New project

Over the winter my dad has been helping me build a covered seating area which has been joined onto an exisiting garden building.

The following photos progess the work so far.

How it was


The initial posts which will hold everything up.


Building a deck frame.


Deck all down


Starting work on the roof.


Roof frame.


Boarded out the roof ready for felt.


Weatherboard on the front.


Lights installed and power connected.


Ballustrade in place.


I still need to complete the painting and add some finishing touches. There will then be a small planting area in front which has yet to be started.

 

Great job there.

But I was looking at the base in the first photos, it looks like you've made it out of softwood. Or was it treated? I'm not trying to be critical, my concerns would be the chance of it rotting from the bottom up.

My 24 year old tea-house supports are made entirely of softwood but I gave the joists a good coat of Cuprinol before I put in the floor and I set the parts of the joists that touch the supports (low brick piers each sitting on half a paving slab) on bits of roofing felt. Good job I did, as my two jukeboxes weigh between them over 600lb, all of it against the back wall. I don't suppose yours will have to take such a weight.
I put the longivity of mine down to the fact that I've got good air circulation below the floor and I give it an occasional re-spray under there every few years with Cuprinol in a garden pressure spray.

Digressing,

On the subject of electrical connections, the supply to my tea-house is via a cable threaded through an alkathene pipe buried six inches down in a border, close to the perimeter fence. I can isolate it from a breaker in my shed. There's little chance of the cable getting damaged. I'd recommend anyone considering a similar project to use this method rather than stringing a cable between the house and a garden building as I've seen some do.

 

The frame is all from treated softwood, raised up and sitting on brick or old paving slabs.

Its not clear in the pictures but the area had been a patio at some point in the gardens past, so most of the structure has a paved base underneath. Guttering on both sides takes rain water away (unfortunately no space for water butts).

The electrical supply was already in place, burried armoured cable direct from the house fuse box, on its own supply, fed into a fuse box in the building itself, so fortunately no messing about with electrics.

 

Ah! I understand.

I didn't want to mention it but I couldn't see the slabs, I was a bit concerned as I thought you were using just single brick supports on bare earth, as it is that's all it needs.

 

Just what i was going to say JWK :thmb: It looks great Gaz, in fact im Jealous, our shed has a flat roof I wonder if we could compromise, Hmmmm..

 

The area has come along well this year and filled out quite nicely. Really feels like a place to relax with a nice drink - although maybe not in November!


A few more pics of the garden from this summer are [url="http://gardenjot.com/garden/view/2199/Alternative-Eden] Here [/url]

 

T.G. your link is slightly FooBar'd ! (few too many "http" bits on the front)

 

Oops sorry Kristen, think i worked it out now!

Try this

 

Looking good Gaz!