My Garage / Shed build thread

[Lefty]

I’ve enjoyed quite a few of the garage build threads on here so thought I’d add mine - it’s work in progress (aren’t they all?) but getting there.

12m x 7m portal frame (two bays) with a mezzanine. Big enough to comortably take 4 cars, maybe 5 or even 6 at a push.

Wanted the mezz to keep all the accumulated ste off the floor downstairs to keep it clear.

Borrowed a mates digger and dumper (very hungover mate on dumper). Sloping site so levelled off an area about 20m x 10m, moving the spoil around to make some banks - the building is going on old ground, not the made-up levels.



Spread some hardcore and rolled it




Borrowed the digger again and did the pads and strips



Concrete poured (with some steel and the found bolts in)



Bit of work on the road up to the shed and a trench for power cable and water pipe



Big day! Steelwork arrived. Local fabricator / blacksmith / agri contractor.

Edited by Lefty on Friday 9th June 09:53

[Lefty]

We managed this in a day



Purlins on



Blocks delivered for walls (I’m having box profile for top half of the walls)



Tractor time. I love tractors. Little mixer and a big trailer of aggregate for the pad tops



Pad tops done:



Roof sheets on and blocks moved with the manitou



Blocks in progress

[Lefty]

Blocks done and a bit more hardcore down



DPM



Schwing!



Another mate has a screed-demon so kindly helped with the concrete (8” C35 with the thin fibre reinforcement)



Another load outside with a slight fall on it for an apron



Brush finish and floated the edges. Pleased with how this came out.

[Lefty]

Decided I wanted to widen the road and build up the ground beside the shed to make some more parking/turning/storage space.

Few more loads of stone from local quarry, I didn’t get to drive this awesome fasttrack though.





Ta-da



Getting ahead of myself slightly but this popped up on eBay and I couldn’t resist. 14kw of wood burning fury - the Villager A Flat Top. Bargain at £150.

[Lefty]

Started the floor for the mezzanine and some fairly basic stairs





Got the box profile on the sides and the flooring down





Another big day, galvanised electric RSD fitted.

[Lefty]

Starting to look like a proper shed now!

[Lefty]

Starting to move in



This thing might be in that corner for a while:



Happy New Toolchest Day!





And some racking from BigDug. The big stuff (big400) is great. The smaller stuff…hmm not so much.

[Lefty]

Having got a cheap stove I splashed out on insulated flue pipe. My son rubbed down the stove and painted it. Came out well, good enough for a shed anyway.





Sparky got started. LED tubes above and below the mezz, a couple on the wall beside where the lift will go. There’s also an LED UFO above the full height bay. And obligatory gulf sign.







Ordered a full height scissor lift which needs its own 20A isolated circuit so this got added retrospectively. I thought they just worked off a 13A plug - turns out I was wrong.



Scissor lift delivered today:

Edited by Lefty on Sunday 3rd September 11:52

[Lefty]

Proper steel side door, 8 lever thing




Got the digger back at weekend and put in a little septic tank and soakaway - another late scope change, decided to put a bog in upstairs. We’re not on mains water or sewage and the shed is actually slightly lower and 200m away from the rest of the drainage so it needs to be standalone.





Still lots to do.

Need flashings on roof and round the external columns
Drip tray
Harling (that’s what we call rough casting up here)
Gutters & Downpipes
Foam inserts under the roof sheets at the eaves
Decide on some kind of movable handrail/balustrade for the mezzanine - contemplating some galvanised farm gates.
Make water connection at well pumphouse
Route water inside the shed to the loo and sink
Work out where the toilet is going upstairs and frame it out for a little bit of privacy and noise protection

I’ve fallen in to the trap of not really planning things out very well or changing my mind last minute. Clients eh? The toilet is a retrospective thing so needs a bit of work to get lights sorted out and maybe an extractor fan.

Edited by Lefty on Tuesday 6th June 21:09

[Lefty]

Nothing annoys me more than not being able to find stuff so some storage for nuts and bolts and stuff:




Need to do something upstairs to make good use of the space. I think the toilet is going in The back corner near the Flue.

Kids are making noises about a pool table up there but I’m worried about cue balls breaking car windows downstairs

[Lefty]

geeks said:

I have shed envy and car envy at the same time!

Especially that Rallye I had an S1 in Black with some bits bolted to it and I still miss it to this day!

Thanks, I love the little pug. Never driven an S1 but they’re meant to be fabulous. Never seen a black one! This one of ours is a virtually stock s2, pug spot group n exhaust and a Quaife quick rack. No power steering, no frills, just a proper fun drivers car. Bodywork a bit tatty but it’s not rusty so that’s as good as you can hope for I think

[Lefty]

mickk said:

When does a shed become too large to be called a shed?

Looking great.

Well, to be honest I would have preferred it a little bigger but because of the slope of the site I was really constrained to 7m wide. I could put another bay on the front but it’ll take a lot of remedial work to the slab and I’ll have to move the door etc.

The mezzanine helps a lot, adding height to a steel building is really cheap, adding footprint is really expensive.

I think I might put a timber wall up and a roof to make a 3m wide car port on the long side - really somewhere to store my new trailer which just takes up too much room inside - it’s 16’ x 6’ (ish).

[Lefty]

Rob. said:

mickk said:

When does a shed become too large to be called a shed?

Looking great.

I'd say this is pushing barn territory!

Very jealous. Probably more square meterage than my house, and I'd absolutely love a Cerb.

Thank you. 7x12m so 84m2 downstairs and a 42m2 loft.

I saved a lot of money by doing as much as possible myself and enlisting mates to help with stuff I couldn’t do. I’m under £20k so far so it’s still a chunk of money but reasonable value I think.

The cerb is very much a project - engineless and rusty chassis. Getting an LS long-term. Again, doing as much myself to keep the costs down.

Cheers

[Lefty]

agent006 said:

mickk said:

When does a shed become too large to be called a shed?

When you can park a Jewson's truck in it, if this one's anything to go by.

Ahhh yes, clumsy bugger dented one of my z purlins

[Lefty]

Avenicus said:

Awesome is all I can say

Thanks, I'm pleased with it so far. Nice to have somewhere to work on the cars in the (relative) warmth and out of the rain.

Then a beer by the fire.

[Lefty]

Zarco said:

Great job. This is definitely a barn rather than shed.

Looks like a lovely spot too.

Thanks, yeah I refer to it as my BarN - got a fridge, sofa, Perfect draft machine beside the fire.

Quite rural. We’ re a few hundred metres off an unclassified road, nearest village is 3 or 4 miles away and we can’t see another house from ours. Very peaceful. Lots of snow in winter (often drifts 6-8ft) and can get pretty cold (-23 the lowest it’s been on the 17 years we’ve been here) but we love it.

Lots of local pubs closed during lockdown and never reopened so many of the farmers started taking it turns to have beers in their barns each week, it grew arms and legs and what started out as few tins sitting in hay bales became proper furniture and pool tables and real bars and hifi and dart boards etc etc. all good fun and very sociable.

This is a shed and workshop first and foremost, functional rather than pretty but with a fire for warmth and a few concessions towards after-work comforts. Like the beer machine and sofa.

[Lefty]

geeks said:

Similar I haven't driven an S2 but the S1 really was a great hot hatch, one of the unsung greats to me. Had an XSI as well (also in Black) just superb little things, would have another in a heartbeat but the money the pick one up now is daft.

Mind if I ask if you needed planning for this? Have permission from the wife for a new garage and I have just about enough room for something similar.

We're in Scotland and the rules are maybe slightly different. If you have agricultural land an agricultural shed falls under permitted development. You have to submit a form with some sketches showing what you're gonna build and where and they get a month (I think) to say no otherwise you can crack on. It's called Planning Notification rather than Planning Permission and makes life a lot easier. Still things to consider like distance to boundaries and drainage and stuff but generally very few ever get knocked back in our 'shire.

Just checked, you can build up to 1000m2 and max height of 12m as long as you have more than 0.4Ha of land. It has to be >25m from a road.

Edited by Lefty on Wednesday 7th June 07:35

[Lefty]

Car-wise?

Finish the TVR
Finish the mk2 escort (away for paint now)
Start the series Landy restoration
Buy more stheaps (never owned a v12 and I’d like to)


Building-wise:

Possible carport on the side of this shed
Eventually build another shed for storage and use this one purely as a workshop
Buy more land (it’s cheap up here!)
Wind turbine
Wife wants a new kitchen so might need to do that

[Lefty]

3.6te full-height scissor lift installed by GEMCO today:





Just single phase but it’s pretty solid and not too slow, about 40s for full rise.

I went and looked at a Chinese one for sale brand new from a local company and it was a horrible, shaky thing with thin pressed steel frame and skinny rams. I really don’t fancy working under a car on a lift I don’t trust.

[Lefty]

Not far, we’re actually in Aberdeenshire but about 20 distilleries within a half hour drive though.

I only keep the unique kegs, the duplicates all go back for the £5 deposit. I just thought that they looked nice but they’re also a handy reminder as to what I’ve had and what I haven’t