New workshop

[ian redshaw]

Now that my house is sorted (ish), its time to sort out permanent workshops for toy aeroplanes and puppet related gubbins. The original plan was that we'd convert part of the barn at the back but for various reasons this has changed and now the aeroplane workshop will be at the front of the house and the puppet one just at the back. The aeroplane one is an old brick storage shed, and has some very old sloping brickwork related to the 'tunnel' to the ice house, plus the opening to a well in one corner. This sloping brickwork has been built on top of and now looks like a couple of garages with up and over doors, these doors are going, to be replaced with summat a bit more in keeping. This shed has had some work done when we first moved there over ten years ago to get it useable, bits of brickwork, steel roof members and wooden joists and a butyl roof skin etc.

The building is 32 ft x 18 ft, 8.5ft high. Its very dry and damp free, but completely uninsulated and unserviced by electrickery and the likes. That sounds like a massive space for toy planes but I do have to share some of it with my old car and its associated stuff. The plan is to divide it up, into 18 x 20 and 18 x 12 spaces. The bigger will be fully insulated and plastered, the other simply made good with a proper set of doors. The uninsulated end would store the car and some finished flyable models, the other a building den. Any ideas and thoughts would be most welcome. Anyone done owt similar? Today was the first real day of work on the aeroplane workshop since we've been doing the puppet one for the last few months. The biggest job was to empty the garages out since they'd been a bit of a builders yard dumping ground while we were doing the house etc. It now got basic power too so we can use tools etc to get it sorted. Anyone got any ideas or recommendations etc?

Ian.

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

Does that reg plate show us the earliest car to run on LPG

i was wondering when you would get round to doing that sheddy place up, where did the austin go?


my only serious suggestion would be to lose the up and overs, and get some decent timber doors in, those doors are no good for heat retention,

[Matt Harrowven]

Does that reg plate show us the earliest car to run on LPG

i was wondering when you would get round to doing that sheddy place up, where did the austin go?


my only serious suggestion would be to lose the up and overs, and get some decent timber doors in, those doors are no good for heat retention,

Read the post Alan!

It's gonna be ace Mr R, insulation is the key I would think

[ian redshaw]

Cheers folks. Alan, the nasty doors are due to go, but 'proper' wooden doors are very expensive, even if you make your own. Since the budget needs to be as low as possible, the plan was to look out for a good second hand door for the car side, then make an insulated set to match for the model bit. After a fair bit of searching, this set of doors turned up. They aren't the same age as he building, but are the same period as the car, being early 40's. They are in fantastic condition, no rot or filler whatsoever, complete with the original keys etc. They are a bit special too, since the first section opens as a door, or the whole lot can slide around the corner, beautiful period design. So I'll make a set to match for tuther side. Insulation is the big expense though, Celotex at about £20 a sheet, but it'll be money well spent. Heres a pic of the doors in their original setting, very carefully removed with all brackets and fixings, the only thing I couldn't get is the bottom runner for the doors, the lovely old bloke seemed a little reluctant for me to dig up his floor to remove it!!

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

Thanks for that Matt, should have read it properly, never mind, ian, Wheres the A 35 van gone?

those doors are the business Ian, shame you could not get the runners, BUT, knowing you, you will have a plan

[Bob Thompson1894]

Doors like that, at that age with no rot, are an absolute find, Ian. The old guy must have looked after them very well. Cleaning the paint off will reveal, I'm sure, a lead-based primer. No modern paints would have preserved them for that long. Keep us up to date with the build!

[James Ladell]

Hi Ian
Regrade sheets of insulation are what you need, we have a supplier local to me in suffolk that is about half the cost of a builders merchant. You do have to collect but I have had some recently and I one corner of the pack had been touched with a forklift. It was about at 10 mm crease but perfect apart from that.
PM me if you want the number
James

[Cary Bailey]

Ian, I have some electrical accessories if you need anything, sockets, light switches etc. Let me know
Cary

[ian redshaw]

Thanks for that Matt, should have read it properly, never mind, ian, Wheres the A 35 van gone?

those doors are the business Ian, shame you could not get the runners, BUT, knowing you, you will have a plan

Al, I sold both A35 vans a few years ago to fund some stuff on the hoose. I just kept the Austin 8 as its actually worth less even though its much older. The LPG number plate is worth nearly as much as the car, but its the original so will stay with it. I think the bubble has burst on the LPG conversion game anyway!!
Ref. the bottom track for the doors, yup, I have a plan in place. I'll fabricate the track to match the curve of the top track. I have all the materials on site now for the internal wall and insulation, but am still undecided as to the size of each half. I've realised that the end for the car and model storage needs to biggest, so I think that will be 20' x 18' and the model building end 12' x 18' I've managed perfectly happily for years with a model building area of 20' x 8' so it'll still be a lot bigger in floor area.

Ian.

[ian redshaw]

My new den is progressing, nearly all materials are on site now and the wiring circuits designed, plus the first fix power and lighting are in. My old workshop was only ever designed as a make do place til one of the other buildings was sorted. That has / and still is in use after over 12 years so this is the first custom built man shed I've had to think about. Initially I was having a bigger building shed and less storage, but it has become apparent that I've got it the wrong way round. So I've swapped to a 18 x 12 building den and 20 x 18 for model and Austin storage. Power wise, the 'posh' bit has 4 double sockets, the storage bit just 3 doubles. Lighting wise, being a tight beggar, the building den is having 4 x 4ft flourescents and the storage bit 6 bulb jobsters. Each room has the lights split front to back, with the fronts switchable from either door so there'll be no breakages whilst fumbling for light switches!! Boring pics, but its boring wiring!! Neat, but boring!! I'll use more clips on the wires but was running out of daylight. The longer wires hanging low are the power in the partition wall and the switch wires for the lights, 2 x 2 way and a single. Next job is to insulate the roof and plasterboard it, then the walls and partition.

Ian.

[Denis Brown]

Good luck with all your work and
hurry up and get another something exciting built to fly

DB

[ian redshaw]

Had a good day on the dens today, spent an early morning on Jane's den, then the rest on the important den, mine!, done he nasty job of the glass insulation, half at a time followed by the plasterboard to hold it all in. Looks much better now! Walls next. The pics show my den and in comparison to Jane's den to prove I aint exactly getting the best deal!!

Ian.

[Bob Thompson1894]

One can only admire the skill of the long dead joiners who built that roof, Ian. That last picture is excellent.

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

Ian, i notice there are traditional building materials going in, are the outbuildings not a listed building, like the main house?

[ian redshaw]

Hi Alan, Janes den is Grade II listed, mine is mentioned but not actually listed. Bob, if you like that roof structure, you should see the main roof, that is truly a wooden wonder!! And as far as long dead joiners, there are still some about, we made about 2/3 of it completely from scratch copying the rotted and fallen in bits we found on the ground floor!! All of the 1740's roof ironwork was reused as the nuts simply unscrewed like they were assembled the week before!

Ian.

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

briliant, i wish i was in Ian land, ive got to left feet, and 2 right hands,

[ian redshaw]

One wall done, but its the hardest. My OCD decided I couldn't possibly live with the sloping wall in the plastered side so I squared up the step between the 9" and 13" thick walls. I could have removed the step altogether with studwork but wanted to retain at least some of the character. Battened out at 600mm centres using them fancy screws that simply screw into brickwork, drill a 3.9mm 'ole and away you go. When it comes to the plasterboarding, the joins will be the opposite way to the insulation on the edges and corners, makes for much better job in terms of strength and draught reduction etc.

Ian.

[ian redshaw]

Put the partition studwork up the afty. Before it could go up though I had to start the plasterboarding of the back wall, as the partition would cover the battens and leave nowt for the boards to fasten to down that edge. Also, the boards are packed up off the floor so and moisture doesn't creep up. In the stud wall, there are to be a pair of double doors, 60" wide total. There's also a window, for no other reason than it was spare after being removed from the derelict stable end of the house. Its a historically important slab of glass apparently, being as old as the building at around 1750, and specifically mentioned in the archeological survey we had (to have) done when we moved on site. It can't be seen through and seems a bit of a faff to use here, but it wouldn't get used anywhere else and would just get broken and binned. There's also a bit of old wood on the step in the back wall, again for no other reason but its a nice bit of pitch pine and will mean I can stack more crap on the shelf it creates!! I might get some boards on later.

Ian.

[ian redshaw]

We had a good evening in the shed tonight, though Jane may disagree as she came too. One side boarded using some bits left over as there aint many fullsheetworthy bits needed with the window hole. Should get a few hours in on the morrow. x

Ian.

[ian redshaw]

Another wall battened and insulated. I packed the battens in places as the wall is considerably unflat! I don't mind a few characterful curves but....

Also insulated the partition wall, or should I say Jane did Being a do gooding hippy recycling type, she cut up all the off cuts and patchworked between the studding. Ace job she made too, all tight joints and it saved best part of £100

Ian.