# Danny's Small Workshop Build (WIP)



## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

For years I have always wanted a reasonable place to be able to work on projects, as I'm still living with my parents I usually have to resort to an extremely crowded cellar or work outside depending on the weather. Not having a nice place to work usually means I don't bother at all  however I’m about to change that! I have finally talked my parents into losing a good portion of the garden so that I could have a small workshop.

I did consider just purchasing a large ready made garden shed however I quickly changed my mind after looking at many of them. I came to the conclusion that they are incredibly poor value considering the size of the “timber” used in them, I've seen thicker bits of wood fall down the insert on a table saw. :lol:

Obviously not all sheds are so terrible, there are a few good options out there but you definitely pay a premium for them and even then they aren't perfect. For about the same money I might as well build my own using much better materials and end up with a well built and insulated building.


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

*01/11/2014*
I spent the whole day taking down the greenhouse, I thought it would take me about 3 hours at most but It actually took over 7 hours! I had forgotten that a lot of silicone had been used in the construction :shock: and a lot of the nuts and bolts were rusty too. I was hoping to get the wooden base cleared too but it started to rain heavily at about 17:00 and it was about to start getting dark anyway so I decided to call it quits for the day.


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

*02/11/2014*
Rather then continue removing the wooden base from the greenhouse I decided to take advantage of the good weather and started the not so fun task of installing 17m of 6mm² 3 Core SWA cable through the house. The best route to take was to go through the extension wall underneath the bathroom where there is a small cellar/crawlspace which is full of junk and of course had to be emptied. :roll: 

The cable then went up through the wall into the kitchen behind the rear legs of all the cabinets and then through another wall into under the stairs where the electric meter is located. I also installed 30m of Cat5e UTP data cable along side the SWA and through the rest of the house to the nearest network switch.


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

*05/11/2014*
Today started out with the first delivery of materials! OK it's not a very exiting one but it's certainly a start. This delivery contained 7 600x600x50mm concrete paving slabs, 5 25kg bags of grit sand and a 25kg bag of building sand. Although I’m not quite ready for them I got them in-case I need them this weekend.

The first job of the day was carrying everything from the delivery around the back which took me about 20 minutes as my fitness is rubbish.  After that I started to remove the wooden base that the greenhouse was built onto which turned out to be a total pain. :roll: Not only was it screwed to the paving slabs with a bunch of L brackets and heavily corroded screws but the 6x100mm screws used to hold it together just wouldn’t budge, even my 18V 3 speed impact driver wouldn't budge them on its highest torque setting, I ended up getting the bar and hammer on them.

I then started moving some raised beds that will be in the way of the build, this was a fair bit of hassle too as I had to move some plants into pots and then bag all of the soil so it can be reused into new raised beds after the build. Not exactly hard work but it was very time consuming and I still didn't get them all moved today.

Finally I gave the paving slabs from under the greenhouse a quick power wash as well as the fence in hopes that I get the chance to paint it this weekend as once my workshop is built it would no longer be accessible other then possibly standing on the roof and lifting the panels out.


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

*08/11/2014*
Today was a rubbish, It rained for most of the day so I tried to make the most of it. First of all I went to Toolstation and purchased a “few” screws and misc supplies and then late in the afternoon the rain let off a bit and I managed to get in about an hours work. I moved the last of the raised beds over, I had ran out of bags to put the soil into so I went about moving it the hard way.

You want to know what the hard way was don't you. :lol: Well go on then I suppose I’ll tell you. I dug out the soil about 6 inches wide and piled it to one side of the raised bed and then knocked the wooden frame across the ground with a lump hammer, I repeated this process another 5 times to move the bed about 3 feet. :roll:


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

*09/11/2014*
Today’s weather was looking a little bit more promising so I decided to take the opportunity to paint the fence as I may not get many more good weather days, though saying that it was only 1 degree above the minimum stated on the tin and I lashed the paint on very quickly in fear of rain. I got just as much paint on the concrete posts as I did the fence panels. :roll: And then about an hour later the rain came along again so I didn't really get to do much else today.


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

*16/11/2014*
Today I finally spent a couple of hours paving the area for my workshop. The original plan was to pave just the area underneath and in front of the door but my parents are now thinking of paving the whole garden, so I just got the 6 directly underneath down so that I can continue the build, the others can be done later on. Obviously I wasn't going for looks with these as there’s already 2 different sizes in the garden so another won't hurt. :lol:


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

*20/11/2014*
Today started out with a delivery of materials, this ones a little bit more exciting and contained 12 4.8m lengths of 100x47mm PAR treated and graded timber, 4 sheets of 18mm plywood and 4 sheets of 50mm polyisocyanurate insulation (Celotex  ). My dad and the delivery driver :shock: helped me take everything it into the back garden in no time at all which meant I could get an early start.

I couldn't be bothered setting up a chop saw so I cut everything with a handsaw, wait that’s the opposite of lazy isn't it? :? Anyway within an hour or so I had all the floor joists cut to length and screwed together which meant I could start levelling it. It's worth pointing out that the paved area isn't level for drainage reasons, but it meant that levelling the floor was a real pain in the rear and it was quite time consuming and since all I had at hand for packers was various combinations of treated batten and offcuts of various uPVC trims which I cut into packers. 

Having now got it level around the perimeter I cut and installed all the noggins to pick the edge of the plywood up. Although there really wasn't as much flex in the joists as I was expecting, I still went ahead and packed under the middle of each joist to bring the span down from 2400 to 1200mm as planned. You never know what weight in machinery you may end up putting on a floor. 

After double and triple checking for level, I then went around and skewed some screws through the joists into all the packers to prevent them from ever moving. At this point it was getting dark so I laid out the insulation and plywood over the framing and threw a big tarpaulin over the lot. And you will never guess what? It wasn't big enough, it was short by about 100mm and to really pee me off it started to rain.

My biggest concern was keeping the plywood dry so taking the tarpaulin off again and stacking the plywood in a pile in the middle while the heavens opened wasn't really an option. I had another tarpaulin the same size but it was full of holes so I quickly folded it 4 times to get to a good bit of the tarpaulin and then proceeded to build a makeshift box gutter using the old timber from the greenhouse base, this was placed under where the tarpaulins overlapped. At this point I crossed my fingers and called it a day!


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

*22/11/2014*
There had been heavy rain all day yesterday, so much in fact that due to my constant worry I picked up a 4x25m roll of light duty polythene sheeting early in the evening, I would of preferred something heavier like a damp proofing membrane but it's what I could get at the time and as long as I’m careful with it, it should keep things dry. However when I got the first chance to have a look under the tarpaulins everything was dry so I didn't bother with it, my makeshift box gutter seemed to work a treat!

Today was forecast to be the same as yesterday but the sky looked pretty clear so I decided I should try and do a bit but just be ready with the polythene sheeting. The first task was to drill through the bottom of the edge joist and run the SWA and Cat5e cables through, since I wasn't using SWA data cable or even outdoor rated data cable I ran it through a short length of garden hose for a bit of extra protection.






Next up was to install battens to support the insulation between the floor joists, I made up a simple jig for locating the battens 50mm from the top of the floor joists so it didn't take long to do all 48 of them.






I then started installing the insulation and plywood, as I was installing the last of the insulation under the second sheet of plywood the heavens opened so I had to quickly cover everything and just as I got everything covered the sky cleared again. :roll: I figured I would just try and get the second sheet of plywood installed and then call it a day, I dragged the polythene back again and then marked and drilled through the plywood and brought the cables through and then trimmed the excess off with a hand saw. I covered everything back up again and called it a day!


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

*23/11/2014*
Today I just spent a couple of hours getting the last 2 sheets of insulation and plywood installed.











Since I'm not sure when I'll be able to continue with the build I went back to using a tarpaulin over the top of the polythene as its a bit heavier and is less likely to be damaged by strong winds, and now that the plywood has been trimmed to size the tarpaulin actually fits (barely!)


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

*26/11/2014*
Today was a little bit of a wasted day really, the majority of the morning involved 2 deliveries, the first one contained 24 5m lengths of 300mm uPVC hollow soffit and 8 5m lengths of starter trim. The second delivery contained 38 4.8m lengths of 100x47mm PAR treated and graded timber, 11 4.8m lengths of 150x47mm PAR treated and graded timber, 17 sheets of 11mm OSB3 and another 4 sheets of 50mm polyisocyanurate insulation. This delivery contains enough to get the walls and part of the roof done, just enough to be able to throw a tarpaulin over it to create a mostly dry building. 

After all of the materials were stacked in the back garden I decided not to bother doing anything in the afternoon, it had rained on and off all morning so I decided I likely wouldn't get much done anyway. Though by the time it got to 17:00 and it hadn't rained at all in the afternoon. :roll:


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

*29/11/2014*
The plan for today was to get the rear wall framed, sheathed, cladded and then braced into position and perhaps make a start on the side walls. However as soon as I stepped outside it started to rain for about 15 minutes, looking at the sky the weather didn't look too promising and I didn't feel like uncovering the floor only for it to rain again. 

Instead I decided to spend a few hours sorting through the timber and cutting all 50 vertical studs to length and as it kept trying to rain It was all done with a hand saw again. So not really a very productive day but hopefully it should speed things up tomorrow, assuming the weather is reasonable.


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## Woodchips2 (29 Nov 2014)

Well done Danny =D> 

How will you maintain the back and side walls that are close to the fence?

Regards Keith


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## John15 (29 Nov 2014)

Very interesting build Danny - looking forward to the next stage.

John


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## Danny (29 Nov 2014)

Woodchips2":2d8jf9fu said:


> How will you maintain the back and side walls that are close to the fence?


It's going to be cladded in uPVC, this stuff (note I did not use this supplier)


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## flying haggis (30 Nov 2014)

that upvc cladding looks good and per sq metre seems good value


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## n0legs (30 Nov 2014)

Good work Danny =D> 
Cracking start you've made there.


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## mindthatwhatouch (30 Nov 2014)

Really good start Danny, 
Can I ask if you have put anything under the base to stop the damp coming up from the ground? 

The best idea before its too late, try and get that base up above ground level a bit, maybe you could lift one end lay a course of bricks or blocks and then lift the other. It will make a huge difference to the longevity of the workshop.

Keep up the good work, I know how you feel battling with the weather.


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## beech1948 (30 Nov 2014)

Danny,

How are you cladding this with soffit boards. Vertical or horizontal and how will you seal the edges since they seem to lack a positive seal to disperse water away from the wall.

I'm not being critical just curious about the possibility as I have to build up to a boundary which the planners are insisting must be non-inflammable.


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## Danny (30 Nov 2014)

flying haggis":32shlbyo said:


> that upvc cladding looks good and per sq metre seems good value


It is good value, assuming you get it from a local dealer and not the likes of Screwfix, it works out cheaper than wood and you don't have to maintain it. 



mindthatwhatouch":32shlbyo said:


> Can I ask if you have put anything under the base to stop the damp coming up from the ground?
> 
> The best idea before its too late, try and get that base up above ground level a bit, maybe you could lift one end lay a course of bricks or blocks and then lift the other. It will make a huge difference to the longevity of the workshop.


I presume your asking if I used a damp proof membrane under the base, I didn't bother since really I don't think it's needed in my situation, besides it would probably do more harm then good by holding any rain water that gets in from the build. As for getting the base above ground level.. It already is above ground level, the concrete paving slopes towards the fence to the left for drainage where as the base is level so from right to left the whole base is packed off the ground about 5 to 40mm, there is no wood in direct contact with the paving slabs at any point as there are plastic packers under any wood packers used. Plus it's all treated timber anyway.



beech1948":32shlbyo said:


> How are you cladding this with soffit boards. Vertical or horizontal and how will you seal the edges since they seem to lack a positive seal to disperse water away from the wall.


The cladding is going to be horizontal, the uPVC hollow soffit is usually installed using corner trims such as these however because the trim's are a tight fit onto the cladding and I won't be able to get at them to open them up I'm going to be using this edge trim on the edge of each wall and just run a bead of silicone along where they butt up to each other before I slide the wall into place. By the way if your planners are insisting on fire resistant cladding i'm pretty sure they won't let you use PVC either.


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## Danny (30 Nov 2014)

*30/11/2014*
Today was forecast to be a nice day so I was really keen to make a dent in build today. I started building the rear wall which had to be supported on a couple of lengths of timber so that the cables that come through the floor wouldn't get damaged during the construction. Once I got all the studs screwed into the top and bottom plate I moved the whole wall back to clear the cables and removed the support timber.

Next up was to square the wall up and install all the noggins to pick the edge of the OSB3 up, remembering to allow for a 100mm overlap at the bottom of course.







:shock: OK time to admit to my first mistake, I remembered to allow for the 100mm overlap on the OSB3 when I measured for the noggins *but I did it on the wrong side!* #-o So I now had to remove all the noggins and reinstall them a few inches the other way, I'm glad I used screws! :lol: If you look carefully at the picture below you will notice there are two sets of black lines on each stud to mark the noggin locations so I had to admit to it. :lol: You can also see that I put the last noggin in on edge so that the SWA cable could pass underneath so it's out of the way.






After that was cutting and installing the OSB3. There's a 100mm overlap on the bottom to cover the majority of the rim joist from the floor and then there is an 11mm overlap at the left and right side to allow for the OSB on the side walls. There goes another couple hundred screws. :roll: It was starting to go dark really early! Well I thought it was about 14:00 but it was actually 16:05, what the heck? Where has the day gone? The weather has been great and I've done sod all, I'm no where near where I wanted to be at today. Oh well, time to get everything covered up before it gets really dark!


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## katluke (4 Dec 2014)

Nice work so far but you need some dpm underneath the timber base. The base is going to be sitting on the ground 24/7 365 days a year with nothing to stop the damp getting into it.
If there isn't any dpm at all under the base ? The damp will transfer straight through the packers into the base.
What material is the packers made from ? If there Timber ( esp softwood) they won't last to long, plastic ones will stop the transfer of damp.
A better solution might have been to use roofing slates to level the base with a piece of dpm between the top slate and bottom of base to stop the transfer of damp. Or if your happy to use timber packers you could have put a piece of dpm on top of the packers between them and the base. As already said in post above the longevity of shed will be seriously diminished without dpm and the shed will also be damp .


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## Danny (5 Dec 2014)

katluke":1qv77xrk said:


> Nice work so far but you need some dpm underneath the timber base. The base is going to be sitting on the ground 24/7 365 days a year with nothing to stop the damp getting into it...


I'm really not worried about it, there is no wood in direct contact with the ground at ant point as there are plastic packers under every point. The wooden base which the greenhouse used to sit on was in direct contact with the ground and that was there for around 7 years and the greenhouse was bone dry on the inside. So i'm really not concerned about my workshop floor at all. If I was building directly on top of soil then of course things would be different but the concrete paving drains the water away.


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## Danny (6 Dec 2014)

*04/12/2014*
Today was another crappy day weather wise but I managed to get in a couple of hours in the afternoon. I got one of the side walls framed and sheathed in OSB, just as I was putting the last of the screws in the OSB it started raining again so I didn't get a picture of it finished. I'm sure you can use your imagination.


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## Danny (6 Dec 2014)

*06/12/2014*
Again due to the weather I had another late start today. I managed to get the other side wall framed and sheathed and then started with the breathable membrane. By the time I had got one side wall covered it was already fairly dark so I called it a day. The weather for tomorrow looks terrible so I doubt I'll be doing any more this week.


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## brianhabby (7 Dec 2014)

Interesting build Danny, I am also building a new garden workshop but I decided to buy a ready built shed instead of building it myself and I must say I am very happy with it so far. I will watch your progress with interest. 

regards 

Brian


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## Danny (8 Feb 2015)

*13/12/2014*
After a whole week of heavy rain and strong winds today's weather forecast of “Cloudy and light showers in the morning with heavy rain throughout the afternoon and evening” seemed fairly good considering the week we just had so I thought I'd see what I could get done today.. :lol: 

I got started cladding one of the side walls, the first task was installing the edge trims. This was actually quite time consuming as the positioning is fairly crucial and took a lot of measuring and head scratching, it's much easier to position them on an already installed wall that's for sure. As the OSB is only 11mm thick I used 3.5x12mm screws approximately every 100mm.






After that installing the siding went fairly quickly, it's secured by a hidden clout nail into every stud. Just as I started cutting the last piece for this wall it started pouring with rain so I had to quickly cover everything back up again and call it a day.


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## Danny (8 Feb 2015)

*21/12/2014*
I started out today installing the last piece on the left side wall, as the top row can't easily be secret nailed I used some 30mm plastic coated nails into every stud.

Next up I installed the breathable membrane onto the right side wall, It was very windy as I was doing this and was a bit of a nightmare to do by myself so It took way longer then it should of, it probably took about an hour!. After that I got the 3 edge trims installed and then started installing the cladding, as I got around half way up I just caught the face of the cladding with the hammer and because it was so cold it shattered a big chunk out of it. 
I didn't order any spare cladding but luckily the top row is a cut and will just about chop the damage out so it's not an issue. Just as I was measuring to cut the top row of cladding it started raining. Deja vu?


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## Danny (8 Feb 2015)

*06/02/2015*
Finally! I started working on my workshop again, the weather here has been miserable since the last update. Ideally I needed at least 2 days in a row of good weather to continue. And it's taken well over a month to get it.

The first task was to get the last piece of cladding on the right wall installed and than move the two side walls out of the way so that the back wall can be worked on. I can just about raise the side walls on my own but moving them is a different story.

With the help of my brother the side walls were positioned just off to the side and braced for a bit of safety as I don't fancy one of them falling on me. You may notice the left wall is upside down, this is so it can just be lowered and slid into place.

With the back wall clear I could then get on with installing the breathable membrane.






The back wall cladding went smoothly and fairly quickly for its size.






After the wall was clad it was time to raise it. I was a little concerned knowing how heavy the side walls are and they are half the size. It was a bit of a struggle but we just about managed it. It was then temporary braced.

Next up was to run a bead of silicone up the edge trim on the back wall and then the left side wall was moved into position and the two of them screwed together with 150mm screws. No pictures of this as it was dark but my trusty headlamp let me continue.

It got to 19:00 and I was so exhausted at this point that I just couldn't be bothered to tarp anything up, I called it a night just hoping that it didn't rain.


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## Danny (8 Feb 2015)

*07/02/2015*
Before I started today I took a picture of last nights progress. It's finally starting to look like a workshop rather than a very large piece of flat pack furniture.






The first task of the day was lifting the right side wall into position, again a bead of silicone where the two edge trims meet in the corner. 






Next up was framing the front wall, notice in the above photo there’s a Rehau uPVC door. Here's a tip, rather than building your walls and than getting custom made windows and doors to fit your measurements, phone around your local manufacturers and ask if they have any surplus in stock.

It's quite common for them to be stuck with custom windows or doors, either from cancelled orders or screw-ups with the measurements. Many are most likely willing to sell them at cost just to get them out of the way. Then build your walls to fit the windows or doors. The door I got was intended for a conservatory and had a glass unit which I didn't want but the window company was more than willing to supply it with a solid panel to match the cladding instead. Eventually I'm going to add some extra security over the panel on the inside as they are only foam and plastic.






I got the bulk of the front wall framed out, leaving the noggins and door head for another time. The weather forecast for tomorrow didn't look too promising so I wanted to get a temporary roof on so it can be well protected for the week.

As it was getting dark I didn't manage to get any more pictures today, the temporary roof consisted of 6x2's screwed down flat, on roughly 2' centres and 4 sheets of OSB just tacked down every so often. I then installed a tarpaulin over it with battens, screwed into the top of each wall plate. I never like to use the grommets in tarpaulins as they rip so easily. I installed another tarp over the exposed front wall. Again another day saved by my headlamp.


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## n0legs (8 Feb 2015)

Fair play Danny you will have a lovely looking workshop and by the looks it won't be so small.
Great work, keep it up =D>


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## blackrodd (8 Feb 2015)

An excellent move, using off sized plastic window and door frames, for an effective cheap build.
I found that it's best to double up the studs each side for the door and frame to be fixed in to or you may well find you have a solid door and frame fixed into a light frame work and it can feel really "flimsy", being open and closed.
And not always easy to rectify after.

Regards Rodders


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## Danny (15 Feb 2015)

blackrodd":27knahr2 said:


> I found that it's best to double up the studs each side for the door and frame to be fixed in to or you may well find you have a solid door and frame fixed into a light frame work and it can feel really "flimsy", being open and closed. And not always easy to rectify after.



If you look at the last picture (032.jpg) in my previous update you can just about see that they are doubled.


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## Danny (15 Feb 2015)

*14/02/2015*
I took a photo of the temporary roof I threw together. There has been quite a lot of rain over the last couple of days and there’s only one tiny drip in the middle where there is probably a pin hole in the new tarp. But other than that everywhere seems to be bone dry. 






Today's weather was looking a bit too unpredictable to be framing the roof so I did a few other things instead. 

First off, I decided to build a high quality maple workbench with an iroko inlay, but it didn't quite turn out as expected... #-o 












:mrgreen: Actually I was just so tired of working from a wood pile and a 210L plastic drum, so I took 10 minutes to throw together a large temporary work bench from the old timber that used to be under the greenhouse.

Next up I cut all the noggins for the front wall, having the bench made things a lot easier so I think it was well worth building. It was actually quite novel having a workbench that I don't care about, screws are great clamps!






All the noggins installed.






Next up was to frame the head of the door, note that this not the proper way to frame a door, usually you would chop the inside half of each double stud (jack studs) so that they support the header. You would than have cripple studs above the header to support the top wall plate.






In my case the header just happened to be the thickness of two lengths of timber laminated together with no cripple studs needed. I figured it wasn't worth cutting the header into the jack studs as I have plenty of 150mm screws at hand so why not make use of the off-cut from the sole plate. Besides it's not like there's ever going to be any severe loads above it.

Next up I started sheathing the front wall, however after I installed the first sheet of OSB I quickly realised how dark it was going to get in there so I decided to make use of the available daylight and started cutting firrings for the roof. I made a simple jig to allow me to cut a consistent taper with a circular saw.

The jig is basically straight length of timber to act as a fence with a batten screwed across the top of it at the required angle to guide the saw. You can get firrings pre-cut but they are often shockingly bad quality with no consistency. I think its well worth cutting your own, I cut all 14 in about an hour and that includes making the jig.






The jig worked a treat and produces very consistent cuts, all 14 firrings are exactly the same.






After that I got another sheet of OSB installed and then tarped the front wall back up as it was starting to rain, so I called it a day.


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## blackrodd (16 Feb 2015)

Danny":1ajnm3ww said:


> blackrodd":1ajnm3ww said:
> 
> 
> > I found that it's best to double up the studs each side for the door and frame to be fixed in to or you may well find you have a solid door and frame fixed into a light frame work and it can feel really "flimsy", being open and closed. And not always easy to rectify after.
> ...



Excellent! Sorry, I didn't notice, until you pointed the doubles out!
There will be no need for me to suggest plenty of noggins then, to "beef" it all up.
Its looking very good and at least you didn't have to dig a base out, as some workshop Erectors do!
Interesting wip, please keep posting
Regards Rodders


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