Garden workshop

[Monk]

I've decided I'm going to build a timber frame workshop in my garden. The size I have to work with is 3 meters X 7 meters. Materials I plan on using 4x2, 18mm osb, 12mm osb and Tgv sheeting for the front panel.I'm just interested if anyone has gone down the same route and has any tips on the foundation. I'm trying to keep cost down so can't afford a concrete pad to be poured. My plan is to use 4x4 treated post and built my frame around this.
Any tips very much appreciated
Thanks David

 

[RobinBHM]

Ive built a 5.4 x 2.7m shed at the bottom of the garden.

It is very close to a small stream and the soil is soft a long way down. I dug some holes about 350mm dia, deep enough to get to decent sub soil, then filled with concrete. A few of the holes ended up being nearly 1400mm deep, but that was to avoid putting pressure on the bank of the stream. If you find hard sub soil 300 to 400m down that should be enough.

I actually shuttered the top of the holes so they would be dead level. It was a fair bit of work, you could just set in some pegs and mark a level on each from a laser and concrete upto that. If your holes need to be a bit deep, then finish the concrete lower and raise up with some high density concrete blocks

For a 7m x 3m structure I would make 12 concrete pads, 4 rows of 3. Still a fair bit of concrete but nowhere as much as a full pad

To blind off the ground in between, I bought a mini terram pack from ebay, which is really heavy weight geotextile material. I then used a 1 ton bag of type 1 to weigh it down.

 

[Monk]

That's great , that's for the reply. How do you find the space to work in. In the past a rented a 110sqm workshop but was just costing too much, so that's why I've decided to build my own. Just a little worried with the size and trying to get a decent layout of machinery

 

[adrspach]

I will be eagerly reading this as I am also planning to build my workshop about 5.5x 3

 

[RobinBHM]

That's great , that's for the reply. How do you find the space to work in. In the past a rented a 110sqm workshop but was just costing too much, so that's why I've decided to build my own. Just a little worried with the size and trying to get a decent layout of machinery

Unfortunately mine is just a shed not a workshop so I cant advise on working space. There are lots of members here that do have similar workshops that can advise.

I would say if you possibly can make it work, a home workshop is a great business plan as it cuts down your overheads to almost nothing (the usual concerns about change of use a d planning apply).

What sort of work will you be doing in your workshop?

 

[Monk]

Mon-fri I work in a joinery , so I'll really only be working in my workshop on weekends but have built up a few bits of machinery over the years. I can't see myself doing kitchens or wardrobes as I just won't have the space but will still need to rip 8x4 sheets. I'm sure after spending a bit of time and moving a few bits around I'll work out a system