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Garden Snooker Room

Postby Mekiz79

Hello all,

I am new here, and wanted to ask for some advice as I am finally in a position and lucky enough to be able to fulfill my dream of owning a full size snooker table.

However, before I can own one, I need somewhere to put it. We have a generous sized garden and I am thinking of having a 6m x 8m summer house built at the end of the garden. I was hoping that some people on here may have some knowledge of construction and can assist with some questions I have, mostly regarding the foundations/base.

I've found a local company that will build a timber framed 6m x 8m building. He's given various option for the base, but I wanted to get opinions on what others suggest. I've asked for the concrete base to be insulated as I want it to be useable all year round.

He has suggested a 300mm steel re-inforced concrete base, insulation then a screed. I've done a bit of research and I'm not sure a 75 to 100mm screed on top of insulation will be upto the task of supporting the weight of a 1200kg snooker table, is it likely to crack and break up?

Alternatively, he has suggested the option of a concrete slab, with insulation then an 18mm OSB. I personally think the OSB will move around and not be strong enough.

From my research on google about concrete bases, I was thinking this option...hard-core, sand blinding, dpm, insulation, dpm and then 200mm steel reinforced concrete slab. With the insulation being a high compression load bearing type.

Any thoughts, suggestions or opinions as to what the best base will be. I have read on Riley's website that it is a bit of a myth about floors needing to be reinforced (unless on an upper floor for example).

I know that garages don't need to have a thick slab in order for them to take the weight of a car, but at the same time most garages aren't insulated, so this is where I am a little unsure. Don't want to spend all this money and then the base crumbles a few years later!

Thanks in advance.

Mekiz

Re: Garden Snooker Room

Postby rekoons

Hi,
Welcome and just my 2 cents:

I would say a 30cm concrete base is overkill, unless you’re in an earthquake zone or if it freezes deep down in the ground at your location. The timber frame shed weighs next to nothing compared with a brick build.
I also went with a timber frame shed and a have simple 20cm concrete slab with rebar, no cracks 1,5 years later, a snooker table’s weight is nicely divided through it’s 8 legs, the concrete doesn’t even notice there’s a table on top.

Over the bare concrete I simply put floor tiles and that(s what the table stand on. Concrete is not cheap.
I decided not to insulate the floor after a lot of thought, as this makes the base construction more complicated which means more costly, also insulation is not cheap and I already insulated the walls + the roof somewhat, so I could live with not insulating the floor. After all it’s a timber shed in the garden to play snooker in.

It’s a little chilly for comfort when we had a week of non stop day and night frost up to minus 12°C at night last month (which is the extreme for us) but an extra layer of clothes solves this. During summer Chernobyl heat waves it stays pretty comfortable inside quite long, and a simple fan gives enough cooling for me.

How are you going to heat the place? Have you thought about a thick enough cable for electric heating?

Hope this can be of some help.

Re: Garden Snooker Room

Postby Mekiz79

Hey Rekoons, thanks for your reply. Yeah this all makes sense, I guess I got a little paranoid about the weight of the table. Hadn't really given too much thought about heat, probably just use the 2kw electric log burner thing that we have sitting around. Maybe I will need 2 of them for that size of room. ​

The builder is going to do a proper job though, so it will be more than a shed, more like a solid summer house. It'll be plastered inside, cladded outside, internally will have 5 plug sockets, full ceiling spot lights and lights for the table too. Bi-fold doors on two sides, so it's why alot of thought has gone into whether or not to add the insulation.

I live in Essex, England. Checking out some soil map thing it says my soil here is "Lime-rich loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage", so I'm not sure if that will make any difference to what type of base I should go for?

Re: Garden Snooker Room

Postby Running side

If you need a hand with any lifting and live near Yorkshire I'm offering, shall I bring my cue.

Re: Garden Snooker Room

Postby rekoons

Hi Mekiz, no prob, I'm happy to offer some advice from my own experience,

The one thing I regret is not having a larger diameter electric cable running to the shed, mine is standard 2.5mm^2 which, over the length of the cable, means I can only use about 4kW for heating. I use a cheap 3kW electric heater, it's just enough for the coldest winterperiod, but only just. so if you're still in the planning phase think about that. can't give any more practical advice on that cause i'm no electrician...

I have 15cm insulation in the walls between the studs, the roof is only 5cm, maybe in the future i can add more, but I don't think it's worth the trouble.
my exterior dimensions are 8 x 5.5m, uninsulated floor, 15cm in walls, 5 under roof, I live in Belgium so climate is probably very similar to essex i guess, that should give you a rough idea of what to expect. if you want it to be cozy all year round like up to 20°C in winter in half an hour, my build won't do it, and you really need better heating, it depends what you want really :-)

I'm no engineer but I would guess your soil conditions are quite similar, we're more loam/sand soil. you could always contact an architect to ask about slab thickness, but you're basically building a pimped garden shed, not a brick house so hear around what thickness local garden shed bases are.

good luck with that practice the build!

Re: Garden Snooker Room

Postby Mekiz79

Cheers Rekoons,

Our garden already has a fairly large old summer house/office which has an existing power supply and it's own fuse board which I would hope would be enough. It's fed by a chunky armored cable that also feeds a few lights along the fence upto the existing building.

Got an electrician coming out next month to do some work in the house so will get them to take a look at it.

The build I have been quoted for includes 100mm rockwall insulation in the walls and ceilings so hopefully will do a nice job of keeping it usable all year round. This is a breakdown of the materials for the quote:

Build of garden room , C24 constructional timber. 6m x 8m
Concrete base 6m x 10m x 200mm with reinforced grids.

Garden room =
6m x 8m timber frame .
Shell wrapped with 11mm osb with a dpm then battoned.
commercial 125mm pine cladding (varnished)

Doors = 4190 x 2090 sliding anthracite grey upvc .
Doors = side door 1790 x 2090 sliding anthracite grey upvc
door .

Roof = Liquid rubber waterproofing system.

Interior =
Walls = plaster board & plastered .
walls and Ceiling insulated with 100mm rockwall.
Electrics = fuse box already situated at the end of garden.
5 x double plug sockets .
8 x spot lights
snooker table lamps TBC.
Extended canope from building 2m x 6m.