Converting a "Garden Store" to an Arcade room

[Shun]

Just thought I would put some pictures of the progress that I'm making (very slowly) of my attempt to convert a "Garden Store" attached to the back of the house into an Arcade room and also a place to be able to work now that I work from home.

We moved in to our current house in 2019 and luckily it had a place for me to put my Arcade machines in. I used to store them in my garage at our old house and this house had the garage converted into a room that was earmarked as a playroom for the kids.

Here is the room empty when we moved in:



So I cleaned it up a bit and then moved the cabs in (MAME machine missing in the picture below):



I had a lot of work to do to convert this as the roof is plastic, one of the walls is plastic, and the wall with the window is just block work. The other two walls are connected to the house so don't pose an issue with regards to protecting from the outside elements. They'll just need some plasterboard eventually.

 

[Shun]

The first two things that needed doing were taking care of the wood around the window and protecting the cabs from the sun due to the plastic roof.

Firstly dealt with the window. The bloke that we bought the house off had added a window in here, which is great, but then seemed to give up with the gaps to the left and right of the window and just shoved some random pieces of wood in there:



So, I removed that and had my first ever attempt at brick laying. I bought some blocks instead of bricks seeing as though the wall below the window was as well and painstakingly cut them each to size with a hammer and chisel. Then bricked up around the window using frame tiles in the cement to mechanically connect the window and the existing bricks to my new block work. It didn't turn out half bad either. Its a bit messy looking but it got the job done:



Then I needed to sort out the roof. I thought about attaching some kind of fabric to the joists in the ceiling to keep the sun out as it got very hot in there and was worried about the machines getting damaged/art fading from the sun. I covered the machines with tarp for a while until I decided what to do. The tarp was a good idea because some of the blue colour in the tarp on the machines did actually fade.

In the end I decided to insulate the roof so that it would be cooler in the Summer and warmer in the Winter. I was going to do this over a period of time as having two small children I hardly have any time to do these sort of jobs. I installed 1200mm x 450mm x 50mm boards to the bottom of the ceiling joists so that there was an air gap above. Example picture below, I also put expanding foam in the wood above the window:



The insulation was tricky on one side of the room as it angles in narrower towards the end of the room with the window so had to cut those end pieces to the shape of the room. The roof is also pitched and is at 3 metres tall at the other end of the room. So installing angled pieces of insulation 3 metres high up a ladder in the summer wasn't nice

Eventually the whole underside of the roof was covered with insulation and the arcade machines were safe, for a while...

 

[Shun]

I started working from home in 2020 due to the pandemic (and luckily still continue to do so) so I installed a cheap Ikea desk next to the window and all was well. The plastic roof that I had covered with insulation runs along the whole back of the house as well as above my arcade/office room. When it started to get really cold I noticed that ice started forming on the underside of it and when the ice thawed about 20 or so drips dripped on to the patio. As the roof is the same in my arcade room, this happened there too, albeit less because of the insulation. Again it wasn't much water, but I didn't want to take any chances, so I covered the machines up again and moved my office equipment into the playroom for the winter.

So, I needed the roof sorting. I sold my car when I started working from home, so had a bit of cash to do something about it. After several quotes (some in the 10s of thousands to knock down and start again!) I settled on an option more on the cheaper side. For £1k, the plastic roof was changed from this:



To a new felt roof with OSB deck


The insulation was left in place below the joists to help keep the warmth in the room.

Speaking of warmth, the next thing on the agenda, was to get the room liveable throughout the winter, so my plan was to insulate the external facing walls. To do that, I would have to batten the block wall under the window and create stud walls in front of the plastic walls and insulate in between the battens. I would also need a vapour barrier stop warm air getting to the cold external walls.

 

[Shun]

I bought this for the vapour barrier:

SuperFOIL SFTV Thermal Vapour Barrier 1.5m x 25m Roll - 37.5m2 | Insulation Superstore®

SuperFOIL SFTV Thermal Vapour Barrier 1.5m x 25m Roll - 37.5m2 from SuperFOIL. (SFTV-37.5). Order Helpline ☎ 01752 692 206

www.insulationsuperstore.co.uk

I worked out that I had enough for the walls and for the ceiling. So I used some spray glue and managed to attach the foil to the ceiling. I didn't do a great job and I should have asked someone for some help as it was pretty tricky trying to attach 1.5m wide foil to the roof. Especially when its 3 metres high!



Anyway, I eventually got it done and taped any joints and stapled and taped the edges.
Next I wanted to batten the front wall below and around the window. Again first time doing something like this so not perfect, but not too bad:



The next job was to create stud walls in front of the plastic slatted walls that are basically about 2-3mm thin. So a lot of the cold air gets in on this side of the room. One problem however, is that there is a bit of damp in the tiles and in the small bit of brickwork below these plastic walls, so I had to tank the whole area before building the stud wall:



Then I could start on the stud walls

 

[Shun]

I've never done any batten/stud wall work, so this was a big learning experience for me.
Vertical battens going in. Attached to a bottom and top plate:



Then added noggins and insulation. I also finished battening and insulating around the window as well:



Then started the second part of the wall as well:



Also insulated above the door:

 

[Shun]

Something that's been bothering me for a while is, how am I going to finish the ceiling? I've sort of messed up the vapour barrier in as much as it isn't really a flat surface like the board insulation was above it and I don't really want to start drilling into the insulation to attach to the joists above which is what I would have to do for a suspended ceiling. Also, I only have one double socket for the whole room at the moment which is not good when you've got a few arcade machines to power as well as an office setup. Currently there are extension cords everywhere. Nothing is overloaded as I have an amp meter to keep an eye on things.

So, I decided that I would create a false ceiling level with the front of the room above the window.
This has many benefits:

Can hide electrical wiring
Don't have to drill into existing roof
Can install down lights
As the ceiling will be "flat" rather than pitched, I don't have to worry about plaster boarding above the new ceiling
Potentially extra storage above the new ceiling at the back of the room where there will be a large void
Etc, etc

I would need to frame the room first so that I can install joists across the room. As I'm doing this on my own, I thought the easiest way to do this was to rest the joists on top of the frame. That way, I don't have to be super accurate when cutting the joists. Especially with the angled wall on one side of the room.

So to create a frame that was level I used a water level that I stuck to the wall where I wanted the first part of the frame to be:



Then marked all the way around the room (not easy with Arcade machines in the way! ) and then started installing the frame/wooden runners.
I used these for the frame:

Planed C16 Whitewood spruce Stick timber (L)3m (W)95mm (T)45mm

www.diy.com

One thing to add, I usually needed at least 2.4m length pieces of wood for this room and most of the time 3m length pieces.
Wood is still pretty expensive at the moment and to get it delivered is even more expensive.
Before I ordered any wooden battens, I saw a couple of videos about transporting wood on a roof rack using ratchet straps, this being the most recent one:

So I bought a cheap, albeit good quality set of roof racks for £50 and followed instructions like in the video above.
The money that I have saved on deliveries has probably paid for the roof rack many times over.
I probably wouldn't travel too far with battens on the roof rack, but B&Q is only about 5-10 minutes away in the car. Plus I can choose the battens that I want in the store instead of getting the luck of the draw when it arrives by courier.

The insulation panels for the walls were too big for the roof rack, so unfortunately I had to get them delivered, but I planned ahead and bought them all in one go.

Anyway, here are some picks of the frame going up:



Then tested if the frame was level across the room and it was pretty well level:



Last one:



I also started adding the vapour barrier above the frame.

Adding this frame to the stud walls/brick pillars had the added side affected of making the stud walls a little stronger.

Next up, electrics...

 

[69er]

Wow … what a busy night you’ve had time to get some sleep ….. lol !

Looks like a nice handy convertible space .. there will be a few on here filled with envy?

Enough height too to maybe consider a mezzanine shelf floor to store awkward and big bits keeping floor and wall shelving clear to accommodate the machines and any work stuff you install

My tip electrics install a seperate rcd and don’t short cut on thinking of getting expert help to wire up . Bear in mind high sockets are better to not get blocked behind games but don’t exceed std 2 metre lead height

Good write up summary so far too thanks for sharing the work details with us 👍

 

[69er]

Going to be quite cosy I think and few nice games in already …. It’s clearly been quite planned by you since you decided to re- fit everything good luck getting it finished and comfortable !!!

 

[Shun]

Wow … what a busy night you’ve had time to get some sleep ….. lol !

Looks like a nice handy convertible space .. there will be a few on here filled with envy?

Enough height too to maybe consider a mezzanine shelf floor to store awkward and big bits keeping floor and wall shelving clear to accommodate the machines and any work stuff you install

My tip electrics install a seperate rcd and don’t short cut on thinking of getting expert help to wire up . Bear in mind high sockets are better to not get blocked behind games but don’t exceed std 2 metre lead height

Good write up summary so far too thanks for sharing the work details with us 👍

Yeah I’m a bit of a night owl and as I work from home it’s not like I have to get up early 😁.

Was thinking about adding a “loft” hatch to the false ceiling, so extra storage space above the ceiling would be really handy.

Thanks for the tips on the electrics. I was going to install them relatively low to the floor like we have in the house, however you make a good point about having the sockets higher behind the machines. I’ll have to have a think about that.

Also, I’m only routing the cables and fixing the sockets to the wall. I’ve got an electrician who has agreed to terminate and test the cables into the sockets. The current radial circuit in here is already protected by RCD so hopefully that should be ok. 👍

 

[Shun]

Going to be quite cosy I think and few nice games in already …. It’s clearly been quite planned by you since you decided to re- fit everything good luck getting it finished and comfortable !!!

Thanks mate. I tend to plan and plan things before actually doing them which is why it takes so long for me to get anything done (as well as two little time stealers, also known as children 😂).

The thing I’m really looking forward to is getting the electrics done so that I don’t have extension cords everywhere and I can have more than one machine on at once. Also looking forward to installing carpet in here so that it feels like a proper room. The tiled floor in here is pretty cold during the winter. I’ve got a small rug under my desk to keep my feet warm 😅.

 

[Phils Arcade]

Nice wee conversion you got going there. You'll be wanting to add more cabs soon, lol.

How can you make that a work space and have all that temptation going on around you. Unless playing arcade machines IS your work.

 

[Shun]

Nice wee conversion you got going there. You'll be wanting to add more cabs soon, lol.

How can you make that a work space and have all that temptation going on around you. Unless playing arcade machines IS your work.

Thanks. I’ve deliberately faced my desk away from the machines so they are behind me so I can concentrate on work 😁. Getting this room sorted is the biggest distraction at the moment. At lunchtime I’m looking at the room and mentally running twin and earth cable in different routes and trying to work out the best way to install it. Once the room is sorted I can use my spare time to restore the DK and Pole Position cabs. They work but need some TLC. Also need to finish my Pac-Man cabaret scratch build, finish converting the 18 Wheeler into an Outrun 2 cab and many other projects. But until the room is done they will all have to wait 😀

 

[Shun]

Double post

 

[chefsolid]

Great progress so far, keep going! I was lucky enough to have half a garaged walled off in my new place so I just had to insulate, decorate and get power in. As previously noted separate the power for the arcade, if it pops the breaker you don't want the house switching off

 

[Phils Arcade]

Thanks. I’ve deliberately faced my desk away from the machines so they are behind me so I can concentrate on work 😁. Getting this room sorted is the biggest distraction at the moment. At lunchtime I’m looking at the room and mentally running twin and earth cable in different routes and trying to work out the best way to install it. Once the room is sorted I can use my spare time to restore the DK and Pole Position cabs. They work but need some TLC. Also need to finish my Pac-Man cabaret scratch build, finish converting the 18 Wheeler into an Outrun 2 cab and many other projects. But until the room is done they will all have to wait 😀

That's like me, kept running out of space to get things done. Gradually moving into bigger and bigger places, only to fill them up again, lol.

Current project is building my workshop, specifically for repairing and building machines. I'm uploading progress on here as well, though such a slow process as it's one man vs the elements, ugh!

 

[Shun]

Great progress so far, keep going! I was lucky enough to have half a garaged walled off in my new place so I just had to insulate, decorate and get power in. As previously noted separate the power for the arcade, if it pops the breaker you don't want the house switching off

Thanks! Do I need to worry about popping the breaker? I've taken amp usage of most of the items in the room and estimated others and even with a couple of heaters on, it'll be about 12 amps on a 20 amp breaker, or am I missing something here:



I'm unlikely to have heaters and all the machines on at the same time. That's not taking into account lighting which will be 10 down lights at 5.8w which is 58 watts which would be an extra 0.242 amps I think. The radial circuit comes off the back of the playroom which has a 26 inch lcd tv plugged in and not much else. I might have room for one more machine as I've already taken up space with my "console tower" which contains a Master System, Tower of Power (Megadrive, Mega CD and 32X), Super Famicom, Twin Famicom and an Amiga 500 plus connected to a B&O 28 inch CRT:



That could add an amp or two but I'll only have one console on at a time.

 

[Shun]

That's like me, kept running out of space to get things done. Gradually moving into bigger and bigger places, only to fill them up again, lol.

Current project is building my workshop, specifically for repairing and building machines. I'm uploading progress on here as well, though such a slow process as it's one man vs the elements, ugh!

Ah yes, this one here: https://www.ukvac.com/forum/threads/phils-arcade-thread.75703/. Was reading that one the other day, that's what inspired me to post my progress. Looking forward to seeing the progress on that one. I've started following that thread now

 

[Phils Arcade]

Thanks for that. Can't wait for that extra hour of daylight and the better weather to come in.

 

[Alpha1]

Great work!

 

[Shun]

Thanks for that. Can't wait for that extra hour of daylight and the better weather to come in.

Yeah, really looking forward to when it's still light outside when the kids have gone to bed and I can carry out some extra work on the room