I'll need something to put my tools in...

[Dandan]

Hello all,
I'm a newcomer to woodworking, but I've been a long time lurker, so I know some of the incredible stuff that you lot get up to, i've read all 25,390 pages of Steve Maskery's workshop build so I'm under no illusions that i'll be blowing your minds with my construction skills but thought you might like to see my build anyway. (mostly so I can ask you all lots of questions I should imagine)

I want to get into woodworking as a distraction therapy from messing around with cars, I got a bit tired of laying on cold driveways hammering ineffectually at bits of rusted metal so I wanted a hobby that was a bit more intricate and precise but still hands-on. I thought it might save me some money too until I found the Axminster website...

As a man who can't put down a tool catalogue until every page has been turned, i've already started a collection of hand tools and a few power tools, so I thought I had better build somewhere to put them, and maybe even one day use them!

I can't post pictures until I have made 3 posts, so I thought I should start with a question, the workshop will be timber frame on a slightly raise concrete slab with larch cladding, insulation and ply internal cladding, should I get the carcassing timber pressure treated or not?

 

[rafezetter]

As long as correct precautions are taken, like a proper DPC 'tween slab and framework base and sealant on the slab fixings to reduce the wicking effect of moisture in the slab travelling up the bolts / embedded threaded rod etc and into the wood, then within normal reason and how close you are to the sea, you should be OK without it.

However having said that, if you would prefer it for your own peace of mind, then there would be no harm caused to do so, but make sure you treat soak any cut ends.

 

[Fitzroy]

I found treated and untreated to be so similar in price I would have saved about £30 out of the £900 I spent on timber for my build. Figured for £30 to have all the timber treated it was one of the easier decisions to make.

Comparably a tough decision was glasswool or kingspan (type) insulation for the floor and walls. The difference runs in to the hundreds of £. Then the cladding, rough sawn local larch boards or planed T&G Siberian slow grown larch, the difference was nearly a grand!

Good luck with the build, look forwards to the pics.

Fitz.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

http://www.secondsandco.co.uk/?gclid=CK ... GwodocALiw
are well worth a look for your insulation.

 

[NickWelford]

so I wanted a hobby that was a bit more intricate and precise ........

Obviously haven't seen my dovetails then.........

 

[Dandan]

Thanks for the responses, more information there than I had any right to expect!
You are probably right about the treated timber Fitzroy, it is pennies different to untreated so probably worthwhile, I wish you hadn't told me there is a cheaper alternative to Siberian larch though..!
Just one more post and I can put some pictures up...

 

[Dandan]

I made some more progress over the long weekend, which I should hopefully now be able to show you with pictures...

 

[Dandan]

Ok I don't know what I did to upset the preview function but it's not keen on showing my pictures. Was it something I said?

Quick test: Can anyone see this picture?

 

[AndyT]

Hi Dandan,

It looks like you are trying to share an image on Flickr. I think Flickr has its own quirky method of sharing, to make sure that there is always a little advert for Flickr included every time. You need to look for a sharing option within Flickr that says it's for bbcode or forums.

I can't see your image. The best I can do is provide this link, which leads to your wobbly shed:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58190216@N07/29179217692/

 

[Dandan]

Aha!



Thanks AndyT! I moved to Flickr from Photobucket because it seemed to be full of pop up ads, turns out Flickr has it's own little foibles too...

(That's my old garage by the way, not the new one, and I was clearly stood with one leg in a hole when I took that one)

 

[Dandan]

Ok, so I started with an old, but reasonably sound and perfectly useable (and not wonky) garage as above. ^

Which was clearly no good whatsoever, so I knocked it down.







To be fair, it was far too small and was right up to the corner of the house, so if you wanted to get into the back garden from the driveway you had to circle around the whole perimeter of the garage, which was a bit of a pain.

Here's the view from the back of the house, you can see there is quite a lot of ground beyond where the old garage was so I'm planning to partially overlap the old garage location and build out towards the back and side fences, giving me a bigger workshop, better access from the drive to the garden and less wasted/hidden space behind the garage.



Next up was my favourite bit so far, excavating! I have trouble explaining my love of diggers but I just can't get enough of them, I was literally on this thing from dawn until dusk, here is a moment when I actually let my dad have a (brief) go:



Man it was hot that day.

The levels in the garden aren't as flat as all that so there was a bit of messing about with measuring heights and such, i'm stuck with the finished height of the workshop because I want to lay a new slab directly over the old one (read: can't be bothered to dig up 5 tonnes of concrete) but we wanted to make sure I wouldn't be wasting time laying bricks in 5 foot deep trenches. We ended up with two steps that you can see in the back of the picture:



I put the profile boards up and marked out the final size, it will be 2 metres from both fences at the back left corner (my datum), which means no building regs required, 30 m^2 finished floor space which means no planning required. As long as I keep it under 4 metres in height it meets all the criteria of permitted development. I intend to build it as if I was working to building regs however, just because I don't need to meet a standard doesn't mean I shouldn't strive for it anyway.

You can see in the picture above how the footprint overlaps the old garage, I wanted to keep this under the new workshop because it is solid as a solid thing and seemed a shame to dig it all out. I've chiselled into the old base to make a small groove to lay my brick outer wall into, this will come as high as the slab (or maybe one brick higher) before I start building in timber. The triangle of old base left outside of the new workshop is going to stay too, it squares up the side of the patio nicely and is perpendicular to the house, i'll turn it into a fixed seat or make it a raised planter or similar.

After some annoying cancellations (concrete companies don't care about 1.5m^3 projects it seems) I finally got a strip foundation in:



This weekend I was able to lay some bricks!



A friend of a friend is a bricklayer and offered to come help set up the corners, I want to be able say i built this workshop myself, but couldn't say no to a bit of free experience. He came armed with a laser level and loads of tips for a noob bricklayer like myself, so if this thing doesn't end up flat and square then I have absolutely no excuse, it's level to a millimetre and square to 7mm across the diagonals, that's less than 0.1%

He also showed me how to point the mortar, so now I have to try to make the rest of the walls look as good as this:



Good old reliable August weather drove me inside at the weekend so this is where i'm at:



4 corners and one half of one wall, only 450 bricks to go...

 

[Aggrajag]

Great work there - keep us posted!

 

[Dandan]

I made a little more progress at the weekend as Monday was gloriously sunny, I have one finished wall!



I'm getting through the sand and cement at a fair old rate though, i'll need half as much again to finish I reckon. Remind me not to enter any brick buildings constructed by the salesman at the Builders Merchants...

It also seems I have mastered the art of following a piece of string, this looks suspiciously like a straight line:

 

[AndyT]

It's always nice to watch someone else working hard. Keep up the good work!

 

[sundaytrucker]

I get the impression I am going to be jealous come the end of this build, good work so far.

 

[Dandan]

I have 2 walls!



I was only able to lay bricks in between other commitments this weekend (and I can't do anything in the evenings as I work away from home) but i'm definitely getting faster, this wall went up at a decent rate.
Thats the meat of the walls done, I have 170 bricks left out of 620 so hopefully I can get that all sorted next weekend, although we do have a wedding to go to, and it's an overnighter, that could well limit my productivity...

I had a quick look at the 'Mikes Shed' sticky and i'm glad I did, the section he has drawn is almost exactly what I'm planning to do, it's good to know i'm going in the right direction. That reminds me, I must change the roof beams to 6 inches thick on the plan...

 

[Bm101]

I know your mate did the corners, but if that's your first brickwork it's excellent. Kudos to you. Even got the tonny bag over the mixer lol. Are you sure you're a mechanic?!?

 

[Dandan]

Oh, well thanks very much, I'm just following his advice really, the bit of string and the spirit level are doing all the hard work.
The ton bag was another of his top tips, so I can't even take credit for that, I'm just a good student!

 

[Paul200]

A great read! Jealous as hell of your brickwork (that's why I stick to timber!). Looking forward to further instalments

 

[Dandan]

Thanks Paul, maybe I missed my calling...

So can anyone point out any glaring errors with this?



It's basically Mike's shed section modified for my particular slab/brick combo.
Issues I may have uncovered whilst sketching this:

- With an air gap and 20mm cladding, my finished walls move 45mm closer to the boundary, my bricks are already exactly 2m from the boundary, so if someone were to ever complain and send someone round to check I was within permitted development, would 45mm be an issue, is that an allowable level of error? Could I minimise that air gap perhaps?

- I thought I'd have a ridge inside the building where the frame sits on the brick (as per diagram) but now I've just realised that I was using 112.5 for a brick width instead of 102.5 (without mortar, durr) so I can ignore that, I thought I might need to line everything with 18mm ply to overcome the width difference! Never mind.

-Mike used the bottom beam of his wall frames as a wall plate, rather than having a separate, half-lapped wall plate all around, can anyone comment on this? I thought the purpose of the separate wall plate was to be able to get it all level without having to shift big wall panels around, As he is a proper builder and I'm not, I think I might go with the separate wall plate to be safe.

Another question I have been mulling over, what is going to be my best bet for getting a decent finish on the concrete slab? I was hoping to use it bare as a floor and put rubber mats in areas of use so I'd like a decent, sweep-able finish.
Should I learn how to screed and hire one of those big bull floats? If so should I paint it afterwards?
Could I do a rough screed and get the dried slab polished?
Before anyone says, I know there is no insulation under the slab but I'm stuck with the existing sub-slab base and overall height limits and I don't want to build up the base any higher than it already is so I'm going without. I live in the south of England and I'll have power for heaters or possibly even a small wood burner so I can't see it being a huge issue.