!

Ali: I agree!

So yours is on the smaller side as garden rooms go, were you restricted by space or was that enough space for your Warhammer hobby and storage?

Adam: Very much the latter – Whilst I live in central London, an area not famed for large gardens, at 7′ x 7’5″ it is spacious enough for what I need, with a storage area, workbench and a big desk. 

But if I had more space available, I’d have built bigger and come up with more uses! For example, it would be amazing to have a space to actually play wargames which would require an 8′ x 10′ space all of its own.

Ali: Was there a particular part of the build that you found most daunting or difficult to do?

Definitely putting insulation boards in. Not difficult as such, but SO tedious – to the point that I procrastinated so much that it probably extended the build by a month! I made it worse on myself by not being terribly accurate with my stud spacing, so I couldn’t cut all the boards to a uniform width in advance. Also I sourced my boards second hand and couldn’t get anything 50-60,mm thick, so I ended up having to double layer 25mm boards which doubled the time. I was very glad when the final board was pushed into place!

Ali: Haha, I’ve just finished doing all my wall insulation, I won’t miss that stage! Regarding using two 25mm boards together, I’ve read that having a double thick aluminium foil in the middle actually helps with radiating heat back inwards! 🙂

Did you make any big mistakes?

Yes – one that I will have to go back and fix soon. I didn’t install my cladding panels close enough together as I didn’t believe how much they they would shrink over time! Within a few months, the panels were obviously coming apart and one or two of the tongues have even popped out of the corresponding grooves. Now they have seasoned, I reckon I could pack in about 10% more!

Ali: That’s a good issue to raise. I wonder whether letting them season first would have helped – duly noted!

Did you have a budget and how much did you end up spending?

Adam: It was more about the learning experience than cost, so I didn’t have a particular budget in mind, nor did I track my expenses very closely! I know for a fact that it’s been significantly less than the cost of an ‘off-the-shelf’ room. If I had to guess I’d say about £3k though that’s probably desperately underestimated! I reckon a pre-made one would have been £7k+.

Ali: Sounds like a minimum 50% saving to me!

What skills have you learnt and will you be putting them to good use around the house?!

Ha! I don’t think my wife would let me tackle the house! It’s a good question; I’m not sure any of these skills have much practical application do they? Laying laminate flooring perhaps? That’s not really a skill is it?-you just follow the instruction on the packet!

Ali: Haha, that’s definitely a skill. So many many people pay for floor fitters!

So would you do anything differently?

Loads. Apart from the aforementioned cladding and stud spacing issues, the list grows almost every time I’m in the cave. The main ones are 1) install more wall sockets (you can never have too much power). 2) Buy a wider door (I wanted to conserve wall space to hang tools but I have struggled to get in there with big boxes) 3) Do something cool like building a flush secret compartment into a wall!

Ali: I’m with you on the door and sockets! I nearly built a shelf in the stud wall in the shower but decided to keep it simple and go without, hope I don’t regret that!

Last couple of questions – what advice do you have for anyone planning on building theirs?

Adam: Watch your videos! Also, obviously do the planning, but don’t allow the planning to get in the way of actually starting. You can’t plan everything and what’s more, you’re working with wood – it’s not a perfect material, it will have defects and be twisted and not behave as you expect. But on the flip-side, you can always adapt your design, add bits, take away stuff, bodge or brute force your way to the desired outcome. Basically I’m an advocate of just diving in at some point and learning as you go!

Ali: Absolutely. I think that’s called analysis paralysis. It’s best to plan as much as you can but make sure you pull the trigger! On timber, I had one floor joist that was so twisted and cupped I didn’t know what to do with it so I clamped it in place and screwed it to another every foot or so and it’s behaved ever since!

Thanks Adam, there’s a lot of valuable information here. Where can people find out more about your build?

Adam: Pleasure! Sure, I documented the build in quite a lot of detail on my hobby blog here.