# WIP: 6mx3m Pent Workshop build: Exterior Done!



## Fitzroy

The planning permission is through and the weather is finally on the up! Unfortunately the location of the mature trees at the end of the garden have precluded the use of a solid slab so I'm winging it with a set of "pier block" foundations. The weekend comprised about 10hrs of digging out the top 10cm of soil, sifting out the multitude of roots, bulbs and cat cr*p, bagging, levelling and tamping down. Due to the potential to damage the tree root system I am limited to excavations 10cm max depth and all activity has to be by hand, no machinery. My 41yr old desk jockey body is feeling it this morning. The neighbour's cat has also decided I have made it the world's largest litter tray, little turnip! 

Next step is to get the weed control fabric and foundation blocks down and level, and the base built. 6mx3m base is made of 2"x8" timbers, with 18mm OSB surface. Idea is to build a flat and level giant assembly table, on which to build the frame work walls, time will tell if the idea will work.

Wish me luck. Fitz.


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## ICharger

I just joined this forum especially for this type of shed build. 
I have numerous questions on insulation, however it may be suitable it another thread. 
Good luck with the build and enjoy it. 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk


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## Woodchips2

Wish you luck Fitz and shall watch with interest (hammer) 

I find a sprinkling of cayenne pepper deters the cats and dogs. Problem is you have to repeat after it rains! :lol: 

Regards Keith


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## Paul200

Goody - another workshop thread! I love these. I'm looking to build a workshop this year and have started casting the block foundations with leftovers from the building of our kitchen extension. Once I've started in earnest I'll start a WIP.

My construction will be similar to yours, Fitz, so I'll be watching with interest too. I have a couple of questions already - Why did you need PP? Your floor space is within Permitted Development rules - are you in a conservation area? Just curious really.

Are you going to double up the perimeter timbers in the base or is that a Sketchup glitch? I ask this because it's what I'm considering doing after rain damaged my floor when I built our Summer House last year. My idea is to get the walls and roof up before laying the floor this time - the inside timbers would facilitate this if I used 75mm timber for the walls.

Good luck with your build (hammer) (hammer)


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## Fitzroy

I live in a conservation area so permitted dev rights are suspended, grrrr. However as I had to go to planning it meant I could take the front eve to higher than 2.5m, which does give me more headroom inside, for the sake of the £200 planning fee I think it was worth it. The process was not that difficult and it gives you some more flexibility in your design.

Regarding the doubling of timbers, there were two reasons. 1. strength/stability 2. The longest length timber I can get delivered is 6m, however allowing for 8'x4' OSB floor sheeting you end up with a 6.10m width, the extra timbers on the ends adds the extra 10cm to match. However, having now staked out the corners of the building I am realising it's bloody huge! So I may end up reducing the size by 10-15% so reason 2 is moot and hence I'll may scrap the use of double timbers. Currently debating 3"x2" or 4"x2" stud work.

I have a similar concern regarding weather damage whilst building, as Rome was not build in a day! So I'm planning to build out of treated timber and OSB3, both of which are pretty weather tolerant. Build order in my mind is.
- Ground clearance (1 weekend DONE!)
- Foundations and Base (1 weekend)
- Wall stud work and roof timbers (1 weekend)
- Sheet the walls and roof in OSB3. Breather membrane the walls and temporary tarpaulin the roof (1 weekend)
- At this point the building is fundamentally water tight and I can wait for a break in the weather so I can EPDM and detail the roof, and make a temporary door (1 weekend)
- Make windows and doors. (evening work across a few weeks but will have to be inside the new building as dont have space for such large items in current shed)
- Install electrical supply cable (evening work, I will run and get cousin sparkey to install)
- Install windows and doors (1 weekend)
- Larch Clad the exterior (1 weekend)
- Install electrics and lighting (1 weekend)
- Internal fit out......... (space and design flexibility exists to insulate and dry line if I want but may to this a few years from now when funds are available)

I'm hoping my build schedule is a little 'fat' in places so that I can get two jobs done in 1 weekend. However the Aberdeen weather is not that forgiving and a full dry weekend is rare, only saving grace is that the days get very long up here so when the day is dry and the sun shining I will be making hay!

F.


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## RobinBHM

I wouldn't make it smaller -you will soon get used to the size and it could be softened with some planting, you will be surprised how quickly the space disappears in a workshop!

Dont forget to fit 50 x 25mm battens vertically over your breather membrane which forms a cavity and then nail the cladding to the battens (leave bottom open, but fit some insect mesh which can be staple on first, fit battens then bend up mesh and staple to battens). The cavity allows any rain water to escape and allows air flow around the back of the cladding which means it will dry off quickly.

For a shed / workshop of that size I would go for 100 x 50 timber


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## Paul200

Thanks for answering my PP question Fitz. Makes a lot of sense to get permission to build what you want, rather than trying to fit what you want into restrictive parameters. I agree with Robin that you shouldn't make it smaller.

I used OSB3 for my floor, the rain got to it and it swelled around the edges. I realise there are degrees of quality, as in anything, but what I used wasn't rubbish. Just the voice of experience - hopefully you won't experience the same.

I'm looking forward to the long days too - won't be as long as yours but still a great help when you're busy


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## Fitzroy

Morning all, update time.

Firstly I'm glad I don't do this for a living as my timings are way out. Ground clearance took 2 weekends, it's then taken all of last weekend just to get the gravel pads down! At the location of each concrete block I dug a hole about 100mm deep, lined with weedblock fabric, back filled it with MOT1 sub base material, and compacted down until refusal. Each pad took a 25kg bag of sub-base material, my car's suspension was rather low with 450kg of it in the boot! I decided to go back for the blocks at a later date.

Despite a reasonable effort to get the top of every pad level there is a variation in level between them of about 20-30mm. Next weekend's job is going to be getting the blocks down, all level and true, options and issues I can see are:

1. Mortar below each of the concrete blocks. Can I put a big dollop of mortar on top of the compacted sub base, will it remain stable over time?
2. Remove some of the compacted sub base material and re-compact. I run the risk of having only 70mm of sub base on some pads, any problems?
3. Use thinner concrete slabs or slates (I have loads lying around) to shim the gaps. Is there a risk of lack of stability with lots of layers?

At the moment I'm leaning towards option 3 firstly to avoid having to mix up the mortar and wait for it to go off, and secondly as I have a bunch of different thickness pavers, slates etc that are free! All thoughts are welcome.

I'm looking forwards to getting out of the ground and into the timber where I am way more comfortable.

Fitz.


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## Shultzy

I made my 16ft x 8ft workshop as a "flat-pack"on the base including all the roof joists. This makes it easier to keep dry and quicker to put up. I made the back of the pent roof longer and keep wood underneath the overhang so it can dry out (see build in my sig).


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## Fitzroy

Finally got a break in the weather, or so I thought, wood delivery arrived 7:15am on Friday and it was pissing it down. Got all the timber squirreld away but not before it was soaking wet. Luckily the day was dry today and I got the boards set out to dry whilst I cracked on with the ground works. The was a break in play as I had to deal with my four year old having nits, my wife is Russian and it turns out nits is like the worst thing you can have, so it had to be sorted then and there! Anyhow all the ground works are done, weed membrane down and corner blocks square and level. I plan to use wooden shims at each block location to keep the frame level, and joists not at a block point will be hung on joist hangers. Tomorrow should see the base complete!

Piers have been down for a while. Each one has a 100mm hole below it filled with 'sub base' and compacted to refusal. The pain was I'd not got the weed membrane down and a million sycamore seeds had fallen and had to be cleaned up. 





Timber was stacked outside under cover for long lengths and in the outhouse for anything under 3m. It all got dragged out and stickered for the day to dry. Quality of the boards was excellent all very straight, the 11mm Osb was a bit bent up but apparently this is common and it'll nail flat. Timber was £933 inc vat and delivery from a local saw mill, was at least 10% cheaper than I'd priced up on t'internet. 













External frame edge was temporarily constructed to make sure pier blocks were in the correct position, then the weed control membrane put down. Membrane is 2x4m widths overlapped by 50cm in the middle. Pier blocks were lifted and placed on top and plastic spikes used to peg the loose edges.









Lots of pier blocks are needed as the foundations are not very deep, due to planning constraints associated with protection of the mature trees behind, which is fairy'nuff. But getting 18 blocks all level became an bit of an issue. Decided to get the corners level and will make wooden chocks to level over the other blocks. 




Frame is bob on!





At the end of the day the sun shone and I got to sit with a glass of wine and chill before tidying up.


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## Fitzroy

Update on progress, slow but getting there, like British Rail. 

Base frame joists installed.




With all the joists in place you can start to get a sense of scale. The neighbour keeps looking in and i can't tell if his expression is envy or displeasure.





Got annoyed at the pace of progress as the summer is a wash out here in the 'deen. So took matters in to my own hand and the end of the garden now looks like a boy scouts hideout.




With the 'tent' up i could crack on with work on the base, getting the insulation netting stapled to the joints and the noggins in.




Or so I thought, the following day and the tent was looking less than happy! Luckily the tarp was undamaged, bar one small hole and a pulled-out eyelet, and after putting in some better wall anchors for the left-hand upright we were back in business. Although ironically the sun was out by this time, but it was raining again by the afternoon.





I have gained more respect for the average builder as working bent over , cutting and nailing noggins, stapling netting, slabbing insulation and nailing flooring, the back aches after only a couple of hours. But slowly each bay is completed.







Persuaded the wife to bath and bed the children last night so I had the time to complete the last few bays and the shed deck is now done.








Base is good and square, flat and true, so hopefully I've built myself a good surface to build the wall frames on. Looking forwards to the framing as I hope progress will be a little quicker than before. Need to get on and order the EPDM roof membrane and the battens and wall cladding.

Fitz.

PS. Schoolboy errors I think I've made.
1. OSB to the edge of the frame! But i couldn't be pineappled to cut noggins for all the board edges and cut the boards to size. With the frame at 6m x 3m and using 1.2x2.4 metric boards there were zero board length cuts.
2. Netting and glass-wool insulation, according to a FB pal I've created a mouse and rat hotel, argh! I plan to scribe the shed sheathing (OSB) to the ground line and run the cladding as low as possible, the areas around the shed will also be infilled 50mm deep 25-30mm pebbles so hopefully that will keep them out.

PPS. Interesting things I've learnt.
1. It's really easy to cut an OSB board to 'square enough for a shed' with a chalk line and japanese pull saw, and way quicker than unpacking, setting up, using and clearing away the power tools.


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## technium

Looks good mate and watching with interest. Good luck, you seem to doing a great job so far.


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## Fitzroy

Poor weather, summer holidays, and a 3 and 5yr old have slowed progress, but they are only kids once so you need to enjoy it whilst it lasts! 

Since the last time: 
The covered based has, as planned, been used as a gert big worktable to allow me to measure, cut and layout all of the components for the frames. I set up the mitre saw on the base attached to a long piece of 2x4, i could then position a stop block screwed to 2x4 to allow repeatable cuts so that I did not have to measure every piece. Once all the frame components were cut they were stacked on the base ready to go, waiting for a weekend where good weather was forecast.

I got bored waiting for a decent break in the weather and thinking about what was next I got a little over excited and ordered the larch cladding, i got a bonza price from a local saw mill at just 88p/meter (inc vat) for 150x20mm larch, 500 meters ordered! I've read conflicting advice on the cladding, ie. order early and stack to air dry for a few months, and buy it and get it up asap before it moves, the saw miller advised I get it up in a few weeks or so to stop any of it going black. Anyhow it was ordered, and two weeks later a van hired and I went and collected it. I'd also been thinking about the windows and had made some contact with another local chap (scottishsawmill) about some Douglas Fir, he was not too far from the larch so picked it up as well. I was luckily given a longer van than expected, with a 4.8m payload length, so it all slotted in beautifully with no cutting needed; which is great as invariably when i cut stuff to fit the transport it turns out fractionally short of optimal.

The weather has proven a real pain in the proverbial with periods of dry but lot of showers. Whilst my tarp tent can protect the base I need to take it down to do the frames, I will have to stand them temporarily after I finish each one to give space to construct the next ones. I also realised that I will need to get the walls up and roof on all in one day so that I can get the tarp over the whole lot and the structure essentially weatherproof. So I need a weekend with dry weather forecast. I wait…… there are some dry spell so I cut the birdsmouths on the roof trusses. I marked out knife lines and then cut the waste out with a Japanese pull-saw and trimmed back to the lines using an old 2” plane iron as a framing slick, it was a bit sore on the hands to get the force on the plane iron but it worked very effectively and I was happy with the results. Each birdsmouth took about 10mins to mark out and cut so it was about 4hrs to get all the joists done.

Finally some good weather was forecast for last weekend, dry all day Saturday until late, then dry all day Sunday. Saturday arrives and I’m up early to crack on, coffee on the stove and a battle plan sketched on the back of an envelope. “Darling, you do know H’s swim lessons start again today, don’t you” arrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh, well there’s the morning gone, but he did great after all our father son time in the pool over the summer! Got all the frames put together on the Saturday and was feeling very chuffed with myself until unexpectedly the heavens opened and I had to get all the frames flat, and the tarp tent back up. Got bloody soaked and had to dry the frames and deck off with some old towels as there were proper puddles all over it, I know the OSB is moisture resistant but leaving standing water on it overnight I doubt would do much good. So Sunday dawned and ‘I could see Karley now Lorrain was gone’, and it was the day to get the thing up. Needed to get the wall frames erected, squared up, attached to each other, attached to the base, roof trusses up and attached, OSB roof on, tarps in place over the top and round the sides. Everything took longer than I expected and after starting at 9am ish I was screwing down roof boards in the dark with a head-torch (stopped nailing at 8pm when my neighbour said he was about to complain tot eh council about noise) I finally had the tarps up and tools away at 11:30pm.

The interesting bit, photos (will have to have two posts as too many pics)
Cutting the frames




Frames marked so I know what goes where as I'll have to store them unconstructed for a while




Cutting the birdsmouths, was fun as it felt like proper carpentry.








Larch and Dougfir Picked Up




Amazing how much cladding you need!




Doug fir for the windows, such a nice orange/pink colour in real life.




Couldn't resist planing some of the larch up, shed will have vertical board and batten cladding, front elevation will be planed smooth for a crisper look. Really happy with the quality of the larch for the price I paid.




Cut frames stacked in sets ready for nailing.




Left frame done, with temporary cross batten to keep square, shed will be clad in OSB which will retain squareness.


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## Fitzroy

Front frame completed, frame was very rigid due to door and window frames so no cross batten at the moment. Pretty much been a one man build but needed some help to hold the frame whilst I took a photo. Also needed a little help the following day to get the frames initially tied together




All the frames up and squared up, the front and rear frames were a touch out of square but I could wedge the from the garden walls into square and then add cross battens to hold until the OSB sheathing is on. Roof joists sat great on their birdsmouths then used truss clips to attach them to the frame. You can see from teh shadows it was well past mid day by this point.




Realisation dawned that this was going to be a long one, so no photos of roof being boarded etc. By the end of the day the structure was done and weather-tight. I seem to have rebuilt the Chernobyl sarcophagus! 





Should be an easier build from now on as I can tackle the sheathing, etc in a more piecemeal way.

Fitz.

PS. Soft keyboard warrior hands now have, several large blisters and by the end of the day fatigue set in and I'd belted two fingers and the thumb on my left hand. Really, really shouldn't have tried to do so much in a day, but couldn't see any other solution.


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## Paul200

Impressive progress for 1 1/2 days work Fitz. I like the look of your vertical cladding too. We've just had vertical Larch cladding put on our new kitchen extension but all the boards are the same size - yours looks much nicer and I might nick the idea for my workshop (when I come to build it!).

Look forward to the next instalment 

Cheers

Paul


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## n0legs

=D> 
Great stuff. Keep going mate, hard part is done.


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## Fitzroy

Woke up Saturday morning and the sun was shining,it was building time! Even persuaded the wife to take the eldest boy to swimming club, which is normally my father son time. A BBQ/child's birthday interrupted play for most of Saturday avo, but today was stonker in the 'deen and much progress was made. Roof noggins were cut and roof boards screwed down at 150mm intervals, roof edge mouldings were installed, EPDM membrane laid out and all glued up. Walls were all sheathed (bloody hell I am bored of screwing, oo-err), window and door openings cut out and then the building was wrapped in building membrane. 

Sun shining and ready to build




I wanted a round profile on the edge of the roof to make it look a little more contemporary and to avoid hard edge from the OSB where the EPDM could be damaged if knocked. The shed sits under a bunch of large trees and a few small, 1-2cm thick branches, fall in the winter storms each year. I set the OSB 18mm back from the edge and tacked an 18x18 quadrant all the way round.




Freehand mitres with the japanese pull saw, whilst sat on the roof, came up better than some that I agonize over for 10mins on the workbench.




There really were an awful lot of screws to screw in, but the roof deck looked great when completed.




Came down off the roof to find my youngest (3yrs old) 'making a house', my health and safety are not the best but he knew not to touch the sharp knife and it's hard to cut yourself with a hacksaw.




Damn EDPM membrane was heavy to balance on one shoulder whilst climbing the ladder but got it on the roof just about, left me puffing afterwards tho.




EPDM being rolled out. So it turns out the broom is the most important tool for laying an EPDM membrane.




Membrane rolled out and left to rest for an hour as per instructions, that stated the creases would drop out in this time, did they heck!




Centre of the roof, up to 100mm from edge, was glued up with a water based adhesive, then edges are glued with a contact adhesive.




Contact adhesive smelled great, must not stiff glue, must not giff stlue, mst nt, msssst. 





Continued next post

Edit, no idea why a few pics are upside down, but you get the drift!


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## Fitzroy

Roof all glued up, although think this may have been pre edge glue. Once the water based adhesive was rolled on and the EPDM membrane laid onto it there was bubbles and ridges everywhere, i then gently brushed the roof with a soft brush, moving the bubbles 5-10 cm at a time, back and forth from edge to edge until I had brushed them all out. Took a long time and was hard graft but the end result looked good. This was done just pre BBQ and when we got back 4 hrs later I brush it again, and rolled all the creases with a decorating edge roller, this improved the look further and i'm chuffed with the end result.

The quadrant edging also gives just the look i wanted.








Once all the wall sheathing was completed (more screwing) I opened up the windows using a router with a flush cut bit. I only have a 19.5mm one so i made a lot of sawdust during this operation. I was caked in the stuff by the end of it. 




My newly acquired Triton router made short-work of the 11mm OSB, it was pretty heavy for the job and perhaps overkill.




The window frames are still rough timber in the old shed so I was in two minds about cutting the window openings now or not, but the shed had gotten too dark with all the sheathing added and i just could wait to the the light back in.




Turns out a few of my screws in the sheathing were too close to the window openings. Thankfully stainless screws are much softer than the carbide router bit. Didn't even notice them until afterwards and the cutter is totally undamaged.




Windows all opened up and it was time to wrap the building. Again I was in two minds about leaving the wrap across the window openings or cutting it and stapling it to the stud work. I was worried the wind would worry the membrane and rip it at the staples so in the end I cut it back and stapled it to the frame. I'm still not clear in my head about how I rain proof round the windows when they go in, and and slighly worried the membrane will wick moisture into the building.








With the wrapping all done the shape of the building is starting to be seen, and I must say i'm pretty happy with how it is turning out. I'm really enjoying the process of learning how to build this thing, although it is taking longer than I expected and is rapidly heading towards 'gentleman's folly' territory! Clear tarps have been hung over the window and door openings and now i need to get on and make the windows and door, then is cross battening and cladding, before onto the insides.

I've been thinking a-lot about the door and would like to build a single large door, clad to blend with the rest of the shed, that opens to the right so that nothing blocks the first window when open. The door would be 2m x 1.4m and would need insulating, so i'm considering a torsion box from 4x2 and OSB, hung on 1.2m stainless steel strap hinges. Am I crazy?

Cheers, bed beckons.

Fitz.


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## MattRoberts

Fitz, looking awesome mate! Thanks for going into such detail, really nice to see the progress


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## Paul200

Looks great! And such progress. Your attention to detail is to be commended - very neat job.


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## Muzza80

Excellent thread and many ideas for my own workshop I've just started, will be following, fantastic job!


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## Mecha GG

Great work so far! I've been following this with interest!

Had a question about your spacing: did you go for 40mm for the floor, and 60mm for the walls? How about the roof?

Thanks!


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## Woodchips2

Well done Fitz.

Re the windows I'd nail some dpc to the back of the windows before fixing them in position and use a good quality sealant externally.

A 1.4m wide door is going to be fairly heavy. I would consider making two leaves with one wide enough to be comfortable to get in and out and the other leaf usually bolted in position unless you need to get something really wide into the shed.

Regards Keith


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## Fitzroy

Mecha GG":363cbmmw said:


> Great work so far! I've been following this with interest!
> 
> Had a question about your spacing: did you go for 40mm for the floor, and 60mm for the walls? How about the roof?
> 
> Thanks!



Aye, 400mm floor, 600mm walls and roof. Although the roof became slightly more complicated as my original plan utilised spacing to match standard board widths. But on finishing the frame and considering the cladding I realised I needed the roof 15cm wider than the walls to overhang the cladding. This meant an extra roof joist cantilevered beyond each edge and an extra joist in the middle, so the roof is mainly 600mm spacing with some oddments. 

Lesson being you can never plan everything.


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## Fitzroy

Been working on the windows. I bought some sawn Douglas Fir boards from a local sawmill. Buying rough sawn wood has been a huge learning curve, this is the fourth lot that I've bought and again I've learnt loads, mainly i was just not prepared well enough! 

I knew the bloke had boards of the right size and i'd previously worked out the number of boards I wanted, but i couldn't get in contact before the day i had the van and i dropped in unannounced, well i gave them 20mins notice. So on arrival the boards i wanted (8"x2") were buried at the bottom of a very large wood stack and the seller seemed pretty reluctant to dig them out, but i was by this time wood blind, i just wanted some boards! So we started digging at the top, i was smart enough to reject anything with wane, splits, sap wood (although i missed a bit on the back side of one board), but the only boards looking good were 10"x8" and longer than the ones i had worked out my cutting list against.

I was overexcited and did a quick mental calc that I needed 4 boards, turned out I only needed 3, we had also previously agreed a per board price and I mentally calculated a figure and blabbed it out, he bit my hand off, wood blind excitement again! We'd agreed on £20/cuft, later turned out i'd paid £25 as my mental arithmetic was off, so i'd bought more than I needed and paid more than previously agreed! Ho hum.

At 4.2m long the boards were too long to realistically store anywhere under cover, the first job was to workout which components I would cut from which part of the boards. I have previously cut long boards into shorter boards for storage and then regretted it later as I found i cut in just the wrong place! Boards were cut in half(ish) but such that it maximised timber use, and stored in the old shed.

These rough sawn boards have now been processed into the required components: 6 tall stiles @1.8m 2 short stiles @ 1.0m 3 narrow cills and head rails @0.6m and 1 wide cill and head rail @ 1.8m. All stiles and headers were 100mm x 50mm and cills are 150mm x 50mm. I say 50mm thick but from 2" sawn boards the components ended up 43mm thick, I could have kept the shorter components thicker as they had less bow to plane out but i wanted all components a uniform thickness to make construction easier.

Each rough board was straightened on one edge on the surface planer (planer is Wadkin bft 9). 





Straight edge boards were then sawn to rough width on the table saw, they were then face planed on the Wadkin and edged at 90°.




Boards were then put through the thicknesser (Dewalt 1150).




Component blanks planed, thicknessed and four square. Shed cleaned ready for the next operation.




The window are 1.8m tall and 60cm wide, non opening, and I'm trying to figure out if I have space to assemble them in the old shed.




Each component has the rebate cut for the glass using the surface planer. Not an operation I enjoy as the cutter guard has to be removed, the machine will rebate to 1/2". 




The cills have the rebate cut as per above, then the fence is canted over and the angle for the cill cut using the front cill edge and fence as reference. The first cut is hairy but once the angle is established on the cill the rebating is as per before. A drip edge was sawn on the table saw.




And repeat for all 16 components.




Made two bags of these, going to put on gumtree FTAGH and hope someone will take them away.




I'd made a mock of of the frame with corner bridle joints a while back. Because the frame dimensions are a little different to a traditional bridle joint I wanted to make sure they would work, the frame is strong and has stayed true for a good while so i'm sticking with my plan.





cont next post.


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## Fitzroy

As I am pretty new to all this woodwork malarky i still tend to prototype everything and practice on a test piece. Below is the prototype cill from the rebating operation with bridle joints cut in it. I wanted to get a feel for how the Doug Fir worked.




The bridle joint waste was cut out with a japanese pull saw and coping saw then pared back tot he knife line. The Doug fir works nicely with the grain but I was not at all happy with the joint face where it was chiselled across the grain, with the wood collapsing between growth rings. This is where I questioned my chisel sharpness and the point at which "I found sharp", see other thread.

Those eagle eyes will spy the router table below and the small smoother patch in the joint where i tried a test cut. I've still not decided how to cut these joints and continue to wonder if I can do them on the router table, with final clean up with a very sharp chisel.





I also managed to cut the rebate 6mm too shallow on the first cill I made, luckily i realised my error before making the other components, else I would have been ordering 18mm glazing not 24mm. I found planing the rebate back by these 6mm a hard exercise, the shoulder plane is really only designed to take a shaving off each time and every pass was hard as getting purchase on the plane was awkward. I should probably have routed it back, but it was 11pm at night and I wanted to finish all the components before retiring for the night, i didn't figure routing at this hour was very considerate.





Cheers

Fitz.


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## Muzza80

Hows things going Fitz? Any more progress?

Cheers!


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## Fitzroy

Progress has been slow due to work, family, darkening evenings, underestimated effort, and too great an attention to detail. Since last time I've planed and profiled all the battens and battened all the walls, built a raised veggie bed (wife request to get done to get the soil to condition over winter), finished two of the window frames, clad the rear wall which involved finishing (surface plane, straightening and sawing) about 150m of larch. Oh I built a bug hotel with some larch offcuts with my boys. Will do a proper update when the walls are clad and windows in. 

Thanks for the interest. 

Fitz.


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## jlawford

Looks great! Hopefully I'll be able to do something similar next year and move out of "my" half of the garage.


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## Fitzroy

Making windows. Frames are built using bridle joints, i cut out the rebates prior to cutting the joints, not sure if it is the correct way but it makes the joints a bit of a faff as the tenons have shoulders that are not an equal height.








I've been tending to leave the shoulder that connects to the rebate on the other frame member a touch long then pare back to fit. 




All the joints are cut to a fixed internal length, to be sure to fit the glass I've ordered, the excess will either be trimmed off and pared flush or i may just leave it as the outside edges wont be seen once the window is installed and the internal finish in place.




The finished frame for the largest window is damn huge and will have to be glued up on the floor of the new shed, i'll also not be assembling it until the glass arrives and I can check it all fits. I must have measured/calculated the glass size a dozen times before i placed the order, it's only £280 for all the windows but on all the TV programmes the glass is the bit that always seems to be wrong!




The batten thickness was a bit of a PITA as i wanted to maximise the use of the 60mm stainless screws i got cheap on ebay, but avoid adding too much depth to the wall, in the end this meant buying a treated batten and having to thickness them down from 38mm to 30mm. My cladding design also does not have horizontal cross battens so any rain that gets through the cladding will need to be directed away from the wall, so I had to profile the top of the batten to slope away from the internal wall. Overall this meant I planed away a bunch of the tanalising, history will be the judge on my decisions.

Battens were 4.8m long and I had to angle my P/T to come in the shed door, over/through the P/T and out the window, with a few well placed timber offcuts clamped in place for in-feed and out-feed support i was amazed an how well it worked out.








Battens were added at 600mm centres and above and below all openings. The window cill will project beyond the cladding below but I'm still trying to workout how to keep the water off the top of the window frame. Although the tops are quite high and the roof overhand should keep them dry, but i'm worried about this water penetrating past the top of the window to the inside finish. The devil really is in the details!













cont next post.


----------



## Fitzroy

continued from last post.

Distraction number 1, the raised bed the wife wanted done asap so she could get the soil in it, 3 weeks later it is still empty, the boys love it as a pretend pirate ship tho!




Distraction number 2, a bug hotel made with the boys, a really fun morning, but i was amazed at how many meters of cane you need to cut up for it!




I made a 3D normal distribution of cladding after sorting it for quality, sorry engineering/data geek! Out of 140 boards I had 5 that were totally clear, 10 almost clear, 20 with a knot or two, 70ish average, and a similar distribution on the poor quality side, with potentially 5-10 boards that only small sections are usable from mainly due to sap wood.




The best stuff will be used for the front. 




Cladding cut to lenght and one side planed off in the P/T to get rid of the sawn finish. More an more tools are migrating to the new shed, luckily most of them are too heavy for some scrote to carry them away at night.




Cladding goes on with a 10mm gap between the boards, these gaps will be covered with a cover board, c. 70mm wide.








With the larch boards still being a bit wet they are moving quite a lot once cut. The cover boards for the back wall were all edge straightened, cut in half to get 2x70mm covers from one 150mm board, then planed one face. As the day went on they went out of true so I was working like a banshee to get them all screwed in place before the day ended. Working by head torch by the end of the day but really starting to get an idea of how it will look.





I'll post a better update on some of the cladding details further down the line.

Fitz.


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## Wizard9999

I have a feeling that cladding is going to look really nice =D> 

Love the bug hotel, once made a hedgehog house with my daughter though I don't think we ever got tenants.

Terry.


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## Fitzroy

Thought an update was in order. For the last month I have basically been planing cladding and making shavings!





All of the cladding has pilot holes drilled in it as the interweb says larch is a sod for splitting if you nail it. For the back wall I drilled the pilot holes in every board prior to putting them up, this was a pain and did not actually result in the tight screw alignment I was hoping for. It turned out easier, faster and more accurate to drill the top and bottom holes only, mount all the boards on the wall, then mark up a straight line and drill the pilot holes.




I had a vague idea about how the window and cladding interacted but i'd not got it totally sorted in my head. There were two options. Option 1 mount the front edge of the window aligned with the first layer of cladding, a cover batten will then cover the joint an prevent water intrusion.




Option 2 mount the front edge behind the first layer of cladding, cover the joint with a batten at 90° to the cladding, and a second batten on the face. This would put the window further back in the wall, improving it's protection from the elements, however it turned out my cills were not long enough for this scenario as the drip edge underneath would drip onto the top of the second layer of cladding battens. Ho hum, the devil really is in the detail!




Glass arrived and it was test fitted in the clamped frame. I've been convinced that I got a measurement wrong and the glass would not fit, and I'd have to modify the frame. It turns out my concerns were misplaced, it fitted fine. However, the glass and frame will weigh c. 60kg so havn't worked out how to fit it yet. Glaze the window then install, or install the frame, and the glaze. Either way I am going to have to get help from someone.




Frame was glued up. It's the biggest thing I've ever made so after several dry runs I wen't for it hoping I'd get it all together whilst the glue was 'open'. There's even a time-lapse video taken for posterity, and featuring a lot of my posterior, which crams the 10 mins of the glue-up into 38s. Yes I really did measure the diagonals that many times.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRP9nkrmUeo
Luckily when all was said and done it turned out straight and fit the opening in the wall. I hink next time i may leave a little more wiggle room, the window only has about 5mm all around and I had to trim the joints of flush with the frame to give it room to fit.




.. and then it was back to cladding. I made bit of a cock-up, having sorted the boards for quality i forgot my marking system and after finishing the side and back I realised i'd been using all the best boards, damn-it! This error did at least mean I stopped messing about with which board went where, well to some extent anyhow! Boards planed up and set out so I could move them around to get the best look.




First layer of cladding boards up on the front wall.




Lots and lots of shavings needing to be taken to the dump.





cont. next post.


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## Fitzroy

14th Nov update cont from last post.
In the evenings i've been trying to get the tall window frames finished, I'm happy with the way they are looking but realised my clamps are not long enough to pull them together. A quick post to you lovely lot and I have a solution. First frame ready for glue up, although it turns out window frames are often just screwed together, as once installed they can't really go anywhere or have any stress placed on the joints. But for me building them is as much practice making and gluing joints as anything.




Corner joint detail. 




Soffit boards going. The battens that cover the gap butt up against the soffit boards. I'm installing the boards with no vents in at the moment, but once the roof is insulated I'll cut vents and install insect mesh to ventilate the space above the insulation. This will be a job for next year now though.




Throughout my build I've had the information from 'Mike's build' post in my head, however choosing vertical cladding over horizontal means I'm left to try and translate many of his pointers. One thing that I've been bothered by is the hole insect invasion issue, not sure if this is the correct answer but a mall of scrunched up insect mesh shoved into the gap at the base of each set of boards, prior to installing the cover batten, over the top was about all I could think of.




With the soffits in I could install some of the cover battens, it's really starting to get there now. Once the windows are in I can get the rest of the cover strips on. Then all i'm left to figure out is the door, but a solution to that is hatching as I type.



.

Cheers

Fitz.


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## yeungster79

I keep coming back to your build, it looks right good Fitz. 

Regarding the cladding, when you cladded over the seams with the long larch cladding strips did you just screw in between the boards straight into the horizontal battens? 

I will do something similar with 6'' wide weatherboards, my major concern is the amount of time my shed will be without cladding, I guess the membrane offers protection somewhat from the rain. Could also cover in poly sheets when not working on it..


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## Fitzroy

Internet trawling led me to the point of, boards installed heart side out (so any cupping pushes the edges of the board into the structure), single nail in each board (so the boards don't split with seasonal movement), single nail through each batten into the gap between boards into the horizontal battens (again so that no board has more than one nail across the width).

I liked the idea of the grooves in this design to prevent water ingress but in the end I didn't bother as i decided it was overkill as I had a ventilated gap behind the boards, where as this design has the boards straight onto the building membrane.
http://www.buildmagazine.org.nz/assets/ ... online.png

Regarding battening, I think the batten and cross batten would be the better design but my walls were getting too thick. So i went with just the one layer of battens, which meant I had to profile one edge of them all, another unexpected job planing an angle on lots of meters of board.
http://www.timbercladding.org/DesignCon ... Build.aspx

A couple of the other resources I bookmarked on my learning journey.
https://www.buildeazy.com/newplans/narr ... batten.gif
http://www.hobbyfarms.com/how-to-instal ... -siding-3/

As you can see from the photos my shed has spent most of the time with a couple of tarps over/around it, which worked well and for £30 each have been priceless. This has however been mainly to keep water out the openings, ie door/windows. The right hand wall has been uncovered since the membrane went on. I was worried about it for a bit when the membrane was only stapled on, but once the battens went on over the membrane it's seemed pretty weather proof. Most of the membranes have a 3 month UV spec, so think should be fine uncovered for this period, so long as they are well secured to avoid the wind worrying them to failure.

F.


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## Fitzroy

Started to glaze and install the windows, big window DGU was pretty heavy so had to jerry-rig something so I could lower the glass in without putting too much weight onto one silicone bead. For the eagle eyed, yes that is a double ended ring spanner I'm using as a lifting point, friction was very high and lifting/lowering very bumpy.




Silicone turned out to be too much for my v. cheap sealant gun, had to push the plunger manually for the last edge.




The window is fully bedded in glazing silicone, with a glazing bead made out of spare larch, held in-place with copper panel pins. I've pulled the building wrap out around the window and will secure in-place with adhesive flash-band, unfortunately I'll have to unscrew most of the cladding to give me the required access, ho-hum.




The temperature locally has been around zero for a week or so and i was worried the glue and glazing silicone will not set correctly. So i've come into the house, much to SWMBO's displeasure.




Made a clamping frame and a couple of wedge blocks to allow me to clamp the long direction on the windows.




Glue-up went well, much more pleasant inside. My stack of wood in the background waiting to be made into a workbench.




The faces on my sash clamps (Rutlands Dakota) are not perpendicular and after gluing the first window I found they had caused the side pieces on the window to be fractionally twisted, nothing that stopped the glass fitting but annoying non the less. Remedied by using an extra block to transfer the clamping force only to the tenon.




Glass fits well, about 2mm gap all round, and is light enough to lift one-handed, so glazing the smaller frames will be much easier, no jerryrigging required.





Hope to get the tall windows glazed and installed this weekend, although the wife's away so may not get too much done with the boys on my case.

F.


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## Fitzroy

The wife asked what had asked what I had spent/will spend, kind of in chronological order.

Foundations (B&Q)
Concrete Blocks £30
Type 1 aggregate £50
DPM £20

Structure
My timber list and prices were
C16 reg/trtd - 45 X 145mm 4/ 6.0m @ £ 12.49 EACH
C16 reg/trtd - 45 X 145mm 18/ 3,60m @ £ 6.55 EACH 
C16 reg/trtd - 45 X 145mm 20/ 3.0m @ £ 5.46 EACH 
C16 reg/trtd - 45 X 95mm 6/ 6.0m @ £ 8.92 EACH 
C16 reg/trtd - 45 X 95mm 28/ 4.80m @ £ 5.41 EACH
Battens TREATED 38 X 50mm 21/ 4.80m @ £ 2.10 EACH 
18mm OSB 3 16of @ £ 12.43 EACH 
11mm OSB 3 16of @ £ 8.24 EACH 
Total £1050 incl delivery and VAT
Cordiners aberdeen

Roof
EPDM was £198 for 7mx4m sheet + £74 for adhesive (water-based for deck, contact for edges).
I could have gotten away with 6.5m sheet, but what I should have done was increase my overhangs by 10cm each side. 
Permavent ebay/online

Walls (battens in timber order above)
Breather membrane was £45 for 1.5mx50m role (Eurovent ebay)
Cladding – 500 lin meters 150mmx20mm (nominal), @88p/m , £440 collected ex.works
Van hire an petrol to collect larch and doug fir £70
James Carr sawmill : they were great
Stainless Screws – lucked out on a box of 3000 for £40 on ebay, else I was looking at £150ish

Nails: All frame/studwork rather than screwing with a mix of 75mm (for toenails) and 100mm (when going through into the end grain). OSB nailed on with 65mm ring-shank nails. Found Toolstation to be the cheapest source of these. I must have spent £50-£75 on them, used way more than expected.

Windows - £160 for air-dried sawn doug fir, £240 for the glazing, god knows for the man-hours making them
SCOTTISH SAWMILLING SERVICES fife, and Westend Glazing aberdeen and 

Incidentals
Beading for roof edges : £20
Glazing silicone / nails : £40
Glass wool insulation in floor : £30
Insect mesh : £30

Total to date £2600

Still to go and my estimates
Insulation for walls and roof (£350)
Internal lining materials (£250)
Electricity Supply (£150 cable, £20 incidentals, £200 sparky to tie in)
Electrical stuff, lights/sockets/switches (£350)
Door hinges (£50)
Possible door window (£100)

To spend £1500

Total Spend £4k ish

Gosh. Now that is 70% over my initial £2.4k estimate and £1k over where I was at in my head, hmm best not tell the wife. 

Increases over original plan:
Timber +£200, 4x2 not 3x2 and forgot timber for window/door details and noggins etc. 
Roof +£200, EPDM vs nail on felt (wishful/unrealistic planning )
Windows +£150, (originally was going to make from treated 4x2)
Nails and Incidentals, +£200 (totally forgot in my original plan)
Insulation +£350 (spec increase)
Internal lining. +£250 (spec increase)
Electrical stuff +£200 (originally was going to recycle stuff from old shed)

All those 'little' changes/additions soon add up!

Regards

Fitz.


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## yeungster79

Super detailed breakdown that, nice to reference this for my build.


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## yeungster79

Fitz, when you put the cladding through the P+T, would this not remove quite a bit of the pressure treatment on the outer layers? Do you have to reseal the wood somehow?


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## Fitzroy

Cladding is not treated, just local sawn larch, that hopefully is semi durable, and with a well drained design (I hope) will weather well to a nice silver hue.


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## Fitzroy

6th Feb 2017, a long overdue update. I'd really wanted to wait until I had the outside completely finished but due to illness that may now be sometime. I can manage an hour or two in a weekend before I'm forced to retire head spinning and heart racing, ho hum. So i'll post an update now and perhaps your words of support will give me some extra oompf.

All the images are from progress over December. In Jan I've taken the door off and rehung in the correct position, same size gap all the way around with door lining and cill in place, but that's all.

Glazing beads were made on the planer from larch off-cuts. After i made them they were brought inside with the windows were they proceeded to go bananas, they bowed so much it was unbelievable, you can see a little of what was to come at the far end of the planer!









Thankfully they were flexible enough to be pushed in to place when I glazed the windows. The windows had a continuous low modulus silicone bead gunned into the rebate, before the glazed unit was lowered into place and pushed into the silicone. Plastic packers were placed into the gap between DGU and frame, a bead of silicone gunned between DGU and frame, and the glazing beads pushed into the silicone, and nailed in place with copper nails. I had to drill pilot holes in the glazing beads as there was some splitting on the tests in conducted. I used nearly a tube of silicone per window! 




The windows were left in the house for the silicone to cure prior to being taken out to the shed where the glazing beads were planed flush to the frame and the excess silicone was trimmed off with a sharp craft knife. My rebates were 40mm for a 22mm DGU, the 18mm was only just enough for two beds of silicone and a glazing bead that ended up at at 15mm deep, which felt pretty insubstantial. If I did it again i'd add 5mm more to the rebate depth.




Windows were centered in the openings using wooden shims then screwed in-place with screws through the stud-work and into the outside edge of the window frames, so no screw-holes will be seen once the internal finish is in place, however if I ever want to remove them it'll be a pain. The shed membrane was folded outwards and bitumen based flashband used around the window to provide a secondary weather seal behind the cladding. The detail overlap of the flashband was made up on the fly on the basis of water running down doesn't get behind the window.








At the top of the window the flash band was folded in half and pushed into the gap. a stick with an angled end was used to ensure everything was adhered. On the big window I took the cladding batten off and the flashband went behind the membrane and cladding battens. But there is a good roof overhang on the front of the shed and I don't expect the widow to see much rain a the top edge.








On the cills, the flashband was folded in again in 'V' shape and push back into the gap between the underside of the cill and the angled cladding batten.




Finally the gap was foamed up with low expansion building foam and trimmed off flush once set. Overall it seems that building is about multiple barriers, the cladding keeps the rain off, but if it gets through the membrane and flashband is barrier 2, if it get past that the spray foam is barrier 3. 





cont. next post.


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## Fitzroy

6th Feb 2017 update cont.

With the tall windows in the look of the place is starting to fit my mental image. The cladding battens sit on top of the flashband and and profiled piece with a drip edge covers the top edge.








Making all these profiles is interesting and fun, but takes time!




It was getting dark pretty early in mid December and I had to fit a temporary light so that I could get a little more work done than the daylight hours permitted.




The window detail on the big picture window shows the top profile (deeper due to the greater rain exposure) and how nicely the douglas fir windows and larch cladding sit together.








Hanging the door was not too much bother and I (all 100kg) can stand on the far end with not much deflection. The cladding, insulation et
With the widows in, it was back to making cladding. This time the narrow cover strips for the 'board and batten' cladding pattern, these all require thicknessing, straight edging on the planer, cutting to width then thicknessing at 70mm(ish) as my table saw left burn marks. It all just takes time and makes plenty more sawdust and shavings.




Finally the cladding was pretty much done, with only the door to clad, which first i need to make. The door lintel made a great place to capture dimensions, I'm forever loosing bits of paper so this way I know where to find it. The door is effectively a movable wall panel, made out of 4x2 stud work and hung on gate pin and strap hinges. The door panel is clad in larch, the door frame has larch linings and there are the meeting rebates, so the door has to be a fair bit smaller than the opening. I measured and calculated so many times, as if the door is too big i'm pineappled.












Hanging the door was pretty easy and I (all 100kg) can hang on the far end with little deflection, there is an internal diagonal member in addition to the OSB cladding that prevents sagging. The external cladding, insulation and internal plasterboard total about 50kg so i think it will work. The door does have a little twist in it, the top left corner is about 1cm closer to the shed than the bottom left corner, however with minimal effort I can deflect it out so i think it'll be ok to close it. 

I have also made a cill, which involved much frankenclamping to glue two board together, but I'll save that for next time. Once the door is clad, the base boards are on, and the final roof details (EPDM fixed over soffits) completed then the exterior is finished. In good health it's a few days work, but I fear it'll be a few months in reality.

Wish me luck.

Fitz,


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## Charlie Woody

Sorry to hear you are having health problems, hope you recover fully quickly.

Great attention to detail in your build, ( and your posts ) and it looks a lovely building, well done.


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## Fitzroy

Found a few hours in the quickly lengthening Aberdeen days to get the door linings on, the door perimeter/edge boards on, external membrane in-place, and cross battens fitted. 

It's been pretty windy up here the last couple of months and the tarp over the top has threatened to blow away a number of times, eyelets are pulled out etc. The EPDM roof has been on since summer and is glued to the deck but not to the soffits, i'd left the tarp on to stop the wind trying to lift the overhanging EPDM and peel the whole lot off. Took the opportunity to temporarily secure the overhanging EPDM with some battens and get the tarp off which means the building is a whole lot prettier and my garden looks less like a building site, neighbours will happier! Annoyingly the tarp rubbing on one of the corners all winter has worn through the EPDM and left a tiny hole, so superglued a patch over it, will do a better fix in the summer. Rather raises a question over the toughness of the EPDM.




Membrane covers everything, hinges and all, the cladding is outside of the hinges so should be ok. Still working out how best to do the cladding around the hinge pin plates. 





Onwards and upwards

Fitz.


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## Fitzroy

Shed door had cross battens added and a header/drip edge made.








Somehow managed to get my depths wrong on the hinges/cross battens so had to rebate the back of the cladding to fit over the hinges. I used the table saw with a cross cut sled, which made trenching out the rebates quick and accurate, a quick clean up with a shoulder plane and they fit great.




Had to jig things about a bit to fit around the hinge pin and have to say I not totally satisfied as there is definitely an entry point for the rain. May have to see if I can sort some kind of gaiter out of the spare EPDM to prevent rain ingress. 




First layer of cladding all done.




Amazing how much the colour of the larch changes after it is exposed for a few weeks. The freshly planed door timbers are so much lighter than the orange/pink of the stuff that's been up for a while. SHMBO doesn't particularly like the current colour, i haven't the heart to tell her it'll be a few years before it is the silver colour she wants.





Fitz.

Edit: No idea why the images are all sideways, grrr... They seem to be the right way up when clicked though.


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## mindthatwhatouch

Wish I could have had timber cladding, so tell the misses it could be worse. Nice cladding. 
Could you fix a cladding board over the hinge itself?


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## Fitzroy

Few more hours spent making cladding strips for the door, but finally all the board and batten cladding is complete! I've learnt I am very inefficient when it comes to using the thicknesser, i must have put every length through at least 6 times, i purchased 500 linear meters so i've planned about 3km of larch surface. I need to learn how to do less passes, well I would if I ever planned to make another shed!









Left to do: glue roof edges and batten a drip edge all round, there are a few gaps in the soffits to cover, need to do the base boards scribed to the ground, fit door returns, weather strip and locks.

Baby steps each weekend is the way forwards.

F.


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## Fitzroy

Ahead of myself again I'd been thinking about the floor as the OSB is butt ugly! I found a guy selling exdisplay wood flooring sample boards, for £80 inc delivery I couldn't say no for a little over 25m2 of boards, 3/4" solid wood mix of species and finishes. Delivered when I was out which was lucky as I'd likely have told the chap to be on his bike, they obviously been stored in an exposed location with most of them showing signs of damp. Anyhow once the temper abated I think for a workshop they'll be fine once dry, and for the price I can't grumble. Plan to do a random finish effect that I hope will work. 





I've also been mulling the roof edges, the top deck is all glued up but the side faces have been temporarily battened since last year. I finally settled on a profiled batten that forms a drip edge on the overhang, I don't really want gutters. Made all the battens and glued and fixed the front edge, it's given the place the sharp line I wanted for the roof. 








Somewhat concerned that the batten only being 12mm x 5mm it won't weather well, as with many of my decisions history will be the judge. 

F.


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## yeungster79

Looking awesome Fitz, love the detail around the windows and doors top work.

Larch looks stunning already.


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## yeungster79

Did you cold vent the roof mate?


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## Fitzroy

Plan to. 100mm insulation in 150mm joist, 50mm gap above, front and rear overhangs will have vents with insect mesh to prevent bugs getting in. 

F.


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## Fitzroy

Door is completed and finally I can lock the place up, roof edges are done and take a look at my awesome workbench!

I used aquamac 21 seal to give me a good seal around the door perimeter. I want the workshop to be as airtight as possible so that the dehumidifier can keep the place at a decent/constant)(ish) humidity, minimising the impact on timber and tools. Seal was £10 for £10 meters off eBay.





Seal uses a 2.7mm recess to push fit into, turns out most table saw blades are about the same.





My table saw is an old beast with minimal guarding but managed to rig something up that pretty much eliminated the chance of coming in contact with the blade.





Seal push fits in the gap, found the ends didn't want to stay put at times but a little superglue fixed that.





Once the door seal was fitted I sized the timber to fit around the door perimeter and fill the gap between door and frame. Turned out either the door or opening were not square by about 3-5mm so took a fair bit of hand planing bespoke fit each side, top and bottom.









The depth of the door (150mm) and the closing circle from the hinge meant that I had to profile the edge board of the door, which was a real pain but got it fitted in the end. The door is also marginally twisted, with the bottom left corner protruding about 10mm further out. The lock is fitted to the same corner and it's easy enough to push the door flush and close the lock.




Eventually there will be a lock top and bottom and a latching handle in the middle so you can close the door to whilst inside, but for now at least it has a lock on it!





I also fitted the final roof edging.





Whilst sitting eating my lunch I thought i'd share a picture of the 'workbench' i've been using during the build. Last summer my boys asked for a 'house' they could play in so I screwed a few off cuts of framing timber and OSB together, lay a board on top and called it a house. After bringing it in from the weather at the end of the day i started to use it as a workbench. It's out of level and square, and very rickety, but it's now screwed to the floor by one leg, and braced against the shed wall via board offcuts lying on the floor and it's good enough to let me, saw to length, plane edges, and sand. I'm actually amazed at how simple, and out of cock, a bench can be and still be functional.





Cheers

Fitz.

PS. Again photos are displaying odd, the are all the correct way up in my computer and when you click on them, but are upside down on the forum post. No idea how to fix, gah!


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## Fitzroy

the end is nigh, the end is nigh, thank goodness!

In the last episode I was doing roof edging, and I noticed a number of wasps entering through this gap in the soffit. They got in then got stuck in the shed, i'd made a shed lobster pot for wasps!





I'd always planned to remedy this by covering the vent with insect mesh, once the inside is complete it'll be a ventilated cold roof. The drilling of many holes and stapling of insect mesh commenced.













I'm 50:50 on the looks, and may open connect some of the holes to make elongated ovals. I also plan to put led light fittings in the cavity behind the vents to give some light at night at the shed end of the garden.

Base boards were scribed and cut to close up the gap to the lawn, eventually the shed will be surrounded by 30-50mm scottish pebbles, enclosed by some old sleepers. That should provide a free draining area that's easy to keep tidy and prevents animals burrowing under the shed. Altough the neighbors two cats seem pretty good at extinction level control of local ground mammals, poor things.






So that's basically the outside done. It's virtually a year since I started clearing ground and it's been much harder work than I expected, but i'm well chuffed with the end result. Plan to have a bit of a break until I make a crack at the inside. Thanks for all your support, and advice over the last 12 months.

Fitz.


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## yeungster79

Great job


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## John Brown

"PS. Schoolboy errors I think I've made.
1. OSB to the edge of the frame! But i couldn't be pineappled to cut noggins for all the board edges and cut the boards to size. With the frame at 6m x 3m and using 1.2x2.4 metric boards there were zero board length cuts."
I know this is an old thread, but what is the downside of having the OSB floor go to the edge of the frame?


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## Fitzroy

The wall frames are sitting on the floor which means you can never lift a floor board. The other thing is you have end grain of the OSB on the edge, and end grain likes moisture, if any gets past the cladding and breather membrane I can see it wicking into the floor. 

Also I’ve never seen it in another build, which tends to mean its abnormal, and seeing as so many sheds are built every year abnormal normally means wrong

I did it this way as it was easy and I didn’t spot it until all rather late in the day. 

Fitz.


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## John Brown

Ok
Thanks.
Looking at what I wiil have, I'd need to double up the exterior frame to form a solid base for the walls, plus noggins for the flooring, so effectively three ply 2 x 6 timber at the perimeter. I think I might take my chances with t and g OSB3 all the way to the edge. Lifting a floorboard anywhere other than at the wall would be no more difficult, and I'm not sure that OSB has endgrain as such, being resin bonded. 
But thanks for taking the time to reply. 

John


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## Inspector

OSB is commonly laid to the edges of the platform/floor here with the walls on top all the way up including multi-storey houses. But things are done very much differently here. (hammer) 

Pete


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## Torx

Just finished my second read of this, it turned out fantastic. What is the cladding colour like now?

I'm also curious what you did with the corners of the EPDM where it folds over the edge?


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## Fitzroy

Silvering nicely, I'll get some photos. The EPDM is just folded like the corner of a Christmas present, and then contact adhesived in place.


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## Fitzroy

Torx said:


> Just finished my second read of this, it turned out fantastic. What is the cladding colour like now?
> 
> I'm also curious what you did with the corners of the EPDM where it folds over the edge?


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## Fitzroy

Insulation has always been on the list but languishing below many other things. That was until a bargain came up locally on gumtree, packs of insulation for £10 a piece! Three car journeys later sixteen packs were mine. Where to store them, and do I really need that much!

Some in the outhouse and some under a tarp on top of the wood store. Sorted. 









I’ve still a number of the floor board left from the batch I bought from the closing down store. Me and my boy had great fun sorting them into graduated patterns. They will run vertically up the walls covering a few bays of the frames. Looks like I can do three, which will save 1.5sheets of plywood. 













I need a load more ply but I’ll get the bays covered in the floor boards done and the ceiling. Then have to either pay through the nose for more boards or wait and hunt gumtree. 

F.


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## Fitzroy

First ceiling insulation going up. Doing full boards by myself is not going to work! I fought it and won this evening, with the help of an impromptu ice hockey stick prop, but not again!










Fitz.


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## Torx

Funny how these buildings end up looking so much smaller inside when you fill them with tools. I had a similar experience with a full sheet of plasterboard on a ceiling a couple of years ago, proper Laurel and Hardy moment as the prop slipped slipped before I could get a screw in and it broke into 4 pieces over my head. Good deal on the insulation, well done.


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## robgul

Fitzroy said:


> First ceiling insulation going up. Doing full boards by myself is not going to work! I fought it and won this evening, with the help of an impromptu ice hockey stick prop, but not again!
> 
> View attachment 145747
> 
> View attachment 145748
> 
> 
> Fitz.



Using 6 x 3 plasterboards and wide broom work for me for fiting ceilings solo!


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## Fitzroy

Torx said:


> Funny how these buildings end up looking so much smaller inside when you fill them with tools. I had a similar experience with a full sheet of plasterboard on a ceiling a couple of years ago, proper Laurel and Hardy moment as the prop slipped slipped before I could get a screw in and it broke into 4 pieces over my head. Good deal on the insulation, well done.



Yes, waiting to insulate after I bought 9 pieces of machinery, installed 8ft of shelves, and have two big projects going on was a stoopid idea!


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## rogxwhit

Fitzroy said:


> View attachment 145633



Um - a bit puzzled about the moisture management here. I see boards (permeable), no vapour barrier, rockwool (permeable), then osb (hardly permeable at all). So if you heat the space, won't moisture condense on the inside face of the osb?


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## Fitzroy

rogxwhit said:


> Um - a bit puzzled about the moisture management here. I see boards (permeable), no vapour barrier, rockwool (permeable), then osb (hardly permeable at all). So if you heat the space, won't moisture condense on the inside face of the osb?


Yes it could. I’d pretty much squared myself away that the risk was small as I only occupy the space for about 10hours each week and work at 13-15degC.

I’m now sat here looking at membranes in screwfix so you’ll likely see a tory style u-turn shortly.


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## rogxwhit

Yes, as you describe your usage, the risk is small. But usages can change ... 

To do a 'proper' job the barrier would have to be contiguous, with lapped and taped joins - a complete wrap covering walls, floor, ceiling, anywhere there was insulation. 

I think the rule for insulation 'sandwich' construction is that the outside cladding must be more breathable than the inside cladding.


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## Fitzroy

rogxwhit said:


> Yes, as you describe your usage, the risk is small. But usages can change ...
> 
> To do a 'proper' job the barrier would have to be contiguous, with lapped and taped joins - a complete wrap covering walls, floor, ceiling, anywhere there was insulation.
> 
> I think the rule for insulation 'sandwich' construction is that the outside cladding must be more breathable than the inside cladding.



Yup, I have learnt lots during the last 5yrs since I first designed the building. I specifically would not have OSB the outside. Everyday is a school day.


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## Inspector

Better not tell us colonists that we are doing it wrong.  It's been working for us since before the 70's when I was a framers helper out of high school and that was near Vancouver where it is just as wet as England. I've never seen any house or building built "backwards" like you do. Main thing is to do whatever method you like properly.

Pete


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## Goesbysteve

Are you using moisture resistant plasterboard?


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## Inspector

Goesbysteve said:


> Are you using moisture resistant plasterboard?


Here? Only in bathrooms if the builder isn't cheap.

Pete


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## rogxwhit

Inspector said:


> near Vancouver where it is just as wet as England


Or Wales or Scotland, for that matter ... ;-)


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## Fergie 307

Torx said:


> Funny how these buildings end up looking so much smaller inside when you fill them with tools. I had a similar experience with a full sheet of plasterboard on a ceiling a couple of years ago, proper Laurel and Hardy moment as the prop slipped slipped before I could get a screw in and it broke into 4 pieces over my head. Good deal on the insulation, well done.


One of the best things ever bought were telescopic props for doing this. Don't need to use them often now but an absolute godsend when refurbing the house and replacing all the knackered old lath and plaster ceilings with boards.


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## Fitzroy

So I listened to reason and went out and bought a vapour barrier and took down the little I had done and did it almost properly. I didn’t tape every join as tape is really expensive. Anyhow figured I reduced the area for transmission of moisture by 99% anyhow. 

Bits were insulated and boarded, the painted where I would be unable to reach later. Insulating and in use building was a real pain.


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## Fitzroy

Final side done over the last week, ran out of membrane for the last bay and wasn’t buying another mile for the last inch, so some reuse of the insulation packaging. Racks up and stacked for the long timber. All jobs ticked off and workshop back ready for use. Knackered now, time for a rest.


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## Jester129

Congratulations on your efforts and the success!
That is one massive piece of wood in the 3rd photo up, it looks about 15 feet long and around 2.5 inches thick!
Workshop looks great.
Well done again!


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## Molynoox

I'm loving your workshop Fitzroy!
You have done a great job with it all, I'm especially impressed with the home made windows! I seriously need to get some storage sorted in mine, everything is in plastic boxes.

Top job 

Martin


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## BucksDad

Looks fab. I started mine in May and it’s not finished yet - I will let my wife know there’s a build on here which has taken 6 years so I’ve still got some time


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## Fitzroy

Jester129 said:


> Congratulations on your efforts and the success!
> That is one massive piece of wood in the 3rd photo up, it looks about 15 feet long and around 2.5 inches thick!
> Workshop looks great.
> Well done again!


Yes I have two pieces of elm I picked up locally on gum tree, they are 4.1m x 0.35m x 0.05m, which is about 13.5' x 13" x 2". The chap had bought them to make an outside bar years back, sat in his garage since until he was told to get rid. Orginally I was going to cut up to transport but knew I'd regret it as I had no project earmarked for them. Luckily I got them in the back of a LBW hrly rental van from B&Q. Lifting them on to the rack was a little nervy. I think they are going to become a new kitchen table in the future if we go ahead with the kitchen extension.


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