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I think the equivalent is about 6k now the last time I looked!! More than that I reckon in the big boy logs! Got some daylight outside pictures today. Put my toolbox in there. Just kidding So nice to get that stuff out of the house. It's been there since day one. Also moved a load of the other stuff that's been clagging the house up, the garage is now temporarily a total bomb site but not so much I won't be able to work around it. I fitted the storm braces today and fitted a better bolt on the bottom. List of stuff still to do is still very long. Consumer unit, conduit, electrics, lighting inside and out. I also need to adjust a couple of the rafters, there are galvanised saddles that hold them in place that we forgot all about and there's a bit of a gap between some of the rafters and the roof boards. It'll be a faff to sort out as I'll need to take out the screws, jack up the rafter, and then put the screws back in and fit the saddle. Don't imagine it will be difficult but it'll be awkward to do. Paint inside and out, shingles, better/additional locks, more substantial bolt on the top. Blinds. Ramp. Floor paint when it's cured enough. It goes on! The main bits, the ones that are stressing me out, is the shingles and the exterior treatment. Will see how much I can get done on the shingles this weekend. The rest I can do as and when, there is power out there and I've got a nice big work light that's bright enough.
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Very nice build. Reminds me quite a bit of what I've been doing recently (especially with the conifers down the side of the garage!), although yours looks far superior in quality. What's the plans for the inside of the timber, leaving as is? I've been looking at your thread and been really jealous at what you've achieved on the budget! Really impressed with it and it definitely made me think I've overspent. We've spent a fair bit on this but we've got so much going on at the moment I just wanted it to be as easy as possible and to last so I've over-done quite a lot of it I think. It also takes up quite a lot of space in the garden, and I wanted my wife to be happy with the look of it seeing as it dominates the view from the house a bit, so it's worth it! The outside's going to be treated with Osmo stuff, light grey with dark grey trim and doors/frames, and the inside I think I'm going to get some white bedec barn paint, with the dark grey trims on the inside too. I'm really hoping I've got enough paint for the outside, proper paint for timber buildings is so expensive it's outrageous. At least we have the money back for the door, that'll help!
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I built a similar log garage about 13 years ago. What I did was to treat every log on the edges before I assembled it, though that is a bit late for you. Water does get in the gaps between the layers when it rains especially as it gets older and as the wood naturally expands,contracts bends, though obviously because the edges are grooved it doesn't enter the garage itself. But I was advised to treat the edges before assembly by the seller for that reason. I also re treat the outside every four years. Mine has a tin roof now as the felt roof didn't last long before the wind here in tornado alley destroyed it, but otherwise I think these garages are great. The only thing I would have done different is put it on a layer of bricks rather than the wood strip. Again in my instructions it did suggest this as an alternative, but at the time I didn't bother. Look at that one! I'd have loved one that size! Looks great. I did consider the idea of treating the edges before construction but we just didn't have the time unfortunately, the thing had to be spread all over the garden before we did it anyway and with the weather this time of year it just wasn't an option. However most places do just recommend you treat it as soon as you can once it's up, and when I lived with my parents ours was ok so hopefully it'll be good still. I'll fill in any gaps as and when they appear. So we got it basically done today. We braced the side to pull it into square while we fitted the roof boards, we actually fitted them around the ropes, then took the ropes out and tightened the last boards down. Worked well, it's square to within about 5mm now. Love it. Really happy. We ordered an up and over door, but the delivery company were messing us about a bit - the garage came with the wooden barn doors anyway, so we fitted them today to get it secure. We both decided we preferred the barn doors, especially with the up and over being £600 so I've cancelled it. Still need to lay the shingles, do the roof trims etc and get some treatment on it, I will basically just do all this stuff as soon as I can get it done over the next few weeks but glad to have it secure. Also gonna get a new bolt for the door without the handle, as the one built into the door a) doesn't actually reach the floor and b) we put the metal door strip on kind of in the wrong place for it to locate to (if it was long enough which it isn't) so I'll get a gate bolt which will go into the ally strip perfectly anyway. Also we were supplied two identical door handles, and they're not wide enough for the barn door so I'll grab one of them tomorrow. After that I can start getting my stuff in and get it wired up! I'll mount all the fixtures etc but let dad actually wire it in properly as I don't really want to burn down my new garage or electrocute myself! Will get a few more pictures when I get a chance in daylight. The days are so short at the moment
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It's not as bad as all that! The gables pretty much sorted it but before we nail all the roof planks we're going to stick a level on the side and give it a nudge if necessary, brace it in place and then get the planks on.
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Cheers! It went up outrageously quick once the bearers were down. Absolute piece of cake. I've bought (hopefully) all my conduit, consumer unit, lights, sockets etc. I will get some exterior lights sorted soon but inside stuff first. Current plan: My workbench will be along the back wall, and the cabinets were to go down the back side, but looking at the space now I'm thinking I might stack two of them on top of each other instead. I'll pull the car in once it's all together and have a think. Got pushbikes and stuff to go in too, but I think it will be a good size space for it all.
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Started this morning. Took an absolute age to unpack! Made me wish I'd started unpacking it prior to my dad coming to put it up with me, but then it's more time out in the rain and so on. Also took a fair while getting the bearers all straight and fixed down, but glad we did. They don't insist you do it but I think it's best. Getting pretty wonky by this point! Was pretty sure the gables etc would pull in back to straight, and they did. Where we finished - all the walls up, gables and rafters. I think that's it for main structure. One million roof planks to put on tomorrow, and all the trim etc. Don't know if we'll be lucky with the weather to put the shingles on, as they're self-adhesive. But I don't think it's looking good. Really happy with the garage though. It's almost in square now the roof's on but we're going to brace it up and get it dead on before we do the roof planks, then it'll be sweet. It's got just a slight parallelogram sort of thing going on currently.
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Oct 29, 2019 21:04:35 GMT
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It's here! Also featuring huge pile of stuff in front garden and widened out front gate for skips... Wasn't able to get a grabber to get it as it's too mixed. On the upside the back garden is significantly tidier now! I've also back-filled around the slab with crushed asphalt which we'll top off with some nicer gravel once it's done. But it's back filled and should drain ok.
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Oct 29, 2019 20:59:07 GMT
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Oct 20, 2019 17:49:13 GMT
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Slab is down : Drying and dusty at the moment but a pretty good smooth finish. I had my next door neighbour do it for a day wage as Dad and I weren't able to get together to do it at the right time. He did a much better job than we would have too! Laser levelled, rounded edges to the slab and a nice lightly tamped finish. Hoping for the building to be delivered in about a week and we'll put it up the week after. Going to need to get a grabber in to get rid of all the waste, there's a huge amount and it's giving me a headache!
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Oct 17, 2019 18:44:16 GMT
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Great work, amazing looking truck. Making it look easy too!
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Oct 17, 2019 18:19:37 GMT
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Crikey. Bit of a day today. We were digging out today, and compacting it down with the whacker.
Digging it out was not going too well for a while - a really awkward mix of clay and stones, with some bits being mostly stones, so we left them, and got as much clay out as we could. We spread what 'hardcore' type stuff we had, which was a fair bit, around as much as we could and then decided to get some Type 1 in, got 3 bags and got that in and levelled it out. It came a bit higher up than we had planned for, but it's nice and level, well compacted and we feel like we've now got a good enough base for the slab to go on - the bits we didn't dig out fully were because it was already very rocky from previous work so should drain well and not expand and contract too much. We put 3 cubic metres down over 30sqm, so I guess that should be about 100mm of extra hardcore on top of what was already there before it was compacted.
It's now about 5 inches for concrete. I have enough 2 x 1 that I can actually raise the shuttering up an inch or so all around to maintain the planned 6 inch slab, or I can leave it at 125mm. 150mm is often recommended for garages but I also see 100-150mm but this to be fair is wooden as opposed to concrete so much lighter. My dad and the guy next door (who does concrete foundations and so on for work and is helping me with the pour on Saturday) reckon it'll be fine because it's C35 which is a strong mix, and it's got reinforcing mesh as well.
Didn't get any pictures as we finished up in the dark. Knackered.
Got some questions on another forum which I'll answer here pre-emptively:
It's not right up to the fence so that we can paint & maintain it, and also we plan on putting up a small gate between the garage and the fence after a while, I have some ladders to store, and we can keep the bins down there. It's also supposed to be 1m from boundaries under the permitted development rules. Some bits are slightly less but the neighbour doesn't care. I still want to keep some space though.
The power should be fine for power tools etc -we've been running a transformer from it for the breaker, and using it for power tools during the build. It's 16mm armoured cable. I haven't run ethernet out there as the power cable is still under the driveway for about 4m and getting the building up is the priority at the moment. I may run it one day though, but I think more likely I will just move the router towards the back of the house as it's not that far really!
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Oct 17, 2019 18:15:17 GMT
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Right! So it's moving forward now. We decided on this garage: www.quick-garden.co.uk/wooden-garages-aluminum-carports/wooden-garage-4m-x-7-5m-13-x-25-44mm.html#It's 4 x 7.5m so bang on 30sqm. Once we'd eyeballed the sizes and so on, we didn't want to eat too much into the garden, this also means no planning permission as it can go under permitted development. Old workshop: Didn't get any pictures of the demolition but here it is gone: Squad goals Marking out the hole for the slab: Starting to dig out - the first transformer I got with the hire breaker wasn't working which meant another 2hr round trip.. living out in the sticks, yay End of day one: Shuttering going in: End of day two: Still got to dig out a lot of soil tomorrow to get it down low enough. There's quite a bit of random hardcore in there mostly towards the back, so we will dig out the front, move the hardcore to the front, then dig out the back. Should be ok. Aiming for 2-3in of hardcore, then a heavy duty membrane and a 6in C35 slab with reinforcing mesh. That should be getting poured on Saturday. There was power to the workshop which we have chased out, and that will be routed to the front left of the garage and come up through the floor. Going pretty well but I am knackered and so's my dad! One more day of proper work though. Really happy with the size - it's just going to be a big single with room for workshop type stuff at the back and down part of one side.
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Sept 2, 2019 22:32:59 GMT
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Hi all, In need of a one trip for a car from Maldon to Southminster. We get the keys to the new house on the 20th, and we need to be out of the old house by the 29th so there's two weekends in there and we're around on any weeknight required... anyone able to do it or have a recommendation for someone who can for reasonable money? The car's a pusher and there's good access at both properties. Cheers
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Sept 2, 2019 22:21:49 GMT
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So in that way that I do, I've been getting over-excited... Bought these a few weeks ago because my dad has these and I've always thought they worked great in a garage - Bisley tambour door cabinets: Built nice and tough, the tambour doors work really well for space saving as well. Got them painted up, just hammerite but should do me ok: Then I got really carried away with my mate's trade card: They're all just going to be plonked in at first but longer term plan is to build the whole lot in to a sort of L-shaped work bench. Will need to make up some sort of frame out of timber or steel to raise the workbench height on the toolboxes, and probably put some nice long drawers above the tambours. Final layout to be confirmed but probably a nice big L. I'd really like to do this for the tool chests: But it's a fair old bit of steel to buy, and I have no welding experience. I would like to learn and a couple of people have said this is a managable project to learn on, and that they'd help me with it. So maybe that can be the long term plan.
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Aug 27, 2019 21:34:23 GMT
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It's ordered! We're right at the end of the buying process on the house now, and I've ordered the garage today to secure the sale price ending end of this month (no idea if they're DFS style sales and a new one will start on the 1st though!) but it's a refundable deposit if the house purchase manages to fall through. However we're right on the finish line now.
Went for a 4 x 7.5m log cabin type with an up and over door. Think it will fit the size and shape of the garden best. Was really tempted to try for a 'double' but with two cars there would have been no room for anything else, so a luxury single it is.
Will be a manic first few weeks in the house trying to get the slab done and garage up before winter comes and the super minx rots away!
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Jul 20, 2019 19:07:08 GMT
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Small box (about fag packet size), only has about 8 or 10 wires, but handles the 4th/overdrive and lockup clutches from memory. Has one or two wires to the engine ECU, but also picks up the speed sensor that’s in the speedo head (only there on Autos), and I think a brake switch contact, and the kickdown switch too on the throttle pedal? Been a while since I was playing around with mine. Rings a vague bell... I really hope I’ve got it! I literally took the entire loom out in two or three pieces though - if it was attached to the loom I either took it, or in the case of a couple of bits like lights, cut it off close to the termination and labelled it. I’ll go through the loom soon and see if I can find it, because you’ve got me worried now!
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Jul 19, 2019 23:20:30 GMT
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As well as the loom, I hope you’ve got the dash clocks and the specific auto box controller? I've got loads of stuff! Got the loom, ecu, instruments. I assumed the gearbox is controlled by the main ECU if anything - I didn't see anything separate, and I basically took everything the loom was attached to. Hope I've got everything seeing as the car's gone! I really didn't leave anything electrical in there though, I'm sure of it.
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Jul 19, 2019 23:02:23 GMT
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We've been thinking further into it. Basically there is a 5m wide area behind the house that's already asphalt, with a pretty grotty but pretty sturdy metal workshop that looks basically like half a shipping container. We now think we're going to get rid of it because it's ugly as sin and the roof's pretty rubbish too.
This means that the garage we can put up can be as big as 4m x 10m, or even 5m x 10m. The purpose of it would to be a proper garage - car storage and work space. I'm going to check with planning etc locally but I gather that as it's going to be close to the fence, it doesn't want to be taller than 2.5m, but I see that this is pretty standard and they're out there.
I haven't seen log cabin style garages of that size but I have seen them up to 9m, however all those designs are square but I'm sure one firm or another will make a custom one.
If it's going to be that size, does that change things? I would be happy with an insulated concrete garage but I feel like that will push the cost up considerably, and at that size I'd want to ge the concrete poured rather than try to do it all myself in one shot.
Anyone got a really big log cabin?
Looks like the house purchase is going to go ahead, fingers crossed.
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Jul 15, 2019 18:40:39 GMT
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Good advice all round, thank you guys. Nice to hear that timber can make a useful workshop/garage too as I think they’re much nicer to look at than concrete.
You’re definitely right about the priorities! It won’t surprise me if moving house to get a bigger garage leaves the car under a cover for a year!
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Jul 14, 2019 23:12:32 GMT
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So the little Miata goes tomorrow.
I do agree it's a shame. However, we get married in about five weeks so we're quite busy, and we're putting an offer in on a house literally tomorrow morning, so with any luck we'll be getting busier! The MX5 is currently sat across the doors of ours and our brand new next-door neighbours' rear garages, and they've been great, so I don't want to long out the process of getting rid of it for the sake of a couple of hundred quid. Between listing it, dealing with people, organising for someone to come and fetch it, possibly being let down... the juice isn't worth the squeeze for me and I don't feel the car's good enough to worry too much about saving. It really does look better than it is in the pictures.
With the engine and gearbox in the garage, I already have to walk way round the back, pull the Minx out and then move the engine stand away from the access door from our garden, so honestly I'd just like it out of the way so it's hopefully getting collected by a scrap guy tomorrow.
I got part way through taking the front wings off when I saw how scabby they were at the bottom and abandoned it. The chassis is quite scabby as well, probably not past saving, but a bit manky. I've kept the sidelights because they were already off, and tremoved the headlight motors because they're small and probably worth a few quid each, the rest's going because of a lack of storage.
If we manage to lay hands on this house we're looking at, there'll be a definite stop in proceedings for a while, and then hopefully it'll be full steam ahead, because there's space to build a really nice size garage compare to what I'm used to, and loads of space to work!
Fingers crossed!
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