Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,790
Club RR Member Number: 34
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A Nissen hut. Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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Aug 24, 2024 22:11:35 GMT
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I like Nissen huts.   I’ve wanted one for a very long time. If you don’t immediately know what a Nissen hit is, here’s some homework- en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissen_hutGiven my perversion for the wriggly tin, it’s understandable. They’re sort of ‘peak wriggly tin’ in a way. If you have an engineering brain the way they do so much with so little is fascinating. Not only that, it was a deliberate design consideration, the weight and size of them being very important when it came to shipping them about.  I remember them being ubiquitous at one point. 30 years ago it seemed every farm in the country had at least one, bought as ex-war department stock when they were all sold off for a pittance, they were pretty much the cheapest building available. They sat rotting away on abandoned military installations, or left behind in abandoned quarries after their second life, gaining an unintended third life as a playground for delinquents like me. As I got older and got into cars, everyone knew someone who rented one as a workshop, until they started to fall out of use as the farmers who owned them wouldn’t spend actual money on the curved sheets required to patch them up, until they eventually got weighed in wholesale during the early 2000s scrap boom and replaced with something cheaper, usually a beat up shipping container or an old lorry back.  After 80 years that huge surplus of them is all gone. The few survivors tending to be regarded as museum pieces nowadays. |
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Last Edit: Aug 24, 2024 22:25:02 GMT by Dez
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,219 
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Aug 24, 2024 22:43:42 GMT
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Me too  Back in the late 50's when I used to get sent to my grannies in Glasgow during the school holidays nearly every back garden still had an Anderson air raid shelter, usually half buried in the ground. They were of similar construction to Nissen huts only very much smaller  |
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Last Edit: Aug 24, 2024 22:44:21 GMT by jimi
Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,219
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Aug 24, 2024 23:04:01 GMT
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This place is still on the go in Kirkcaldy  Don't know if it's a Nissen, but it's certainly similarly constructed of "wriggly tin" no idea of exactly how old it is, I do know it's been there since we moved here in 1960 Fairly recently been done up, it always used to be green. |
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Last Edit: Aug 24, 2024 23:09:33 GMT by jimi
Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,790
Club RR Member Number: 34
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A Nissen hut. Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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Aug 27, 2024 20:43:38 GMT
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Me too Back in the late 50's when I used to get sent to my grannies in Glasgow during the school holidays nearly every back garden still had an Anderson air raid shelter, usually half buried in the ground. They were of similar construction to Nissen huts only very much smaller I rescued and moved on a double Andersen a year or two back. One of the communal double width double length jobs. It was cool but not big enough for my needs, only being one car size. |
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,790
Club RR Member Number: 34
|
A Nissen hut. Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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Aug 27, 2024 20:44:45 GMT
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This place is still on the go in Kirkcaldy Don't know if it's a Nissen, but it's certainly similarly constructed of "wriggly tin" no idea of exactly how old it is, I do know it's been there since we moved here in 1960 Fairly recently been done up, it always used to be green. Looking at the size that would be a Romney. Sort of a development of a nissen, but with a rolled tubular steel frame. Should be 35ft across. |
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,790
Club RR Member Number: 34
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A Nissen hut. Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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Aug 27, 2024 20:54:45 GMT
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It’s fair to say Nissen hut survival rate is exceedingly low now. This is partially down to age, but also due to the fact pretty much none of the ones sold off as war surplus were ever put back up properly, or on a proper base. The best surviving examples seem to be on original war sites that were repurposed in situ, which often had proper concrete bases. A Nissen hut should be interlined with more wriggly tin going the other way to create an air gap, but no farmer who bought one ever did that, they used all that extra tin elsewhere. Same with the timber suspended floors that should sit on raised piles. Too much effort for most farmers. So they were just chucked up on bare earth with no floor where they slowly sunk in, and the bottoms of the tin and hoops rotted away over the years. The few that were re-erected properly did last, but the outer tin tends to be gone now at 80 years old. So finding anything usable is a hard task. I’ve been keeping a lookout for years, and two years ago I bought this lot-  40 sheets of tin, off either a nissen or a Dutch barn roof rolled to the same 16ft diameter (which is actually fairly common). The guys I got it off weren’t too sure or didn’t really care, they were going to weigh it in, I offered them enough over scrap for them to drop it off at mine instead. I laid some out to check it was what I thought it was-  Then stashed it away in the yard. |
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Last Edit: Aug 27, 2024 21:18:42 GMT by Dez
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,219
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Aug 27, 2024 23:14:57 GMT
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This place is still on the go in Kirkcaldy Looking at the size that would be a Romney. Sort of a development of a nissen, but with a rolled tubular steel frame. Should be 35ft across. I was inside that one many years ago (got my X1-9 sill done there) going by memory it would have been about 35ft 👍 |
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Last Edit: Aug 27, 2024 23:16:26 GMT by jimi
Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,790
Club RR Member Number: 34
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A Nissen hut. Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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Aug 28, 2024 21:33:34 GMT
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In a way, absolutely nothing happened on this for nearly two years. But there was background stuff. I bought other random building materials ‘just in case’ as I had no idea what this building would end up like, or if it was even going to be a Nissen hut. I had a very nice 10ft roller shutter and an even nicer pair of 5’x4’ critall windows stashed away, along with other flat tin and timber. I felt like that about it as I’d been looking for years and only seen one nissen frame come up for sale, and that was knackered. I’d joined the ‘corrugated iron appreciation society’ on Facebook, partially for design notes on original buildings, and partially in case anything came up for sale as people tend to post stuff off marketplace across to there. So I had lots of nice pictures saved of what I wanted to build, but had held off starting a more conventional straight walled build until after I’d got the other barn up. Then, it happened.  17 hoops worth of nissen frame. Up for sale by a farmer who’d used a 24’ he had instead so didn’t need the 16’. Not only that, they were great condition. Not twisted or bent, and no rot to the feet on them. I was on them like a tramp on chips. Only *slight* issue was they were in Earls Colne in Essex, and I was in Yorkshire. Still a day out saw that right, not even hampered by a breakdown at Peterborough services when the transit clutch slave sh1t itself. Only second proper breakdown in 4 years, sorted by the mrs driving down and taking me to get parts, then I carried on and still got it done in a day. They even came with some extra tin free, mostly the bits that had been cut down to go around the windows.  |
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Last Edit: Aug 28, 2024 21:34:36 GMT by Dez
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Aug 28, 2024 22:38:36 GMT
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A number of years ago my local breakers yard (G&W Bridges at Pease Pottage) operated out of one until the 80s I think, His was built on a 3ft dwarf wall so it kept the steel work out of the wet ground conditions largely.
Colin
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braaap
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,739
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Aug 31, 2024 19:49:33 GMT
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Saw this and thought of You, Dez.  Obviously no nissen hut. |
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Last Edit: Aug 31, 2024 19:50:49 GMT by braaap
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Aug 31, 2024 20:18:29 GMT
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one has popped up on ebay  |
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,968
Club RR Member Number: 71
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A Nissen hut. bstardchild
@bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member 71
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Sept 9, 2024 22:19:27 GMT
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Excellent - entertaining and educational as a good thread should be - thanks for sharing Dez |
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Sept 10, 2024 18:30:40 GMT
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Google “ Italian Chapel Orkney” for a posh Nissen hut
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,790
Club RR Member Number: 34
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A Nissen hut. Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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well the prep for this has taken a good while. The biggest part of this is the amount of sh1te some idiot has put on the concrete where I want to put this. This included a temporary garage tent.  I took that down and sold it. Then there was all the roofing tin stacked up on top of a 4 poster ramp…  With the prospect of lots of heavy lifting, It was about this time I bought this. Best thing I’ve bought for ages!  It’s a 1972 komatsu FG10. Datsun powered and everything for full retro points. It’s one of the first container spec forklifts I think, it’s only 7 foot tall and 3’4” wide. It’s a 1 tonner (cough) so it’s still on pneumatic tyres so doesnt get stuck as easily. Double acting ram so it has a 10ft lift. It’s a great little yard forklift. The tin was moved off the top of the ramp. I calculated afterwards that stack was about 1-1/4 ton 😂 There was also a 34 Ford pickup welded to a chassis table with my entire steel stock on a rack underneath.  Oh yeah and a Luton back I’ve been using as my bike shed  I needed to move the Luton first to swing the chassis table/34 out the way to get the forklift to the ramp. Once it’s empty it’s not too heavy and I got it there by rolling it on two round fence posts so that’s how it came back out, utching it along with a rail bar.  Then I sorta dragged it along it a bit with the forklift.  Then hefted it sideways with the rail bar, then repeatedly drive the forklift into it to shove it up here, Out the way for now.  So then I picked up the 4 post ramp and lifted it all the way down here. Let’s just say lifting a 18ft ramp over 3 cars with a 3ft wide forklift isn’t the most fun task, but I didn’t even scratch anything!  |
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Last Edit: Oct 5, 2024 21:04:39 GMT by Dez
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,790
Club RR Member Number: 34
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A Nissen hut. Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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There was also a 6foot edwards box and pan folder, a trumpf tas 500 metal shaper that weighs north of 1.5 ton, a massive Kerry drill press and a trio of benches all dumped on that bit of concrete. Much more forklift shuffling and they’re all repositioned to areas they’re a bit less in the way, or where they will ultimately live. I wasn’t going to move the folder, trumpf, or chassis table off the concrete to only have to bring them back again, so they were just repositioned and I’ll put the hut up around them.  The next major task is making the concrete pad suitable for a Nissen hut to sit on. Nissen huts are meant to go on a base the same size as they are but slightly higher than the surroundings for drainage purposes, with them not having gutters. So my clever plan was to lay a row of battered kerb stones with the falling edge sloping out for runoff, right up to the edge of the pad once I’d cut it back square, but concrete them down so they’re sealed to the pad. This should stop any pooling water running under. So I bought two pallets of them at a knock down price, giving me Exactly the right amount.   Dog guarding the new purchase.  I’m the meantime I sorted through all the framing, sorted into sets and put one complete set up for sale.  I love that you can see the ghost of the interlining corrugated going the other way in the old paintwork.  |
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Last Edit: Oct 5, 2024 21:03:00 GMT by Dez
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,968
Club RR Member Number: 71
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A Nissen hut. bstardchild
@bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member 71
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Yard truck looks ace
Looking forward to the "Nissen Hut Build"
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mrbig
West Midlands
Semi-professional Procrastinator
Posts: 505
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This is going to be good...
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1969 German Look Beetle - in progress
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Oct 12, 2024 12:12:06 GMT
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Came across this from the imperial war museum and hope it fits with the thread.
Also hoping to see a update before winter sets in.
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Oct 14, 2024 12:34:21 GMT
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Another one looking forward to this. I didnt realise they were supposed to be double skinned. I always enjoying reading your stuff Dez, good mix of high quality old stuff and interesting knowledge.
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,790
Club RR Member Number: 34
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A Nissen hut. Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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Oct 15, 2024 19:52:10 GMT
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The first issue was making the random assemblage of concrete I had suitable to work as a base. It ranged from really very poor 1950s hand mixed with er, foraged materials at the back corner, to really very good, very hard 90s ready mix at the other end. What is not apparent is the slab isn’t square in any direction. The garage it’s being butted up against isn’t square to the wall, and the pad isn’t square to the wall or the garage either. So I needed to cut it back a bit to make the lines make more sense. I’ve gone with make it parallel to the Georgian farmyard wall, and I’ll trim the tin to fit up to the garage that’s on the squiff. Here you can see where I marked out a chalk line at a set distance from the wall. Enough to leave a wind tunnel gap down the back of about 18”. You can see previously I was going to add some concrete here instead, but the width of the Nissen hut didn’t require it, so I pulled that rubble out and filled the hole back in.  After backfilling, pounding it down, chucking on some free turf off marketplace and laying the first section of my row of kerbstones, it looked like this-  Small dog sitting on things to increase importance again. Before laying the stones they were forked onto the concrete and jet washed-  Before being spread out. Once I had the outer edge in I could work backwards to give me the wall side edge, accounting for the thickness of the kerbs in my calculations.  Then they were laid with a generous flaunching to hopefully keep any puddling runoff out.  There was some fairly serious trigonometry going on to figure out where to start the outside run though. The wall side was easy, just make it touch the garage. But then because it was out of line I had to calculate and mark where square was.  With that done I had something to start assembling onto. I only laid half the kerbstones though as otherwise I can’t get the forklift on and off the pad, cos the pad is currently 10 foot too short and there’s a big hole full of rubble at the end. I’m going to put half of the hut up to use up some big piles of materials to improve access, then lay the rest of the pad and carry on. Oh yeah, and I sold the other 1.5 Nissen hut frames, to the same guy who drove down from Scotland twice to collect them… came and had one set then came back for the leftovers! A standard Nissen uses 7 hoops, I had enough bits for 17. I sold the second set to him for what i paid for the lot, then the 3 extra on top. So by this point I was actually in profit! |
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