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First big build!


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Hi,

 

Just starting our first relatively big build for us. 6m x 5.5m garden room. Done a lot of research over the last year or so and picked up some decent tips along the way. 
 

We have the foundations in, courtesy of no more digging. Due to the location of the site, most other foundation options were not feasible so we went with the ground screws which look to be solid. 

My wife and I will be taking on the rest  of the build apart from the electrical work and covering of the roof. 


So far we have the insulation fitted between the floor joists. We used 100mm PIR for that. This weekend we are looking to lay the floor which will be 22mm Egger flooring. 
 

That’s where we are now but aiming to have the build complete for the Euros kicking off. 
 

Thanks in advance to anyone who will take the time to answer some of my questions along the way. 
 

Cheers,

GRB

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Welcome! That's a big space, I just finished ours at 6x5m but it's split into two separate rooms. At 33m^2, I'm guessing you know you'll need to comply with building regs etc?

 

Any reason you aren't doing the roof yourself? EPDM is incredibly DIY accessible, I did it mostly solo.

 

 

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1 hour ago, oliwoodings said:

Welcome! That's a big space, I just finished ours at 6x5m but it's split into two separate rooms. At 33m^2, I'm guessing you know you'll need to comply with building regs etc?

 

Any reason you aren't doing the roof yourself? EPDM is incredibly DIY accessible, I did it mostly solo.

 

 

Yeah sticking to the regs. 
 

To be honest, im not feeling too confident about putting the roof on myself. I want it to last and I felt getting someone professional to do this would give me a better chance. 

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18 hours ago, GardenRoomBeginner said:

Yeah sticking to the regs. 
 

To be honest, im not feeling too confident about putting the roof on myself. I want it to last and I felt getting someone professional to do this would give me a better chance. 

 

There are some great videos on YouTube of how to do it - honestly it was easy, especially if you don't have any details like upstands, rooflights etc. It's really hard to get it wrong, I found it no more difficult than any of the other jobs in the build.

 

The main mistakes that can be made seem to be:

- doing it when it's too cold for the adhesive

- letting the roof deck get wet before laying the roof - it needs to be bone dry or the water based adhesive won't bond properly

- not letting the perimeter contact adhesive tack-off enough, which can result in little bubbles under the EPDM.

 

None of these will necessarily result in the roof actually failing though - at the end of the day it's a big thick sheet of rubber! Some people don't even bother using contact adhesive, they just loose-lay...

 

I found the hardest part is actually just getting the roll of rubber up onto the roof in the first place!! I ended up building what can only be described as a DIY multi-tiered squat rack up the side of the building and then lifted it up in stages with a length of 2x4 through the roll.

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1 hour ago, oliwoodings said:

I found the hardest part is actually just getting the roll of rubber up onto the roof in the first place!! I ended up building what can only be described as a DIY multi-tiered squat rack up the side of the building and then lifted it up in stages with a length of 2x4 through the roll.

 

+1 to everything you said, but especially this. I did my first (3.8x5.4ish) EPDM roof in Jan, and the sheer weight of the membrane came as a big surprise. I went for the 1.5mm thick stuff and it weighed 46kg. Needed a lie down after getting it up the ladder.

 

I'm pretty much a novice but everything about the flat roof has been easy to do, including the EPDM. It went up in a couple of days and was even... fun?

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Yeah it is heavy. We used a ladder on a bit of a slope with a couple of step ladders on either side and someone to jamb a plank above the ladder rung immediately under the roll. So, two guys on stepladders either side. Sequence was - two step ladder guys lift roll up a few feet. Guy with plank jambs it under roll to hold it. Step ladder guys go up a few feet. Rinse and repeat. Don’t have the slopey ladder stick up too much above the roof otherwise the last lift is more tricky. I like epdm a lot.

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