Finally some updates.
The last main steps were making good on the water proofing at ground level, and getting electric through and everything wired in.
The roof does its job perfectly, no leaks at all, but during periods of heavy rain there was water seeping through the tiny gaps between the concrete segments at ground level. I went around sealing from the inside, but this didn't stop the problem completely, so I decided to check down the side of the garage where the water was coming in.
This was an unused space and had been a bit of a dumping ground as well as wild vegetation area. After cleaning up down there and a couple of tip runs it turns out to be a rather reasonable space, so I decided remove the bit of fencing in place and to throw together a gate. Here's the space and the gate, still some tidying to do to make it more usable.
The ground level was actually higher then the garage base and the bottoms of the garage walls, so when it rained heavily, the water would collect against the wall and slowly seep through. You can see in the last picture, I have now taken the ground away from the wall and sealed the base of the wall as well to increase the protection.
On to the electrics, this was supposed to be a simple socket and lighting circuit which turned in to a full fuse board, fuse and isolator upgrade. So may £100 budget for electrics just got blown!
The work was my choice, after considering the options of spurring off a ring main or going directly from the fuseboard I wanted a direct connection. When I checked out the fuse board, I knew it was old, but not as old as it was! The old board was a 60amp capacity 8 way board, there wasn't a spare fuse for the garage and it was already running potentially close to the capacity! Given the state of other electrics in the house I have come across during previous DIY jobs I opted for the replace, upgrade, and future proof approach.
This is what we had in place. with the plan to upgrade the fuseboard, I called the power company about the fuse as this was only a 60amp main fuse. Turns out everything before the meter is their responsibility, and fuse carrier and fuse upgrades are done at their cost! Awesome news, so I booked those in and a two week wait for them to come and do their bit.
Next up was a post meter, pre-consumer unit self isolator, called up n-power and it turns out that this is their responsibility and also at their cost, I love free work. So n-power came and installed their kit and now there's no messing about contacting the power company to remove the seals and fuse when works need to be done.
On to the consumer unit and extra circuit out to the garage this was finally completed yesterday. I dag a trench the previous weekend for the armoured and so the prep work was all done.
Here's the completed pics of the fuse carrier, fuse, self isolator and 13-way consumer unit work
The garage is now wired in with its own 2-way consumer unit, 3 double sockets and 2 lights. No more training in near darkness.
All in the electrics work has cost me £650, adding in the gate £40 and some sealant and tools I had to buy (power drill,socket set) and the £650 I had already spent my total spend on making the garage usable up to around £1550. More then I planned to spend but the main house consumer unit was a must do item and would have needed doing at some point regardless.
