Garden Office Pt 4 — Decoration, Decking & Cladding

This is the fourth post in a series about the design and construction of my garden office. You can read part three here.

Painting

After 5 months of building, it was finally time to start on the interior decoration.

Before applying the top coat, we primed the wall. We watered down the first coating of primer so that it would soak into the platerboard rather thatn just stick to it. I chose a dark greeny-grey colour for the top coat.

Floor

I chose a grey herringbone laminate flooring for the office. I'm happy with the result but the installation was somewhat challenging. With herringbone, small errors compound resulting in gaps. I was very aware of this and took great care when connecting each piece. However, somewhere an error crept in. Either a mistake by me or a manufacturing defect, but as I got towards the end some small gaps had formed. It was frustrating as I couldn't revert back, nor could I even tell where the error started. In the end, the gaps are pretty small and only I will notice them, but I would think twice before choosing herringbone again.

Once the flooring was complete I installed scotia beading around the perimeter to cover the flooring expansion gap. I used a mitre block in alternating orientations to cut the 45° inner/outer corner joins.

In the utility I laid some cheap vinyl.

Deck

We built a deck out the front to provide an additional seating area in the garden and a solid entrance into the office. To avoid water pooling under the fence and building foundations we extended the drainpipe under the decking to the other side of the garden.

Cladding

Finally the cladding arrived, I bought British Cedar, and it was time to install it! 🎉

Before getting started with the cladding, we had to install the batten to allow for airflow and expansion. If you remember in part two, the rear cladding was installed horizontally which meant we installed a single layer of vertical battening. However, the front cladding is oriented vertically which meant we had to install two layers of battening, one vertical and one horizontal. Installing only horizontal battening would have prevented vertical airflow behind the cladding.

We used brad nails to attach the cladding to the batten. For the most part the nails are concealed inside the tongue and groove join so they are not visible.

When purchasing cladding, or similar materials, it is highly likely that the material will be supplied in lengths longer, or shorter, than you require. To avoid large amounts of wasteage, you need to cut and combine lengths.

We used a domino joining machine to cut high precision holes in the ends of boards, then joined them by glueing bespoke dowels.

Finally, we applied some clear weather protection.

And that's it, the project was almost done, pending one more visit from the electrician to install the exterior lights and sockets.

In the next, and final post, I will wrap up the project.