My UK Build Thread

[VolvoMan]

So, I've decided I need to start my first build thread, and I've decided to jump back 4 years to my first garage build. I've since built 2 more garages and a large service shed, 6000 miles from the first, but they're a different story.

This is my Garage in the UK, where I am still living. Unfortunately, space constraints of the land mean this is only a little one. I started the ground works something like 10 years ago, but didn't have time or finances to push it through. in January 2008 I got a very well paid job and decided that I needed to get a move on.

This design, like most of my designs, was entirely kept in my head, no drawings at all. It's just a hair under the size allowances for planning permission, so I din't need any approval or anything. It started out as a 13x18 garage, but by the time I finished building the foundations, I'd expanded to 14x22 ish.

Here's the first photo, laying out the slab for the driveway in front of the garage (the garage is going where that shed is)

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[VolvoMan]

A little while later, following the laying and drying of the Drive slab, work begins on clearing the way for the garage foundation. I did a deal with a neighbour to pay him for helping with the concrete and later roofing the garage with the old tin shed. We took the shed down in a single piece and put it over the fence into his yard.

The pallets in the foreground are what the old shed was attached to.

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The old Vauxhall Frontera (isuzu Rodeo) in this shot had become my temporary shed

 

[VolvoMan]

For the driveway, I had actually sprung for a ready mixed pour, but due to access issues and cost, the garage foundations would have to be done with a mixer and hard work. In preparation for the foundation, I got rid of the old shed floor the easy way:

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[blownhemi]

LOL.

Love the fire. Did anyone complain?

 

[964nut]

Gota love the european easements,.. or lack of it,...

 

[TDI]

if i risk that coppers would be at my door in 5 min
and i live in belgium,so just across the pond

 

[VolvoMan]

if i risk that coppers would be at my door in 5 min
and i live in belgium,so just across the pond

Just claim you're a french farmer

there's no problem having a small garden bonfire, as long as its under control and not burning tires or such. I generally burn all my wood offcuts from projects and this was disposing of the old shed floor made of shipping pallets, all wood. I usually take the opportunity to get rid of any garden waste at the same time. Bonfires are pretty traditional in the UK.

I do similar in the USA too as I'm in a rural area, no city ordinances to worry about and most people burn their garden waste and old wood either for heat or just to get rid of it.

 

[VolvoMan]

Here's the next installment, part way through laying the main foundation slab. Due to the fact that the slab needed to build up to a foot thick in places, first I boxed up a perimeter six inches wide and leveled it carefully, then filled in the middle. This was all laid by me by hand with a small mixer, all digging done by hand myself too.

Couple of details to note, the final level for this stage is about 2 inches lower than the driveway, and I installed a 4" underground pipe (seen in the front right of the slab) to run power, plumbing and network from the main services in the house. I also ran a drainage pipe through the slab from the driveway to the alley way out back.

I also disposed of an awful lot of construction rubble under this slab too.

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[VolvoMan]

Next on to the upper slab, bringing everything up to the level of the driveway. That blue sheeting sticking out either end is a full size damp proof membrane between the foundation slab and the upper floor slab. The floor slab was laid, again by hand into a perimeter of treated 2x4 which is bolted through to the foundation with sealed 6' long 10mm bolts. This leaves me with a damp proof garage, a very rare thing in this country.

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[VolvoMan]

Day 1 of the outer shell build. That wall had to be built complete in one piece flat on the floor & sheathed in shed felt before being raised into place (due to the next door fence behind). I hired a buddy to help with the build at this point, but we still had to raise the wall up a few inches at a time with scaffold bars and big levers, supporting with piles of bricks as we went. Once we got to around 30 degrees, we were able to use a 10' 4'x4' to lever the wall up quicker. once past 45 degrees, the wall started to get lighter and we heaved it into place in one big push.

That wall is 22' long by 7'6 high, made of 4x2 on 24" centres, sheathed in 11mm ply wood, then covered in tar coated shed felt. I can vouch that it is ####### heavy!!!. Then we added the frame for the back wall and some braces to keep everything in place overnight.

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[VolvoMan]

Day 2 and the main framing is complete and we got a good chunk of outer ply on to keep everything solid.

Front view
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Rear view
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[VolvoMan]

Day 3 and the roof is framed, door hung and the outer ply fully installed. Also fitted the used double glazed back door I got for nothing (with a key) from the double glazing company a few doors down.

Front
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Rear
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[VolvoMan]

Day 4, my buddy couldn't make it to help today, so I worked alone all day, built up the gables & did a lot of other internal framing finishing & bits & pieces.

Front
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Rear
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Inside - even with bikes in it looks big inside.
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That's all for today, more tomorrow

 

[Bib Overalls]

Blisters popped out on my hands and my back started hurting when I read your comment about batch mixing your concrete.

 

[blownhemi]

Yeah, ****** hard work doing all that by hand.

Nice going with the framing. It's looking good.

 

[VolvoMan]

Since this build, I've done several more concrete slabs at my place in the USA, It doesn't matter how you do it, concrete is HARD work. Had an 8 yard transit mix delivered for my main garage in the US, and that near killed me spreading it. but I laid 3 yards batch mixing for my shed there and it wasn't so bad, I borrowed a friend's Hydraulic dumper trailer, that makes life a lot easier when you can tilt it up to get the ballast to the back, and shovel out at mixer height. batch mixing also gives you all the time in the world to smooth out.

I generally mix up to get a rough base level about 4 inches below the top, then go back and do the top 4". I'll mix enough batches to smooth about 2' of the length at a time, on a 4" 14' wide slab, that's about 4-6 loads laid out, then smoothing out is a nice little break from the mixing. I leave the smoothing board on the end of the part I've done, then it helps stop the next batch I lay from disturbing what's been done.

 

[VolvoMan]

Day 5, and I was working alone again for most of it. put on the roof panelling. due to access issues for ladders, had to lift most of the roof ply up from inside the garage, through the rafters and work from an access platform inside. At this point, I had only just discovered the joys of nailguns, but didn't own one, so whilst we framed the main structure with my buddy's gun, all the sheathing had to be hand hammered on as we didn't have short gun nails.

Had the guy I paid with the old shed, help me lay out the roll roofing, which again had to be hand nailed down, and I'm very nervous at height!

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This was taken a few days after Day 5, but shows the progress at that time.

Day 5 inside, weather proof at last
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[VolvoMan]

A little while later, I installed a far more secure rear fence. Our property is a focal point for winds in our street, and many fences get blown away each year behind us, so I designed a wind baffle fence, it lets the wind through, but slows it to the point our yard doesn't get blown around too much.

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This was built with reclaimed lumber on the back of the panels were I don't have to look at it, and mostly new lumber on the front. By this point I'd bought a framing nailer and this was a cinch to put together. I did discover that buying framing nail sticks in the UK is an expensive business though (and they're hard to find too).

 

[VolvoMan]

A couple of weeks later, and I've installed most of the electrics, most of the plumbing is run through the walls. I've provisioned for central heating (running off the house boiler) in here too, as it gets pretty cold mid winter, and I've frozen out a couple of bike batteries.

Wish I'd taken pictures of the bench build, I hadn't used my welder for over 5 years at this point. The bench in this photo was fabricated from raw angle section and features adjustable feet made from bolts attached to nuts welded to the legs. The bench is bolted to the wall for stability and has proven to be incredibly strong. I rebuilt the motor from one of the Harleys on it and it didn't even creak. the top is made from 2x4s bolted to the frame with a sheet of ply nailed to the top.

The peg boards I got for next to nothing as a home improvement store was having a closeout on them and I bought their whole stock.

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On the other side, is boltless wire shelving from IKEA. I've shared the support poles to make it really stable and to increase my options, such as the open bay pictured with an overhead shelf, and the uprights are triple height.

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[morfmedia]

Great build! Good to see a fellow Brit on here. Where abouts in the UK are you? I feel your pain, mixed a lot of cement in my time, 99% of it without a cement mixer (just one of those big plastic trays and hard graft!). Nice touch adding in heating from your central heating, good luck with the bills in winter! Keep us updated.

 

[VolvoMan]

Next up, Floor painted with a couple of coats of garage paint, that concrete really absorbd the paint for the first couple of coats, I've continued to paint the floor regularly and its smoothing out nicely as the paint builds up.

Also, my parents bought me a bike lift for my birthday, its just a Clarke heavy duty, and strains a little with the Fatboy, but the other bikes are just fine on it.

In the background, you may notice my compressor is hooked into a 16amp CEEFORM plug. the supply to that socket is run via a 20 amp modular grid switch which fits in the 8 way grid switch box I used to switch all the lights, inside & out. The compressor switch is fed from a seperate 20 amp breaker for safety. The cool part is when I switch on the lights, I can switch on the compressor in the same place, no relays needed.

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I also bought some foam floor matting to try out, wasn't very impressed, anything heavy and wheeled doesn't move very well on it, and it really doesn't hold up to being near welding. So I just left it as a strip at the end where the laundry and fridge is. soon there will be a bench to use as a desk at that end too.

 

[VolvoMan]

Great build! Good to see a fellow Brit on here. Where abouts in the UK are you? I feel your pain, mixed a lot of cement in my time, 99% of it without a cement mixer (just one of those big plastic trays and hard graft!). Nice touch adding in heating from your central heating, good luck with the bills in winter! Keep us updated.

Glad to hear from another brit. I'm down on the coast near Brighton, so the garage is really needed to protect all that chrome from the salty rain we get. I mixed up a couple of slabs entirely by hand before I bought the mixer, never again.

The garage will be insulated before the heating is hooked up, plus I use radiator thermostats, and will keep them set fairly low, just to keep the freeze at bay really.