All the Things I Wish I knew Before Building a Summer House
Article WRITTEN by gUEST AUTHOR Peter Brooker
Today I want to share with you my aches and pains of building a summer house. Myself and my girlfriend bought a place in Chiswick last February and it came with a dwelling at the bottom of the garden.
The dwelling was a shell of a building, not much to it at all. There was a shower, a toilet and a boiler, but we wanted to turn it into a working liveable studio. Ideally a guest room for my girlfriend's Mum when she came to stay.
It was a project that has gone wildly over budget, and that's because we made some fundamental errors early doors. It's still ongoing and has become a huge pain in the arse for us.
BEFORE YOU START CONSTRUCTION:
Make sure you assess what the foundations are. Have a survey done, much like you'd have one done on your house itself. If it's built on wood joists, no matter how sturdy it seems, you will encounter no ends of problems. Once rainwater and moisture get into those wood joists and baton timbers, you will get rising damp that no specialist will want to touch.
CHECK: 1
The sewage pump is working. Now this does not mean does the toilet flush ok. We made the mistake of not checking the sump pump, we didn't even know we had one until one of our builders used the toilets and could hear something not right with the plumbing. We excavated some damp soil on the outside, found a sewage drainage tank that was full. I emptied 100litres of foul and now we're looking to get the pump replaced and installed. For the supply and fit we are paying over £1200 and using 0800 HomeFix. So far I cannot review their services as they are arriving next week to fit. But they have been good on the phone, (compared to others) and are competitively priced.
CHECK: 2
The gutters and the roof. This might sound like an easy one, but our contractors only gave it a cursory glance and not a thorough inspection. The roof was not in a good way, the gutters were filled with wildlife and the overflow rain tank was quite beyond repair. All this meant the rainwater had nowhere to go accept down the side of the building, into the walls, into the soil and the result was rising damp.
We used Trust a Trader to find a decent roofer who installed a fibre glass roof, for just over 5k. They're called Top Roofers Ltd, ask for Marius. Don't forget the fascia’s of the roof are also important. Expect to pay 5-800 for those. Also ask for a certificate as that roof should last a life time.
DON'T
Order anything from Wren's Kitchens. Nightmare from start to finish. We ordered a very simple kitchen that they piece-mealed to us because we decided to get our builders to fit it themselves. This truly fucked us as it took so long and the builders were on/off the site depending on whether the parts were going to show up at all. Awful awful service but you get what you pay for I suppose. If you do go to Wren, pay them to install it, as they'll have to install all of it in one go, not over the course of 4 months like ours took.
DO
Get a Infra-red sauna and Steam shower from Vidalux. Truth be told I can't remember the exact price we paid, but if you’re going for both, make sure you ask for a discount. We got a small one, always worth asking.
DO
If you have the opportunity to put a small window in the bathroom of your summer house then do it. Especially if you have a steam shower. We put in an extraction fan but that's only going to do so much. Nothing can beat a little window for getting all the moisture out of the room.
Consequently we are dealing with damp issues and everything else on top because the extraction fan just isn't cutting it. Get a 6x6 inch one also, they are available on Amazon.
DON'T
Order bi-fold doors from these fitters Slide or Fold. Horrible service. They installed the doors, didn't put any magnets between the bi-folds so the weight of the doors when opened will strain the runners over time. They didn't mention anything about trims, so we now have to get some ergonomically made trims for the sides. They gave us an extortionate price for these trims and we told them to fuck off. Also the door didn't lock after they installed it. They had to come back out after we begged them and they blamed the packers moving or some kind of BS.
DON'T
Use WarmUp underfloor heating. The whole floor heats intermittently and it's causing us huge headaches. We have had the floor boards pulled up multiple times and it still doesn't work. The contractors are saying it does (in places), but trust me, I own the fucking thing, I know what underfloor heating is, and this isn't it. DON'T I repeat do not, buy any underfloor heating from WARM UP.
DO
Get a specialist in to install an ethernet cable from your house to the dwelling. I spent a year between SKY and BT trying all sorts of different wireless hubs and routers. None of them work. Plus they don't dig trenches for the cat6 cable or do any kind of extensions. Which is crazy. We are back to square one but I am talking to a specialist team, trying to get an extension connected. Stay tuned, will update you. I'm hoping they will also put an additional intercom in the front gate so we can hear if people are calling us from the dwelling.
ALSO:
We are in the throes of getting the decking done and so far so good. I will update this article with recommendations from our contractors who are doing that once finished. We have also built a French drain around the dwelling so any additional rainfall or moisture has a place to go, outside of the dwelling itself.
DISCLAIMER:
None of the brands are sponsoring this post. Quite the opposite, I am paying through the nose for all the works being done.
Photo by Sonnie Hiles on Unsplash
