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NickN

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Stourport, Worcestershire
... with a wabble of wowdy webels in a hutch outside.

I've been meaning to start this thread for quite a while, and kept putting it off, so anyway, here goes.

Not long moved into this house, but other than a double detached garage there were no outbuildings or sheds of any sort, and as the house is rather compact, just a two bedroom, there was no possibility of appropriating a room for a workshop, so I decided we needed a nice large shed for garden equipment, mowers, strimmers, that sort of thing.

Fortunately (read on, it'll become clear!), the chap who built the basic shed framework turned out to be a bit of a disaster in terms of keeping to budget and doing a neat job, which meant I had no choice but to learn fast and complete the shed myself, including putting a roof on, as well as the cladding for the front awning area, paving slabs etc. He did put the ex-telegraph poles in for corners, and did all studwork and most cladding. I say fortunate, because my wife, having observed my attempts at cutting, sawing and sanding timber and sheet materials, as well as making things for the ferret hutch, suggested that I seemed to be enjoying it and perhaps I might want to make the shed a workshop for trying out other woodworking activities. Wow! Well, my grandad had for a long time been a very keen amateur woodworker and carver, and although nearly all of his tools had long gone, I suppose something got passed down in the genes, and I became anxious to give it a try.

So, progress so far has been to complete the exterior of the shed with EPDM firestone rubber roof and shiplap T&G cladding, and inside to add 100mm height to the pre-existing concrete slab, first by placing a plastic damp proof membrane, then 50mm sheet polystyrene (weight bearing grade) followed by 50mm concrete, all mixed by hand using 10mm gravel and a 3-2-1 gravel-sand-cement mix. As the shed is a size of 19 feet by 11 feet (5.5 metre x 3.5 metre), you can probably imagine that was a fair amount of concrete, approximately 2 tonnes gravel and 1.25 tonnes sand, and a lot of hard sweaty work!

Because the cladding was mounted straight onto the interior vertical 2x3 studwork, I have had to apply a breathable membrane, Vent Classic, to the inside, so I decided to go straight across the inside face of those tanalised 2x3 studs, so as to maintain a sizeable air gap, and in any case as the initial builder had not spaced the studwork evenly, it would be a very tedious job trying to place insulation between them.

The shed has no windows at all, mainly for security as in recent times the area has gone from one where people left doors unlocked all day to one where regular thefts from sheds and outbuildings occur, particularly in the summer when extra agricultural workers turn up from overseas. It also made it considerably easier to get the cladding on quickly, and I plan to use daylight LED panels inside.

Before main construction, just corner poles erected:

kPVwYuF.jpg


After completion:

Psj24UM.jpg


Front view, including the wowdy webels:

9rPKtJr.jpg


Inside with breathable membrane attached:

ciGWWZg.jpg


3St6cD1.jpg


So, structurally, what's next?

- attach tanalised 2x2 battens horizontally round the entire interior and ceiling, at 600mm (yeah I know, building is a nightmare mish mash of imperial and metric) centres, so as to allow me to put Rockwool Slabs of 1200mm x 600mm x 50mm between them, up against the breathable membrane.
- staple aluminium foil type vapour barrier around the whole lot
- attach 11mm (metric) 8 x 4 (imperial) (hammer) OSB3 boards to walls, leaving ceiling as the foil barrier.

Then onto other stuff, electrics, floor etc.

Will update as and when!
 
Ok, an update.

Finally got all the 2" by 2" treated timber batten framework put up inside the shed, on top of the breathable membrane. A total of 36 lengths of 4.8 metres, plus 600 4.0 x 70mm decking screws were used in the construction of this part of the project.

I spaced the battens at 600mm centres, with noggins for extra rigidity plus to act as extra fixing points when attaching the vapour barrier in the future.

Took me about 15 hours altogether, being careful with the measurements and double checking everything. One of the days working outside for 6 hours was a day when the temperature didn't even get out of minus figures - took me about an hour just to warm up in the evening!

Initial basic framing:

vTBEXm4.jpg



Well, Makita didn't mind the minus 5 degrees Celsius as much as I did...

ES2I6IS.jpg



All complete, ready for the next step, insulation.

aAXD7G5.jpg


1ehUE6F.jpg
 
If anyone interested, another update on progress. I try to give specifics of materials used to help anyone doing similar.

After getting the battening out finished, I moved onto the insulation.

For this I decided to use Rockwool RWA45 Slabs (the other equally ok option would have been Earthwool RS45) at a thickness of 50mm to fit snugly flush inside the 50mm x 50mm battens. The slab size was 1200mm x 600mm, and annoyingly I had to cut a thin strip off every one as I had spaced the battens at 600mm centres, giving an actual opening of course of only 560mm or so. Grrr. It meant sharpening the scissors several times during the process of sizing the 10 packs of 9 slabs (90 in total). I wore latex gloves too as this stuff is severely irritating to the skin - not just at the time but for a while afterwards too.

Once the slabs were in place - even the ceiling slabs stayed put just by the power of friction - it was time to place the vapour barrier across the lot.

I needed a relatively thin flexible barrier/membrane as I will be boarding over the top, so I decided to try a Polish product called ALU Dachfol 110 - a triple layered aluminium plasticised foil which as well as being impermeable, helps with heat retention to some extent. I bought this from Ebay, a 50 metre roll of 1.5 metre width for about £40. Using it was easy, just stapled onto the battens, and it proved to be quite tear resistant.

Finally for this stage, I used a couple of rolls of 50mm wide aluminium adhesive tape to seal the joins and prevent any vapour getting through to the insulation behind.

Halfway there with insulation:

9UvSitK.jpg


Rockwool all done:

vyOsXYV.jpg


The label with the aluminium foil:

tljN2C8.jpg


Foil all done:

MTFv6fV.jpg


UL6WRSD.jpg
 
Somehow, missed this build entirely! Keep it up Nick. Looks good fella. Looking forward to more progress pics as you go. Love a shed build thread! As soon as it's finished you'll have to start another one to house them pesky lawnmowers etc. Trust me. ;) My bike lives in the kid's playhouse these days lol. Brutal.
 
@ mbartlett99: It's an amazingly sturdily built machine, having used it a lot now I can see exactly why it still gets good reviews years after it was sold new.

@ Bm101: Erm. You guessed entirely correctly! I have just had a 10' by 6' shed put up by a local company for, yep, housing the garden stuff, which originally was to go in the big shed but which now needs a different home...

Progress Update

Onto the lovely job of boarding over the entire interior of the shed.

I worked out that I would need a total of 21 sheets of 8' by 4' OSB 3 with thickness of 11mm - my nearest decent timber merchant, Davies, do the sheets for £14.39 inc. VAT plus a small delivery charge. I got them to cut 8 of the sheets into exact halves, to make 16 sheets of size 4' by 4' - these were to be used on the roof section, simply to avoid having to try and lift incredibly heavy full size boards up.

I decided to use Screwfix Turbo II Gold TX 4 x 40mm screws to attach the OSB through the foil onto the battens - these have a TX head plus free supplied driver bit and vastly reduces the chance of slippage when driving, important especially for overhead work when the angle could be difficult. I used my Makita DTD 152 impact driver for the job.

For cutting the sheets to size, well, initially I had thought about using my Bosch jigsaw, but soon realised that it would be a long tedious process and also that, when it comes to taking very thin slices off the edge of a sheet to get the size exact, it can be problematic, just like with using a handsaw - the saw blade wants to exit the cut.

So in the end I bit the bullet and bought a new toy, a Dewalt DWS 520KTL, plus two 1500mm tracks - all for a great price from FFX. I set up a little working 'table' of sorts outside, got the plunge depth just past 11mm and away I went. I have to say, this tool made it such a pleasure to cut the sheets, especially when it came to occasional "drat it, it'll need another 5mm taken off" moments. I actually felt quite sad when I'd finished, as I really enjoyed using this plunge saw! So useful, easy to use and far safer than a table saw for this sort of work, imho. I may have to do a review of it.

Anyway, some piccies:

Em6V12R.jpg


yFJl4PB.jpg


zZBpgYU.jpg


KDX16WK.jpg


Next - filling the cracks and gaps with decorator's caulk, then painting primer/sealer, then actual painting, then electrics... never a dull moment!
 
Loving this thread... Keep up the good work and yes a review of the Dewalt plunge/track saw would be appreciated.
I'm likely to be doing sheet work like that and I think a track saw might be on the cards... I have to square it away with the boss first though.

Are you going to paint the OSB? Thats a big job, and possibly would have been easier with MDF? I like the look of OSB in a workshop, buy the time you shelves, hooks, and tools hanging all over it, you hardly notice it.
I guess with no Windows though, it might be worth painting it a light colour. Could it be sprayed on?

Good luck keep up the excellent work and post another update soon.

Thanks
 
@ IestynD - yep, painting the OSB... read on... :wink:

So, another progress report.

After getting all the OSB boards in place, it was firstly time to fill all the cracks and gaps with decorator's caulk, flexible to allow for inevitable movement to some degree. I used Geocel for most of the job, from Screwfix at 2.49 per tube multi buy, and I ended up using 14 tubes in total... I truly have a shed held up by filler.

BUOaGW7.jpg


HkluQ9y.jpg



Then it was time to, yes, paint it all! Now I quite like the look of OSB, but there were two factors against leaving it au naturel, and they were:

1) No windows in the workshop, and although lighting will be in abundant supply, it's still better to have a light colour to help spread it around a bit;
2) Off-gassing, not really a huge issue but it is a well sealed shed and, well, I thought better to avoid if possible.

After a bit of online research, it appeared that the best way of painting raw OSB is to start with a sealer/primer/stain killer paint, oil based so as not to raise any fibres. Frequently recommended is Zinsser Cover Stain, so, I had a look and sure enough, my local Screwfix had it in stock, normally 24.99 a tin (2.5 litres) but with multi-buy and a sale, only 19.99. As it turned out, I needed just short of 5 tins in the end, so that saving was worth having.

I applied the Cover Stain to all 55 or so square metres of ceiling and walls using a 4" natural bristle brush - and let me tell you, my arm is nearly dropping off! :shock: That Zinsser Cover Stain is one VERY thick paint indeed, and it was jolly hard work coating the OSB evenly, as of course OSB is full of little cracks and dips and holes. It took me three days in total to finish the job.
I should also mention that the Cover Stain is oil based and has the legal maximum limit of VOC content, and even with two fans blowing and the door open, after the three days work I feel distinctly headachy, not something I'd want to be doing every day.

Anyway, next job is now the electrics installation, followed by a top coat to the walls and ceiling of Leyland Trade Vinyl Silk, hopefully a bit easier this time round.

Some photos for your enjoyment:

FpD9CTH.jpg


y6DpKSh.jpg


iVDNE2o.jpg


4w4jDJB.jpg
 
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