Hello /diy/ I recently moved and the house came with a shed, seeing as I'll be here for a good stretch of time I want to convert this shed into a kind of office lounge.Useful? things to know-I'm 26, my brain is only half melted -Shed is 12ft by 18ft-Is wired but I am unsure how well-No real floors or walls yet-door sucks-windows kinda suck.Goals?-I want better walls and floors-I want better windows-needs a new door-I want it to be a cozy office gaming lounge
>>2880921The big question here is where do I start
>>2880921pretty vague. whats the budget?are the floors flat? if theyre just stained then so what. pick a floor covering you like and put it down. if theyre a spongy disaster its obviously going to take way more effort best advice i think would be pick one thing and go on it instead of tearing the whole place apart. chunk it off and itll go easier
>>2880927current floor isn't level, no water damage however that I can tell, it rained pretty hard today and I looked around and didn't see any leaks or spots appear so that's good. It does sit on a pretty solid looking foundation-at least it looks like it does.As for budget... I mean either way it's gonna take a while, so let's say 10k usd for now. If I need to increase it as we move along.. shit happens? I'd like to keep it under that if possible but I really don't wanna half ass this.
>>2880921>>2880930To start, insulation and make sure everything is sealed. And think about what you’re going to do for climate control. You don’t want to outfit the place with carpet and comfy furniture if it’s not climate controlled because the rainy season will turn it into a rainy and rotted mess.If you insulate it, then a cheap window AC unit in the summer and a space heater in the winter will probably be dope.I would tackle the electricity early too. If you’re willing to learn or have a friend who is handy with the stuff, it would be easy enough to run 240V out there and put a little sub panel in the shed. Then you wouldn’t have issues with the heating and AC and other demands. Anons here have done it themselves for their garages before.
>>2880947>rainy and rotted messMoldy and rotted mess*
>>2880947I was looking at a couple mini ac heater splits like the Della Versa, never installed before but I can learn I'm sure. I need to check how the shed is currently wired but there is a breaker in the shed, it is getting power, lights and outlets all work. Previous owner or the ones before em must of set it up but I do need to check further to see what I'm working with, I'd hate to just not have enough power for the many things I wanna do.The structure is currently insulated but I do wanna replace it I think, just for the sake of making sure It's quality and getting what I want.
>>2880952>there is a breaker in the shedThat’s sweet then, you’re more on the verge of pool house than a shed. If they have a breaker in the shed, that’s the sub-panel I was talking about. You can look in that breaker and read the wiring they have coming from the house to the shed, and then in the house’s breaker panel there’s probably going to be a larger breaker in there that leads to the shed, and do the math on that and you can see what kind of heating/cooling you can do in there.
>>2880955Okay cool, so that's the task for tomorrow then. From there I can decide if I need to replace it or get more power sent to the shed etc.I'm thinking the walls, windows, door should be some of the first things on the renovations list also.. but I'm not sure? I kind of have this idea in my head that I want some sort of longer vertical windows in the shed.. but I'm not sure :/ Something like image provided?
>>2881117Depending on your latitude and how much you want to spend, windows will impact what you need for heating or cooling. Also, windows can be rendered somewhat useless if you need to keep them covered to stop glare on your gaming. Of course I’m assuming a monster tv which is what I would want. Although, you don’t want a cave either. I’m in the tropics so I have a lot of windows where the shades are closed most of the time to save on the AC bill. Sounds like a fun project OP. Keep us updated.
>>2881136oh 100% no matter what I plan to keep up with updates!I'd like to have a 70-80 inch oled TV kek. I wanna also get some nice led strips that I can hook up with WLED so the lights can reflect the edges of the TV.For the windows I was planning on some nice blackout curtains or blinds.I'd like to fit my desk for pc, pc... shelf? A NICE futon that I could sleep on comfortably if I needed too, TV, table, a lamp, some lights.I had planned on making my own smart home tablet thing too somewhere down the line maybe?
>>2881117If anything, you could snap pics of the breaker panel in your house, try to find the breaker for the shed, circle that, and then post a pic of the smaller breaker panel in the shed. If you take the covers off so you can see the wiring, then you can read the AWG size of the wiring coming from the house to the panel.If you already have like a 30A+ 2 pole breaker and then the appropriate size wire going out to the shed, and then 240V in the shed split up into a couple different circuits, then you will be set for whatever you want to do. If they already have the panels, like I said you’re ahead of the game, no digging trenches and burying conduit for you. Like if you want to upgrade the wiring to handle more power, it might be as simple as disconnecting the old wire, tying the new fatter wire to the end in the house, then go start yanking the old wire from the shed, and pull on the old stuff until you reach the new wire tied to the end of it. Then swap out the breakers with new higher amp breakers that are safe for the thicker wire you pulled.And then in addition to the mini split or whatever you’re thinking, get down on the lighting and fans and relocating outlets if you want.As for the windows, think about what side of the shed you want them on as well. You can always add blinds, but big windows on the SW side of the shed might make it toasty in there unless you have some trees or whatever blocking the sun partially.
>>2881139If you’re doing the electrical stuff too, you can get all sorts of smart outlets, and then a smart thermostat too. Program that all up to start cooling/heating the shed around dinner time so you’re not wasting energy all day, and if you get caught up with some BS in the house or have to take off to go run errands, you can easily have your smart outlets and locks and thermostat set to some “Away” mode with a click on your phone.I got my mom a couple of those smart outlet adapters for Xmas. I’m going to see how they work and decide if I want to get some actual outlets and switches in the house for lights and such. I already have Google Home going for my thermostat and I see the potential with some smart switches for outdoor lights and fans and such. Also when the wife gives me a beej and the fan is on, my balls get cold, so it would be nice to have a smart switch on there and I can tell Alexa to put the bedroom in lovemaking mode.
>>2881141I can absoutely snap some pics when It's daylight again!oh 100% on the lights and outlets, previous guy left me a cool power strip so that was nice but the lights kinda suck and the outlet positions are gonna need some tweaking I think. I don't want it to be a total cave... but I want it to feel like my little castle I suppose, just a really nice area.>>2881142I love the smart outlet and thermostat idea, that's kinda why I wanted to make a smart home tablet thing, just so it's always in there and I can control the whole shed from it or my phone, etc. One of the biggest issues I'm having right now with my smart stuff, a lot of it wants to be connected to a 2.4ghz network and my network says it will auto-switch for w/e device... Yeah that doesn't fucking work. IDK why and i'm limited here for internet providers.
>>2881141Ok so I'm waiting for the weather to clear up some before I check the house breaker but here's the shed breaker, looks like I got 120A.
>>2881307You're going to want to check the breaker panel in the house to see what your ultimate power draw can be. For instance, my garage has 150A out of my house but 450A of breakers in the garage. The breakers in the subpanel are more about distribution and protecting the branch circuits in the shed, whereas the breakers in the house that feed the shed protect the wiring that feeds the shed.Any which way, you have more than enough space in that panel to have a party with.
>>2881763So I got the house breaker>thanks previous owner the labels are... something? I'm assuming the bottom right is the shed but really I'm not sure yet, I need to just turn off everything and make sure but this is what we got so far.
