I'm gonna use this as a bit of a project thread. Mainly for me to keep a log of it, but thought a few on here would enjoy reading through it.
I have little DIY knowledge so all of this is a bit of a learning curve for me. I work full time and have hobbies/kids so finding time to do it is difficult!
The aim is to build a Office/Workshop room in the back half of my garage and insulate it. Working in a single skin block garage in the winter is ruddy cold, so I want to improve it and make it a much nicer place to be.
When lockdown hit, I had a perfectly useable spare room I could use. Within a couple of months that quickly changed as my oldest daughter needed her own room and the youngest was transitioning from Moses Basket in our room to the youngest's room. Annoyingly, there wasn't anywhere else in the house I could setup a workstation and not be bothered by noise or be in the way, etc. So my only option was to move into the garage.
Initially I just put everything on my workbench and stood at the desk. This was OK for a few days, but quickly got old uncomfortable when doing 8+ hour days at it:
As you can see, there is very little space and lots of stuff in there. So the next stage was to start sorting through everything, selling what I could and scrapping the rest to make room for a better setup. I then moved onto version 2, which was much more comfortable. I essentially made room for my desk and chair to go. I also spent £20 on some second hand carpet tiles so I didn't wreck my wheel chairs.
There was still a lot of stuff in the garage. I'd sold all my car parts from the days I used to do motorsport and scrapped a lot of stuff. With still lots of stuff to store, and more stuff accumulating due to kids, I decided I needed a Shed.
Behind my garage was a Log store I'd built a few years ago. Whilst it was useful to have it there, once full it had enough wood in it for 4 years worth of burning, so I've moved to a smaller log store and sold this one:
Once cleared I had a decent sized area to work with. I wanted an 8x8 Shed, but getting one during Lockdown was very difficult. All online retailers had huge waiting lists. I ended up calling the suppliers and finding out when shipments were due so I could F5 during that day to ensure I got anything I could. I ended up with a Keter 8x7 plastic Shed. To lay the shed on I bought a plastic interlocking shed base.
The area itself was chippings and soil and looked fairly level, however after setting out my base dimensions it was clear it was anything but!
(Fence is rotten, I paint it every year but its my neighbors and they aren't keen to replace it!)
So as the area was hugely out of line, and I didn't want to raise the level against the fences or the garage wall, I decided to dig all the chippings out and see what I was left with
This bit of timber was sat level, so you can see the difference in level I had to work with.
After much thought, I decided my only option was to essentially build an island out of the chipping I had removed, lay a strong weed membrane then put my shed base on that and infill as a slope to the fences and garage wall to ensure I didn't cause any damp/drainage issues, and it also meant the shed could sit on the base, level with the hard standing area I had:
This picture is poor and doesn't show the difference in level. The back half of the island was about a foot tall and it reduces to barely nothing towards the slabbed area
Weed membrane down and shed base laid:
Finished off Weed membrane:
I then ordered 1x bag/ton of chipping and filled up the Shed base and then infilled the edges to tidy it up
Finished and ready for when the shed arrived. It arrived on a day when it was howling it with rain and wind, but as it was delivered in unwrapped cardboard I decided I'd get on with it. Not the easiest task on your own (especially the roof in the rain and wind) but I managed it. Here it is finished:
I then put up some shelving to move everything I could left in the garage to the Shed:
This now gave me half of the garage empty, enough space to build my box/room for my workshop/office:
From the strut pilar to the back wall was 2.7M, and it's 2.7M wide. This is ample enough space for a small room and it meant I could keep the front half of the garage for storage, etc.
To be continued...
I have little DIY knowledge so all of this is a bit of a learning curve for me. I work full time and have hobbies/kids so finding time to do it is difficult!
The aim is to build a Office/Workshop room in the back half of my garage and insulate it. Working in a single skin block garage in the winter is ruddy cold, so I want to improve it and make it a much nicer place to be.
When lockdown hit, I had a perfectly useable spare room I could use. Within a couple of months that quickly changed as my oldest daughter needed her own room and the youngest was transitioning from Moses Basket in our room to the youngest's room. Annoyingly, there wasn't anywhere else in the house I could setup a workstation and not be bothered by noise or be in the way, etc. So my only option was to move into the garage.
Initially I just put everything on my workbench and stood at the desk. This was OK for a few days, but quickly got old uncomfortable when doing 8+ hour days at it:
As you can see, there is very little space and lots of stuff in there. So the next stage was to start sorting through everything, selling what I could and scrapping the rest to make room for a better setup. I then moved onto version 2, which was much more comfortable. I essentially made room for my desk and chair to go. I also spent £20 on some second hand carpet tiles so I didn't wreck my wheel chairs.
There was still a lot of stuff in the garage. I'd sold all my car parts from the days I used to do motorsport and scrapped a lot of stuff. With still lots of stuff to store, and more stuff accumulating due to kids, I decided I needed a Shed.
Behind my garage was a Log store I'd built a few years ago. Whilst it was useful to have it there, once full it had enough wood in it for 4 years worth of burning, so I've moved to a smaller log store and sold this one:
Once cleared I had a decent sized area to work with. I wanted an 8x8 Shed, but getting one during Lockdown was very difficult. All online retailers had huge waiting lists. I ended up calling the suppliers and finding out when shipments were due so I could F5 during that day to ensure I got anything I could. I ended up with a Keter 8x7 plastic Shed. To lay the shed on I bought a plastic interlocking shed base.
The area itself was chippings and soil and looked fairly level, however after setting out my base dimensions it was clear it was anything but!
(Fence is rotten, I paint it every year but its my neighbors and they aren't keen to replace it!)
So as the area was hugely out of line, and I didn't want to raise the level against the fences or the garage wall, I decided to dig all the chippings out and see what I was left with
This bit of timber was sat level, so you can see the difference in level I had to work with.
After much thought, I decided my only option was to essentially build an island out of the chipping I had removed, lay a strong weed membrane then put my shed base on that and infill as a slope to the fences and garage wall to ensure I didn't cause any damp/drainage issues, and it also meant the shed could sit on the base, level with the hard standing area I had:
This picture is poor and doesn't show the difference in level. The back half of the island was about a foot tall and it reduces to barely nothing towards the slabbed area
Weed membrane down and shed base laid:
Finished off Weed membrane:
I then ordered 1x bag/ton of chipping and filled up the Shed base and then infilled the edges to tidy it up
Finished and ready for when the shed arrived. It arrived on a day when it was howling it with rain and wind, but as it was delivered in unwrapped cardboard I decided I'd get on with it. Not the easiest task on your own (especially the roof in the rain and wind) but I managed it. Here it is finished:
I then put up some shelving to move everything I could left in the garage to the Shed:
This now gave me half of the garage empty, enough space to build my box/room for my workshop/office:
From the strut pilar to the back wall was 2.7M, and it's 2.7M wide. This is ample enough space for a small room and it meant I could keep the front half of the garage for storage, etc.
To be continued...
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