Aussie 12x12m (40x40) VW Shed

[icekoffee]

I am beyond jealous of that lowlight and the progress on your garage

 

[OzJustin]

Wow that is one seriously impressive shed! Watching this thread with interest.

 

[60beetle60]

Update, progress has been made, I'm getting ready for pouring the slab, with prep work starting tomorrow but the pour itself not for another few days after that.

Shed PA door has been replaced with the larger 1100mm door which was ordered instead of 800mm wide door which was first installed.
View media item 78076
Flashings installed for roller doors and corners. I like the way the "frame" the shed and tie the colour scheme together
View media item 78077
Unfortunately sacrifices had to be made, and today it was the grape vines had to be removed to allow for trenching of cables and conduit. They will be replaced though as I did Like the wall of green they made in front of the side fence. Vines were pulled out as they were a PITA when I started trying to remove them by hand
View media item 78078
Trenching started, used a little trenching machine. Really wanted a bigger unit which could trench deeper but nothing bigger would fit down the side of the house. So I've had dig 200mm by hand after the trencher has been through. Trenching unfortunately is still going, I've another day or two digging by hand to finish it off.
View media item 78079
Finished off the day with enough cable and conduit in for power (10mm2 4C+E for 3 phase power) and internet (Cat6) to be run to the shed. Not shown in the photo is the PVC water lines which I've put in after the photo was taken
View media item 78080

 

[Terrick down Under]

Before you backfill, why not run a 50mm pvc line to the house, that way you can have a toilet and a small pump setup ( they are about the size of two shoe boxes) and return to the main line at the house. Because it is pumped you don't have to have fall in the line. Just a thought.

 

[ajohno]

Great size shed.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Looking fantastic..

Your sub mains should give you plenty of capacity and three phase too..



Regards

 

[60beetle60]

Before you backfill, why not run a 50mm pvc line to the house

Already have an outdoor toilet under the back veranda which i use when I'm filthy to stop the house getting too dirty. Just running a water line out to the shed for parts and hand washing.

Looking fantastic..
Your sub mains should give you plenty of capacity and three phase too..Regards

Thanks! Sub mains will have more than enough for the bits and pieces I'll end up running

 

[metalhead140]

Great progress!

 

[60beetle60]

Concrete preparation has begun, the concreter has leveled the ground, taken out excess soil and laid down rubble. Plan for concrete is 135mm of 32Mpa with steel mesh with a 4x1.5m pad made 200mm deep with double mesh for the location of the hoist.

View media item 78081
You can see in the below photo the deeper section for the hoist

View media item 78082
I've still been trying to finish off the trenching for the power cables along the side of the house which I didn't finish before the concreter started. It's been slow going due to clay and some very large rocks requiring breaking up with the jack hammer. Hopefully all the cable will be in the ground soon!

View media item 78083

 

[joeyp]

Is there much difference cost wise between 20-25Mpa and 32Mpa concrete?

 

[60beetle60]

Is there much difference cost wise between 20-25Mpa and 32Mpa concrete?

Price will go up but I'd say its more of a step increase rather than a huge jump as the labour, preparation and mesh etc still costs the same. As I was getting the job quoted it was mentioned what a rough $/m2 cost increase was but I can't remember what it was exactly.
I'd say it depends on what you're doing with the slab which will determine if its worthwhile. If just parking in the garage not worthwhile, if going to install a hoist or something like that then could be beneficial

 

[60beetle60]

More progress with getting the floor prepared for the concrete pour.

Bitumen on the backlane was breaking apart so it was cut such to make a clean line between the new concrete and the street.

View media item 78084
Steel mesh has started to go in. Can see the double mesh for the hoist.

View media item 78085
View media item 78086
I'm also having a 1m wide path along the front of the shed in the back yard and having the path brought out to meet the existing garden path. Prep work on this was started, levels cleaned up and boarding it up done.

View media item 78087

Everything is going smooth so far, plan is concreter will come back Monday to pour the slab.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Concrete today? Looks great!

 

[60beetle60]

Concrete is in!

Concrete was poured on Monday and today i had some control joints cut into the slab.

Pics of during the pour:

Showing the thickness of slab in hoist location
View media item 78088
Progress photo of the pathway
View media item 78089
View media item 78090
Helicopter doing its thing
View media item 78091
Control joints being cut in
View media item 78092
As it sits now, the floor is shiny as I've been keeping it wet

View media item 78093
View media item 78094
View media item 78095

 

[sean Buick 76]

Fantastic milestone to get the concrete in the whole shop is turning out great!

 

[tlin]

WOW! Congrats on that build - truly fantastic.....I picked a good time to look at pics of some garages today, very inspiring!

My first car was a '67 Squareback and I still always look twice whenever a 60's-era VW passes by (well, 68+'s don't grab my attention).

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Awesome!! I bet it's starting to get warm down there. Should cure quick (but not too quickly)

 

[1/2 Cup]

Just fantastic.

I will bet you cant wait to get into it now..

Regards

 

[shortykorte]

First off great pick on vehicle year. 1960 was a good year for some reason.

Learned to drive stick in a 66 Ghia and had a 72 fastback for a little while.

Very nice shop. Kinda nice having the alley way access. Best wishes on your build.

 

[BUGTHUG]

looks strong enough to tap dance on!
So what are the plans for the layout? that's the problem I have, just can't seem to get a floor plan laid out. I have lots of old signs and tags for the walls. I have been buying metal tables at auctions and CL, so I have a weird assortment of work tables and they are all differ sizes. like to see what you do, and if you have some cool VW stuff to hang?

 

[60beetle60]

Just fantastic.

I will bet you cant wait to get into it now..

Regards

Thanks, can't wait to get in but there's still heaps I want to do before it's ready to be used properly. Install power and lighting, coat the floor, install the hoist... List goes on!

 

[60beetle60]

looks strong enough to tap dance on!
So what are the plans for the layout? that's the problem I have, just can't seem to get a floor plan laid out. I have lots of old signs and tags for the walls. I have been buying metal tables at auctions and CL, so I have a weird assortment of work tables and they are all differ sizes. like to see what you do, and if you have some cool VW stuff to hang?

Only just strong enough!

Don't have any plans drawn up for how I'm going to use it but the rough idea is:
- back quarter under the window will have work benches along the walls and be set up with the hoist as the workshop area.
- back quarter by the single roller door will be any projects in progress and general storage
- from half by the two double roller doors will be for parking cars, not that I've got enough to full up the space yet!

 

[madoc1]

great job. it fits perfectly with your lot. i love your landscaping skills also, or is that your wifes realm?

jim

 

[joeyp]

Looks good mate!

Did you have any concerns about using the cladding as the form work? I think it voids the warranty but the majority of sheds I see are built like this.

 

[60beetle60]

Bit of an update of what's happened over the Christmas and new year period. Have been flat out the last few weeks but given the time of year it hasn't all been due to working on the shed.

One thing I discovered is the beetle can do do a u-turn in the shed, go in one door and straight out the other. Will be a bit trickier to pull off once the shed's actually kitted out and not an empty shell though.

Spent a lot of time cleaning up the yard and removing rubbish, I had accrued a fair pile of rubble, old concrete paths, old bricks etc. As the floor is now hard enough to drive on I was finally able to remove a lot of the rubbish and tidy up the back yard a fair bit. Ended up with a full trailer load going to the dump.

View media item 78096
Annoyingly I ended up hiring a trailer for the rubbish removal as my dad's trailer which I'd normally use is still loaded up with the 2 post hoist I bought which is too heavy for me to bother unloading. But I have a hoist now which I'm very excited about. Ended up purchasing a second hand one, an automotive training school closed down and all their gear went to auction and I won one of the two hoists up for grabs. Picture of the hoist assembled from the auction website, it was supplied disassembled.

View media item 78097
And how the hoist is now, sitting at the parent's place on dad's trailer all covered up.

View media item 78098
When I was demolishing my old carport the neighbor had an old rickety home made "shed"/lean she used to store various gardening tools and supplies and random junk. It was very old, probably been there 50+ years, and it had started to lean up against the carport. It fell down as I removed my carport and at the time I'd promised to help her out and build something as a replacement so I kept a stack of the old shed and carport components to build a replacement. I finally got around to honoring the promise and replaced her rickety home made shed with something home made but sturdy.

View media item 78099
The end result is a three sided structure roughly 3x3m which provides much better shelter than the old one which was mostly fallen apart. My old car port sliding doors made for good pre-assembled walls and you can still see the old rollers on top. In the picture above you can see the carton of beer I received as payment, dad helped me with the build and he got wine for his efforts.

View media item 78119
I've still been slaving away with the sorting out power to the shed. The shed to meter box run of cable and conduit is complete but I still need to complete the run from my meter box to the stobie pole in the street, required as I'm upgrading the house supply from single phase to three phase. Once this is done I can upgrade the meter box to a three phase unit and have all the wiring terminated. I've completed digging the trench from the meter box to the fence line but haven't laid any cable or conduit or dug from the fence to the stobie pole. Due to proximity of the run to existing water and gas lines it all needed to be hand dug and I got that honour.

The existing power supply to the house is an aerial cable from the street. The power company advised if I were to replace it with a three phase aerial cable they would locate it right smack in the middle of the house gable not to the far side where it is now UGLY! Hence I decided to trench and go underground instead of the aerial cable. While I'm digging for power I will also be laying conduit and cable to replace the telephone line which is an aerial cable as well and leave a few pull through's in the comms conduit for NBN and whatever else may be required in the future.

View media item 78100
On the topic of electrical things I've picked up a bunch of LED battens for the shed, and a few extra to replace the dull fluro tubes under the back veranda.

View media item 78101

 

[cros13]

wow great looking shed mate, i didn't realise how big you went, spanning from boundary to boundary is crazy.

Did you have much trouble with council due to that? I had massive drama with my local council in Sydney getting approval for my shed, and its only a 7x7.

I only got the go ahead last month, after battling for over a year and a half. The red tape, flood reports, storm water reports, survey reports i had to get cost me more than the cost of the shed!

looks like your bang smack in the middle of suburbia, that's a dream size, do you have any backyard left? my block is only 560sqm, so my 7x7 is the biggest i could go with the shape of the house etc.

Rudi

 

[1/2 Cup]

60beetle60, top job on the underground.

Great score on the hoist as well.

I have a similar issue here with my over head supply, it is three phase and there is a Powercor pit on the property boundary at some point in time I have to do the same and go underground.
Similarly with the NBN I have an overhead fibre lead in I was surprised that they didn't do an underbore but at least it is to the side of our home.

Regards

 

[CoyoteDuster]

I envy the space in that new shed! I'm also curious what is used for forms for the edges around the perimeter walls to keep them from bowing during the pour. and how do you get it flat if your dont have the top of the form to screed to.

great work.

 

[60beetle60]

wow great looking shed mate, i didn't realise how big you went, spanning from boundary to boundary is crazy.

Did you have much trouble with council due to that? I had massive drama with my local council in Sydney getting approval for my shed, and its only a 7x7.

I only got the go ahead last month, after battling for over a year and a half. The red tape, flood reports, storm water reports, survey reports i had to get cost me more than the cost of the shed!

looks like your bang smack in the middle of suburbia, that's a dream size, do you have any backyard left? my block is only 560sqm, so my 7x7 is the biggest i could go with the shape of the house etc.

Rudi

Surprisingly I didn't have much drama with council approvals. Initially I submitted for the 12x12 with the shed on all 3 boundaries at the rear, which was rejected noting that it was required to be set back from the rear lane 1m for future lane widening. So I resubmitted 1m set back and it was approved.

My place is in the middle of suburbia and the shed is massive for the size of the block, just over a fifth of my block is now shed. Image below of the block layout to show yard space that's left, still heaps of yard for what I want.

View media item 78102

 

[60beetle60]

I envy the space in that new shed! I'm also curious what is used for forms for the edges around the perimeter walls to keep them from bowing during the pour. and how do you get it flat if your dont have the top of the form to screed to.

great work.

The shed columns have a base plate welded to the bottom which set to the floor height during construction. Top of the plate is used as a reference for screeding. In addition temporary rebar pins were set vertically in the centre of the shed to the correct height to use as additional reference points

Timber form work was placed around the exterior of the shed prior to pouring

 

[60beetle60]

60beetle60, top job on the underground.

Great score on the hoist as well.

I have a similar issue here with my over head supply, it is three phase and there is a Powercor pit on the property boundary at some point in time I have to do the same and go underground.
Similarly with the NBN I have an overhead fibre lead in I was surprised that they didn't do an underbore but at least it is to the side of our home.

Regards

Thanks!

Underground is the better looking way to go. As NBN hasn't made its way to my area yet it's a good opportunity for me to have a say at how I want it run in.

 

[Kenfab]

Looks good so far mate, those voltex battens are great

 

[60beetle60]

Finally finished getting all of the conduit for the power and comms into the ground. Still have to backfill most of the trench but VERY happy not to be digging any more trenches for a while.

I first tried going underneath the footpath by hammering a section of conduit through; a technique which was successful for getting me underneath the air-conditioning unit down the side of the house; but it wasn't working for me getting underneath the footpath. I ended up resorting to hiring a saw for the day, cutting the footpath and digging it out. The saw made quick work of cutting the path
View media item 78103
Digging underneath the path I found a huge amount of roots, a few services and the ground was all a thick hard clay which was no fun digging up! Add in deciding to dig up the path on a wet rainy day and it was less than enjoyable to say the least.
View media item 78104
The water meter managed to get hit accidentally while digging and one of the decades old fittings gave way due to being corroded, luckily on the house side and not the mains supply side. Quick trip to the plumbing supplies store and it's good to go again
View media item 78105
Conduits finally in!
View media item 78106
Backfilled all of the trench on public property and patched up the footpath with some fresh concrete. Still am yet to finish all the backfill in my property, have done enough to lay down some electrical warning tape and backfill a little over that.
View media item 78107

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Nice work!!

 

[1/2 Cup]

Now that is one job I will bet you are glad to see the back of.

Great work..

Regards

 

[madoc1]

wow, they don't believe in big set backs do they. sure would hate that digging of the trench between the house and fence. nice work and it is looking great.

jim

 

[Terrick down Under]

Trenches are just one of those things. You spend a lot of time digging them, then prep and install, then inspection, then backfill and compaction. Soo much work, and nobody gets to see any of it ever again.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Trenches are just one of those things. You spend a lot of time digging them, then prep and install, then inspection, then backfill and compaction. Soo much work, and nobody gets to see any of it ever again.

Terrick, the best part of trenching is filling it in..

 

[Westozfixer]

60Beetle60, can I ask what a shed like that costs in Adelaide? I am moving there soon and if I can't find a property with a big shed I will be building. Can you also give a rough indication of area(ie suburb) I am looking in the Mt Barker/Hahndorf area. Are you doing the electrical yourself?

 

[60beetle60]

wow, they don't believe in big set backs do they. sure would hate that digging of the trench between the house and fence. nice work and it is looking great.

jim

It was painful digging down the side of the house. Its so narrow you can only get the very small trenching machines down the side. So I could only use the machine to dig down 350mm and then had to hand dog through clay till I got the required 600mm

Trenches are just one of those things. You spend a lot of time digging them, then prep and install, then inspection, then backfill and compaction. Soo much work, and nobody gets to see any of it ever again.

But I do now get the pleasure of having an aerial cables removed. All that work to upgrade and hide things.

60Beetle60, can I ask what a shed like that costs in Adelaide? I am moving there soon and if I can't find a property with a big shed I will be building. Can you also give a rough indication of area(ie suburb) I am looking in the Mt Barker/Hahndorf area. Are you doing the electrical yourself?

I'll send you a PM with some details.