[Closed] Wall construction for garden studio / man cave?

Wood is good at avoiding cold bridging.

You can put the celotex outside the constructed walls then clad that. It's a better solution for the roof, creating a 'warm deck'. You can do the same on the walls (although as wrighty says, it's not a huge deal). Getting it air tight with controlled ventilation will make a bigger difference, which is easier with external insulation. With celotex between the studs you do need to get the ventilation right

Getting it air tight with controlled ventilation will make a bigger difference, which is easier with external insulation. With celotex between the studs you do need to get the ventilation right

Can you elaborate where and what type of ventilation you would go for. Obviously, a stud wall is not ventilated and with a flat roof structure sitting oi top there is no cavity breathing up into said roof space?

Make sure you put a poly vapour barrier on the inside of the walls. This is especially important if you put rigid insulation on the outside of the studs.

Also, make sure you seal all points where the vapour barrier is punctured I.e. wall fixings.

Have a look at the guide for “shed” building in the link below (you may need to sign up/in to see the pictures), it’s pretty thorough and well regarded.

If you’re after a variant that doesn’t need any proper foundations there is another sticky thread in the same forum page that should be more useful (2nd link).

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/build-a-shed-mike-s-way-t39389.html

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/build-a-shed-mike-s-way-without-concrete-t111965.html

One area where my shed/pub suffers is condensation on the floor. I had it made and delivered as I was getting the usual "builder never gets anything done at home" comments and I couldn't insulate the floor without raising it. It will condense under the sofa if there is a lot of us in there with the heating on, so I purchased a dehumidifier to combat this.

If it for drums and you want to remain friendly with your neighbours and family you’ll need to do some proper soundproofing and ventilation otherwise it’s just half a job and you’ll end up regretting it. My work colleague built a studio in his garden with wooden construction and it’s incredible- wanted to do it myself til he went through the costs and what went into it! You really need to build a 2nd interior wall and floor lined with rockwool insulation to decouple the exterior walls, put in double windows and doors etc. Even then there’s still a bit of sound leaking at his place, but I’m still super jealous of it!

I built my shed out of sips panels.
Strong and fully insulated with no worries about cold bridging.

bookmarking as interested for a future project

If you have neighbours you might want to think about using a heavier weight insulation which will give sound insulation as well as thermal insulation if you are intending playing your drums in there.

I dont know what cold bridging is (or "contemporary" in this context) but I built one last year using a similar method and its still up....

Summer House

Thanks all. I'll have a peruse of the links you mention and the take the points on board.

Make sure you put a poly vapour barrier on the inside of the walls. This is especially important if you put rigid insulation on the outside of the studs.

I thought you weren't supposed to do that with rigid insulation. Most foam is either faced, or is thick enough to be as impermeable as a vapour barrier. If you put one on the inside and one on the outside, the wall can't breath.

This is a great book - normally recommended on the uk workshop threads:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/185486131X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_TP2EDbYA8KBAV