Bike/general workshop/cabin/shed/garage arrghhh!

Hi All,
We are thinking of moving house. I obviously want a decent size workshop for all the bikes and hopefully space to do some woodworking some time in the future too.

Obviously it would be great if the house we move into has it already built, with power/light/heat etc, and preferably connected to the house via an internal door.

However to extend the house options I want to price something up that I can build if the house doesn’t have it already. I’d love a proper stone/brick built pitched roof workshop but I know these will be very expensive – or will they be? I don’t know!

Other options would be a log cabin type structure but they all seem to be “summerhouses” with loads of windows which won’t be good for security.

I don’t want a cheap flimsy shed.

I have thought about building one myself but I lack confidence. I see the threads on here about shed building and they do sometimes simplify things “laid the concrete base” but no details etc etc!!

I also wonder about what tools I’d need to build my own – I have quite a lot but would things like a nail gun or a sliding mitre saw be worth the expense

I don’t want to end up with a half built mess which has to pulled down or something that looks shoddy.

Help – what do I do?

I have struggled to find the shed links on here I have read before, if people could post them up it would be helpful!

I’ve just finished building my own 6×4 workshop. The satisfaction gained from standing back, admiring it and knowing that you built it is worth all the late evenings!
Go for it!

Any more details Murf? Pics?

It sounds as though you’re just looking for a justification to add a nail gun and a sliding mitre saw to your tool collection.

Aren’t we all?

i did do a step by step on here when we build SSdans shed but im struggling to find it now. the search on here is gash.

google found it .
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/new-shed-build

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/paul_murphy/library/Sharage

Should be a link to *ahem* a couple of pics!

Precast concrete panels. Make it any size you want, they come with different finishes, it’s secure and there are several companies over the UK that provide & erect them.

although – add more vents – we thought there would be enough of a draft but it seems there wasnt if you have damp surfing kit in there… so more vents were added.

Precast concrete panels. Make it any size you want, they come with different finishes, it’s secure and there are several companies over the UK that provide & erect them

I know what you’re saying, but they are very ugly. I’d rather spend more and get stone/brick/wood built to be honest. The concrete ones don’t seem to have windows and once they are up you can’t change them.

Need to build a shed once I’ve moved house and will be just like the log sheds we knock up at work, but fully enclosed.
Will just need a timber, spade big nails, a hammer and chainsaw(too lazy to cut by hand) as well as whatever I decide to roof it with. Managed to scavenge a door and frame.
Probably won’t involve a tape measure, square or level but be ‘custom’ fitted to wherever is easiest to dig the holes.
Do a search for pole barns.

pre cast concrete , very ugly , prone to damp , very inflexible once up , a bollocks to move , worse to dispose of …..you can get em with windows – mines has one.

can you tell i have a precast garage in my back garden that i dispise and would rather it wasnt.

Link added above.

did this about 3yrs ago
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/lets-build-a-shed
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/on-with-the-shed-building
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/finished-pics-of-the-shed

Stoner – love the brick dwarf wall on yours, looks excellent. Would something like that be doable to a DIY person?

I built a 14.5m2 shed last year from 100mm heavyweight concrete blocks.
Provided it is under 15m2, and meets a couple of other criteria you don’t need building regs/planning.

The only jobs I ‘subbed out’ were mixing the concrete for the base (had pre-mixed delivered) and putting the walls up (had a couple of lads put them up in a day for £450.

All in, it cost around 3.5k, that includes a made to measure galvanised steel roof, walls fully lined with celotex, and roof void filled with 25mm celotex and 100mm of rockwool.
It also has a steel security door, and a small double glazed unit.

I just need to sort the electrics.

for guidance – our shed in the link was 750 quid in materials.

oh and free agent

” Building a detached garage of less than 30 square metres floor area would not normally need building regulations approval if:

the floor area of the detached garage is less than 15 square metres.
the floor area of the garage is between 15 square metres and 30 square metres, provided the garage is at least one metre from any boundary, or it is constructed from substantially non-combustible materials.”

I could have laid the dwarf wall myself, but I had a tame brickie on site and he threw it up in a day when Id be pratting about making something wonky over the course of a week…..or….more likely I’d not ahve bothered with a dwarf wall at all and just laid sleeper floor plate with chembolts to the slab and damproof strip and just built the upper structure off that. It would have been fine. And easily doable by a DIYer, you just might need to buy/rent a decent SDS for anchor bolting the floorplate down.

What do you mean by floor plate? Is is a timber length just bolted into the concrete? And where does the DPM go, between the wood and concrete I assume?

I would have used some tanalized/dipped modern sleepers bolted down to the slab making the base/wall plate. (not the huge ones though). Then sandwich a roll of DPC between the top of the sleeper and the bottom stud rail of treated 3×2. If you put the stud rail at the outside edge of the sleeper you can then overlap your cladding and/or vapour membrane over the sleeper to cast any rain down below your DPC level.

If you also make sure your base has a fall around the perimeter of your wall plate then there’s even less risk of the sleepers sitting in water for long.

I built this a couple of years ago, 8x4m:

More paving by brf[/url], on Flickr

Velux grilles by Ashland Engineering by brf[/url], on Flickr

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/rate-my-brickie

Stoner – nice one, thanks. How do the uprights fix to the baseplate? This is the sort of detail I am struggling to find out online but it is important when making the whole thing solid and long lasting.

I could do with making a plan but that’d have to wait until I bought the house…..

I am guessing the permitted development limits are 15m2 for a wood shed and 30m2 for a brick/stone/block construction. Problem is 5x3m isn’t that big, is it?

I suppose I need to measure my current cellar and figure out what I really need.

45degree screws.
The more the merrier 🙂
Once it’s ply lined and clad, it’s not going anywhere.

Hi,

Currently building a shed myself. As in an actual shed. whats shows above isnt a shed, its a workshop / house imo. Dont get me wrong some folks are very talented and have lots of skill / money / mates to help them build stuff like this. Try building stuff like that on your own and you will run in to all sorts of fun stuff. Big ladders to get on the roof and all that stuff that i dont have. Its fun planning this stuff but I also very quickly found out how expensive materials are. Ive done it because i fancied giving it a go but after 2 weekends doing it its become clearer that i would have saved some earache buying a shed off the internet. Still its all fun and games but be clear about how much time and money you want to spend vs what you need. Im about 400 quid into my shed (admittedly 130 quid of that is a shingle roof etc so it could be cheaper) and im hoping i can pull it off but its taking a lot longer (for someone with no experience, help or propper tools (like a long ladder)) than expected.

Andybrad – that’s my worry. I don’t want to spend a lot on materials and find myself out of my depth and either find it wasted or try to fine someone to finish it which may be more than I can afford.

Stoner – love the brick dwarf wall on yours, looks excellent. Would something like that be doable to a DIY person?

Based on the basic questions you are asking, no…

tbh probably best for you is to buy a house with a garage and go from there.

Have a look at Structural Insulated Panel building too. Easy to get a good warm and airtight structure up cheaply and quickly, then either clad or render to suit the surroundings. Surplus panels go for not too much on ebay. Youtube for basics on construction method.

only hand tools needed

oh and free agent

” Building a detached garage of less than 30 square metres floor area would not normally need building regulations approval if:

the floor area of the detached garage is less than 15 square metres.
the floor area of the garage is between 15 square metres and 30 square metres, provided the garage is at least one metre from any boundary, or it is constructed from substantially non-combustible materials.”

and there-in lies the problem – it is the corner of my garden, less than 300mm from two different boundaries, and we don’t particularly get on with either neighbour, so didn’t want to risk them calling the council.
whole thing is constructed from/clad in non-combustible materials though.

Robson….do you have a budget?

As midlifecrashes says,have a look at sips panels.I built my shed out of them and if i can find some pics i will post them on here.

It is finished now so must get some up to date pics.

No budget as yet. I need to check out the options so I can factor in something when we move.

Sargey – that’s ace! Did you design it yourself or was it a flat pack type pre done?

I think one of the problems is that I don’t have confidence in my own abilities. I’ve made a few things including recently a double glazed wooden window (quite proud of that!) but haven’t done a big project yet. I like to know that I CAN do something before I start and know all the techniques and pitfalls.

Don’t think too long and hard about whether you should do it or not. Just do it and spend the time learning techniques techniques. You could build as per tratrailrat but build the sides 1 side at a time on the floor. Top and bottom rail with the studs every 400mm. Building this way you can screw through the rail into the studs ( two screws top and bottom ). You can then clad with the shiplap. One side complete. Repeat for the other side. Two sides done. Build a narrower side for one of the shed ends. Remember to overhang the shiplap either side of the framework so that it would cover the end stud of the sides. When using dry shiplap I always butt up tight to the previous plank and then release a couple of mm to allow for expansion when wet. You can buy tanalised shiplap. If freshly finalised you won’t need to allow for expansion.

I had never built a summertime before but trust my measuring/cutting/fixing skills.

I started with this

And got to this

Somethings just take longer to work out. Framing the roof was an absolute pain as the octagonal roof was irregular

Robdog,mine was all my own work. My advice would be to get doodling, draw some ideas up and research materials then steer clear of the big day chains, use local timber merchant etc,then have a go.

Find out where your local sawmill is. Ask about Heaney edge pine or spruce. Explain what your trying to build and chances are sawmill man will work out a cutting list for you…