The construction of our 'man cave' continues...
We started the project in the middle of August and although that makes it sound like a very long time frame to finish off a shed, it's more than just a shed. Most of the work are also almost exclusively done over the weekend only and there were weekend too that we didn't do anything to it at all. Plus, with the ever shortening length of daylight it makes it harder to do anything after work hence weekend becomes the only suitable time.
Enough with the rambling...
The quarantine pond within the shed was mostly built last year but we opted to add a few more blocks later on to make it deeper and hold more water (and more fish). The final layer of blocks was cemented in last weekend. Going back in time, the decking that was on the top patio (where the sun room is now) has been reused and is now the flooring of the shed. When we restarted the project in mid August the framework of the shed went up quickly and was finished in one weekend.
The weekend when the frame went up was an exceptionally dry one as most of that month turned out to be a very wet and rather cool one. To keep us from stopping work and to keep the wood dry we put on tarpaulin. As you can see here a little prodding was needed at times to keep the tarpaulin from caving in with pools of rainwater.
The shanty house look, with tarpaulin on the walls and bubblewrap on the windows...
Work continues over the succeeding weekends with the clear plastic roof (recycled from our old rain shelters) installed on half of the roof and new opaque ones on the rest, towards the back and above where the quarantine pond is. The clear section of the roof and big windows will allow a good amount of light and some heat in whilst the opaque section will minimise or slow down the chance of the pond water going green.
Insulation was then put on to make the shed as heat retentive as possible as it will receive some gentle heating during the winter, plus whatever that may be go in via the clear roof and windows. Good insulation will keep the heating costs down and make the work of the heater more efficient.And the insulation was recycled too. Fortunately one of our neighbours were having some loft conversion done at the same time and had to discard their old insulation, which we collected and re-used on our shed. Fabulous timing as this saved us a lot of expense had if we had to buy them new.
Once all the insulation were in place they were clad with easy clean soffit boards that are in itself insulating as they have air gaps. I like this material: white, insulating, and so easy to clean and maintain!
Soffit boards up (apart from the front section) it was time to tackle the clear areas of the roof and windows by using polycarbonate sheeting. The big air gaps between the outer part and inner polycarbonate cladding will serve as insulation, plus the sheets themselves have heat retentive properties. This should let light in and trap as much warmth from the sun (plus from the heater).
All along though we were receiving guidance and instructions from one of our project managers...
Last of the soffit boards for the walls are up and electric cables have now been threaded in for connection later to the mains as well as installation of the light fittings, plug sockets, fuse, and switches.And finally, for now....
With sunset getting earlier and earlier until the shortest day we often had to put the floodlights on to extend our working time just for a bit. Upon uploading a series of photos on our blog this animated photo came up. I don't know whether picasa or our camera is responsible for this but it's rather cool don't you think so?
So what's next? The door, electrics, finishing touches as well as sorting out the pond itself. Stay tuned!
Mark :-)