Reply With QuoteThat's very good, nice lawn too!
Thought this may be of interest to some as I’ve seen at least a couple of garden furniture threads...
I’ve been weighing up garden furniture for a while. I’m lucky enough to have the space for separate outdoor dining and outdoor relaxing furniture, so I’ve been looking at options for their given purpose rather than something which tries to accommodate both.
On the dining furniture front, I’ve really struggled to find what I was looking for. I have an enthusiastic toddler who enjoys climbing, I don’t want to cover the furniture (ever), etc. so I wanted something solid and which could deal with the UK weather for many many years to come with only basic maintenance.
The prices of certain options which were close to fitting the bill were astronomical, so I decided to go the DIY route.
All in... the cost was around £500:
Steel (made for me) - £180
8 x oak sleepers (8’ x 8” x 4”) - £200
Stainless steel coach screws - £70
Hammerite - £10
Decking oil - £20
It’s quite a bit of work, everything is annoyingly heavy, it’s worth allowing the timber to dry out for as long as you can, and ideally you need to own the tools (drill, impact driver, belt sander, clamps, etc.) otherwise it may start to get expensive.
There are a lot of forum members who are way more practical and capable than I am, so thought it worth sharing as an option.
The end result (needs a little more work, but very nearly there):
That's very good, nice lawn too!
Looks really nice. And will last forever with a bit of care once a year.
Love the walled garden btw, looks nice and secluded.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Very nice furniture, we just bought our set in the b&q sale, think it was near enough 500 delivered and good quality but yours is stunning and will I dare say last a lot longer!
We got a huge parasol, base, 2 chairs, sofa, cushions and a coffee table included for that mind so for convenience can’t be beaten
One day I will have the time for this amongst all the other jobs I do and will make something cool, railway sleepers and oak beams make some fabulous things.
In the middle of some pallet planters and building a barbecue plinth atm though.
Really really impressive work there though big thumbs up from sunny Lincolnshire
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love that OP looks great. Do you have the plans for the steel frame? Im assuming you did the steel treatment, brush/spray? rather than powder coated by the supplier?
Damn: we need some new garden furniture and I was hoping there would be a link to a seller as that is really nice!
Great job. Beautiful garden, too.
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Thanks all. :-)
That is very much the plan!Originally Posted by oldoakknives
I guarantee yours came with less swearing and less bloodshed!
I’ve managed to find the plans - see below. If I had my time again, I’d make the table steels 50mm wider at 750mm to allow the end holes on either side to be 25mm further out.
The steel simply has a couple of coats of Hammerite; they’re not powder coated.
Each sleeper is attached to the next using 5 or 6 stainless steel coach bolts (200mm x 8mm). The sleepers are attached to the steels using 80mm x 8mm stainless steel coach bolts. Obviously this is green oak so susceptible to movement, so I’ve secured everything as best I can. At least it’s outside rather than indoors with central heating, which I’m hoping will limit the movement somewhat.
Last edited by mab; 31st July 2020 at 12:56.
Are the screws special, £70 seems steep although i dont know how much screws are
Well I don't think a toddler is going to pull either benches or table over and can safely clamber to their heart's content.
And I wouldn't bet against an archeology programme (Time Team equivalent) finding them intact centuries from now.
Plus they look great.
Form and Function - love 'em!
And thanks very much for sharing your drawings - I'm tempted to have a go :)
You need Stainless steel hardware with (Green) Oak, as it will corrode/eat into normal steel bolts plus will stain the surface. SS coach bolts aren't cheap and the OP seems to have used plenty ;-)
Looks great and will last decades with minimal upkeep.
Last edited by vagabond; 31st July 2020 at 13:17.
I really like what you have done! Thanks for sharing the plans. I'm probably being a bit dim, but couple of questions if you don't mind!?
Re the wider table steels to 750mm, etc - could you tell me why you think the end holes would need to be 25mm further out and what is wrong with the ones that you have done?
Also, when you say that each sleeper is attached to the next using,..... etc ..............could you give me a bit more detail as I'm not quiet sure! Where are they joined on each edge.
Many thanks
Yes it was, no swearing or bloodshed necessary as it was very easy to buildThanks all. :-)
That is very much the plan!
I guarantee yours came with less swearing and less bloodshed!
I’ve managed to find the plans - see below. If I had my time again, I’d make the table steels 50mm wider at 750mm to allow the end holes on either side to be 25mm further out.
The steel simply has a couple of coats of Hammerite; they’re not powder coated.
Each sleeper is attached to the next using 5 or 6 stainless steel coach bolts (200mm x 8mm). The sleepers are attached to the steels using 80mm x 8mm stainless steel coach bolts. Obviously this is green oak so susceptible to movement, so I’ve secured everything as best I can. At least it’s outside rather than indoors with central heating, which I’m hoping will limit the movement somewhat.
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Had this built by a local mill from green oak c10 years ago after seeing something similar on a local cycle path. They advised no treatments required and so we've done nothing to it over that time. On reflection something in the way of an oil might have been an idea but it's been resited twice in that time and I expect it will do it's job until we move in a couple of years so we've had good value from it. The kids climbed on it when they were younger and the different bench heights mean that the 6'+ people like can sit and swing our legs from the higher one.
If I was doing it again I'd look at bolting sleepers as the mill said cutting proper joints was very time consuming, plus a built in section in the large V for dishes/food etc would be useful.
Quick pic hence some diy project materials still on show!
These are the 200mm x 8mm stainless steel ‘coach screws’ made by Spax (cost was a little less than what I’ve noted above - I bought more than were needed for this job as I’ve built a sandpit from sleepers too):
I used a 22mm auger bit to drill 100mm into a sleeper at numerous points along its length, then used a long 6mm auger bit to drill an extra c.180mm (i.e. the remaining 100mm of the first sleeper and 80mm into the next) for the 200mm coach bolts. Those two sleepers we’re screwed together, and then I repeated the process to attach the third sleeper to the first two... and again to attach the fourth sleeper to the first three. The white lines in this photo broadly reflect where the coach screws are:
This photo shows the 22mm holes along the edge of the table, through which that sleeper is secured to the next. I will source some 22mm oak dowel and plug these.
Worth highlighting that this needed strong clamps and a fair amount of manipulation (which isn’t easy as oak sleepers are strong!). Rough sawn green oak sleepers are some way short of furniture grade timber - they are far from straight, and I actually went to the yard to hand select these 8 (and probably went through 50 sleepers to find these ‘best 8’).
This next photo shows why I would make the table steels wider. You can see that the inner sleeper is evenly secured at both sides, whereas the outer end sleeper is secured towards just one side - accordingly, the white line reflects an additional coach screw I’ve put in to try to avoid the end sleeper splitting and working its way away from the table.
Now that is proper joinery! I would like to learn how to do this sort of thing one day.
Last edited by mab; 31st July 2020 at 20:16.
I managed to knock this up before lockdown, nowhere near as good workmanship but apart from the fixings and time spend, it cost me nowt. Found all the timber in a skip.
So if you think it's rubbish, you're spot on
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@mab
Thanks for the additional photos and further explanation!
Outstanding. I love seeing stuff like this. Top work OP.
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