# New workshop build



## ollied1981 (12 Jun 2015)

Hi,
First post on here, great forum I must say. Thought I'd post some pictures of the new workshop I'm building. I'm more into metalwork than woodwork but the building is mostly wood so I reckon it qualifies for this forum 

So far I've made a reinforced concrete slab over a DPM and the 4x2 timber frame. The plan is then to sheath in OSB, Tyvek or similar then cladding over battens. The roof will be 18mm OSB covered in EPDM.

The external dimensions are 3.5m x 3.5m x just under 2.5m high. I've got a used plastic door and windows as thought this was easier than making them!

As a second step I want to fill the walls out with some kind of insulation and board out the inside. Considering moisture resistant plasterboard because I might want to weld in there and it's relatively resistant to fire and hot sparks!

Anyway if anyone's interested here's the progress so far.


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## woodpig (12 Jun 2015)

Looks good, what's your plan for the floor?


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## PAC1 (14 Jun 2015)

Just a question before you get too far but have you checked building regs they used to say something about building close to the boundary?


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## ollied1981 (14 Jun 2015)

If you're within a metre of the boundary building regs say the building has to be substantially noncombustible if it's got a floor area more than 15 square metres, but this is about 12 so I'm OK 

Plan for the floor so far is just to paint it to keep the dust down. I'm used to working on an uninsulated concrete floor but if it does prove too cold I might put an inch of polystyrene down then some plywood on top.


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## woodpig (14 Jun 2015)

Plywood on top of some insulation is a lot kinder to your feet than concrete if you can run to it.


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## Wizard9999 (14 Jun 2015)

Ollied

Looks like great progress so far on the 'shop. One comment, when building mine the advice I had was OSB on the inside of the walls, breather membrane on the outside. The logic being the OSB is so full of glue it acts as a vapour barrier, but if any moisture does get into the frame cavity the membrane lets it out through the outside. As you say batten before cladding to allow the breather membrane to do its thing.

Looking forward to seeing more.

Terry.


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## blackrodd (14 Jun 2015)

An excellent post! good pics and tidy job site. You have obviously done you're homework regarding the build,
looks a professional job!
If you say you are more into metal work, that would be really interesting to see.
Regards Rodders


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## ollied1981 (15 Jun 2015)

@Terry,
I've thought about putting the OSB on the inside as you say, but I wasn't planning to insulate the walls at first which I guess you would need to this way around. Also then the insulation would be directly against the membrane...how does this work out? I guess if you were using solid boards like Kingspan it would be ok but my initial reaction was just to stuff the cavity full of rockwoll because it's so cheap! What kind of insulation did you use?!

So this weekend once it stopped raining I put the roof deck on with a temporary covering of spare DPM:






Oliver


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## Wizard9999 (16 Jun 2015)

ollied1981":31fs38y7 said:


> @Terry,
> I've thought about putting the OSB on the inside as you say, but I wasn't planning to insulate the walls at first which I guess you would need to this way around. Also then the insulation would be directly against the membrane...how does this work out? I guess if you were using solid boards like Kingspan it would be ok but my initial reaction was just to stuff the cavity full of rockwoll because it's so cheap! What kind of insulation did you use?!
> 
> So this weekend once it stopped raining I put the roof deck on with a temporary covering of spare DPM:
> ...



Oliver

Yes, I did do OSB, insulation then membrane on the outside. I used cavity batts for insulation, basically the same stuff as you put in a roof but stiff enough not to slump in the cavity, like this:





Then breather membrane went over that, stapled to the frame:




I then put battens on the outside before cladding in feather edge board:




Seems to have all worked fine. If I had my time again I would probably not stuff the insulation in as much as I did as there was a little bulging in places which closed the gap to the cladding a bit, but hopefully this won't cause problems down the line.

If it is of any interest I did decide to put down 25mm of polystyrene insulation over the concrete floor and then laid 22mm T&G chipboard flooring...




...which I then painted with Leyland floor paint




Very happy with the result, feels kinder on the feet than the concrete did and just feels more comfortable generally. If head height and budget allows I would recommend it, but it is a relatively easy retrofit, well compared to adding insulation in the walls anyway. So if it was a choice between allocating funds to insulate the walls or put a floor over the concrete floor I would go for insulation in the walls with the 'right' construction.

Hope that helps,
Terry.


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## pike (16 Jun 2015)

Good stuff. That's just paint on floorboards? Great looking effect.


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## Wizard9999 (16 Jun 2015)

pike":ecpqo9uh said:


> Good stuff. That's just paint on floorboards? Great looking effect.



Yes, exactly. Two coats of Leyland floor paint straight onto the floating chipboard floor that was simply glued together. The chipboard flooring sits directly onto 25mm expanded polystyrene, no battens involved.

Terry.


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## ollied1981 (16 Jun 2015)

Terry,
What you made looks a neat job and very similar to mine aside from the brick plinth!

Pretty certain now I'll go with the OSB on the inside. I was thinking pallet banding might be a nice way of keeping all the insulation within the cavity and stop the membrane being pushed out. Was thinking horizontal bands all the way around the building maybe every 250mm in height or so...


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## MMUK (16 Jun 2015)

Wizard9999":uxe7qq2r said:


> pike":uxe7qq2r said:
> 
> 
> > Good stuff. That's just paint on floorboards? Great looking effect.
> ...



I assume that with no mechanical fixings you glued the T&G joints? Like you would with laminate?


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## Wizard9999 (16 Jun 2015)

ollied1981":2fkh1s9v said:


> Terry,
> What you made looks a neat job and very similar to mine aside from the brick plinth!
> 
> Pretty certain now I'll go with the OSB on the inside. I was thinking pallet banding might be a nice way of keeping all the insulation within the cavity and stop the membrane being pushed out. Was thinking horizontal bands all the way around the building maybe every 250mm in height or so...



The similarity had not escaped me either. And we haven't even started on an EPDM roof which I have as well, brilliant stuff! I think the banding idea is a good one.

Looking forward to seeing progress.

Terry.


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## Wizard9999 (16 Jun 2015)

MMUK":2jjsligt said:


> Wizard9999":2jjsligt said:
> 
> 
> > pike":2jjsligt said:
> ...



Exactly, no mechanical fixings, just glued together.

Terry.


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## ollied1981 (22 Jun 2015)

So Friday saw the arrival of 11 sheets of OSB3. This was the third supplier after the previous two had delivered OSB2 'by mistake' then claimed not to know what the difference was. I really wonder whether everyone gets OSB2 unless they notice what's printed on the board!

Anyway all the walls have now been boarded out now. I had to make a few more cuts than planned as originally I was going to put the OSB on the outside and had positioned the studs for that, but no matter.

A friend had suggested that it would be a good idea to put a strip of DPC under the floorplate, so I took the opportunity to before bolting the thing down. I raised each side a few mm in turn with a second borrowed trolley jack and slid the DPC under. So now it's bolted down and I don't think there's much chance of it blowing away!

Here's the boarding:













And the fixings:













Next step insulation and breather membrane.


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## Mcluma (22 Jun 2015)

That looks really good, how much overhang have you given yourself on the roof?


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## ollied1981 (22 Jun 2015)

Hi Chris,
The overhang is 150mm. Planning on some approximately 4x1" around the edge then capped with UPVC fascia board.


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## Mcluma (22 Jun 2015)

As its raining today,

just have a look at the front how wet your timbers are getting - especially at the bottom??

If you could - can you still increase it to about 300mm? it will leave your foundation, as well as your timber so much dryer


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## Wizard9999 (24 Jun 2015)

Looking really good. I think the two large, but high windows will prove a good design decision, max light without interfering with layout.

Terry.


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## ollied1981 (24 Jun 2015)

Terry,
My plan was to run a workbench along the wall with the windows, getting maximum benefit from daylight 

So yesterday after work I installed all of the insulation and then the breather membrane:











Next step battening, and then it'll probably have to wait a week or two as I'll be on a Scottish motorbike adventure.


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## Wizard9999 (25 Jun 2015)

Impressive progress, you put my work rate to shame.

Terry.


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## Adam9453 (26 Jun 2015)

I assume you've based your design on the OSB being the internal vapour barrier and have just used breather membrane outside the insulation?

I take it you're going to batten over the breather membrane before cladding to give the required air gap?


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## Wizard9999 (26 Jun 2015)

Adam9453":15do4t4u said:


> I assume you've based your design on the OSB being the internal vapour barrier and have just used breather membrane outside the insulation?
> 
> I take it you're going to batten over the breather membrane before cladding to give the required air gap?



See page 1 of the topic.


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## Adam9453 (26 Jun 2015)

Wizard9999":2nclwwqs said:


> Adam9453":2nclwwqs said:
> 
> 
> > I assume you've based your design on the OSB being the internal vapour barrier and have just used breather membrane outside the insulation?
> ...



Thanks I missed that bit


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## ollied1981 (29 Jun 2015)

So this weekend I've fixed all the 2"x1" battening (nearly 80m in total)










Fixed insect mesh over the gap at the end of each of the rafters (12 meshes in total)






And made some temporary covers for the windows as I won't be able to work on it now for a week or two..






One thing I'm not really sure about is how to flash the corners of the windows, or even if it needs doing at all as I'll have a cill. For both the door and the windows the plan is to turn the 2x1 battening on its side to give something to run the cladding up to. I'll fit the doors and windows so I can run a bead of silicone between the frame and the inside of these battens. But it's still not really clear if I need to do something more here...






I'm sure someone will have an opinion


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## ollied1981 (20 Jul 2015)

More progress has been made.

I've flashed the corners of the windows:





Painted the internal walls:





Painted the floor:





And fitted the fascias and EPDM roof kit:





Steel cladding for the two sides that aren't visible from the house next.


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## Mcluma (20 Jul 2015)

Looks very tidy


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## Wizard9999 (29 Jul 2015)

Roof in particular looks very nicely done.

Terry.


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## John15 (30 Jul 2015)

Looking really good Ollie.

John


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## yogibe4r (3 Aug 2015)

Great looking roof, what system is it please?

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk


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## ollied1981 (10 Aug 2015)

Hi Yogibe4r,
The roof is an EPDM kit that I got from Permaroof.co.uk, the membrane and all of the trims/adhesives was about £290 delivered.

Made some more progress:

Electrics are in:









Back two sides are clad in corrugated steel:
(the 135° bends are painted black now!)









Made a little soakaway for the shed and the conservatory which used to just drain onto the floor:









And this weekend I put lagging in the roof and put up a plasterboard ceiling. Naturally I'd bought an exact quantity of plasterboard, and dropped the last one as I was putting it up, snapping it on half. Originally I was going to have flourescent lights, but due to the limited head room, LED downlighters made more sense. They actually worked out a lot cheaper than four flourescent fittings too:









So once the ceiling is up, the only big job remaining is the shiplap on the two sides that are visible from the house. Looking forward to seeing its final appearance!


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## Paul200 (10 Aug 2015)

Following this with interest. Particularly impressed by your attention to detail.

Could you give more info on the soakaway please? I understand the need to stop soil migrating into the gravel - but what is it you've used? Is it just a weed membrane/geotextile or something more specific?

Thanks

Paul


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## ollied1981 (10 Aug 2015)

Hi Paul,
There's actually no gravel, what you can see wrapped up are soakaway crates. They're basically glorified milk crates that leave a big open void in the ground once they're all covered up.

You're supposed to wrap them up in a 'non woven geotextile membrane', but I had some weed control cloth left over so I used that. I've since read you shouldn't really use weed cloth, but I'm hoping in this application it'll be good enough - the soil by me is very sandy and water seems to soak into it very easily.

Oliver


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## John15 (10 Aug 2015)

I'm interested in your choice of lighting - LED lights. I've got restricted headroom and have fluorescent lights. Didn't think of LED's. They certainly give off a good light, I have them in the house.

The shed is looking brilliant. Lots of power points. I put in twice as many as I thought I'd need and all of them are in use! 

John


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## ollied1981 (10 Aug 2015)

Hi John,
I got ten 4W LED bulbs and the fittings for about 50 quid from Screwfix, and four 58W flourescents would have been around 100 quid, so in combination with the better headroom it seemed a no-brainer.

Totally agree with the power points - I've put separate circuits in for the lathe and compressor too, plus a mill I hope to buy in the future - basically anything with a big motor!

Oliver


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## Paul200 (10 Aug 2015)

ollied1981":3gdo5nw8 said:


> Hi Paul,
> There's actually no gravel, what you can see wrapped up are soakaway crates. They're basically glorified milk crates that leave a big open void in the ground once they're all covered up.
> 
> You're supposed to wrap them up in a 'non woven geotextile membrane', but I had some weed control cloth left over so I used that. I've since read you shouldn't really use weed cloth, but I'm hoping in this application it'll be good enough - the soil by me is very sandy and water seems to soak into it very easily.
> ...



Thanks Oliver. That'll be me then - years behind as usual :lol: Very useful - thanks mate.

Paul


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## ollied1981 (11 Aug 2015)

And there we have it...a completed plasterboard ceiling and LED downlights. Wiring the first one up and switching it on was quite fun, by the tenth, not so much:





Just need to roller paint the ceiling white and then I can move some stuff in. The plan is to try and bring the lathe from my mum's garage 6 miles away on Sunday. It's a very uncooperative ~600kg so that'll be fun!

Oliver


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## mindthatwhatouch (11 Aug 2015)

Very nice.


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## ollied1981 (12 Aug 2015)

And the interior was completed


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## Tonytygwyn (23 Aug 2015)

Very nice indeed...


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## ollied1981 (27 Aug 2015)

The outside cladding is on order but is taking a while to come so thought I'd move some stuff in. Moving the lathe from my mum's was quite an operation that required borrowing a trailer, making a trolley and a lot of brute force:













But we managed in the end and nothing got broke.
Next up was making a bench. A friend had some spare 50x50 box section so a day with the MIG produced this:












I got some inch thick ply for the surface, it seems a bit too nice for a bench top really!

Current intermediate project until the cladding turns up is modifying the compressor to rubber-mount the motor and the pump isolating them from the receiver. Hopefully along with some intake modifications this will help to quieten it down because it's pretty loud as it is!


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## Claymore (30 Aug 2015)

Superb build Ollie and better built than our home! now its nearing completion what sort of things do you make with the lathe etc? 
Cheers
Brian


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## ollied1981 (21 Sep 2015)

Hi Claymore,
All sorts of things really...I used to have a pretty big offroad buggy that I built in my mum's garage, but these days it's normally smaller bits and pieces for the bike. I made a couple of compressed air motors and that was quite fun.

So the cladding finally turned up, and at 5.1m long an inventive storage solution was necessary:




I went for one nail across the width of the board as people have suggested to hopefully stop the boards splitting when they shrink. The shiplap is all pressure treated and I used Ensele cut end preserver, but I'll probably paint it with some kind of water repellent after it's all weathered for a couple of months.




So now the shed is essentially complete it's time to tidy up the surrounding mess in the garden. Everywhere the other side of the edging will be filled with gravel. Mixing concrete by hand is hard work...


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## Mainman (21 Sep 2015)

That's a great looking shed Ollie. I really enjoyed reading the WIP. Without been too nosey could I ask approx how much it came in at. I am hoping to move in the next 6 months and hopefully will have the space to build myself a nice new workshop. I am really inspired by all the workshop builds and just a tad jealous.

Thanks Bernard


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## ollied1981 (22 Sep 2015)

Hi Bernard,
I can do better than that, I kept track of the cost and don't mind sharing it:

concrete 300
rebar mesh 60
shuttering timber 30
dpm 30
frame timber 280
door and windows 150
sheathing osb 155
screws 50
roof deck+firings 150
breather membrane 35
insulation 195
inside paint / floor paint 60
corrugated steel	220
epdm kit 290
fasica boards 50
gutters 35
electrics 200
shiplap cladding 170

Which comes to £2460. There were definitely some small items that I didn't count, but on the other hand I've got enough left over materials to build a small logstore type structure for keeping a chimnea/wheelbarrow etc under.

I could have put a sectional concrete building up for about the same price, but it would have been damp, had no insulation, and they look rubbish. Plus I wouldn't have had the fun of building it!


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## joscott10 (24 Jan 2016)

I'm contemplating renovating an existing shed using this construction. How did you attach the battens for the cladding without puncturing the breathable membrane (or is it not a problem to nail through it)?


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