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Well, it feels good to be back after a very long break from all things Forum.... So the story kicks off back in early 2018, when i bought a little terraced cottage up in East Lancs. The house was in pretty decent shape, but the real attraction was the plot of land out back which the vendor was renting from a local farmer. 'He's definitely interested in selling the land - i even have a letter here from him saying exactly that..' and indeed she did. Deal. Sealed. The house went through without a hitch and I then spent the next sodding two and a half years buying the land, which also included me paying rent on it so i could park there! Let's just say these were trying times! Okay, so why did i go to so much effort? The place i bought is in a conservation area, but the plot of land was former garages and allotments and my bit still had a ramshackle garage on it, so i was able to put a new one up and there was enough space to make it a reasonable size. The girl who i bought the house used the driveway for parking, but hadnt gut the grass in over five years, so it looked a million times better just for having that done..  The amazing garage finally flat-packed itself about two years into my quest to buy it!  There were three garages still standing, but all in equally poor condition! Right then, I've bought the land - now what....?
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Last Edit: Apr 4, 2022 19:52:10 GMT by joe1976
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The parcel of land i ended up with was an L Shape which extended around the back of next door's garage. You can make out the shape of it on the Google Maps image below. My old garage has already gone, you may notice! 
The ground actually slopes a fair amount, so i took some levels to work out what i could get away with putting on the patch whilst keeping the base height to a sensible level (I was limited on eaves and pitch height too). With that done a good mate of mine drew up a design for me on CAD and i set the ball rolling.....
First job was to get the area cleared ready for the slab....
It always gets me how visuals change with projects like these. The space looked huge here!
I was working on two big water main repair projects at this time - one in mid wales and the next down in London, all through the whole lockdown shenanegans, so progress was frustratingly slow. I did eventually manage to get the sub base in and the slab poured. Anyone who has built anything will know just how much of a milestone it feels like to get out of the ground...
Frustratingly, the concrete truck managed to demolish a chunk of dry stone wall along the narrow track behind my place, so the next day was spent putting that back up!
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I actually cant even remember how much later, but lets say all of it, my framework was out of the galvanisers and i was actually in the right postcode for more than five minutes - so, with the help of some mates from work and the power of bacon and tea, we threw the frame up one chilly saturday morning...
Feeling spurred on by some actual progress I ordered up my timber framing and cladding. Much to my great delight, prices had skyrocketed since i originally priced this project up! Anyway - the plan was for horizontal framing, breather membrane and finished with board on board cladding. This is one of the more cost effective ways to clad it (well it is with pressure treated softwood at least...) and blends in nicely with some of the nearby agricultural sheds. It's also rewardingly quick to put up and easy to do single-handedly....
With the walls build and clad it was time to throw some sort of roof on the thing. What's that? Doubled in price? Splendid. Anyhoo, home came the box profile sheeting and with the help of a couple more mates, we got her watertight!
Well i say watertight, but there was a small matter of the three metre hole in the front of the thing. Due to the height restriction for my workshop, i was only really left with a couple of options for doors - i went with a slider, as it seemed like the least intrusive option. A saturday session at work soon had me the makings of a door..
Best get that on then...
You can see that i was also busy filling it with insulation at this point too. It's not really for any heat benefit, more to stop me upsetting all my neighbours with the noise.
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One of the conditions of me buying the land was that i replace tha knackered fencing within three month from completion. Being that it was almost two years down the line now, and i was seriously running out of excuses every time i spoke to the guy, I thought I'd actually better get on with it. It had actually reached the point where the sheep were coming onto my side to eat the grass and then hopping back through, and I didn't want to be responsible for them making it out onto the road.
So over a very wet couple of days at Christmas 2021 i grubbed out the knackered fence with a mini digger (the netting was totally grown in) and me and my ever helpful mates set to work - i do pay them all back, honest...
Given that i hadnt done any fencing in years, it turned out pretty well!
How do you make your 13yr old lad smile, when it's freezing cold, absolutely hoofing it down and the place is like the Somme? Give him a chainsaw, obviously. Please enjoy responsibly kids..
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Heading into 2022 saw me having operations on both hands and right elbow, so I was feeling pretty low over Christmas, but I used my recovery time in January to try to get the insulation finished off and get it all boarded out and painted. Needless to say, this was a pretty stupid idea! The insulation was manageable, but i didnt have a hope in hell when it came to the ply-lining! I was chatting to my Dad about it one night and the next thing I know, I've got my folks volunteering to come over for a couple of days to help me get it done - legends! So within a couple of days it went from partially insulated to boarded and painted! Thought I had more photos, but it seems not. It's probably worth mentioning at this point that since moving back up North, I had been renting a unit to house all my junk. The intention was to actually use this as a workshop, but it turned out to be three towns over from where I ended up buying a house, was completely packed out with stuff between me and a mate i rented it with and also needed a full rewire to make it useable! My mate bailed on the unit towards the end of last year and the rent went up not long after, so i found myself forking out a fair chunk every month for the pleasure - this definitely helped me make time to crack on with my own workshop! Another mate owed me a favour, which he repaid by gifting me some pallet racking. This was fitted into the far end of the workshop and over the next couple of weekends I began the mission of moving van loads of my stuff over. I knew I didnt have enough space, so there was some ruthless culling along the way! Finally though, I've got my own 'shop again! It's been a very long time coming and cost me way more than I ever thought possible, but thats water under the bridge! There's still quite a bit to do yet - I'm still to trench the power cable over to the house for one thing, but I've actually got my kit home (well,most of it!). I'm currently busy trimming up a W108 shell, so I can get all my stuff inside, but it's getting there....
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RumHam
Part of things
Posts: 47
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Looking really good. Completely agree with moving from a hole in the ground to having the base done and building. It feels like you are actually getting somewhere!
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Beautiful garage you've built there Joe,
That's the sort of size I'll be (hopefully) aiming to build when we finally "downsize",
(Mrs. Alpina99 questioned why, at 65 years young, I want a big workshop, my answer was "what do you tell me to do when we're arguing ??" Won that discussion lol,)
Looking forward to seeing future updates on this thread,
Nigel
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Last Edit: Apr 5, 2022 15:53:22 GMT by Alpina99: Misspelling,
BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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Cheers guys, I’ll get some better photos up when I’m back home again at the weekend.
Hopefully this will be the precursor to one of my car project threads!
I’ve held off on posting this, as it’s just felt like such a drawn out process - I’m sure it would have been so much better to include all the design and build details, but it’s taken so long that it kinda sapped all the fun out of it!
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Looks like a nice part of the world to live as an added bonus.
Not jealous at all.
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Proton Jumbuck-deceased :-(
2005 Kia Sorento the parts hauling heap
V8 Humber Hawk
1948 Standard12 pickup SOLD
1953 Pop build (wifey's BIVA build).
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Looks like a nice part of the world to live as an added bonus. Not jealous at all. haha, it's actually a part of the country I swore I'd never move back to!
I ended up back this way with my job and it's ended up being more permanent than I envisiged.....
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This is one of the most realistic builds that I have seen on the forum; albeit you come with obvious credentials that many can only aspire to; allied to experience of tackling this style of work. All of these attributes clearly take a lot of the pressure out of the job; that is other then the ever increasing price hikes. I likewise have had my fair share of similar projects in the past, but primarily livestock buildings/stables, etc... and can equate with your efforts. Well done and keep us updated with further progress.
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Thanks for the positive feedback guys! a few more photos below. Excuse the mess though - I’m kinda in the middle of a load of stuff at the moment, so it’s a bit chaotic! I'm not 100% set on the layout, but I should hopefully have one less vehicle to contend with soon, so that should make things a bit more organised. I don’t have a huge amount of depth to the workshop, so I’ve tried to keep the bulk of my gear at either end. The racking at the far end is full of car parts, camping gear and the like, and the other gable end, by the door has all my tools down it….   my door opens up to just over 3m wide, so I’ve still got plenty of room to swing a car in and out, even with all my gear down the wall like that. When the slab went down, I ended up with a floor level about 6” higher than my existing driveway, so I relaid the bottom 4m of it to bring it up to the new level. This actually gives me quite a nice label area now, as it was pretty rough before! I also added some strip drains along the door edge to give the run off water somewhere to go, other than my workshop. I’m still getting a little rain under the door when it’s really blowing, so I’ll need to address that at some point.  I'm currently on with trenching the ducting up the drive and over the track to my house. It’s slow going by hand, so may have to get the digger back here!  |
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Beautiful garage you've built there Joe, That's the sort of size I'll be (hopefully) aiming to build when we finally "downsize", (Mrs. Alpina99 questioned why, at 65 years young, I want a big workshop, my answer was "what do you tell me to do when we're arguing ??" Won that discussion lol,) Looking forward to seeing future updates on this thread, Nigel I would have thought that a man approaching retirement would need a bigger shed not a smaller one. 65 is still relatively young. My dad is 80 and spends a large amount of time in his shed working with his wood lathe . |
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Igor,
Exactly, a man after my own heart,
Long may he continue,
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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