# I have been a busy little bee!



## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

As part of our extension project, we got the builders to do our back garden as well, it was much more cost effective whilst the heavy machinery was on site, and they were able to just demolish everything (over 80 tonnes of spoil came out for the extension and the garden!)

One of the things I asked for was a concrete base at the bottom of the garden, with a single course of blocks as I was planning a BBQ/Outdoor seating area.

This is what I was left with (7m x 3m):









I spent literally months drawing and redrawing plans and going down various rabbit holes as I was working with a very tight budget to do this, and the timber prices made me cry every time I looked!
Finally, during September, the prices started to fall, and by the time the October price lists came out, it had dropped to a point I was comfortable with.
£1300 to a local timber merchant secured this glorious pile which was delivered last Thursday afternoon. The price for the project was actually £1200, but I had a load of CLS in there for another project in the house.









The big beam is 6m long the next pile is 4.8m for scale!

After lots of grunting and swearing, 3 of us managed to move all the timber through the house to the back garden. Luckily I had planned ahead, and we could go straight through the old kitchen and out the window at the back. This is the main reason I didn't crack on and gut the old kitchen to turn it into an office and downstairs toilet, as it gave me a direct route to the back garden for the timber for this project. It did make the wife grumpy though, as she wanted all of that done sooner, but it was worth it as I think we would have probably damaged the door frames from the garage / utility / new kitchen getting it all through.

As the timber wasn't delivered until 2pm, by the time we had got it all moved, I only had a couple of hours of daylight left, but I managed to get started. I had booked Thursday and Friday off work to get a lot of work done!









Unfortunately, Friday was a washout here, and I had to delay my start on Saturday for everything to dry out as I didn't want to get my new chopsaw wet 
Managed to get the side walls rough framed and the big beam in on Saturday though, blimey that was heavy. I swear I nearly let out a bit of poo lifting it into place solo (for an idea, the beam is 50x250mm x 6m long)

















On Sunday, I made good progress, got all the noggins in on the side walls, and the rear wall rough framed.

















As the weather forecast for this weekend wasn't looking good, I managed to book Tuesday afternoon off as well - the weather here was fabulous for the time of year.
I got the rear wall all framed in, and a load of the roof joists in place.

























Hopefully this weekend I will get all the roof purlins cut in, and all the wedges smacked in in place of birds mouths on the joists - they would have been only 7mm deep, and my chippie mate said wedges and glue instead of such small birds mouths!

Once the roof is completely framed, I can order the corrugated steel sheet that I am using to clad everything, I wasn't confident enough to order based on my plans, but so far, everything has fell smack on to where I wanted it, so I am rather proud of myself.

On reflection though, I wish I had seen the video I watched the other night of a massive outdoor workshop being built over in the USA before I started, as they framed the wall structure in a much more efficient manner than loads of noggins!

Quite proud of myself so far, as I am only a DIY person. A big shout out has to go to the timber merchant though, for my incessant, probably stupid questions during the ordering process


----------



## Soul boy 68 (Sep 8, 2013)

Looking fantastic, It'll look quite special once It's finished.


----------



## RS3 (Mar 5, 2018)

When's the grand opening? looks like a good stage for a band in there - you gonna have a do?.


----------



## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

RS3 said:


> When's the grand opening? looks like a good stage for a band in there - you gonna have a do?.


I did float the idea to SWMBO about fitting a disco light bar, but that got a big frown


----------



## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2021)

Great job fella...I did a similar years back but 50x250mm x 5m..on my shed never ever ever again...enjoy....how you cladding it.....enjoy


----------



## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

[email protected] said:


> Great job fella...I did a similar years back but 50x250mm x 5m..on my shed never ever ever again...enjoy....how you cladding it.....enjoy


Planning on corrugated steel from Cladco, seems to be the most cost effective.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## vsideboy (Sep 1, 2006)

Nice one mate, bet that 6m piece was fun getting through the house haha


----------



## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

vsideboy said:


> Nice one mate, bet that 6m piece was fun getting through the house haha


Yes it was indeed fun. There was a fine array of Anglo-Saxon language in use


----------



## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Bit more progress this weekend...
Got all the front and back purlins in.

























As the weather was nice yesterday, I took the afternoon off work to carry on with the roof.
I managed to get all except 6 purlins fitted before I ran out of screws!


----------



## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Forgot to update with last weekends progress, unfortunately didn't get anything done on the weekend just gone as the weather was absolutely dog.

Got the end trims in for the roof, and the finished the end wall framing below the roofline.









I cried at the wife that I (still) don't have a cross line laser (which got ignored), so the old fashioned trusty string line had to come out again to trim the rafter ends off vertical and straight.
I cried and swore even more when I realised that the new 24 tooth Freud blade that I bought for my mains powered circular saw was infact a narrow kerf version which wouldn't work as the riving knife on my saw was considerably thicker than the kerf on the blade. I discovered this of course after I had fitted the blade and tried cutting with it which meant I couldn't take it back. Thats £25 wasted.









Lets hope that the currently forecast reasonably fine weather for the upcoming weekend actually comes, as I should be able to get the membrane on ready for the cladding.


----------



## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

So this weekend, I got all the purlins in to support the fascias, and blew threw one roll of breather membrane before I ran out of that (and staples at the same time)
I wish I had my compressor after banging in all those staples, air stapler is the right way


----------



## vsideboy (Sep 1, 2006)

2 things pal.

1. Your blade ending up thinner than the riving knife did make me laugh, sorry but very funny, to be fair my ryobi circular saw doesn't even have a riving knife and I've never had a problem with it (just make sure you're always to the side of it)
2. Staple wise, tell me about it pal, I've just finished making some bench seats in my home bar and 4 bases and 2 backs later I reckon I used at least 1000 staples, on a hand stapler that failed every 5 or 6 staples - nightmare and I've meant to throw that stapler away several times over its lifetime. Got finished and decided to buy a new hand stapler from Aldi to fasten velcro to everything and I 100% wish I'd bought the new one before starting the whole thing, chalk and cheese the difference in reliability!


----------



## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

vsideboy said:


> 2 things pal.
> 
> 1. Your blade ending up thinner than the riving knife did make me laugh, sorry but very funny, to be fair my ryobi circular saw doesn't even have a riving knife and I've never had a problem with it (just make sure you're always to the side of it)
> 2. Staple wise, tell me about it pal, I've just finished making some bench seats in my home bar and 4 bases and 2 backs later I reckon I used at least 1000 staples, on a hand stapler that failed every 5 or 6 staples - nightmare and I've meant to throw that stapler away several times over its lifetime. Got finished and decided to buy a new hand stapler from Aldi to fasten velcro to everything and I 100% wish I'd bought the new one before starting the whole thing, chalk and cheese the difference in reliability!


Mate, I looked like a fiddler crab, big right hand and normal left hand after all those staples, bet everyone thought I had been bashing one out for England


----------

