Garden Cinema Room

Koipin

Established Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2020
Messages
436
Reaction score
108
Points
106
Age
52
Location
Wales
My Garden is something akin to the south face of Everest, but had originally a summer house and patioed area with a barbecue when I moved in 20 years ago. Over the years, it fell to wrack and ruin. I gave the summerhouse to my brother to keep his ducks and chickens in and it quickly became overgrown.
I've started renovating it with the intention of putting a modest Home Cinema room there.
I'll use this thread to document my progress, or lack thereof.
 
So...here goes. Firstly, let me say that a lot of the stuff I'm going to post here is in retrospect - I'm a bit further on than it may first appear, but I'm trying to document the project as best I can.
The space at the top of the garden is approx 6mtrs wide by 3.2 deep. The intention is to clear out the mess that has been created/left there and abandoned over the years and have a relatively blank canvas.
As you can see from below it has a) become an absolute mess and b) has limited access to the front and back.
You can see my house in the pictures and the level at the top is just about the same as the soffit of the house. As I said before, steep.




20190702_184446.jpg
20190702_184445.jpg
20190702_184443.jpg
20190702_184442.jpg
20190702_184446.jpg20190702_184445.jpg20190702_184443.jpg20190702_184442.jpg20190702_184439.jpg
 
Believe it or not, there is a patio underneath the piles of earth and rock. Step 1 was to handball all of the mess to some common land at the back of the house, very much in the same manner as getting rid of dirt on the Great Escape. Casually dumping bucket by bucket...
 
Here's a video so you can get a better understanding of the location - .
Pretty good views, which was the selling point of buying the place...but moving furniture or anything else becomes a chore.
 
You'd be surprised how much material there is when you cut down overgrown evergreen trees.
These prevented access to the rear of the property so had to be trimmed back significantly.
I ended up getting rid of them in the end completely. More pictures of the mess below.
Note there are roots growing under the dwarf wall and have raised it. That also needs to go.



IMG_2393.JPG
IMG_2394.JPG
IMG_2396.JPG
IMG_2397.JPG
IMG_2395.JPG
IMG_2398.JPG
 
Thanks I'm following this now with interest. I'm putting a room in the rear garden next year of a similar size. Luckly I don't have anything to move or clear.

Thanks for posting looking forward to the updates
 
A few more pictures, of the clearing process progressing. Buckets after buckets of earth, weeds stone moved by hand to the top. Good Exercise but worth it to see the difference.
The brick barbecue and dwarf wall were on the hit list too....

20190707_145922.jpg
20190707_145924.jpg
20190707_145927.jpg
20190707_145925.jpg
20190707_145929.jpg
 
The original drawing for the room. A modest size with the intention of it being located to the one side of the space. Entry would be to the left side with a door leading to the very top of the garden at the rear. A small but adequate storage room would contain my AV rack and media. Long narrow windows were the designed with the intention of fitting blanks to them to provide total darkness.
A low ceiling height of about 2.2 mtrs was because of permitted development rights of 2.4 mtrs overall. The roof and base would bring the overall height to 2.4mtrs.





2020-10-15 08_41_04-Window.png
 
Another issue is the bank of earth (where I was stood taking most of the pictures. The original bank was retained with timber posts and rails, which had long since rotted away. I was going to have to do something to stop the whole lot dropping against the room and either damaging the panels or causing rot over time. If I was to dig out the lower stepped section below, I'd have enough space to put concrete posts down and create a gravelboard wall about 4ft high...


JM1.jpg
 
To get you more up to date, i went through a number of different configuration before deciding on what to go with.
I came up with the design below - making more use of the space, with a porch area. Ideal for getting wet shoes off! This design would go to the left side (looking towards the back, so access to the rear would be around the right side.
Due to the location and lack of access, I decided to make the structure as a kit of pre-made parts.
More photos to come.

2020-10-16 11_39_44-Window.png
 
I do a bit of CAD and other disciplines so I did a few mock ups of what I was planning.
Pics below...
2020-10-17 09_02_49-Up Top-JasonPC.skp - SketchUp Pro 2020.png


This shows the wall behind, retained with steels and sleepers. I didn't expect there to be much movement in the bank of (what I thought was) earth but safety first. The room itself was stud frames in 100 x 50 with rockwool insulation. The base was 150mm frame with joists, studs and more rockwool.
The timber step was a mistake - it will just get wet in the rain and eventually rot away. The roof was a warm roof construction, so joists, OSB, membrane, Insulation, Ply and then rubber sheet on top.
The cladding is Cedral (pricey stuff) but drawing it costs nothing :)


2020-10-17 09_11_42-Up Top-JasonPC.skp - SketchUp Pro 2020.png


My ricketty fence at the top of the garden blew down in a storm and had been held in place with chicken wire for ages. I'd planned to put a simple gravelboard fence in place.
There was no need for a gate anymore - In fact I didn't really want to encourage access from the rear anyway. I know from previous experience that the other side of the fence becomes quickly overgrown and a gate would be pointless.
 
Might be an idea to have the door enter into the porch way area. It will make things easier when it comes to planning where your equipment goes internally.

with the door where it is at the moment, it’s either going to enter near where your seats are or right where you would place one of your LCR speakers.

In terms of cladding, look for cement board - I used hardiplank on mine, 3 years later it still looks brand new with no maintenance. It’s a great investment with 50+ years life expected.

This is the only recent picture I have on my phone, but this is just over 3 years old:

96F9519D-DE32-4D8A-AF36-A90F54259E43.jpeg
 
I ordered the kit for the panels based on my design up above. Obviously not being an expert in this field, the manufacturer came back with alterations.
The panels would be 140mm stud, not 100mm and the design was changed to provide a lot more "commons". These were 1200mm wide by 2375 high. I had initially asked for 2250mm because of permitted development but as it was dug out of a bank, I was well within the height restriction.
The kit was ready in a matter of weeks but in August 2019 everything fell apart - my dad died, mum got ill, strain on my relationship and pressure of work. The garden project was not very high on my list of priorities and everything went on hold.
 
Sorry to hear mate, sound like you had a rough time, 2020 hasn’t been great either.......

you’ll be glad on the extra internal height when you’re finished. Permitted development is taken from the highest part of the surrounding area, so my building is actually around 2.7m high at the front but the rear of my garden is 20cm higher, so my building lies underground a bit at the back, but this is fine for development rules.
 
So, zoom forward to early 2020. I'm in a position to put some more effort into the project.
The top of the garden has become overgrown again - While it's not back to square one, its a step backward. A bit of graft required...
20200706_210414.jpg



I had a renewed sense of purpose on the project now and was keen to get things moving.
I'd spoken to my work (I'm in Construction) about digging the bank out with a JCB - Just about doable but my Health & Safety sub-conscious thought it had disaster written all over it. A hand dig was the way forward and after a couple of weeks, there was progress.
20200706_210503.jpg


20200720_180710.jpg
20200723_182237(0).jpg
20200723_182239.jpg
20200723_182254.jpg


What I would say on this is that it is surprising just how much rock comes out when you do a dig.
The bank that I thought was earth, was actually mostly rock and every cubic meter that comes out ends up taking up over twice that when it's loose. A lot of handballing to shift it from there to the top of the common.
You may notice I've taken a bit more of the bank away than I had first planned - I wanted to get access to the rear and I planned to put a water butt in the space to collect the water off the gutter.
A solid week of digging and things were ready for some steelwork.
We had spare RSJs at work and they found a home...
20200729_173034.jpg

20200729_173045.jpg


Each RSJ needed to go in about 3 ft into the ground. Soul destroying work as scooping shale out of a hole isn't the easiest of things
20200729_173125.jpg
20200730_183707.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20200706_210503.jpg
    20200706_210503.jpg
    419.3 KB · Views: 41
Sorry to hear mate, sound like you had a rough time, 2020 hasn’t been great either.......

you’ll be glad on the extra internal height when you’re finished. Permitted development is taken from the highest part of the surrounding area, so my building is actually around 2.7m high at the front but the rear of my garden is 20cm higher, so my building lies underground a bit at the back, but this is fine for development rules.

Thank you mate. Things are much better now :)
Yes, totally agree on the Permitted development thing. I started the design very cautiously but pushed the boundaries as the design progressed.
There are 2 things I had to consider - Planning permission, which would be fine under PD but I also have to consider Building Control as I am building tight to my neighbour's property. There needs to be a decent firebreak in place. Cement board is a good way of achieving this, and as you said, is worth the outlay.
 
Planning permission, which would be fine under PD but I also have to consider Building Control as I am building tight to my neighbour's property. There needs to be a decent firebreak in place. Cement board is a good way of achieving this, and as you said, is worth the outlay.

yeah, it is a good way of achieving this, I had the same issue.

I also used fireproof fibreglass roof and built in automatic IT fire extinguishers into my equipment rack. A bit OTT, but ticks the boxes and safe in the knowledge if anything happened without me in the room, the majority of my equipment would be safe.
 
A quick update. With the steels in position, I got a load of used railway sleepers and had them put in between the RSJs. A layer of terram on the inside would keep everything in place, as well as stopping weeds coming through.
 
20200803_205206 (1).jpg
20200803_205207.jpg
20200803_205208.jpg
20200803_205225.jpg


That extra bit of space made me have a rethink on the design. Well, rethink to a point - the kit was already manufactured. The short stubby steel on the right wasn't on my plans either but the guys put it in to help support steps in the future.
Next up was that fence at the back...
 
20200804_180545.jpg


Nice and simple, although a bit of symmetry would have been nice.
I am considering making a hinge system for one of the smaller panels so it looks like a fence panel but actually opens.
Next up is slabs for the base...
 
A quick update on the slabs. Basically I tried to set them low at the back as I knew there was a slight slope from back to front, which is fine for drainage.
I also realised once the slabs were down that the access into the room was going to be hampered by the bush in front of it.
Far from ideal so I was going to have to go back to the drawing board.



q1.jpg
q6.jpg
q7.jpg
q5.jpg
q4.jpg
 
The idea was to use the open space in the bottom picture to be able to walk around the room to gain access to the very top of the garden but I had a change of approach once I saw the issue with the entrance. The original design below wasn't going to work
1605263302527.png


So I decide to take advantage of the space and came up with this...

1605263365708.png


A bit of rejigging of the existing kit and a few extra panels required but A much more sizeable room than before.
 
We had spare RSJs at work and they found a home...
View attachment 1383013
Is that just because you had them and it seemed like a good idea, or did you have to put them in? Because aren't they supposed to be galvanized if they're in the ground?

Each RSJ needed to go in about 3 ft into the ground. Soul destroying work as scooping shale out of a hole isn't the easiest of things
I can imagine.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom