Roy’s Garden Shed

In the June issue of Timber IQ Roy Trembath tells us about his timber project in Wilderness Heights near George on the Garden Route in the Western Cape.

Roy’s garden shed began as a project to build a personal 140m² carpentry workshop and parking garage for four vehicles. Photo by Roy Trembath

It all began when I needed a workshop – somewhere to do my work and store my tools. Roy’s Garden Shed began as a project to build a 140m² carpentry workshop and parking garage for four vehicles at my property in Wilderness Heights, near George in the Garden Route.

Log building is my speciality, and I have taught log home building courses to thousands of people. Building material for log homes is cheap, strong, economical, environmentally sustainable, and easy to work with. A tree is at its lowest value when standing in the forest.

Any building project begins with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil. At the beginning, when I am designing the building, my thought process is simply what do I want to see when I come down my driveway?

The result

Fact:

Economical: Total cost R120 000
Easy to build
Environmentally sustainable: The trees will re-grow many times during the lifespan of the building
Biodiversity: All timber is alien vegetation Eucalyptus Salina / Grandis
Carbon negative, this building consumed about 150m³ of round logs
No milling loss: using round logs, we use 100% of the log, and minimal processing is needed.
Quick to build: The project took 4.5months to construct with one labourer.
Great insulation R value
Long lifespan
Strong
Materials readily available
Environmentally friendly borate treatment