# Shed build (WIP)



## angelboy (3 Oct 2014)

Like Steve and Mike I've been busy building a new 'shed' at the bottom of the garden. I say shed because it's initially for storage but who knows what we'll use it for in years to come. I have a garage that needs to be demolished to make way for a new build so rather than get a container or a cheap shed I'd opted to build something that I won't mind looking at for the next decade……that is if it survives for the next decade!

I know now that I've made a few mistakes that I'm aware of and I'm sure there's a few that I'm not aware of and I do know some of my detailing is a lot to be desired - I'm definitely a member of the 80/20 club in that respect. 

There's still a few trimming jobs needed (or not) to be done, I'll install the downpipes once the landscaping is done and I have to lay a concrete door cill but all in all I've learnt a lot and I'm generally pretty pleased with the result

I've got 185 photos but I'll slim it down a little.

Here's a quick taster of the near completed building.


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## celston (3 Oct 2014)

Beautiful, looking forward to the rest of the pics


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## angelboy (3 Oct 2014)

celston":2xdbvyve said:


> Beautiful, looking forward to the rest of the pics



Thanks!


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I planned to build this shed in a part of the garden that had previously only been used for tipping grass. It's in the shadow of quite a large sycamore tree so I always knew that it wasn't the best spot construction-wise but I wanted it to appear as if it has always been there and for it to almost be a little 'enchanted' hut at the the bottom of the garden - stretching it I know! If this were to fall under building regs (under 15sqm so I'm OK) then I'd have either had to dig down to 2.5m or pile it - not going to happen! It might be arguable wether there's a full 2m distance to the boundary but as the hedge is over 1.5m thick I should be OK. For this I decided not to push too far above 2.5m although the ridge is actually 3.2m. I'd have preferred a steeper roof pitch but I didn't want to push it. There's a neighbours garage just over the hedge that is pretty much the same height as this shed so I it shouldn't offend anyone.


On with the digging.


















It's a little hard to get any scale from these shots but I'm about 500mm down and 300mm across the bottom of the trench. I had to take out some branch like tree roots when digging out the front trench, so much so that I did wonder if I might undermine the stability of the tree. A year on and the tree seems OK - no stability issues but I did notice a few branches looking a little dry over the summer. Too late now!

When starting to dig there's a real sense that it's well within the ability of my trusty spade and a bit of sweat but after 300mm down and dried out clay and I realised my little spade just wasn't going to do the job.

I bought this lot for £50 and it was money very well spent!


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## angelboy (3 Oct 2014)

The trenches were filled with 300mm of concrete - mixed by hand but in a Belle 150 mixer - with two parallel 6mm rebar inserted to be around half way in each trench. The concrete was poured all at the same time and the rebar is to help keep the whole trench together if there happens to be any future root issues. I'd also stuck some A142 mesh in the slab and put in some brick reinforcement into every 4th course of brickwork - so fingers crossed if it moves it moves together.













Once the concrete had gone off my wife and I removed all the remaining spoil so that it was level with the top of the trench. You'll notice on some other photos that we dumped it to the other side of the tree so we still need to get rid of it around the rest of the garden. I think it's supposed to be a bulking factor of 1.5x so it's quite surprising how much spoil you actually end up with.


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## angelboy (3 Oct 2014)

Next I laid all the concrete blocks. I'd been on one of those 5 day bricklayer courses and I do admit, it gave me the courage to give it a go. One of the main reasons for the design of this building was because I had some materials left over from the new garage - built my next door neighbour who's a bricky - and so I wanted to try my newly learnt skills. The actual size of the building was based around the fact I had so many blocks so I wanted to use them all. They were the bloody heavy 7n blocks as well so a little more difficult for me to get them down right first time. When we demolish the garage I plan to reuse the bricks to build and brick gazebo with an outdoor fireplace as well as a hot tub enclosure (I'm going to build a hot tub as well....but that's another story!) so by the time I'm done the bricklaying course will have paid for itself quite a few times over.

The engineering bricks on this photo hadn't been laid, I was just estimating how many I'd need. Before I laid this course I wanted to get the sub-base in and whacked. The whacker plate I have is a big 18" bed so it's a beast to control. If I'd laid the red bricks then I'd have no doubt knocked a few out before I'd finished.












I'd filled up a bit of the bottom with a few larger bits of rubble, half bricks and such, then stuck some MOT Type 1 to a total of 150mm. I'd whacked it for a good hour or so afterwards to make sure the base was well compacted.


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## Wildman (3 Oct 2014)

looking really nice


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## angelboy (3 Oct 2014)

For some reason I must have forgotten to take the picture of prepping the base for the slab so I'll just have to explain what I did.

After the sub-base was thoroughly compacted I built up a layer of red bricks which would then act as a guide for the top level of the slab and then put in a 50mm sand screed. The sand I had was left over from a garage base and it's a filler sand direct from the quarry. On top of this I laid a 300mu DPM - again, left over from the garage - and put in some overlapped sheets of A142 mesh sat on 50mm bits of broken slab so that the mesh sits in the middle of the slab. I'd read about putting the mesh at the top at the bottom and in the middle, all supposing to have different reasons so I opted for the middle in the end. As the MOT sits on the foundations then the slab effectively sits on the foundations so if anything drops it drops together and vice versa.

I knew I had to put in about 2m3 of concrete to get a 100mm thick slab in so it was a two man job. I roped my Dad in to help me mix it up and level it so we had a good days work. At one point I thought I was going to run out of cement and as every pour went in I was trying to calculate how much materials I had left. As we were laying it on a Sunday my options were limited until I found out the B & Q were open and they ended up supplying it at around the same price as the builders merchants?!?! I did have to buy 5 bags, which in the end I only needed half a bag! 

After the concrete was levelled and cured enough to walk on I could lay the next course of red bricks which carry the DPC, even though the finish floor height is 75mm instead of a house which would be 150mm, the bricks act as a DPC in any case. 

On these photos it's the mortar that's making the slabs look untidy - I'm not the neatest with my mix just yet!






You'll see the planned door opening on this shot.






...and where the brick pillar sits on the back wall as it's over 4m and it's usual for a pillar within a 3m run on a single brick wall. I actually forgot to build this into the foundation so this pillar sits on top of the slab.


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

The brick work was the bit that took a long time. To start with I had to get my corners in so that I could then fill in between on straight runs. I think it took me an entire weekend to get the two back corners in and up to the final course, which was to be 8 after the red bricks. Originally it was 11 in total, which I'd built up to on the far rear corner but when I started to think more about the frame I wanted to double up on the sole plate and the header so that would be an additional 100mm, which I didn't want to push so I got rid of the top course (1 brick!). I think to start with I was averaging at about 60-65 bricks per day in a 6 hour day. That's getting all the equipment out, mixing up, laying bricks, having numerous tea breaks and lunch and then packing away again - so not great but I wasn't trying to beat any records, just trying to keep things level, plumb and square - and make sure the courses were the same from corner to corner. I'd made up a two measuring sticks on the SCMS which marked the brick and the 10mm mortar course, one was up to 1800mm (24 courses) and the other 1050mm (14 courses) but I found that the slab wasn't mm perfect on the corners which then gave a false measurement on the stick corner to corner so I didn't use them in the end.

I think that I spent so much time laying bricks that I forgot to take stage photos. But here we are nearly finished but still a good 8 hour day left to complete.






You can see where the previous day had taken me with the darker coloured mortar.
















There's about 75 bricks left to lay on this side - you can see the galvanised brick reinforcement in the 4th course which I'd forgot to tie into the first corner I built - whoops!






All the rubbish on the floor is from the tree canopy directly above the slab. I think by this point, after the rain had soaked it numerous times, it was like an inch thick sludge. You'll also see how I was going to work out some paving using some solid bricks with some Marshals heritage slabs that I have left over from my house paving. I have a good 57sqm left over (ordered from a 175sqm load!!!) so I want to stretch them as far as I can as it's a discontinued line - but that's another story.






















On this shot you can see the solid bricks that I had to use - which were quite a bit different to lay, and especially tying them all into the courses. I don't think I did a bad job to be honest. The solids are what my house and garage is built from and when we split the plot I had to rebuild the garage to the other side of the house. The hollow bricks that you see are the brick matched bricks from the merchants - but they're my 15p per brick bricks!!! Considering their cost I think the match was pretty good - however, the old bricks are longer and wider than the new bricks, which isn't a problem in a detached garage, but when you're mixing old and new I had to compromise.


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

The centre section, between the built up corners, on this wall and the far wall were filled in with the old solid bricks. On later photos you might be able to see the difference but it's not a bad match from a distance - a fact made sweeter being 15p per brick!






Last of the uncompleted brick photos. You can see the bank that's built up from part of the spoil dug out of the trenches. During the build project this bank all around the building was to prove a real pain the buttocks as every time I wanted to move ladders or the builders trestles the ground was all over the place. For future reference I'll make sure the ground around any building works will be levelled prior to working at any height.


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## devonwoody (4 Oct 2014)

I liked looking at your shed build, it also brought back happy memories for me, I built my first shed around the same size nearly 60 years ago, (unfortunately the roof blew off at the first gale).

I do wish you many happy hours and successful projects in the future.


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

I'd forgot that you might be interested in the wood so this is what £633.36 of framing wood looks like - although I'd already made some cuts for the frame by this point.






See my trusty trench blocks and knackered garden trolly being used as a stop for the cut frame that you see on the floor - Heath Robinson but it worked!






I don't know why it's showing 2 of the last pictures - it's not showing up in the code - sorry!


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

THis shot shows the sole plate completed. There's a DPC then a bed of mortar which the timber sits on to get level. Joints are half lapped the the corners. I've strapped the sole plate down with galvanised banding rather than the L-shaped frame brackets. I felt they might be too long for this job. These photos just show the corners but I did the rest every 1000mm or so around the plate.






There's a little twisting in the far corner which I thought would be OK but it did effect the frame along that back wall. I assumed that the twist would be flattened out with the frame and it did appear though this had worked but when fixing the rafters this entire back wall caused me a few problems - I'll go into that later.






At the door frame I wanted 150mm timbers so that the door could be sat as far back as I could so these were to take the timbers above - a mistake in the making as you'll see later. You'll see the far timber twisted up on the back corner as well.


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## Random Orbital Bob (4 Oct 2014)

Looks a very thorough job and fabulous WIP....excellent, keep 'em coming. Cant wait to see the woodwork.


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

Due to my inexperience I chose to spend a little time working out a Sketchup model of what I wanted. This was an excellent way for me to understand how the frame would go together and what measurements I needed. Every piece of the build could be zoomed into and panned and rotated so it really was an invaluable tool for me.







Right, the frame was made from 100x47mm C16 regularised treated timbers. The reason for the double sole and top plate was so that the frame could be made in 4 large pieces and fixed to the first plate. Each corner was planned to overlap the timber below it so that if the half lap for the front elevation sole plate was at the bottom, then the frame section would be the same to sandwich in the corners. The same technique is used for the top plate so that all the timbers are overlapped and stronger joints.






The frame members we are cut at the same time then each section was laid out on the floor, 90mm nails fired through the top, bottom and toe-nailed each side so each timber end had 3 nail fixings - very solid. If the frame timbers had been cut and fixed in-situ then you'd only be able to toe-nail the fixings. These frames were a two man lift to carry to the bottom of the garden and once lifted into place another pair of hands would have been preferred. Instead they were screwed into place with some cross braces and then fine tuned one corner at a time.






Each corner would end up being 150mm wide so you'll see that instead of 3 timber members attached side by side a spacer is used top and bottom.

















You'll see the bottom of the frame bridges the door opening, which is done to give stability to the frame and to stop it twisting until it's fixed in place, then it can be easily cut out after. You'll also notice that the door frame is stepped back 50mm as this is where I wanted to add the 150mm timbers which run vertically in line with the edge of the brick. This is the mistake I made as now these timbers would be 50mm above the first sole plate timbers. I could have fixed it and might still do but it's not having any structural effect. I'll show the photos of it later.






I wanted to double up on the timbers around the door, the sash window and the midpoint where the ridge board would be sitting on but around the stable windows I opted for a single timber. This would prove a small problem later on when fixing the cladding. The frame was nailed to the sole plate every 300mm or so - it's easy to carried away with an air nailer and blast around the frame shooting nails into everything. The frame was tied together with nail plates and then later I'd add another top-plate that would tie the corners together even stronger. I did have a few nails bounce around when adding the next timber as the metal plate below the corners sometimes bounced the nails of course!






This is a close up shot of the twisted front corner. The first sole plate looks nice and level but you can see the frame plates being lifted, only slightly but enough to cause a few problems later. 







This is the offending front corner that's slightly twisted. Although the first sole plate look level it does twist up so that the frame does raise a little out of level. I still thought at this point it would be OK.


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

Now this is where I start to have a few problems - all caused by a twisted ridge board!!!

If you're cutting rafters then do yourself a favour and buy one of these:






It's a roofing square, £8 from B & Q - great little tool to help cut rafter angles and accurate birds-mouths.

I'd used sketch up to give me the exact measurement for the rafters so I knew what to cut and where to cut it. I'd set up a sheet of OSB on some trestles and cut a small piece of the ridge and a section of the top plate. With this I could mark them out on the board and then cut a test rafter to see if it fits OK. My first attempt saw me cutting opposing sides from each of the rafter ends so instead of being parallel cuts they were perpendicular to each other. That was my one and only change to make the cut as otherwise I'd have to order more material - at least these timbers didn't go to waste as they were used for the door frame in the end. Second attempt went fine and the rafter fitted the template board so all that was left to do was cut another 19 rafters. This meant that every rafter was perfect - on the ground - but now I know that a twisted ridge can cause a few problems I might choose to do it slightly different next time! The birds mouths were cut with a circular saw and then cleaned up with a chisel afterwards.

Anyhow - here we are with the ridge, rafters and gable struts in place....oh and my little boy inspecting my days work!






I thought a nice little cut to seat the rafter whilst I was pinning the rafters in place - even though my eldest daughter helped me out on this one - it is slightly off putting when your helper holds the timber in place then before the gun is fired turns away abruptly and drops the timber almost every time. In the end I had to anticipate her flinching and hold it firmly myself once she'd helped get it just about there.






The ridge board is 200x47 and the original plan was for it to be a structural timber which would transfer the loading of the roof down the gable struts, into the frame and onto the walls then into the foundations. The rafters would have been toe-nailed to the ridge board and all would be well. As the ridge was twisted and I'd decided to cut all the rafters the same to the template I then found that at one side the heel of the rafter wouldn't meet the ridge and the other (is it toe?) the 'toe' of the rafter wouldn't sit squarely.











So the only thing I could think of was to steel band across the top of the rafters and add a collar, which would make take away the structural element from the ridge. I think in the end it worked out OK and the roof framing seemed to very strong indeed. We'll see when the snow comes but I'm very optimistic that it's good.











At the birds mouth I toe-nailed and added some truss clips for added security. I'd originally ordered some joist hangars for the rafters at ridge height and it wasn't until they arrived that I'd realised my mistake. The seat of the joist hanger is level whereas the rafter was angled - silly person! Just goes to show that there's only so much you can imagine before needing something tangible to sit in your hands to work it out!


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

Gable struts in place which were toe-nailed to the top plate and rafter and additional banding on the main support strut. They're placed in-line with the framing below so this end they're above the widow timbers and the other end it's on 600 centres. I'm sure with a double top plate I'd be fine putting them anywhere but why not fit them in-line for extra piece of mind.






Having left the ridge uncut I thought maybe I could add a swing for the kids, but on reflection it would have been a bad idea for a number of reasons. 






The sole plate is now cut out so I don't have to do the limbo every time I want to go in.











Other side of the collars - fitted with M8 bolts.







The rafters all look nice and in-line but that twisted ridge had caused some to be out. I didn't realise this until I was fitting the fascia board. You can also see a stray nail that had bounced of the nail plate on the first top plate.







As well as bolting up the end rafters and the collars I'd bolted any doubled up timbers at the top and bottom. You can see also the spacer blocks used in the corner posts. This one had actually worked loose (?!?) so a few pops of the nail gun and it was sorted. It did prompt me to check all the others, which were fine - strange!?


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

I bought a couple of 100 year old windows off ebay that were from a stable block in an old manor house - I think I paid £40 for the lot. These windows helped to shape the design as they'd been bought when the shed was just an idea. I always wanted it to look as if it'd been there for years and the best way was to use recycled elements. I loved these windows and the sash as they really are made well and have plenty of character. The stable windows had vents at the bottom which I wanted to keep, didn't know how at this point, I just thought that I wanted them to still be able to be opened up. 






Originally this end elevation was to have have the large sash window right in the middle and the smaller stable windows were going to go either side of the door. When playing around in Sketchup I became worried that the roof would be so heavy with the clay tiles that the ridge board needed a structural support all the way down to the foundations. I didn't or still don't know if the doubled up top plate would have been sufficient in taking the load around the sash window but I just did not want to risk it and I didn't want to involve a structural engineer at silly money. It would probably have looked better but it was a design sacrifice I'd have to make.







Again sorry for the double post but for some reason there's no coding at all so I can't delete it - weird!


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

I needed the windows in before I could start to board it out as I wanted to use my faithful galvanised banding as frame clips which I wanted to underneath the boarding. I followed Mike's example of using 11mm OSB as an internal moisture barrier due to the high glue content and once the interior was boarded out then there was zero racking. It really became a sturdy structure once completed. I've seen plenty of shed builds where the OSB is used externally, which is fine until you want to insulate and then you still need a moisture barrier internally. I figured I'd save costs but still get the same effect but the lack of external boarding became a slight issue when needing fixing points for the cladding. More later....












A few gaps which I'd fill later.






I'd have loved to glaze this entire wall as it looks cracking as is.






....and boarded. You might notice a lot of cuts in the OSB - a pure financial reason as I didn't want to order more boards at £13 a piece just to keep it free from fillers. Another annoying thing that Steve mentioned on his thread is the fact that sheet material comes in at 1220 x 2440 and I'd framed the walls at 600 centres which meant that every board had to be trimmed! 












The sash in place but looking a little worse for wear.


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

Sorry about the out of sequence photo. It seems that if I copy an paste in the editor it sometimes looses the coding but still shows it once I post the message. If I try to edit there's no code there so that last image isn't really there......?!


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

Whilst the structure was still open I added a ring of electric cable so that there's 3 power points through out building and also a lighting cable. I'm assuming that they'll be a small garage RCA consumer unit which will go in the corner. If sufficient then this might be the main unit to power other bits in the lower part of the garden. As we haven't had power to the new plot yet I'll wait until we're getting close for a connection then dig a trench for the garden power. I asked what I needed to do over on another forum and they acted like I'm some kind of dangerous moron and that no electrician would accept the work I was planning to do. Too late now!


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

I bought loads of rolls of loft insulation when they were £1 per roll a few years back - I ended up with a huge amount which has been in my loft ever since (so used as intended I suppose!) so I dragged down a few rolls of 170mm and a few rolls of 100mm insulation. In the roof I used the 170mm which was fine for the rafter depths. The black bit on the end of the rafters is actually from a roll of DPC. You can double it up if you need to but it's used to stop the breather membrane from sagging at the end and collecting water. It's used as a cheaper alternative to an underlay tray. I just tack it into place with a hammer tacker and let it continue into the gutter.







By now I'd already fitted the fascias which were made up from 22x200mm PSE, primed then eventually painted with 10 year exterior paint. My eldest helped out with fitting the breather membrane but like all 16 year olds her mind began to wander and so did the membrane. It had to be pulled a little scew wiff and ended up creased. At least she had a go!






As I'd mentioned before, the rafter ends were slightly out and instead of trimming them I just stuck the fascia board up. I know they're out and most of the members of the board could spot it but none of my family have mentioned it - along with the millions of other bits that aren't quite right - they seem invisible to some so job done, let's have a cuppa!

Here's my lovely finial which is there just to cover up a bad join. Don't know why it was out, must have been late in the day. I remember thinking, 'F**k it, I'll stick a filler bit over it', which I did. It didn't look too bad until I put the ridge tiles on and then it looked a bit of a dog.


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## angelboy (4 Oct 2014)

For some reason I ended up fixing the soffits before I cladded the exterior. For the life of me I can't remember why I did it but it was a bit of a mistake really that required lots of silicone filler later on. Again, for cost reasons I'd planned to rip all the soffits from a single sheet of 9mm ply. My Sketchup model told me that 100mm strips would do it so when I order the material that was the plan. However, I ended up giving the rafters a 160mm overhanf instead of the 100mm that I'd planned for but it wasn't until I got to marking out the soffits that I remembered. As I'm tight and didn't want to order and entire board for the sake of a couple of meters off soffits I decided to patch up a section around the rear. I figured that no-one, not even me will be going round the back to often and I wouldn't really be paying too much attention to the soffits anyway. Cue some dodgy cuts and a load of filler! The soffits angle back and are fixed directly under the rafter as to make them horizontal would have been lower than the door frame.

This photo is out of sequence to show you the filled in section at the back.


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## dmcturk (5 Oct 2014)

Hi Angelboy, great project, and enjoyed looking through the photos of the different stages. I saw you used Sketchup, is it easy to use? Do you have to pay for the full version, or is it possible to use the free version to create the design?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Wizard9999 (6 Oct 2014)

Great WIP angelboy =D> 
Hooked now so keenly awaiting the next instalment!


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## ghr (6 Oct 2014)

@dmcturk

> I saw you used Sketchup, is it easy to use?

Its pretty easy to get going with. angelboy's model is _very_ good, but it won't take you long to get reasonable at making plans.

> Do you have to pay for the full version, or is it possible to use the free version to create the design?

The free version has worked well enough for me for the last 10 years.


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## angelboy (6 Oct 2014)

Yes, Sketchup is free. I've downloaded the latest one but my mac OS isn't new enough so I'm stuck on Sketchup 8 for the time being.


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## ghr (6 Oct 2014)

@angelboy how big is the shed? Looks around 3m x 3.8m if I counted the bricks correctly!

How long has it taken you, and if you don't mind me asking, what kind of money did it cost?

Thinking about doing something similar 

Cheers,

Gareth


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## angelboy (6 Oct 2014)

ghr":2amqga40 said:


> @angelboy how big is the shed? Looks around 3m x 3.8m if I counted the bricks correctly!
> 
> How long has it taken you, and if you don't mind me asking, what kind of money did it cost?
> 
> ...




It's 4m x 3.2m and 3.2m to the ridge with a 25 degree roof pitch - supposedly too shallow for the clay tiles but that's all I dare go for.

Costs are a little tricky - I already had the blocks (I remember they were free from freecycle) and 85% of the bricks were left over from my garage (15p/brick) and the remainder from a gate arch I took down. I had odds and ends like the DPM, DPC, the filler sand some roofing membrane, the clay ridge tiles and 1 or two tubes of chaulk but after that I have records of spending a little under £2200. I still have a little bit of timber left, enough to make a log store but there was lots of split cladding boards. I'd say I lost a good six 4.8m lengths at £5.5/board.

What price would it have cost to get a builder in?

Well, I've had that discussion with my wife and you'd be probably be talking a good 6 weeks labour with a skilled trade and labourer at £170+/day. The clay tiles would have been at least double/sqm and the door & windows could have come in at £1000. 

Would anyone agree with about £8k-£9k?

I forgot to say how long it took. Well I dug out and poured the slab in November last year. Then I started back up in March time and the bricks were up by May. Up to this point I'd just been doing a few hours here and there. Once the timber came in July I pretty much did 3 solid days per week on average for three months.


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## angelboy (6 Oct 2014)

Sash window in but still needs a lot of work.






My wife doing a bit of sanding of the door ready to be fitted. Another ebay item I picked up for £10 which came with 5 level mortice lock and Yale latch with 3 sets of keys! Great but can I find a bloody striker plate anywhere, nope! Turns out Legge are the only lock manufacturer not to sell parts, only full lock sets so I still have some ebay searching to do.







I bought 4000+ clay tiles from ebay in preparation for my garden projects. They were loaded on pallets so I took my old pallet truck and hired a Luton van with a tail-lift so it'd be an easy load at the collection end. Wrong! My pallet truck didn't extend fully so my Dad and I had to handball every tile onto the back of van, pallet them up, then do the same in reverse. It took three trips in total and was a good 9 hours day. By the time you add the van and fuel they ended up costing me £6/msq so a decent enough deal in the end, if not a load of hard work.

Cue another mistake - I'd calculated how many tiles lathes and tiles I needed for each side and started to tile the roof. I'd pretty much got as far in the photo before realising that I'd cut the spacers wrong and so ended up with about 4 or 5 couses less than I should have - Whoops! I knew I needed 100mm headlap but like a complete silly person I forgot to account for the thickness of the lathe it's self so I'd ended up with 138mm headlap. You can also see the slightly ruffled membrane that my eldest struggled with. The rain came down today and didn't stop for a good 6 hours but the shed was dry as a bone so at least, as scruffy as it looks, it did its' job! 






Tiles still need a jet-wash though........






Here you can see the insulation going in. It's the 100mm loft insulation that I'd cut oversized and squeezed into the top and bottom. Once the breather membrane is on nice and tight I'm hoping it wont sag.











I initially insulated the main walls from the left of the door around to the right of the right hand stable window. I could then pull the breather membrane around in one continuos strip. You can see the windows have been glazed and primed by now as well.






Door is painted but it's not what it says on the tin. I even complained to Ronseal about it as it's a mint green and not the colour on the tin or on the tester bit in the store. The roof has also been finished on the shot and the gutters are fixed, minus the down pipe of course.


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## angelboy (6 Oct 2014)

The sash and the stable windows have/had crown glass in them but I didn't think I needed it replacing like-for-like so I ordered greenhouse glass. The large sash glass that was broken at the corner was cut down and fitted into one of the stable windows. I've never used putty before or glazed a window before so another new learning experience. It sort of knocks your confidence a little when the guy in the glaziers asked if I'd done it before and then said, 'what never, you've never worked with putty before? Y'know there's a real knack to it don't you?' Yeah, thanks! No, the guy was really helpful in the end. He told me to warm up the putty, get it in the frame and then make the cut. Don't keep going back over it or I'll keep chasing my tail, the less I messed around with it the better and if there's any little bits that need attention then lick my finger and lightly go over it and the putty will smudge.











I decided to buy glaze the bottom of the stable window and then fix the vent piece on the inside so it became decorative rather than functional. I'd offer one of pieces of glass up to window from the inside but then realised that I'd left a rusty nail sticking out of the beading for the vents. God knows how I got the glass in without it chipping but now I didn't know how I'd get it out without it being pushed from the outside. I turned around for a second to get a blade to push it out with and the wind took it and it smashed on the floor! Cue another trip to the glaziers and another £5! I'll show some photos of the pig-of-a-job I made with the sealant when putting in the glass a little later!


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## angelboy (7 Oct 2014)

More overlap than required but it saves cutting it. I bought this stuff on advice found online. Cheap as chips (1x50m was £36.94 including delivery) and can be used for roofs and walls (in Scotland - if it's good enough to use in Scotland then it's good enough for my shed. It's not so bad fitting it on your own, an extra pair of hands would have been better but I just stapled it on with a hammer tacker then pulled it taught to the next timber upright. Still got loads left for the next job.


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## angelboy (7 Oct 2014)

Finally insulated the rest - awful itchy stuff even when working outside with it. When I fitted the insulation it was the height of summer and I'm togged up with overcoat, gloves, face mask and eye protection sweating my cobs off - and I still got covered in the stuff!






You can see the stable windows in their closed position on this shot.


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## angelboy (7 Oct 2014)

First bit of cladding and stop end up. I chose to use squared edged 22x150mm treated boards so that with a 25mm overlap there'd still be 125mm showing. I originally wanted 200mm wide boards but the supplier was having a hard time sourcing some at the right price so it's back to design v cost. Each board cost £5.52 inc VAT and I order 52 - 6 were scrap, either split from one end to the other or badly scarred from the wood preserver. I did rip a few bits for the door and window trims and other trim bits so some still came in handy. Once I've build the log store I'll know how much waste I have, but it won't be a lot. I know Mike has gone on about this in another thread and I may pay the price later down the line but I chose to nail the boards at the top 25mm and not to the bottom couple of inch above the board below. I did this so that the nail heads wouldn't be visible. Mistake? Maybe, but when I was making a cloase-boarded fence out of 125mm timbers I remember reading that if you don't nail both sides then the boards will cup - well on some of the boards I ended up just nailing down the right side with the intention of nailing the left once the fence was up but I still haven't got round to it - 4 years later every board is still flat with no cupping. So we'll use this method as a test and if the boards start to cup then I'll let you know as I'll have to add additional fixings down the line. Fingers crossed! 

I made up a couple of simple hand-held spacer jigs and used some clamps on the corners so I could fix the boards on my own (I didn't take a photo of the jig and clamps but if you want I can take one later - just ask). The shorter boards were no problems - bit tricky for the longer boards and I may have asked one of my kids to hold a few steady towards soffits. Again, I see Mike has turned up his DPC and nailed it to the underside of the boards whereas I forced the DPC downwards under the bottom board, which is fixed flush to the wall. 











Also another supposed no-no - I haven't battened out the studs for a ventilation gap. Mike swears that this MUST be done BUT I've read through all the technical drawings on the Permavent website and you don't have to have ventilation with this breather membrane on a warm/wall roof type construction. I'm just going by the technical spec! For this reason I didn't install an insect barrier either - might be an issue but maybe not.






I haven't mentioned yet that I made the door frames from 2 lengths of 4.8 75x100mm PSE redwood. I haven't written down the price for some reason but it won't have cost more than about £30 compared to made up frames of £70+. Again, another mistake - I ended up kicking out the closer side frame at the bottom by 10mm or so, which means there's a gap towards the bottom of the door. There's no way of fixing this unless I remove the frame and start again - I'm not going to do this, the door shuts secure but it's a sloppy job, I'll admit it - I'll refer back to my 80/20 principle!


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## angelboy (7 Oct 2014)

Before fixing the boards I ran a bead of chaulk down the stop-ends which you can see in this picture.






You can also see that the stop end is just another 22mm board and the cladding sticks out over it. 






I didn't want this so I secured another board over it. Id I were s stickler then I'd have ordered some 50x150mm boards but I like to use what I have already. The problem was then the butt-jointed ends had an extra visible joint so I ripped up some 10mm trim and nailed it over.


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## angelboy (7 Oct 2014)

I think getting the cladding on seemed like the beginning of the end of the job and as there's a lot to show for it after a day but I'd still got the rest of the fiddly membrane to fix before moving on. I started the cladding more for my wife than me as every day she'd come home from work and ask if I'd started the cladding, eager to see what the finished job would look like.


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## tomf (7 Oct 2014)

The DIY £1 a roll loft insulation is horrible stuff to use. It's not the fiber glass in it which is bad it's the metal and other rubbish they left in it as it's from recycled glass.
Very nice shed, if you can call it that it's more like a palace


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## morfa (7 Oct 2014)

What a lovely shed. Looking forward to seeing the internals finished up.

ghr - it's easy for you to say sketchup is simple to use. Mr Big Shot Software Dev...


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## ghr (7 Oct 2014)

> ghr - it's easy for you to say sketchup is simple to use. Mr Big Shot Software Dev...

Heh, well, easy is always relative. I started with SketchUp about 10 years ago, but even then I'd had a computer for probably the same amount of time so yeah, I'm pretty comfortable with using software.

I found it pretty easy to get to grips with compared to "real" CAD software (can't remember what was around at the time I started with SketchUp), and considerably easier than Photoshop.

Like anything, its a case of starting small and working your way up.


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## Wizard9999 (7 Oct 2014)

Continue to really enjoy this WIP.




angelboy":34omcom0 said:


> First bit of cladding and stop end up. I chose to use squared edged 22x150mm treated boards so that with a 25mm overlap there'd still be 125mm showing. I originally wanted 200mm wide boards but the supplier was having a hard time sourcing some at the right price so it's back to design v cost.


Was there a reason you did not go for feather edge?




angelboy":34omcom0 said:


> Also another supposed no-no - I haven't battened out the studs for a ventilation gap. Mike swears that this MUST be done BUT I've read through all the technical drawings on the Permavent website and you don't have to have ventilation with this breather membrane on a warm/wall roof type construction. I'm just going by the technical spec!


I plan to follow your lead on this one as it will save a lot of work and make the end result look a lot better.


Can't wait to see the interior.


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## angelboy (7 Oct 2014)

tomf":fus9qftm said:


> Very nice shed, if you can call it that it's more like a palace




Thanks - not quite a palatial name, it's been knick-named 'Number 12' as that's the numberplate on the door.


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## angelboy (7 Oct 2014)

morfa":1hnymot3 said:


> What a lovely shed. Looking forward to seeing the internals finished up.




Thanks - internals are nothing special, just painted up OSB. If this building gets used as an office in years to come then I'll put in a floating floor, insulate the brickwork and then plaster it out but as a 'shed' I'm happy with a lick of paint.


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## angelboy (7 Oct 2014)

Wizard9999":x3e4a547 said:


> Continue to really enjoy this WIP.
> 
> Was there a reason you did not go for feather edge?




Thanks for the support. I've never really done a WIP but I've always loved looking at everyone else's so I thought I'd be time to give a little back - warts and all!

I went for square edged for a few reasons. Mainly it was so I could just order a load of it and it could then be used for the stop-ends and door/window trims and any other little job whereas feather edge would just be for the cladding. I also felt that it would give a greater depth and make the building feel a little chunkier. I did want 200mm boards in an effort to make it look more like an Oak clad building and I wanted to steer away from shiplap/loglap type cladding as they remind me too much of standard sheds. I don't know if I've fully achieved the look I was going for but it's a good way there. I think by the time the rest of the landscaping is done it'll sit better.

There's always the added bonus that square edged last longer.....apparently - http://www.surrey-oak.com/cladding.html


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## angelboy (8 Oct 2014)

tomf":1ifdb9f6 said:


> The DIY £1 a roll loft insulation is horrible stuff to use. It's not the fiber glass in it which is bad it's the metal and other rubbish they left in it as it's from recycled glass.



I checked last night and it's proper Rockwool that I insulated it with not the cheapy stuff. When I bought it all it was when the government was doing this big energy saving push and they'd reduced it to £1/roll. You were limited to how many you could by, but I just bought the maximum thinking it'd come in handy. I only used 5 1/2 rolls on the shed so I've still got 30 or 40 in the loft......


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## angelboy (8 Oct 2014)

After the cladding was completed I applied a white silicone sealer around the soffits and a clear one at every other edge around the cladding so that the wood can still move but the flexible silicone provides some protection from the elements & insects. I can't remember if I got this out of a US frame building book but it seems to be the American way when I've researched it on the web - maybe someone can comment to it's usefulness.

This shot you'll see a filler piece fixed under the ridge beam and a small filler of cladding. I'm not sure I'd mentioned it but the black gloss is a 10 year exterior paint. When I painted the fascias on the newly built garage I used standard black gloss and 18 months on it needs touching up. The door and the windows are also in a 10 year paint - which unless you spring to Farrow & Ball at £silly then you're colour choices are very limited. 













The stable windows don't look too bad from the outside. I ripped up some of the split boards for the trim and then used a bit of 50x150 for the cill then silicon sealed again - the window was already weather tight but why not put an extra layer on? I made some small fillers at the top and bottom of the open slats so that the glass from the inside could rest up against it and chaulked a line around the internal frame and fixed it in with some beading. I was quite nervous with the brad gun fixing 30mm pins into a 10mm bead so close the glass as the pins sometimes have a mind of their own and if they hit a knot they'll shoot off course. Everytime I fired the gun I held my breath but it was all fine. From the outside I then had a choice to either stick some putty around the slats or stick some frame sealant in. My reasoning was if I stuck putty in the the slats would turn into slits with no more than a few inches of visibility so I put in sealant, which looks great.......from the outside! It's bled a little on the inside so does look a little tatty but fine for it's purpose.






With the sash I needed to put in a couple of trim pieces to box in the weights as this window came with a really bad shutter over the front which was attached to the front box section. The new sash box is made up from the actual timber frame and then as you see with front trim pieces, which is why it looks a little squeezed in. The window does work fully and smoothly, top and bottom openers which is a real bonus. I think the lack of paint over the years has meant that the ropes aren't covered in paint which allows them to work properly.






I mitred the trim at the top and then added a secondary trim over the top to match the depth of the cladding.






This is the best I could think of with the cill - it's all sealed to within an inch of it's life and strong enough to sit on!






The door frame was trimmed just to the bottom of the cladding. The paint needs thinking about as the colour is a little more NHS or dentist rather than what we want, plus my wife should have painted the letterbox and number plate black I think. We still need to find a suitable door handle and we'll be putting a light up once the electrics are in. 






For the door threshold I'm planning to chop out an inch of brick and then lay a concrete step which I'll do once we get on to laying the huge Yorkstone slabs I'm planning to wrestle to the ground!! You can see where my paint gun exploded - more later - and also the annoying little gap at the right side bottom. If I've not already mentioned it, the floor slab is 75mm from the proposed ground level (1 brick deep) so not quite the height of a house threshold but good enough to stop water getting in from the ground.


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## angelboy (8 Oct 2014)

A few more of the windows.






Notice on this shot the bricks. The top few courses are in the old solids I mentioned before and when close up you can see the difference. I do like the fact - or maybe this is just some form of justification - that it looks like a section of the wall had to be re-built a some time ago, like you see on really old buildings, which goes a little way to building in a little character and age to a brand new building. 






You can see a side-by-side comparison of the bricks - or more like, a one-on-yop-of-the-other comparison. I still need to clean up the sealant from the widow, it's not intended to by that messy!






I wanted to add a little trim piece at the bottom of the stop-ends so that it looks a little more chunky - I'm not 100% convinced that they look right, I'll see if they grow on me. I did do this all the way around, even though no-one will ever see the back.


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## angelboy (8 Oct 2014)

That's about it so far for the exterior. There's the downpipes to add once the landscaping is underway so once it's done I'll update the photos - don't hold you breath....winter is coming! I'll just post a few general pics of the building from a few different angles.


























...and we're back to the starting shot.






I'll post a few of the interior next time.


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## MickCheese (8 Oct 2014)

I love it and the write up was fantastic. Thanks so much.

Just read this through from start to finish, like a good book I could not stop before I reached the end.

Well done.

Mick


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## angelboy (8 Oct 2014)

MickCheese":9yq9ksyd said:


> I love it and the write up was fantastic. Thanks so much.
> 
> Just read this through from start to finish, like a good book I could not stop before I reached the end.
> 
> ...




Thanks for that - I've still got a few interior photos to add later - nothing special but might as well stick 'em up.


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## celston (8 Oct 2014)

I enjoyed that every bit as much as I thought I would. One question though, it doesn't look like you've insulated the brick at all, which seems like an omission given that the rest of the shed looks to be well insulated. Are you planning to add any?


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## Wizard9999 (8 Oct 2014)

Wizard9999":34pj37v7 said:


> angelboy":34pj37v7 said:
> 
> 
> > Also another supposed no-no - I haven't battened out the studs for a ventilation gap. Mike swears that this MUST be done BUT I've read through all the technical drawings on the Permavent website and you don't have to have ventilation with this breather membrane on a warm/wall roof type construction. I'm just going by the technical spec!
> ...




Any chance you could point me to the relevant drawings for use in walls on the Permavent website? I have found various bits of info on use in a number of different types of roof, but only passing mentions of using it as a "house wrap" in timber frame buildings.

Thanks in advance.


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## angelboy (9 Oct 2014)

Give me a day or two. I've been preparing for grand designs live tomorrow as I've had a load of plans to do for some people I'm meeting.


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## Wizard9999 (9 Oct 2014)

angelboy":2nrp3zdo said:


> Give me a day or two. I've been preparing for grand designs live tomorrow as I've had a load of plans to do for some people I'm meeting.



NP and I hope Grand Designs Live goes well.


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## angelboy (12 Oct 2014)

Wizard9999":21crenn0 said:


> Wizard9999":21crenn0 said:
> 
> 
> > Any chance you could point me to the relevant drawings for use in walls on the Permavent website? I have found various bits of info on use in a number of different types of roof, but only passing mentions of using it as a "house wrap" in timber frame buildings.
> ...



The walls were taken in part from 'Build a shed Mikes way" - build-a-shed-mike-s-way-t39389.html

I used 11mm OSB as the internal vapour barrier as Mike explains that it's full of glue so stops the passage of moisture. Then the studs were filled with Rockwool loft insulation, which can also be used for walls, as long as you're aware that it may sag and therefore create cold spots. 

I used Permavent Eco breathable membrane - http://www.permavent.co.uk/permavent-eco/

Right at the bottom it reads:

"Permavent ECO is suitable for all types of roof construction including: cold non vented, warm roofs, traditional vented roofs and hybrid roofs (room in the roof). 

Permavent ECO is also suitable for the Scottish roofing practice and is suitable as house wrap in timber frame construction."

Here's the link to the CAD drawings, which can be downloaded as a PDF so that you can view them:

http://www.permavent.co.uk/cad-drawings/

I based my roof (and walls) on this drawing:

http://www.permavent.co.uk/images/stori ... _type3.pdf

If there is no requirement for ventilation on a warm roof constructed as per the drawing then what's the difference in the construction of the wall? The materials I've used in the wall and the roof differ only in the fact that the roof tiles are clay and the walls are clad in timber - otherwise they're constructed the same.


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## angelboy (12 Oct 2014)

celston":1yeul4kl said:


> I enjoyed that every bit as much as I thought I would. One question though, it doesn't look like you've insulated the brick at all, which seems like an omission given that the rest of the shed looks to be well insulated. Are you planning to add any?




If/when the shed changes its use to an office or a teenagers room then I'll treat it as you would a garage conversion. I'd put in 100mm of rigid insulation under a chipboard floor, 100mm on the brick and then I'd plasterboard it. 

So yes, it has been omitted in it's current form, but it's just being used as a storage shed so I can demolish a garage.


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## Wizard9999 (12 Oct 2014)

angelboy":3luibk0j said:


> I based my roof (and walls) on this drawing:
> 
> http://www.permavent.co.uk/images/stori ... _type3.pdf
> 
> If there is no requirement for ventilation on a warm roof constructed as per the drawing then what's the difference in the construction of the wall? The materials I've used in the wall and the roof differ only in the fact that the roof tiles are clay and the walls are clad in timber - otherwise they're constructed the same.



Thanks angelboy. Looking at that diagram there does appear to be a small gap (though I guess less than the 30mm advocated by Mike) provided by the battens the tiles sit on. I take it at this stage so far you have not encountered any issue with your approach?

Terry.


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## angelboy (12 Oct 2014)

Wizard9999":rrbbvzg5 said:


> Thanks angelboy. Looking at that diagram there does appear to be a small gap (though I guess less than the 30mm advocated by Mike) provided by the battens the tiles sit on. I take it at this stage so far you have not encountered any issue with your approach?
> 
> Terry.




It could look like another layer of something but I don't think it's a ventilation gap. 

Have a read through here from the celotex website. There is a comment about the principles from a reader of the blog but the response points back to the quality of the breathable membrane.

It's late and I'm trying to watch guy Martin build a spitfire, so I might not have understood it correctly, so I'll read it and digest it tomorrow.

http://blog.celotex.co.uk/technical/pit ... plication/


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## angelboy (13 Oct 2014)

A few interior shots - nothing special.

I tried to put in expandable foam on some of the joints but it didn't really work to well so I decided just togo straight ahead and fill the joints with a sealant. As I'd ordered loads of white silicone from Toolstation for the exterior I re-order a few more tubes - problem was I must have accidentally re-ordered the clear. Oh well, I had it in hand so although it was tricky to know if the joints were sealed well I over-filled to make sure of it.






After trying to get my newly bought Wagner Paint crew sprayer to work (didn't prime, turned out I'd not left it on long enough - after a strip down and a call to Wagner - but then I burst the hose, cue water all over the kitchen!) I brush painted it. On the first joint I then realised that silicone can't be painted! silly person! Apparently even my wife knew that! So I did the best I could, ordered in a load of white chaulk, applied it over the silicone then repainted the joints - all of which added an extra few days.























Before that I'd ordered the wrong hose for the Wagner, 1/2" instead of 1/4", so I had a trip into town to buy a knew one from Machine Mart. When setting the unit back up I filled it with paint, primed it and then started to spray - apart from it didn't spray, instead choosing to blow another hole in the newly bought hose but now splattering paint all over the shed! Nightmare! I've spent more time cleaning and taking apart this bloody paint sprayer than I have actually painting with it - which is zero by the way!


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## angelboy (13 Oct 2014)

I bought these from the warehouse after calculating that it would cost more to make the shelves out of wood, and plus I could re-loacte them pretty easily. They look flimsy but they're stronger than I expected so a good buy I think.

http://store.makro.co.uk/p-11249-biloxx ... 265kg.aspx

The ones I bought were marked up 300kg per shelf and were on special of 5 units including a workbench for £120.


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