Workshop from scaffold boards..

[dom68]

hi everybody.. im new to the forum.

im about to build myself a workshop but on a fairly tight budget. i have a quantity of paving slabs already and can source scaffold boards pretty cheap. my initial idea is to lay an approx base of 13ft x 10ft using the slabs. this would form the floor of my workshop not just the base. id erect 4x4 posts in each corner and use 13ft scaffold boards for front and rear walls and 10ft boards for sides.

this would form the initial structure for the workshop. can anybody see any problems with this as a basic idea?

any suggestions/help/advice will be much appreciated.

thanks dom.

 

[Rorschach]

That is no where near enough structure for even a wood store.

 

[MikeG.]

How are you going to form door and window openings? What's the roof like? What are you planning on supporting the roof on? How are you proposing to insulate the building? How are you going to keep water from penetrating the joins between the boards? How are you planning to stop the boards rotting? How are you proposing to prevent the posts rotting?

Frankly, you could build a reasonable shed with scaffold boards, but not this way. The little money you spend will all be wasted as water pours in through the walls, posts rot off at ground level, vermin get in under the bottom edge of the boards, and the whole thing blows over in the next gale-with-a-name.

 

[nev]

And theres a lovely welcome to the forum!

What is said above is true but it could have possibly been worded it a little more politely, simply prefacing with a 'Welcome, unfortunately your design would not work because...' would have sufficed but there we go.

Your slabs for a base idea whilst not ideal may be ok if they are slightly raised and within the inside of the structure so any water running down the outside of the shed would go past rather than onto the slabs.
Ideally you would make a frame for each of the sides from a minimum of 2x2 timber (2x4 would be better) with uprights no more than 16" apart. (have a look at any cheap shed in B&Q etc). You can make the door and window apertures to fit whatever door and widows you can acquire (check behind any upvc window suppliers they'll have a skip full). Then fix the frames together. wrap it in a weatherproof membrane, affix battens to the exterior, and then your weatherproof outer timber, usually a shiplap type so that each timber slots under the one above it so the water doesn't get in.
Thats a simplification but you should get the idea. see here for a simple plan..
https://www.buildeazy.com/shed-6.php

 

[dom68]

hi thanks for replies so far..

would the concrete slabs not be ideal because of cold/damp? would timber floor be better?

if i used more uprights say every 4ft or so and secured together inbetween would that be strong enough structurally or would i be best just forgetting the scaffold board idea and constructing frames for walls and using say osb or something similar?

i was originally thinking of some kind of chinking for inbetween the scaffold boards for waterproofing..

 

[Mrs C]

What is your budget? A cheap shed on your slabs might be better - you can then insulate and enhance as time/money allows.

 

[dom68]

my budget is probably 450 max.. like i said i can get hold of the boards fairly cheap but id need quite a few of them.. the roof id decide on when it was time to install..

 

[dom68]

maybe the question i should be asking is how do i best utilise the materials i have or can easily get ie the paving slabs and scaffold boards.

i can leave insulating for time being as mrs c suggested and install later on..

 

[Lazurus]

I think I would look for a second hand shed and modify to suit as time and pennies allow, your design would quickly swallow your budget. for that price you may even get a used prefab garage from the local selling sites - if your prepared to collect etc.

Welcome to the Forum =D>

 

[dom68]

yeah maybe i need to rethink

thanks for all your help!

 

[MikeG.]

And theres a lovely welcome to the forum!.......

Indeed. My apologies to the OP, and a belated welcome to the forum.



Scaffold boards can be made to work, and won't need a traditional frame at 400 or 600 centres, but unorthodox constructions need careful thought, and all sheds should adhere to the principle of raising structural and facing timbers at least 150mm above the soil on a plinth. There are hundreds of ways of doing this.......it doesn't have to be brickwork on concrete........but what you just cannot do is sit timber in or on the earth and expect it to last more than 5 minutes, or keep your shed dry.

With a budget of £450 for a shed of that size I'd be looking at Freecycle for a whole lot of concrete fence posts, for OSB, and for any sheeting or cladding materials you could find. Some free insulation would be a big help too. I'd build the plinth and the lower parts of the frame out of the fence posts, and work out my design from whatever materials I got hold of.

 

[ColeyS1]

Welcome to the forum Dom. You'll have a decent work area with an off the shelf secondhand shed. You can tart it up a bit when funds allow.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[dom68]

thanks very much

just for my own education then..

how long realistically will posts last if concreted in before they rot? and structurally what would be acceptable for a shed this size?

ive never built anything like this so just feeling my way along.

my original vision was for something that would look pretty.. bit like a log cabin..

 

[MikeG.]

I'd give them 5 years, maybe. Could be less.

 

[Lons]

If the ground is wet clay then probably less than 5 years to rot, could even be half that! I had a number of 3 x 3 pressure treated fenceposts in my field last only a couple of years

If you do use slabs for the floor you will need to put a damp proof membrane under them or your workshop will be continually damp from ground moisture, not a good place to store wood, tools or machinery.

I'd echo the others and buy a s/h shed or garage.

 

[julianf]

Used scaffold boards are cheap because they have stuff wrong with them. Sure you can get decent timber from them, but you will have a fair bit of waste unless you select them very carefully.

I guess if i were using them, id want to use them for the floor. I think id put the slabs down, then have an air gap, then the wooden floor.

Also, without work, they will always have gaps between them. I think that, if i were using them for walls, i would buy a roll of DPM, and batton that to the outside.

....but, as above, if you were paying for any of this, rather than just had a stack of it, it would be better to just accquire a shed. Sure, if you had a stack of boards, but, as you dont..

My scaffold board use -

That is a suspended timber floor, but has insulation, and dpm sheeting below it.

(Its supposed to look old, but had only been down a couple of months when the photo was taken.)

 

[ScaredyCat]

my budget is probably 450 max.. like i said i can get hold of the boards fairly cheap but id need quite a few of them.. the roof id decide on when it was time to install..

Not a recommendation just making the point that you could get an off the shelf shed for that.

 

[lee celtic]

Hello and welcome..

I'd say go for it.. you learn from mistakes.. My first shed was made from three hardboard doors two sheets of 9mm ply and one sheet of plastic with a sort of honeycomb through it used to board up windows of derelict houses in Manchester.. it stood for 4 years until I moved out of my Mums and housed all my tools and three motocross bikes....lol

to be fair I was only 14 when I built it..

If it keeps the rain off and the thieves out it's all good.

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

If you can be patient...
As already stated a secondhand garage or shed quite often free to take away, for the basic structure, save your money for improvements.
Start collecting free materials, building sites, window suppliers or the local classifieds. Ask first before taking from a skip. You'll be surprised what you can find.
Hardcore for the base, then slabs or concrete over it, insulation offcuts, doors, windows, scrap timber, maybe some secondhand hoarding for the structure.

If you haven't already look at the sticky
Build a shed mike's way. And lots of ideas on the forum builds.

 

[defsdoor]

Not a recommendation just making the point that you could get an off the shelf shed for that.

You can't call those things sheds. They use 1"x1" - that's basically trim. I thought they were bad whey I was looking for a new shed and was looking at the ones that were 1"x2". I halped a mate put one of these 1"x1" sheds in and it might as well have been made out of cardboard :O