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Post by durhambuilder on Feb 14, 2009 20:15:43 GMT
I will soon have the 'luxury' of having to build a new workshop following a house move. Ideally it will be about single garage size (16' x 10'ish) but I'm not sure whether to go for timber or brick. My budget for the build would be about £5000. Timber breaths and is easy to insulate but would masonry be better?
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Post by albert on Feb 14, 2009 20:33:42 GMT
Hello, I have s 10*8ft.double brick double glazed(recovered from house replacement) workshop,with blown air gas fired heating. Luxary perhaps but I have earnt it. If cash allows this is what I would recomend,no problems with damp or rust and can be working in in warm conditions within 10mins. on the coldest of days. With breasblock inner walls anything con be screwed to any wall with ease. Albert
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firebird
Seasoned Member
Conway now up and running
Posts: 149
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Post by firebird on Feb 14, 2009 20:46:44 GMT
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Post by Staffordshirechina on Feb 14, 2009 21:23:02 GMT
Due to a problem with subsidence, we had to completely gut our house a few years ago. This gave me the opportunity to have a purpose built workshop (what a shame!). I also built an outbuilding as a temporary store whilst the building work progressed. Personally, I would go for a proper brick-cavity-block construction with insulated floor, cavities and roof. Why as model engineers do we go for wooden sheds?? If you have the skills to build a loco then you have more than enough skills to build a brick building. It may take you a bit longer than a 'brickie' but it will be quite sound and far better than a shed. Also, if you work out the material cost, it is actually quite cheap. You can get purpose made roofing from industrial cladding suppliers and nowadays, Ebay will provide upvc windows for next to nothing. I have no pics at the moment but can take some if you would like me to.
Les
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firebird
Seasoned Member
Conway now up and running
Posts: 149
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Post by firebird on Feb 14, 2009 21:31:07 GMT
Hi
Just one thing, check with your local council re building regs, planning permission etc. Thats why I ended up with a shed type building. ( didn't need planning permission)
Cheers
Rich
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Post by spamcanman on Feb 14, 2009 22:28:07 GMT
Hi, £5000 is a lot of money for a workshop what you have to consider is do you want it to blend in with your surrounding garden or just be a lock-up type brick building. I have to look at my workshop every day because it's at the end of the garden in full view from the patio windows so I have built a tongue 'n' grooved summerhouse from the outside but full workshop inside. I am considering building a larger one this spring but am undecided whether to buy something like this cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&&item=290295911517&ssPageName=ADM or build my own out of block/brick
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Post by dickdastardly40 on Feb 15, 2009 9:37:04 GMT
I cannot give any advice for preference of timber or brick construction apart from brick needs footings and is probably more expensive.
A solid concrete floor may be better for larger floor standing machinery.
Make the access door/s big enough for said machinery or design in a shipping route.
I would advocate having means for as much natural day light as possible. Obviously you will need to temper this with relevant security measures to prevent people seeing any goodies inside.
My father's recently built 20'x 12' wood workshop now features an outside deck for working in the sunshine. A similar arrangement might be worth considering.
Hope this is of help
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Post by garethp on Feb 15, 2009 10:31:37 GMT
There was an article about insurance in MEW a while ago which mentioned that normal house insurance doesnt properly cover (if at all) the workshops / models we have. There was mention of a insurer that does a proper policy and I looked at their site - building cover for a wooden worshop is twice the cost of a brick one. I guess its because a wooden one would burn well if it caught fire!
Mines wood but its only 3m square - if I'd had the money / space it would have been brick.
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Post by engineernut on Feb 15, 2009 13:40:23 GMT
I have a brick built workshop (actually the garage but built on the side of the property so giving access as well from indoors). I have a small electric fan heater for the cold times but have no problems at all with rust on machines. Another main advantage with having brick and concrete floor is although I have a small brazing hearth I have no worry in doing silver soldering in there, whereas in a timber framed one I would be worried. I am thinking of building an additional shed, running out of room, in the garden but this would be brick again I think. I have heard the steel sheds are very bad for condensation Maybe if insulated properly this might not apply, and hopefully an answer will determine this, as a steel shed would be my second choice if I knew condensation was not a problem I would also just use the new shed apart from storage for silver soldering and possibly a bit of casting
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Post by Staffordshirechina on Feb 16, 2009 18:36:16 GMT
Here's a photo of my outdoor workshop. It is about the size of a single garage, has insulated ceiling inside and roofed with industrial cladding which is attractive and cheap. It is about 15 years old now. It required no planning or building regs. It is less than 15 square metres floor area and more than 5 metres from another building so is exempt. However, I think that nowadays you need building control consent when you install the electrics. I do not work in the building trade so no previous experience! Les
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Post by ripslider on Feb 16, 2009 19:04:51 GMT
I'm in the process of turning a garage into a workshop at the moment. Perhaps not completely relevant, but I have had some "slap forehead" moments, so thought they might be useful.
insulation has aready been mentioned, but it was only after I had insuluated my soon to be workshop that I read the "Insulation" leaflet from B+Q and realised I needed to let it breath. I was able to back port breathing vents in, but it was more tricky than it needed to be.
Which ever way you go, remember to build breathing into the plans.
Also, I had the floor concreted, and the lads came and did the thing where they level the wet cerment with a long plank. However, when it had dried, I decided to have a check with the spirit level and it had come out of level a little. This was fixed easily enough with floor screed, but again, it was worth checking.
Steve
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ewal
Part of the e-furniture
Happiness is a good wife & a steam engine.
Posts: 293
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Post by ewal on Feb 16, 2009 21:09:30 GMT
My workshop is brick, it is part of the house, it was formally the front room & part of the living room. The 7.25" track runs inside.
ewal.
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Post by ChrisCrosskey on Feb 18, 2009 9:07:09 GMT
Nice workshop... I've been checking up on the building regs close to me as I'll be in a position to build a new workshop when I move into my new place.... Cherwell DC exemptions state that as long as the area is under 30 square metres, it's 3m or less to the eaves 5m from the main house, and the electrics are signed off to Part P/17th Edition by a qualified sparks then you don't need BR or planning to get involved.... If it's made out of wood you need to be 1m from the boundary.... I'm planning a three-room workshop space, a medium one about the size of my lockup to take the stuff that's in my lockup ATM..... a big one with the main tools in and a small one for grinding and/or wet processes like etching.... chrisc Here's a photo of my outdoor workshop. It is about the size of a single garage, has insulated ceiling inside and roofed with industrial cladding which is attractive and cheap. It is about 15 years old now. It required no planning or building regs. It is less than 15 square metres floor area and more than 5 metres from another building so is exempt. However, I think that nowadays you need building control consent when you install the electrics. I do not work in the building trade so no previous experience! Les
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Post by Staffordshirechina on Feb 18, 2009 20:02:47 GMT
Chris, Yes I mixed up the sq metres, it should be 30 as you say. That gives us quite a size to play with. The rear of my building is just inside our boundary to allow for overhang and gutters. Fortunately I built and wired mine before the current wiring regs came into force. It is all done in 50mm square trunking at wall top height with plastic conduit droppers to industrial plug sockets and other such fittings. Very cheap, very strong, very safe and easy to add or modify.
Les
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Post by Workshopshed on Feb 26, 2009 13:08:35 GMT
Don't forget to enter shed of the year competition when you've finished the build www.shedblog.co.uk/
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Post by durhambuilder on Feb 26, 2009 21:06:51 GMT
Many thanks for all the ideas, especially the photographs. I'm hoping to be looking out of the kitchen window towards the workshop for the next 50 -60 years (I'm one of the youngsters of the ME world) so I think I'll go overboard and build a jumbo version of Malden's signal box! www.malden-dsme.co.uk/public/Pictures/slideshow/2005_05_Angel_Road_signalbox.jpg. Looks fairly simple to me and lots of light through the large window area. I have yet to tell my wife that my motivation for moving is the potential railway I can get in the 1/3 acre that goes around all four sides of the house!
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Post by spamcanman on Feb 26, 2009 22:04:42 GMT
what a coincidence as I will be building the Angel Road signal box from the same track for my club
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Post by durhambuilder on Feb 27, 2009 12:13:32 GMT
That's the photo I thought I'd linked to, obviously I have a liitle to learn still about computers! Anyway I think it has the makings of a cracking workshop
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Post by cookieboy on Mar 30, 2009 20:58:45 GMT
JUst to say thanks for all the very sound advice on the shed to workshop construction. Thanks to all the advice, and some brilliant help from my mate Brian,
One small piece of learning - I used insulation made from recycled PET bottles - special deal at Homebase at present - great material to work non itnchy quite easy to cut with a decent pair of shears - but do not try to screw through this material - it just gets caught up in the screw threads and snarls the screwdriver! Better to leave a bit of a gap where you intend to overlay with boards. I used 6mm ply and found this ideal.
The effort was worthwile as I now have a shed/workshop that can house my recently acquired Myford ML10 - 'Aldi' Drill and Grinder....slowly working on a Horizontal Stuart 10 and starting to realise how demanding all this! But again I really appreciate the help from my model engineering friends.
So once again thanks for the advice.
Cookieboy
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Post by durhambuilder on Jan 6, 2010 9:09:30 GMT
Well I finished the workshop a few weeks ago, brick with cavity walls, double glazing and 8" rockwool in the roof, almost better than the house itself. Can't get to work today so have to entertain myself at home, hmm I wonder where I can go?
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