About to build my first shed. Melbourne, AUS.

anth · Oct 16, 2013

Hi guys,

I've been a long, long-time lurker of the GJ, but now it's time to embark on my own garage build (finally!). I reside in Melbourne, Australia, and I've actually featured a few garages from this forum on my website, Build Threads

I recently returned from my honeymoon and my wife and I are about to move into our first home. Like most of you, when we were looking at houses I really wanted to find one with a big garage, but we ended up settling on a house with no garage at all! The deal was that I get to build my own, so here we are. I'm at the stage where I'm almost ready to order, so it'll be a while before any actual building takes place.

Thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone a lot better in the near future when I share the build on the forum.

cheers,
anth

1/2 Cup · Oct 16, 2013

Gday from just an hour or 2 north of you, welcome to the forum anth and don't worry we will personally check your build thread and provide feedback. Enjoy the forum. :thumbup:

anth · Oct 16, 2013

Thanks mate! Like most people from melb, I have relatives in shepp! Many fond memories from the area, and Maroopna!

anth · Oct 16, 2013

Here's what's going in the shed once it's built, my '69 Datsun 1600 with FJ20ET. I was lucky enough to have it featured in Fast Fours last year.

anth · Oct 16, 2013

Here's some ideas a mate of mine drew up for me. The house is a small 3 bedroom 60s or 70s house in Glenroy. We're lucky that we have quite a large block, just over 700sqm, so I have plenty of room for a shed.

At the time of these drawings I was thinking of going 12m x 6m, but I since realised that was a bit of overkill and scaled it back to 6x9, which is a standard 3-car size. I've since changed my mind yet again and have decided to increase the size by 1m all round to 7m x 10m to give me a bit more wriggle room.

I'm going for option 1, so there is still plenty of yard between the house and the shed.

dadsEH · Oct 16, 2013

Yep...opt.1 on the left is the chits!

Carves · Oct 16, 2013

hmmmmm .... not quite the 1600 datto I remember from 1969 .. :lol:

Good move going to 7m instead of 6m ...

My lockup is only 6m x 6m ... and I would be rubbing my **** on the wall - trying to change a headlight bulb .... if I didnt have roller doors at either end ..

1/2 Cup · Oct 16, 2013

Option one gets my vote as well and the bigger the better, even consider a front veranda for the shed, think about it anyway!!

1/2 Cup · Oct 16, 2013

anth said:
Thanks mate! Like most people from melb, I have relatives in shepp! Many fond memories from the area, and Maroopna!

You are right on that score! :scared:

1/2 Cup · Oct 16, 2013

I just checked out the BUILD THREADS web site, that's pretty awesome, I like the exploded parts pics!

HOTFR8 · Oct 16, 2013

G'Day, Welcome from another Aussie here. You may like to know we have an Aussie / Kiwi Social group here on the forum you may like to join.

tool-guy · Oct 16, 2013

Welcome, I grew up in Hadfield and still have a few friends around the area. Make sure you have good locks on the shed. ( only kidding)

anth · Oct 16, 2013

Carves said:
hmmmmm .... not quite the 1600 datto I remember from 1969 ..
Good move going to 7m instead of 6m ...

My lockup is only 6m x 6m ... and I would be rubbing my **** on the wall - trying to change a headlight bulb .... if I didnt have roller doors at either end ..

Yeah she's got a few upgrades!

I've been rattling my brain trying to decide between 6x9 and 7x10 so that feedback is very helpful to me.

1/2 Cup said:
Option one gets my vote as well and the bigger the better, even consider a front veranda for the shed, think about it anyway!!

Cheers. I'm thinking of doing a nice shade-cloth setup in front of the roller doors, but all that will come later.

1/2 Cup said:
I just checked out the BUILD THREADS web site, that's pretty awesome, I like the exploded parts pics!

Thanks! I've been doing it since 2009 so there's plenty of cars, bikes, and garages on there.

HOTFR8 said:
G'Day, Welcome from another Aussie here. You may like to know we have an Aussie / Kiwi Social group here on the forum you may like to join.

Thanks mate, just pm'd you.

tool-guy said:
Welcome, I grew up in Hadfield and still have a few friends around the area. Make sure you have good locks on the shed. ( only kidding)

Haha I know what you mean, poor Glenroy has copped a lot of flack in the news lately, if only those ruffians from Jacana would stay on their side of the ring road and stop bringing their business over here! I like to think I've bought in the good part of the suburb, or as I like to call it "The Toorak of Glenroy" :lol:

Our place is located on the west side of Pasco Vale Road, behind the shops, it's a nice leafy pocket.

tool-guy · Oct 16, 2013

I used to call Hadfield the "Paris" end of Broadmeadows. Don't get me started on Jacana.

johnnie5 · Oct 18, 2013

build as big as the council will let you

once you are getting that big its not a whole lot more money and you will appreciate the extra space and it is a big seller for the house when you want to sell and move , its a massive value add

forget option c

option A you lose a lot of the backyard behind the shed

option B allows you to have a good reversing area to then drive straight out to the street and you dont waste space down the back

remember the shed will have to be likely 1m off the fenceline , check with council

anth · Oct 18, 2013

I have an easement on the back fence, so I have to build 1.8m off the fence. I'm planning to pave the area behind the shed and maybe add a lean-to so I can use it for storage large materials that can handle the elements (scrap wood, metal, etc).

I really like option B but there's a sewerage line in that spot and it would also send my concrete bill skyrocketing once I do the driveway (the back yard is all grass at the moment). I really like the idea of being able to reverse and turn around, though.

AnEv942 · Oct 18, 2013

Not that I'll be building my own anytime soon but Im not seeing a lot of concrete square footage differance between 1 &2? When you say 'sewerage' is that like in leach line/perk field or just lateral line? No set back required on sides? In optB you show no concrete in front of whatever the other half of shed is (shop?). Alot more 'work' area in A, looks tight though. Just for day to day B seems more liveable. Id swap functions to put cars closer to house. add a door so not using main door for in&out. Access for pumper truck?

Crude rendition of your plan (If I had space). Might look, at least temp, using gravel or somthing on long drive past house?

johnnie5 · Oct 18, 2013

how far is the easement , you usually have to build 1m+ from the easement

i mentioned the 1 metre for the fence being the side boundary

not sure of your house etc but i would also consider building it closer to the house which would reduce your concrete costs and then have all down the back as play area garden etc

and could then even extend the outdoor entertaining area to include the side gap between house and shed

anth · Oct 19, 2013

johnnie5 said:
how far is the easement , you usually have to build 1m+ from the easement

i mentioned the 1 metre for the fence being the side boundary

not sure of your house etc but i would also consider building it closer to the house which would reduce your concrete costs and then have all down the back as play area garden etc

and could then even extend the outdoor entertaining area to include the side gap between house and shed

I've been told 1.8m from the rear fence. As for the side boundary, my neighbour on the left has an existing brick garage on the fence line, as in the fence actually stops and then his garage wall is the boundary.

I'm not keen on building close to the house, I'd prefer to have it as far away as possible for a few reasons, I can make a lot of noise without annoying the missus, and guests won't have a big shed right in their face when we entertain on the back deck. I don't really like the idea of having play area or garden behind the shed because it would all be hidden.

AnEv942 said:
Not that I'll be building my own anytime soon but Im not seeing a lot of concrete square footage differance between 1 &2? When you say 'sewerage' is that like in leach line/perk field or just lateral line? No set back required on sides? In optB you show no concrete in front of whatever the other half of shed is (shop?). Alot more 'work' area in A, looks tight though. Just for day to day B seems more liveable. Id swap functions to put cars closer to house. add a door so not using main door for in&out. Access for pumper truck?

Crude rendition of your plan (If I had space). Might look, at least temp, using gravel or somthing on long drive past house?

I really like that idea! Those rough plans were done pretty early on, the driveway in option 1 wouldn't extend all the way to the right side of the shed like that, it would only be wide enough to accommodate the second car, so the width of the roller door (~5m). I didn't consider moving the layout so the two car bays are close to the house and the workshop area towards the back, that's really smart, I might have a play around with that plan myself. The only thing I don't like about it is that it means half of the back yard is taken up by garage and driveway. I really want to find a balance between shed and garden area, I don't want to take over the whole back yard.

Here's the sewerage plan, I hope someone else can make more sense of it than I can, but you can see the line going across the right hand side of the block...

I was thinking of doing a gravel driveway for now too, keep the costs down. I had an idea yesterday to use a series of railway sleepers for the narrow driveway section between the house and fence, I think it would look really cool.

johnnie5 · Oct 20, 2013

I would suggest that you make each bay have a roller door wether you use it or not is another thing as again this is a resale thing of having 3/4 car garage

gravel drive , true save some money now but 2 issues

1 you will prob reconcrete later
2 its dusty and gravel gets in the car tyres and flicks off , get ready for stone chips

the sewerage for your house is no problem you can build over that , as its not the main line

building on the fenceline, check with council , just because your neighbour has it doesnt mean you can do it today in 2013 , i personally wouldnt build on the fenceline as you will get weeds grow between the shed and fence and it allows someone to enter through the fence into your shed when you are sleeping

Lynr99 · Nov 5, 2013

Following your progress with interest. Massive project mate, I hope you enjoy it.

964haus · Nov 5, 2013

LOVE the datsun - especially the colour scheme. I've always thought that white on black wheels make those cars look great...

My 2 cents.

- do you have any restrictions on maximum allowable permeable surface? Some of the options that include driveways (i.e. 1, 2) appear to cover more of the yard in hard surface.
- i actually like #3 from a site planning perspective, as it leaves you the most untouched yard. Think dog. Kids? It also gives you the longest site line to the back of your property from the house, which will make the yard feel bigger (less of the garage is seen from the house).
- i know #3 isn't as good functionally , given how the cars would need to be parked, but it gets my vote if I put my "please the wife and family" hat on...

Otherwise I like #1.

Cheers,
Matthew.

captainkarl · Nov 11, 2013

Cool project, really like your website and the mad builds you feature!

About to build my first shed. Melbourne, AUS.

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