Can you stand another workshop thread?

[OllyK]

We moved in to our current house 2 years ago. During that time we've pretty much gutted the place, and most of it I've done myself. The one exception however was the garage and workshop, the construction of which started late in 2005. I'm now finally sufficiently complete on the house related stuff that I'm now getting the workshop under way.

The Plot
Our garden is pretty long, about 50m with the property sitting between 2 roads. The house occupies pretty much the whole width at the front, so the only option for a garage was to build it at the bottom of the garden. This is the view down the garden from the back bedroom

The trailer in the distance is where the garage will be going.

As part of digging out the foundations, an armored cable and 28mm water pipe were run the whole length of the garden in a trench, which will connect back in to the main circuit board and the outside loo respectively.

 

[OllyK]

The garage will be 5m x 5m with a 3m x 3m workshop on the back connecting through, giving me the option to over run in to the garage on larger projects.

The foundations were fairly deep due mainly to being on a hill

Then they were filled with rather a lot of concrete

Next came the footings, the brickie said this was the first time he'd been stood upright and still laying footings

 

[Philly]

Wow! Olly, that is one BIG back garden! :shock:
Going to be a great workshop - keep the pics coming.
Philly

 

[Anonymous]

Major work there!! Keep 'em coming

 

[Waka]

Olly

Really lokking good, can I ask why you didn't consider having the WS the same width as the garage?

Keep the pic's coming.

 

[PowerTool]

Yep,keep 'em coming - I love to see other peoples workshop builds and workshop tours,always interesting

Andrew

 

[MIGNAL]

Plenty room for expansion should you ever need it. Also makes a change from the recent wooden structures. Should be interesting.

 

[OllyK]

Olly

Really lokking good, can I ask why you didn't consider having the WS the same width as the garage?

Keep the pic's coming.

Couple of reasons - the second of which will become more apparent as the build progresses. The first was at the suggestion of the architect to make getting planning permission easier.

 

[OllyK]

Footings complete and the base goes down, another 12 cubic metres of concrete

Walls going up

Workshop window gets fitted

Main structure complete - view from the rear and some may now guess what the garage isn't full width!

and from the front

 

[OllyK]

And then on to where we are currently at!

Studding in place ready to receive some insulation. Wiring and lighting done as well as the alarm. Plumbing in place for sink, water heater and external tap. Kitchen type units to go in front and high level cabinets above, one to house the MCB for the garage. Walls being clad in 9mm ply where I may want to hang anything, higher up I'll revert to plaster board. Ceiling to be insulated and plasterboarded. Lighting comes in the way of 3 x 4 foot fluorescent and 2 x 2 35W spots

Listening to people on here, I've put in plenty of power sockets:
13 x 240v 13A doubles
2 x 240v 16A singles
2 x 110v 16A singles

No 3 phase
- yet

 

[mambo]

where are the 110v and where is the tranny?

 

[OllyK]

where are the 110v and where is the tranny?

If you look at the pic with the extension lead hanging off the wall, above it is where the cupboard with the MCB will be and also the transformer. You may see the cable with yellow insulation which the output of the transformer will plug in to.

On the same picture under the left hand side of the window, there is a large gap between 2 sockets, a 110v and a 16A will go there - you may be able to see the cables, the same again on the other wall, 3rd section in from the left.

I'll try and get some more pics done tomorrow - the ply is now in place below the window with the 16A and 110v sockets fitted. Also the floor is now a very fetching "smokey blue" and the high level cupboards are in place.

 

[mambo]

o yes i can see the 110v and the 16amp sockets on the window sill now
will the be putting a 16amp socket in the floor for the table saw?

 

[Chris Knight]

Olly,
Fantastic job!

It's nice to see a new building in brick too - pretty rare these days.

 

[Waka]

Olly

I now see why the WS is not full width, good idea. really good progress, how long has it taken so far?

 

[dedee]

Olly,
It's always nice to see a workshop build and in brick too!.

Looking very good.

Andy

 

[OllyK]

o yes i can see the 110v and the 16amp sockets on the window sill now
will the be putting a 16amp socket in the floor for the table saw?

No - the floor is solid concrete. The wiring is being done radial rather than as a loop, so if I need to add another socket it's no big deal. The sockets are being set in an easily removable 6" wide bit of ply so I can get back in if I need to. I may end up ceiling mounting one in the main garage in due course however!

 

[OllyK]

Olly

I now see why the WS is not full width, good idea. really good progress, how long has it taken so far?

Indeed - as the garage is the full width of our garden (the poly tunnel etc to the left is next door's) and we only have a narrow path down the side of the house, there was a danger that we wouldn't be able to get larger items (like a mini digger) up the garden when we get on with some of the other projects. I suppose I could still have gone full width and had the door there, but the additional costs and risk to not getting planning permission (2 applications by the previous owner had been refused) resulted in what you see.

The building work began in Sept 2005 and culminated in ovember with me fitting the 2 garage doors and the side door. The 2 garage doors came off eBay, the double one was 50p - delivered for £30 all in and the other was £50 off eBay.

It's been used as a material store since then while I've been renovating the house. In one of the pictures you can see the replacement floor joists for the dining room and sitting room.

Actually getting things moving towards a workshop started 2 weeks ago, so it's had a few evenings and a weekend on it so far.

 

[Fecn]

Thanks for posting the pics. I love to see workshop build threads.
Looks like it's all going nicely and you'll have a superb workshop at the end of it all. I like the two sets of garage doors... I'm planning on doing something similar myself.. one day (assuming cash and planning permission all work out)

 

[OllyK]

Thanks for posting the pics. I love to see workshop build threads.
Looks like it's all going nicely and you'll have a superb workshop at the end of it all. I like the two sets of garage doors... I'm planning on doing something similar myself.. one day (assuming cash and planning permission all work out)

It certainly isn't a cheap option. With running power and water, architect and planning fees I reckon it's run to close on £17K for the basic structure. Mind you being on a hill and needing so much concrete didn't help.

I am beginning to worry about space already though, I still want to be able to get 2 cars in the garage. I do have about 3 feet of extra width to the left as you look from the front, but I need to find homes for a table saw, thicknesser planer, lathe, SCMS never mind work bench, dust extraction and compressor. I can see me suspending stuff from the ceiling at this rate!