Leofric

[the_viffer]

The fridge/freezer died yesterday. Erin and I had a row. She won of course. The plan is that a new freezer goes in the garage. However the garage is currently my workshop and of course there will shortly be another row about the swarf in the sprouts.

As luck would have it it seems that I'm going to get a bonus in the next few weeks. I'm thinking about proposing demolishing a tumbledown shed in the garden and replacing with a new workshop where I can keep my ME (and old taxi) hobby safe and warm and free from interference. I've seen ads in the ME press for sectional buildings from Leofric. Are they and similiar buildings any good? Is condensation an issue with them?

[Phil Sutton]

Hi There.
If,as I imagine, Leofric make sectional concrete buildings(or they did when we were looking for a garage),then the shell is ok,BUT,you must make sure that all the joints are mortared up well,and that you put a large fillet of concrete(4") around the base inside to keep out the water.Normally the roof is made of corrogated cement" asbestos",which seems to suffer a lot of condensation especially in winter.
If you can dry line the walls, have the roof sprayed with insulating foam,and change the "up and over"door with some thing more solid,then you will probably be all right.
I should know,we are shill suffering from water egress,and I thought I'd stopped up all the joints and sealed the boltholes with silicoe sealer.
Ah well,back to the drawing board....

Phil

[the_viffer]

Thanks Phil especially for the tip about the fillet. I'll make sure to go round an beef it afterwards

They are indeed concrete sectional buildings.
I'm currently looking at those made by Compton as they seem rather cheaper.

I'm planning a membrane in the concrete base and to dry line the walls. I can delete garage doors and just have a pedestrian door

Some of the products albeit not by either of the companies named come with an inch of insulation on the inside of the roof. Absent or additional to that I was thinking in terms of a false ceiling with some fibre insulation on top but is that going to get all manky and horrid?

Cheers

[Phil Sutton]

Hi.I would tend to go for the spray on stuff,as it is more water proof and sticks to the underside of the sheeting.A false ceiling with fibre insulation might be ok for a start,but "asbestos" sheeting does suffer from fatigue cracking as it gets older(around the fixing bolts and anywhere there is tension),and starts leaking.I've been round with the silicone sealer gun in several places already,and it looks like I'll have to have another go,or get a new roof,this one's about 15 years old.
Anyway good luck with your new building.

Phil

[steamjohn248]

Lookat www.meritgardenproducts.co.uk They do Wessex Garden buildings so called log cabin buildings so called because they are 44mm planks notched in the corners as per log cabins in the wild and wooly. I dont think they are dear, they come in all shapes and sizes and you can put one up in a day. all the prep needed is a concrete slab. When I've built my new workshop I'm going to have one as a chippy's shop and materials store, being timber you can do what you like with the inside and the ones I've seen demonstrated in the local garden centre look pretty well made

John

[denis M]

Tend to agree with Phil re the concrete fillets I could never stop the water coming under the base of my sectional building. Also could never stop the roof leaking when the bolts went through, tried everything.

One thing I may suggest if you are going to dry line the inside, do it with half inch shuttering ply and put fibre glass behind it, do the ceiling as well if you can. That way you can screw shelves, cabinets, indeed anything to the walls knowing that you will get a good fixing.
When the builders built my present workshop, sorry hobbies room, they used quarter ply and you have to find the studding to fix to.

[jackrae]

Re the use of boarding for interior walls

Firstly when I built my workshop - part of a solid stone wall garage - I lined the interior wall with polythene sheeting to prevent the damp coming in the way. Then I fitted 2x2 studding onto the walls using the rawlscrews which comprise a screw and grey plastic plug all in one. The studs were packed out where necessary to provide a flat plane. Between the studs I then fitted some insulation - in my case 1/2" polystyrene - but I now think this was unecessary. Over this I fitted 3/4" MDF as the final interior wall sheet.

Now to the base of my contribution.

Over the years have found 3/4" MDF used as wall sheeting as the answer to all my prayers about how to fix things to walls. A screw fitted into an MDF wall will NOT pull out and invariably snaps if enough force is applied. It also takes emulsion paint rather well so you can have your little hut looking really cosey in no time.

Be warned though, standard MDF is not water tolerant, but you can get a water tolerant version (green colour) to order. However a coat of emulsion provides an effective barrier to surface water/coolant. Also, if you wish to go the whole hog you can get a fire retardent version.

My only complaint is that it is darned heavy stuff but there again we engieeeers never like doing things the easy way !!!

regards jack

[SteveW]

All,

A point on external (water tolerant) MDF: its expensive, more in the region of kin expensive. We used a sheet on a table open to the elements on our club boating stage. Its been there a while and looks OK. It's just had a couple of coats of yatch varnish.

The other point is that this MDF wasn't green, just MDF colour and our expert did check this.

Our club had an old concrete garage donated. Its now our 'hobby room' for planning purposes and not a workshop. Ventilation is the feature we overlooked. Condensation has been a big problem even though its been fully lined with chip board. The other mistake was having the base slightly bigger all around than the walls but difficult to avoid. A fillet around the bottom helps but not enough. Having a raised or false floor inside would have helped keep water out maybe even a drain point. We've also had problems with ivy finding its way in though the gaps even though we sealed them during assembly..

My own opinion is that as a club we would have been better off going for a block built outhouse. This may have been more expensive but would have avoided nearly every compromise we had to make.

One point when you build your concrete box: An old friend had a concrete panelled garage that struck out just too far. He reasoned that he need only take the back off and move a pair of panels from the front to the back and re-apply the back. A party was assembled one afternoon and work started with a tea break once the rear end had been removed. Half way through tea the structure fell sideways and was left leaning on the house. Work then continued well into the evening.

[Phil Sutton]

Hmm,sounds like it should have been one corner at a time job!Or maybe a couple of acros to prop the sides up.

Phil

[the_viffer]

Bit of an update. I ordered a 8.5'x16' building from Crompton last week. Erin and I had a very satisfactory afternoon on Sunday demolishing the old building. We'll have a less satisfactory day next Sunday dragging all the debris (I can't believe how much there is) 25 yards to a skip at the front of the house.

Base being laid next week (Sounds like a joke: she was only a baselayer's daughter but she liked her underfelt?) with delivery of the building a couple of weeks later. So I could be lining the building over the Christmas break.

[Uzzy]

Just a quickie. Just a warning my Mother has a Compton garage used to be my workshop but in about 10 years I never managed to stop a leaking roof. Rain would come in on the overlap of the corragated roof! A friend has a workshop and as far as I know he has not had any problems at all.

[Phil Sutton]

Hmm.may be there wasn't enough fall on the roof to prevent rain water running back under the joints.A quick run round the external joints(if you can reach)with the mastic gun,or silicon sealer might help.

Phil

[the_viffer]

uzzy said:

Just a quickie. Just a warning my Mother has a Compton garage used to be my workshop but in about 10 years I never managed to stop a leaking roof. Rain would come in on the overlap of the corragated roof! A friend has a workshop and as far as I know he has not had any problems at all.

Thanks for that. I think they may now be wise to the problem as they rather pointedly say the roof is one piece to stop leaks from the overlap. We shall see.

Also to pick up on an earlier comment the roofing comes presprayed with some anti-condensation material. I'm a bit sceptical but we shall see on that one too.

Still it can't be much worse than the current shop which sweats and floods. Hopefully fewer rodents too. I shall long remember the look of contempt a snoozing field mouse gave me when I woke it to get some stock out of the scrap bin in which it was sleeping. Still bearing in mind the number of rats in the fields and stream (and once the kitchen!) I should be content with just field mice.

[Phil Sutton]

Hi Uzzy,better make sure your livestock licence is up to date!

Phil