The blue monkey lagoon, Lincoln, England

Hi guys been on TC few years but have been stationed all over the world. Recently moved back to Lincolnshire England and put down some roots! So thought I would indulge my love of travel and tiki and build myself a tiki hut to put my hot tub in!
While all the items going in to it are not strictly tiki! They are mostly stuff Iv collected on my travels round the world!
Tiki isn’t as big here in the UK so it can be hard to find suitable materials like lauhala matting for the walls! So improvisation is definitely needed! It’s been a long hard slog but there is light at the end of the tunnel now!
As they say a tiki bar is never really finished!!

Site for the tiki hut. Footprint of the hut is 16ft by 8ft and iv included a 4ft by 16ft deck out the front

Lots of clearing and levelling to do to lay the foundations! Had to move tones of earth because of the slope and dig out lots of roots!

It was a long old day with the whacker! My hands were tingling by the end of it!

Once the ground was leave and firm I added another layer of sand and smoothed it out for the membrane to go down.
I went with a foundation called Eco Base! Rather than use concrete! It worked out well and was cheaper!
When the eco base grid is down you fill it full of gravel and it gives you a solid base to build on! Disaster struck tho! The wheel on the wheel barrow broke on the first load and spilled the gravel all over the grass! I had to go out and try and find a new wheel as I had borrowed the barrow of my Neighbour! I couldn’t find a spare wheel anywhere! So ended up buying a whole new barrow as I had nearly 4 tones of gravel to move!

Base all laid, filled, secured and tamped down! Now to start laying the floor!
A word of warning! I bought a prefabricated summer house from a company called billyoh! The company is awful! I had nothing but trouble! Broken parts missing parts wrong parts! Bits that didn’t fit! Split and warped wood! A friend of a friend also has a bad experience with them! I actually asked them to come and take it down and give me a refund at 1 point! But they said they couldn’t take it down! And to be fair I was to fat in at this point! So I struggled on making do best with what I had! Anyway no more negativity! Tiki is supposed to about fun! Time to lay the floor

Got the floor down. I treated the underside with used motor oil! My friend gave me 25 Litres of old oil!! So I slapped it all over the under side of the floor to waterproof and preserve it!
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I treated all the inside with ronseal waterproof wood treatment! And the side and back outer walls I sprayed with a solution of the used motor oil mixed 50/50 with white spirit! It worked well and didn’t really discolour the wood to much! But that wasn’t really a concern as the back and sides won’t really be seen!

[img]https://tikicentral.com/uploads/78465/5d8b557d.jpg)

Unfortunately after I had finished treating all the wood I noticed that billyoh has sent me the wrong part! I had 2 front right gaggle ends and no left front gable end! I called the company and told them! They said they would send the replacement in 3-5 working days!!!! This did not happen!!!! Not at all!

The wrong gable end and floor before treatment

I’m having real problems posting pictures on here so sorry if the thread looks a bit disjointed and not in a chronological order

So while I was waiting for the replacement part I started treating the rest of the wood! I used a spray mixture of boiled linseed oil and white spirit. The wood was so bad! Really rough splintered warped and split! I sanded it down best as I could and glued some of it back together! Then I noticed that the felt for the roof was split in the middle! They said they would replace it in 3-5 working days!!!!!!

So while I wait the best part of 2 weeks for the right part I get as much done as I can!

Managed to get loads of old military packing crates from work! We just had a load of kit delivered from the U.S.A so there was an abundance of free wood on station! So I’m going to completely board out the inside using the packing crates! I quit like that my tiki bar is going to be built using repurposed military stuff from America! Very tiki if you ask me!!!

Part arrived from billyoh! And guess what! They sent the wrong part again! Another front right gable end instead of a left! Called them up and they said it will be delivered in 3-5 working days!!!! Sit and wait I guess!

Started putting the Perspex in the windows but the frame is so bowed the Perspex won’t fit in if properly! So tried to secure it in place while the silicone drys!

Decided to try making some float lights!
Bought some large clear glass bows and some glass paint!
Didn’t like the finish! So ended up washing it off! Il try again another day!

Got the floor boarded waterproofed and insulated and chose a wood look Vinyl because I’m putting the hot tub in there so if any water sloshed over the side it would just sit on the vinyl and can be mopped up! Where as if it were real wood flooring or laminate it would start to bow!
Got the vapour barrier up on the walls and started getting the insulation up!
Waited in all day for the missing part to arrive! It got to 5pm so I called billyoh to ask where it was and they said they are very sorry but they don’t have a record of any order being placed! But they would put a request in for a new part! It would be delivered in 3-5 working days!!!!!!!

Sorry for all the drama, but it seems like you are doing fine and you know how to fix things. Great job and keep us posted.

Part still hadn’t arrived but I had the hot tub movers booked in so just had to work around the missing wall! It’s annoying though as I can’t get the roof on until I have the walls up!

Started boarding out the walls and put some of the roof on the side work all the walls! The part was meant to arrive but I had a message from billyoh saying the part had been damaged during transit! They would order another 1 but it would take 3-5 working days to get it out! I had now come to realise that 3-5 working days means about a week and a half!! So here I am with a half built summer house with a hot tub in open to the elements! And the windows are quite badly bowed so had to clamp them while i glued them to get then to stay!

So this is about as far as I can go until the rest of the wall arrives! I really wanted to get the roof done in 1 go! So I could get the vapour barrier rite across!

Great progress against very difficult circumstances. That company sounds like a nightmare!

On 2019-09-25 13:32, Sandbartender wrote:
Great progress against very difficult circumstances. That company sounds like a nightmare!

Thanks sandbartender.
Ohh they really are! Iv spent hours on the phone to them in America!!!! They are. US company! But they did offer me some compensation! To the grand sum of £25! I almost told them to not bother! But then I guess that would’ve been cutting my nose off to spite my face! Any way we live and learn!

So the missing part eventually arrived! After about a month of messing around!!!I can finally get the rest of the walls up
And the roof on!

So I start to felt the roof and remember that felt that was ripped that they replaced? Well it doesn’t fit! It’s not long enough for
The roof!

So I called billyoh up! And told them it didn’t fit! They wanted photo evidence that it didn’t fit!!!! So I emailed them
A picture of it “not fitting” and they said they would send a replacement out in 3-5 working days! Well last time I was told that! It took over a month to get the rite part! And we were due some heavy rain! So I told Them I would buy my own felt and they could refund me! They agreed as long as I send them a copy of the Receipt! So I went to B&Q and bought some new felt felted my roof and lost the Receipt! I guess it just wasn’t my day!

Felt purchased, roof on. Walls up!

Inside all boarded out using the old military packing crates

After it was all boarded out I lined the walls with a thermal lining paper. The rock wool insulation has acoustic properties as well as thermal! So should be nice and toasty as well as keeping the neighbours happy!

Ok now to get some colour on those walls! I had this vintage map paper for years! I was going to use it when I made my bat in Cyprus but didn’t end up using it! I wasn’t overly keen on the green bamboo paper at first but you won’t really see it when it’s all decorated.

I put some skirting down and trimmed the bottom of the wall with with bamboo slats.

Better start doing some carving for the trim. Using the slats from the military packing crates.

Hard work with the dremel and takes so long! My hands were aching for days after I finished!

So first time ever using a router! Much quicker than using the dremel! But I can only find 1 of the router bits! So have to keep the design quiet simple!

So first time ever using a router! Much quicker than using the dremel! But I can only find 1 of the router bits! So have to keep the design quiet simple!

Lots more caving to do to trim the whole bar out. Started running lights in behind the trim and covering the ceiling.

I didn’t like the way the bamboo slats were sitting on the wall so I took it all off removed the wire and cut it down shorter! It’s 1 of those jobs I wish I never started! It was a nightmare to get the bamboo to stick to the wall! I used spray adhesive and tried to keep it pressed against the wall while it dried!

Got the rest of the roof up! I have to say working around the hot tub has been 1 of the hardest parts of the build!

Started buying furniture for the blue monkey lagoon when eve I see it.
Love the bamboo swivel rocking chair cost £10 off shpock! Bargain!

And the wicker club chair was £25 from a charity shop.

So I’m going to need some shelves for all those mugs and various bits of tiki bric-a-brac!I better start building!
All that free wood is certainly coming in handy.

I like to carve the wood then sand it then give it an all over blowtorch then I blowtorch in the detail darker! Then I go over the whole thing with a wire brush and then blowtorch the detail in darker again before staining the wood!

I found this cool Wratten type egg chair and made this little guy to hang up in the bar!

Wow, you're doing some incredible work! Glad you've mastered posting photos so we can follow along. That Eco Base foundation looks really interesting.

On 2019-10-01 21:40, Hamo wrote:
Wow, you're doing some incredible work! Glad you've mastered posting photos so we can follow along. That Eco Base foundation looks really interesting.

Thanks Hamo. Yes the eco-bass is pretty cool quite easy to install you just have to make sure you have a level foundation! But what I like about it is it’s much less intrusive than concrete but just as strong! So say in 50 years also the shed and base could be taken up and it would be as if there had been nothing there! Rather than having a big concrete pad left over!
Yes I’ve got the hang of the photos now! But I have noticed that some of the photos I posted on my thread have disappeared! Not sure why??

Getting the decking laid out the front. Iv got some long salvaged boards I found and would you believe I just had exactly the rite amount to lay them in the staggered pattern!

Gave them a light plaining so I could keep some of the character.

I had to use quite thin low support slats because of the door clearence! I left those soaking in bin full of oil for a few days to treat and waterproof them! Hopefully they will never rot! Then I treated the underside of the decking planks with the oil and varnished the top!

Few tikis and some bamboo chairs and the deck is good to go!

Great job! Looks brilliant!

On 2019-10-02 10:01, bananamansl wrote:
Great job! Looks brilliant!

Thanks B man. Looks like my pictures have disappeared again! Not sure why!

On 2019-10-02 10:01, bananamansl wrote:
Great job! Looks brilliant!

Reposted as the pictures I put up seem to vanish!

Well looks like most of my pictures are disappearing or being removed! No idea why? Anybody have any ideas?

Looks great! Really nice job in spite of all the issues.

Hey Smoothie I can see your pics no problem here.

Hey you had a question about what to do with that basket you had, go here to see an idea of what you might do to spruce it up with rope.

The Headhunter trophy box light...
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=40109&forum=18&start=last&181

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2019-10-15 11:13 ]

Hi Skip. It’s not all pictures just some of them. Absolutely love your new light! That rope work is amazing! Superb work as always! Thanks for the inspiration!I just love your lamps! Iv been working on some lights for the blue monkey il post some pics when I’m done.

Wow!! It’s been a while! I didn’t think TC was ever coming back! I only re-discovered the website the other day! The world has changed so much since then!

I know for me having my own tropical getaway down at the bottom of the garden was a god send! I can only imagine it was for other people too! I would spend so much time in my tiki bar during lock down, making lamps and working on projects. Tiki kept me sane!