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Building a Workshop


Retroanaconda

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So since moving to Scotland a year or so ago I've been rather separated from my garage where I used to do my messing about with Land Rovers. Once I had determined that I was staying up here it has been on the cards to either rent a workshop up here or come up with some other arrangement.

As it happened I've ended up in a house with a nice little hard standing already in place in the garden. It used to have dog kennelling on it and measures 14' x 20' so should be big enough for working on one vehicle. Permission was obtained from the estate and so work could begin!

The hard standing as it was, with the car sat on top for scale:

post-10578-0-47951700-1379873939_thumb.jpg

So today I got some timber and started knocking up one of the long side walls and the rear wall. I've stapled a layer of polythene moisture barrier on to the outside of the wall frames to help keep the wind and any driven rain out once the cladding is applied:

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For the rear wall I have had to account for a slight slope on the base slab. Normally I would have just adjusted the height of the wall studs to suit but as I want to be able to take this building with me when I move in the future I have added supports that can easily be removed to allow for installation of a flat base in the future:

post-10578-0-54648600-1379874477_thumb.jpg

For the same reason the walls are built in a modular fashion, the long walls being made up of two 8' sections and a 4' section and the short walls two sections of approx. 7' length.

Hopefully I'll get the other walls built next weekend (if the weather is agreeable) and once they're all in place I can start fixing them to the base and to each other. Then start thinking about the roof.

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Hi James,

Looks like a great size of workshop x

Kennels = dog wee... urea stays in concrete forever, you might want to think about painting the concrete. It'll wiff in the summer otherwise!

I had to work in a former pig sty once, drilled a hole in the floor and had the strongest smell of nasty.

Cheers,

mike

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Good point Mike.

I was going to seal the slab to stop any moisture coming up through it, do you reckon that'll keep it at bay?

Yeah, that should be fine. I guess you're going to use something that's resistant to oil, so it should hold any fumes at bay.

Be careful when you screw the wood to hard standing, urea rots screws to!

Cheers,

Mike

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Cheers. Hopefully that'll be just the job then.

Well aware of the magical metal-dissipating properties of urea. We use it in the tree harvesters at work for treating freshly cut stumps and it turns anything steel it touches to dust alarmingly quickly!

Bowie, that's what I figured too - a good size. I also get to build it so that I can actually drive the cars in/out of it - hence why it's 7'-2" to the eaves! :)

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Not familiar with that anchor type, from Google it looks like you basically glue some studding into a hole and then bolt down using that? My plan was to use normal shield anchors and just bolt down into those.

I can't say I've noticed any smell to the slab today whilst working on it. Some sheep breached the garden perimeter yesterday and left some mess about though! Maybe the kennelling had a floor :unsure:

Might drill a test hole or two and see if any smells escape.

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The professionalism with which canine urine is being discussed here is exemplary.

I did wonder if anyone would take the P' ;)

Not familiar with that anchor type, from Google it looks like you basically glue some studding into a hole and then bolt down using that? My plan was to use normal shield anchors and just bolt down into those.

.....

Yep that's it, one of the advantages is that they can be used near an edge without splitting the concrete as they don't expand like a traditional fixing. Although in your case I only suggested it as it should have far better corrosion resistance.

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I did wonder if anyone would take the P' ;)Yep that's it, one of the advantages is that they can be used near an edge without splitting the concrete as they don't expand like a traditional fixing. Although in your case I only suggested it as it should have far better corrosion resistance.

On an unknown base I'd be tempted to use them anyway, that way you don't have to worry about below par concrete... put them in before you coat the base and you're golden ( there's a pun to be had there, only I don't want to lower the tone).

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So another beautiful day in Scotland, perfect for shed-building (though a little on the hot side if I'm honest).

Got the existing walls into position, they are screwed to the base temporarily with brackets and rawlplugs - once I'm happy with everything I'll get some proper fixings and bigger brackets and fix it down permanently. And made a start on the second long wall:

post-10578-0-93398400-1380381115_thumb.jpg

Then set about making the rest of the walls and fixing those both to one another and to the base in the same manner as above:

post-10578-0-04770800-1380381140_thumb.jpg

I've left the sheeting off the bottom sides for now to stop them catching the wind and collapsing the structure since the roof isn't there to add the final rigidity yet.

View from "inside":

post-10578-0-69135700-1380381101_thumb.jpg

The smaller shed will hopefully house the other car, I've measured it and it should fit but it will be tight!

Getting there :)

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Cheers Chris. I'm quite pleased with it so far.

Hard work though, I'm absolutely knackered. Was after last weekend too and never really recovered through the week. I'm supposed to be running round a forest tomorrow playing "grown up gun games"... if I can make it 'till dinner time I'll be pleased!

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James,

It'll be worth it in the end....my rebuild has stopped at the strip stage as I'm in Kenya for another 2 weeks and also have the builders in working on my house in Wales.

Hope you enjoy the 'grown up gun games'!! Just try not to get shot at close range!

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I don't know for sure, but in the moist mornings you may get condensation on the plastic. I roofed my garage with the plastic corrugated sheeting, and had lines of drips where the battens were fixed, all along the floor and car. I had to remove the sheeting and put underfelt underneath. Top job now, that was about 12 years ago. The underfelt and plastic are still going strong. My garage is about 12' x 30', although it was built before I had my 90, so I had to remove the roof and door off the 90 to get it in to work on it..lol

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James,

It'll be worth it in the end....my rebuild has stopped at the strip stage as I'm in Kenya for another 2 weeks and also have the builders in working on my house in Wales.

Hope you enjoy the 'grown up gun games'!! Just try not to get shot at close range!

Cheers, got shot loads - did a fair bit myself! Good day, but I am now physically broken!

I don't know for sure, but in the moist mornings you may get condensation on the plastic. I roofed my garage with the plastic corrugated sheeting, and had lines of drips where the battens were fixed, all along the floor and car. I had to remove the sheeting and put underfelt underneath. Top job now, that was about 12 years ago. The underfelt and plastic are still going strong. My garage is about 12' x 30', although it was built before I had my 90, so I had to remove the roof and door off the 90 to get it in to work on it..lol

Yeah I've been told I may have issues with condensation. I will see how I get on. I don't plan to put any plastic membrane on the roof, the plan for that was an OSB deck and then roofing sheets of some form or another over the top of that. Was looking at Onduline/Coroline but have been pointed to the box-section metal sheets as an alternative, which I will try if I can get them at the right price. I know I could get away with running cross battens along the length of the building on top of the rafters and putting the sheeting on top of those, but I used OSB on a flat roof with Onduline before and I get practically no condensation on that because the air inside the building is not actually in contact with the underside of the sheeting for the most part. On the same building before the OSB deck was installed I suffered greatly with condensation, not helped by it being very damp inside due to all the leaks caused by unsupported and sagging roof sheeting as there was no deck!

For the walls there will be thin battening on the outside of the plastic sheeting to give an air gap between it and the outer cladding. If I get problems with condensation inside I will have to board up the inside walls for the same reason, which to be fair I was considering anyway.

I assume you're hand nailing it all together? or screwing? I'm lucky enough to have a good friend with a gas Nailer :D

And it looks great. Coming together nicely!

Cheers Ross, yes I'm doing it all by hand. A mixture of screws and nails where appropriate, mostly nails though. Hard work!

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James,

This is making me think whether I should be doing this...

Can I ask a few questions...?

What kind of timber are you using ? Just rough sawn or a tantalised one?

Will you be making up the roof trusses?

How close to the edge of the base are you going?

Are you putting a window in?

And what kind of doors will you be making?

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You can't beat building a shed :) Looks like your getting on well!

Generally you overhang the base so that the cladding overlaps the base and any rainwater drops to the floor. I'm going to put damp course between the timber and concrete base when I get that far.

I'm used a pallet nail gun on this one with annular ring nails, on the last one I used a brad nail gun in the joints so that you couldn't see the nails but some of the boards warped and pulled off and had to be nailed through anyway :/

This is as far as I've got with mine, there's one and a half sides there and it took 2 of us 6 hours to assemble and clad them, I'd already cut the frame to size.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/523497_10151960877106579_460798701_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1185902_10151921082911579_332721155_n.jpg

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I plan to use a nailgun for the cladding Ross, as that'll require lots and lots of little nails :)

James,

This is making me think whether I should be doing this...

Can I ask a few questions...?

Yes :)

What kind of timber are you using ? Just rough sawn or a tantalised one?

This is just standard wall studding from Wickes. Will get a coat of treatment at some stage, as will the outer cladding of course. Arguably I "should" have used proper treated stuff but I'm trying to do this on a budget and in a short time scale. One advantage of the studding I guess is that it's nice and smooth to handle.

Will you be making up the roof trusses?

Yep. 3" x 2" rafters with vertical pieces of the same size all sandwiched between two cross-ties roughly 1/3 of the way up from the bottom. Diamond sandwich plate at the apex.

How close to the edge of the base are you going?

It varies as the base isn't exactly square (or the building isn't :P), but generally 3/4" or so, so that once the cladding goes on over the battens it will protrude over the edge as Cynic-al suggests above. I will also have plastic "shedders" on the "uphill" side to ensure water is deposited onto the ground above the slab and doesn't find its way in under some capillary action.

Are you putting a window in?

I wasn't going to, but it's such a nice view over the valley....

post-10578-0-69001800-1380562010_thumb.jpg

...that I figure I ought to! Will put two windows in the long wall that faces that way, and being south-south-west facing they will let in a fair bit of light too hopefully.

And what kind of doors will you be making?

The doorway aperture is 8 feet across, and 7' 2" high to allow for vehicle access. Just normal hinged doors was my plan, with recessed hinges.

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Are you putting a pedestrian access door in?

I suggested this on my dad's large shed, that way, the only access to the shed i can be from the small door, which is much more easy to make secure, and you can't drive your truck out of it :)

On the inside of the large double doors, there are two long bolts top and bottom on each, which secure the doors to the concrete and lintel, and a bolt between them as well.

The T-hinges were bolted on the outside, so as to open out properly, BUT used round-headed bolts, so a scrote can't get a grip on them to undo, and there's lots of them!

On the hinge side, be conscious that a jemmi bar could just rip the hinges out of the timber, so fit a couple of these to each leaf: http://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/products/locks_latches_and_security/door_and_window_security/1302/era_hinge_bolt

I'm sure you have some ideas of your own regarding security, but thought I would share at this point, as it is easier to design in a pedestrian access now, rather than at a later date :)

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Cheers Bowie, I'll be sure to put some of those hinge bolts in.

I had considered a pedestrian door yes. I could add a small one in the last bay in the long side.

Are they best opening inwards or outwards? And would you recommend making an aperture to fit a "standard" sized door, or building my own?

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