Make an old Brick Built External Office Room Usable
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:36 am
Hi everyone,
Apologies in advance for the long post! I'm looking for some renovation guidance please...I've got a single brick built room in the back garden directly behind (and attached to) our single brick built garage building which is linked to the house. This room has a flat felt roof and fairly large window and was used by the previous owner as an office.
Since we moved to the house 3 years ago we've not touched this office room and the house was empty for at least a year before we bought it. I'm not sure when the office was last properly used but safe to say it's been many years.
In around 12-18 months I plan to do a proper conversion of both the garage building and this office building so that we can integrate them into our ground floor space but for now, I just want to make the office room usable again so I can put a treadmill and a few other bits and pieces in there. And I'd like to do that with minimal cost. I'm hoping I can get some validation of how I plan to do that.
On the inside, the room has old style PVC panelling on the walls and ceiling which looks in good condition. The floor is concrete with carpet placed on top of the concrete to create a floor. The window seems quite old although it might still be OK to keep the room sealed. The room is accessed from the garden via an old wooden door.
At the moment, it is covered in spider webs and also smells a bit of damp. I plan to do the following:
Other than that, I'm guessing I'll be OK putting the gym flooring in as a temporary cheap solution?
The damp smell should *hopefully* go once I seal the door and window properly?
Any help would be appreciated!
Apologies in advance for the long post! I'm looking for some renovation guidance please...I've got a single brick built room in the back garden directly behind (and attached to) our single brick built garage building which is linked to the house. This room has a flat felt roof and fairly large window and was used by the previous owner as an office.
Since we moved to the house 3 years ago we've not touched this office room and the house was empty for at least a year before we bought it. I'm not sure when the office was last properly used but safe to say it's been many years.
In around 12-18 months I plan to do a proper conversion of both the garage building and this office building so that we can integrate them into our ground floor space but for now, I just want to make the office room usable again so I can put a treadmill and a few other bits and pieces in there. And I'd like to do that with minimal cost. I'm hoping I can get some validation of how I plan to do that.
On the inside, the room has old style PVC panelling on the walls and ceiling which looks in good condition. The floor is concrete with carpet placed on top of the concrete to create a floor. The window seems quite old although it might still be OK to keep the room sealed. The room is accessed from the garden via an old wooden door.
At the moment, it is covered in spider webs and also smells a bit of damp. I plan to do the following:
- > To kill off spiders, bugs etc. living in there I'll use some smoke bombs from Amazon which seem to have decent reviews of getting the job done unless you have a full-on infestation which requires professional help. I don't believe there is an infestation at this stage.
> Wipe clean the PVC panelling on the walls and ceiling
> Remove the carpet and all old furniture in there
> Have an electrician get mains power to it for lighting and plug sockets
> Replace the old wooden door with a new one. To ensure it is sealed, I will get some rubber seal to put around the inner frame to make it air tight when closed and maybe also a weather board?
> Put some gym flooring on top of the concrete floor
> Clean up the window and check it's properly secure and sealed.
Other than that, I'm guessing I'll be OK putting the gym flooring in as a temporary cheap solution?
The damp smell should *hopefully* go once I seal the door and window properly?
Any help would be appreciated!