Cost of materials

[rfdesigner]

Hi

I now have a BOM, or Bill Of Materials, for my obsy and I'm now looking to try and skim the price down. I've decided to go for a cedar shingle roof, providing a combination of good looks, light weight, longevity, maintainability, and reasonably cost effective. Shiplap will be used for the sides set off the main frame with a cavity, not between posts, thus the frame is protected and the shiplap can be easily replaced should it rot, also means the shiplap can dry from two sides not just one. Lastly floor boards. I'm going for a suspended wooden floor for comfort, but don't want to entertain the idea of chipboard as I know there will be a leak at some point.

Anyway these three items are comming in at about £1300 between them and make up the bulk of the costs, so anything I can do to reduce the costs is worth while.

I can halve the cost of the shiplap going for untreated, but then I'll have to treat it.. so this doens't save as much as it sounds.

So any way of getting treated shiplap, cedar shingles, and floor boards at best prices is what I'm after.

Derek

[Daniel-K]

i dont know were you are but i use MDL timber for my shiplap and materials very cheap and very quick. my obsy cost about £800

[r3i]

Definitely worth checking out several timber merchants as the price varies considerably. I sourced my T&G cladding from a local merchant via the TimberClick site.

[nightvision]

Hi, How big is your design? What's your location?... ahh i see it's Wiltshire.

I have been looking at one of these but can't figure out how to make the roof moveable...

http://www.costco.co.uk/view/product/uk_catalog/cos_9,cos_9.1,cos_9.1.2/140531

Video shows how easy it goes up:

http://www.screwfix.com/jsp/product/videoPopup.jsp?productId=24021&productId=24021

[Gina]

Ooh err - a Lego shed

[JKB]

I bought a 6x12 shed from 'Sheds Direct" for £300 and modded the roof for around £200

Good luck though

Cheers

Jamie

[rfdesigner]

thanks all, some very good suggestions

My obsy will be in a VERY prominent position in the garden. To add to the design problems, we want a nice big shed-come-warm-room and we live in a farily old house. We are semidetached to a grade II listed (and very beautiful) house, and ours is in a complementary style, more or less, although about 100 years younger. We have been asked if ours is listed, but it isn't. I think if it hadn't lost its original beams it would by now be listed.

So we're going for pretty as well as functional, and it needs to be fairly big, sort of double-shed size.

I've decided on cedar-singles for the roof, which despite their good looks and 'poshness' aren't going to cost the earth. The frame can be built for about £200 all in, to a very high standard. It's just the material for the sides that's so out of proportion to the rest of the materials. Generally I'll be paying about 60 to 80pence per kilo for the wood, but the sides are about £1.40 a kilo and I find that very expensive by comparison.

I'm happy that my wood working skills are good enough to do this.

oh and we're planning on 18'x9'.. effectively two 9x9 'sheds' bolted together.

Oh yes.. I've found I can get 'old' 8x4x18mm ply for £12 a sheet. So that will cut the flooring cost right down.

Derek

[michaelmorris]

If your flooring is suitated wholly within the walls (rather than the wall sitting on top of it), I cannot see why it should ever rot. I used Sterling board for my floor, siiting on treated timbers and I've never had a problem with damp.

See the 'construction' section of my observatory website below for pictures.

[nightvision]

Ooh err - a Lego shed

Yeah... that's what I thought but it has a lot of appeal as I've burnt my self out converting a big loft and erecting loads of wooden fencing....

[r3i]

The frame can be built for about £200 all in, to a very high standard. It's just the material for the sides that's so out of proportion to the rest of the materials.

Unfortunately, as I also found out on my build, the cost of the cladding materials is not cheap and is a substantial portion of the overall build cost.

[nightvision]

This looks good value, less than £400 would get you easily enough for your 18'x9'.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shiplap-Timber-Cladding-16x125-550m-field-shelters-stables-sheds-tanalised-/300856972093?pt=UK_BOI_Building_Materials_Supplies_Carpentry_Woodwork_ET&hash=item460c79133d

[rfdesigner]

This looks good value, less than £400 would get you easily enough for your 18'x9'.

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item460c79133d

£300!, yup better..

Where are they?.. Hull.. ah.

260 miles away, don't think they'll deliver for free

[Gina]

The link is showing £478 for me

[r3i]

The link is showing £478 for me

There's various pircing options in the blurb, e.g. £261 for 300m - that's sounds pretty good to me. Blurb also says that this price is for delivery within 150 miles.