• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Mike's Workshop Build (Extension & slates)

We had 4 cameras not so long ago, Rod. One seems to have attached itself permanently to our daughter living in northern Spain. The other met a premature end in an incident involving a bike, some tarmac, and newly fitted cleats. So we're down to two for the time being, but the big SLR is packed away in storage whilst we are camping in this tiny hovel. When I've built the extension and got all our possessions back we won't have this problem, but then, I won't be posting so many photos anyway!
 
I finished painting........3 coats of emulsion: 1 mist coat using the compressor (mistake), and 2 coats using a roller.

I then grabbed the opportunity of some help to move a few of the bigger pieces of kit from my old workshop, including benches and all of the machinery (although my quarter ton cast iron pillar drill didn't make it across the garden.......I'll shift that with a digger next week).

The next job was to get secure: doors, and a shutter over the window opening. I was going to use some old hollow core doors and just clad them with boards on the outside, but after much thought decided that was not actually going to make life any easier, and I could make stronger doors from scratch. So I made a pair of ledged and braced boarded doors from 6 x 1 sawn timber (the stuff I had used as shuttering for the concrete).

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There is quite a bit to talk about with the doors. For a start, they the boards are half-lapped, by a substantial width (some 30mm). Only one edge of the board is screwed to the ledges, the edge close to the lap that goes over (rather than under) the adjacent board. This traps both edges, but allows the boards to expand and contract with the changing seasons.

Take a good look at the hinges. I always do this with outward opening shed doors. I bend the tee hinge, putting a crank on it such that it fastens to the inside rather than the outside of the door. Not only is this more secure, but I can arrange the pin such that the doors can open 180 degrees.

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What are these gaps alongside the door lining all about?

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Well, they are 80-odd mm wide, and this bit of steel is 6mm x 75mm. I am going to seriously inconvenience anyone trying to break in:

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I'll come back to that in a few days time.

This is what it looks like inside, with stuff just dumped roughly in position:

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The next job was to make an internal shutter to cover the hole where the window will go. This will provide security, reducing the chance of anyone breaking in through the window. The complication is that the sloped ceiling isn't as wide as the window, so if I wanted it to fold out of the way, I had to make it fold. It is made of 50 x 50, carefully worked out beforehand:

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Half lapped joints to form a couple of frames, deliberately not of the same size. I'm using glue, so it must be joinery rather than carpentry :):

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Note the shaped top piece from which it all hangs. Here is a trial fitting:

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And here it is in its raised position. I must be Tarzan to be able to hold that up with one hand whilst taking a photo with the other!!

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There just wasn't any timber in the roof in a convenient location for fitting catches, so I had to improvise:

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Here is the catch which holds the bottom half to the top half when folded:

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And here is the catch that holds the folded shutter against the ceiling:

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Finally, the shutter dangling. I will fit 4 sliding bolts tomorrow, to secure the thing hard against the wall.

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Mike G":2v8r06oc said:
It is, Bob, unless I am misunderstanding you.
Click to expand...

No, the effect of sag as you have it will tend to make the brace slide along the ledges only stopped by a few screws. The outer ends of the brace should be notched into each ledge. You have the inner ends notched which adds no strength in my understanding of a L&B design.

Bob
 
Oh I see what you're saying. Maybe I could have done that better. If it starts moving I'll put a steel plate over the junction between the ledge and the brace. Or something......
 
The interweb is littered with pictures of how not to do it and even saw one like a capital Sigma with opposed braces top and bottom.

This shows what I believe to be the correct way of notching the braces

building-a-shed-door4.jpg


Bob
 
Thanks Andy. My last house and workshop was littered with little homemade sprung catches like those. They're a 10 minute job, and can be so useful. Sometimes, if you're lucky, they can be gravity-only, dispensing with the spring.........as with the one holding the folded shutter against the sloped ceiling, above. There'll be a variation on the theme holding the workshop doors in their 180-degree-open position, coming soon.
 
I'm staggered at the work rate, Mike. Phenomenal. When does the Inglenook fireplace go in ? ;)
 
Hi Mike,

You are making great progress - don't know how you manage to work so quickly!

I just wondered if you were going to insulate the doors and the window shutter. Or are the doors just temporary?
 
I might well insulate the window shutter........there's a nice little cavity there which could take a Celotex board. It's a bit more difficult to do the doors, though, particularly as there is going to be some additional security stuff on the inside. I'll have a think to see if there is a way.
 
RogerS":1zvq3egh said:
I'm staggered at the work rate, Mike. Phenomenal. When does the Inglenook fireplace go in ? ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks Roger, although it all feels very slow to me. I'm itching to start work on the house, but have to finish the workshop first. Well, at least to the extent that it is secure, and all my tools are moved in to it . The people who bought our last house kindly offered to let me retain use of the workshop until I had a new one ready, so a lot of my kit is still down there.

Inglenook? You'll have to wait for the house renovation/ extension project to get to that stage. There is a thread started already.
 
The amount of insulation that Mike is installing, there will not be a need for anything as big as an inglenook, I think a small wood burner will be about right, if its run too hard. [emoji41]
 
DaveL":1quqreaq said:
The amount of insulation that Mike is installing, there will not be a need for anything as big as an inglenook, I think a small wood burner will be about right, if its run too hard. [emoji41]
Click to expand...

I thought that the Inglenook was going into this alcove ! :lol:

N7ESFAS.png
 
:)

Well, I've certainly got enough scrap left over to keep an inglenook fed for an hour or two. And that's before I start the FE boards.......

Talking of which, I bought the paint today. Actually, it is a water-based microporous stain, called Barn Paint, by Bedec. It is a truly wonderful product, at least as good as Architectural Solignum and way, way cheaper. I'll put a coat on the boards before I nail them up, and another coat once they are in situ. But before all that, I will be rebating many hundreds of metres of boarding. Not the most riveting fun.......
 
Well, I'm a bit behind with the photos. Apologies.

I have spent a couple of days transferring stuff from my old workshop, and putting up shelves, timber racks and so on. I don't have photos of all of it. I found a piece of 9" x 1-1/2" timber which was really straight, and which happens to be roughly the length of the smaller part of the workshop, so I thought I would make a mini bench for sharpening, grinding, and light metal-working duties. A few scraps of 3" x 2" , a few minutes thought, and here we are:

c4O8CkO.png

On the other side I have my clamps at high level, and board storage will be below.

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I started to fill the loft, then realised that everything would just be a jumble on the floor, and a whole lot of space would be wasted. So I made up some frames (again, from 3" x 2"), to provide upper level timber storage. Here I am starting to fill the long one:

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The shorter one is a general store area, rather than a timber store:

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Finally, I spent a few hours doing industrial-scale painting of the F/E boards. This is a mist coat, and there'll be a second coat (full-strength) once the boards are nailed in place.

o9Bhj8P.png
 
I am surprised that you seem to have utter confidence in the existing roof arrangement. Surely a large down pour will eventually find a way under the batons and through the nails holes. Always did when I tried that arrangement.
 
I'm really not concerned about that Andy. The product on the roof is really impressive, and there are no holes which aren't covered by battens. It's a far cry from the days of roof felt, or Tyvek, which was thin and relatively flimsy compared with what I've got on...........and you are right, those would have leaked. Besides, it hasn't rained here for weeks, and it won't for the next week or so, and even if a bit got through, it would be absorbed by the insulation, and prevented from reaching the inside by the layer of OSB under the rafters. If a deluge threatens, I might pull a tarp over the roof, but in the meantime, I'm relaxed about it.
 
I've had little time to work on the workshop in the last few days. I have cleared my old one, though, and brought everything up here. My storage is filling up.

Let's start with a couple of miscellaneous pictures from inside. First, the wood racks on the wall, which I am going to try to keep for new timber only. In other words, when I buy stuff for a project, this is where it goes:

DVAKMyH.png

I also fixed the shelves from my old 'shop to the wall, and filled them:

EJilCLK.png
I have since made a sash clamp rack, a la Alan Hudson's design. Better than de-headed screws in the wall!

Right, to business.

Today I made a start on the outside of the external walls. You'll recall that the building has looked like this for a week or two:

KDkRKgV.png

My first task was to sort the DPC out, and to install an arris to drain any water that gets behind the boards to the outside of the wall. Fortuitously, I was only able to buy a really wide DPC, and not the one I had wanted. Well, this turned out to be a good thing.

Step one: cut the arris from roofing battens. Here's the jig:

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Here's the idea:

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You'll note that the top of the arris is quite close to the bottom of the sole plate. This was to prove a nuisance.

Ten minutes into slicing the battens up I was on the phone to Ian at Tuffsaws, ordering a few new blades. In the interim, I took my setting pliers to the blade I had, which is rather a tedious procedure when the blade is on the machine, but it was the only way I was going to get through 15 metres of diagonal cuts through wet and fibrous timber.

An hour or two later, I had a pile of sticks:

cImncLy.png

The first one in place. Notice that I have packed it out from the frame by 11mm, the thickness of a strip of waste OSB, to get the "edge" of the DPC closer to the edge of the bricks, so that if any moisture does find its way behind the boards it is deposited right by the edge of the plinth......

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Here's the first section finished, with the DPC folded up over the arris, then taken up the studs. External corners are easy:

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Then it's just a question of going all around the base of the building. It's great to be able to see the bricks again after they've been hidden by flapping DPC for weeks:

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Internal corners don't work just with the DPC:

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I love a bit of lead work! :) I raided the scrap lead box, and made a couple of these:

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Next on the list was insulation. I am using 100mm cavity batts, which only come in 450 widths, so there is a bit of cutting. The beauty of cavity batts is that they are relatively stiff, and so stay in place without slumping. This is as far as I got today:

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You can't leave it like that overnight, in case a wind gets up or it rains, so I stapled on the building paper:

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I now have a very blue shed:

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Tomorrow, I finish the insulation and papering, then counterbatten on top of the paper (to form a cavity), and hopefully start boarding. There is more messing about at the top of the plinth to do before that, though.........
 
Looking good Mike. Good thing I didn't snap all those OSB offcuts up for fire wood. :o
Dave, collector of off cuts and shavings for the shop wood burner. :D
 
I've got a helluva pile for you now, Dave, from my old workshop, including some oak. Leave it a day or two and I'll have endless off-cuts of feather-edge board too.
 
DaveL":10zjjhvi said:
I will be over next week, best bring some more sacks. :eusa-clap:
Click to expand...

The dust and shavings are already bagged, and half of the timber is in a box. So less sacks than you think.
 
I'd hoped to be outside nailing boards on, but it's peeing down, so I'll post instead.

I finished off the insulation, papering and counter-battening, except for the small bit of wall above the lower roof.

The next job isn't one that most people would do, at least, not this way. The normal modern detail for corners on boarded buildings is a piece of 100 x 50 nailed into place such that is sticks out from the wall 50mm in both directions. I've done it myself many times. However, I have come to dislke this, particularly because it looks so heavy and cumbersome. Old buildings have a really small piece of timber there. With my shed being a small building, I really didn't want big clompy corners, and decided to make them out of 75 x 25s instead. This involved some extra work, and making each corner rather more individually than would normally be the case.

Anyway, this is the first one in the process of being marked. I screwed it in place so that it could be put back in exactly the same position after cutting. Marking to length was just a question of a straight edge underneath the battens.

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Here are 4 of the 8 corners awaiting painting.

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Just so that I put them back in the right place:

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You'll recall this sketch of the plinth detail:

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See the bottom board is kicking out? The diagram doesn't show how that is achieved (and there will be a subtlety about the bottom board, too, but more of that later). The simplest way is by nailing a horizontal batten of the correct width across the bottom of of the counterbattens, but I don't like doing this. Firstly, it is an inaccurate and clumsy detail, with the board only making contact on one edge. Secondly, and more importantly, it is a horizontal ledge on top of which moisture could sit if it gets through the boarding. So I make wedges:

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I then fixed the corners in place. Here are both an internal and an external corner, which are very different details.

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Gloves on!!! This stuff cuts you to ribbons. It is stainless steel insect mesh, 75mm wide on a roll, and it is sharp as a serated razor blade. I simply pushed it under the DPC, and curve it around to staple it on the face of the wedges. It will press against the back of the F/E boards, and prevent insects from entering the cavity behind the board.

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28 metres took more than an hour to put in place, but I am now ready to start boarding as soon as the weather relents.

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Here is the subtlety that I mentioned previously. I want to create a drip on the bottom edge of the board so that rain will run down the face of the brick without sitting on the top, but also so that the junction between brick and timber is visually neater.

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This is such a fascinating, informative and absorbing thread that I think it deserves to be made a Stickie.

:obscene-drinkingcheers:
 
RogerS":34gfwkq3 said:
This is such a fascinating, informative and absorbing thread that I think it deserves to be made a Stickie.

:obscene-drinkingcheers:
Click to expand...

Go on then Roger, you have the power.
 
RogerS":wz3r51g3 said:
This is such a fascinating, informative and absorbing thread that I think it deserves to be made a Stickie.

:obscene-drinkingcheers:
Click to expand...

Thanks Roger.

I've thought sometimes that I was only talking to myself! ;)
 
Absolutely not talking to yourself Mike! I am hoovering up every bit for my build so the more detail you want to show the better as far as I'm concerned! :)

Keep them coming.

Cheers
Mark
 
Waiting for the next post is akin to, all those years ago, waiting for the Beano to drop through the door.

Often read and shown to others (your thread not the Beano).

Oh and I am looking forward to your house renovation too.
 
TrimTheKing":pjn4ldvf said:
Absolutely not talking to yourself Mike! I am hoovering up every bit for my build so the more detail you want to show the better as far as I'm concerned! :)

Keep them coming.

Cheers
Mark
Click to expand...

:text-+1: :text-goodpost:

I log on with the hope of a next instalment and am always disappointed when I don't find one. I refer to my shed as being built 'in the Mike style'!

Terry
 
Mike G":1vxq57qc said:
I've thought sometimes that I was only talking to myself! ;)
Click to expand...

This is one of those threads you check back to see what has been happening but it is actually quite hard to comment back something constructive. Doesn't mean no one is interested though :)

Alans (Hudson carpentry) factory workshop thread is another that comes to mind - interesting to view but hard to add comment.

Please keep going :)
 
Oh good, I'm not boring everyone to tears then.......

That little cove cut off the bottom edge of the lowest boards: 3 hours work!!! Three hours for a little quadrant on a drawing........ Still, I think it is such a good detail that it is worth the effort. Here it is with a bit of scrap:

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After routing the boards (and think of the difficulty: grotty rough sawn timber, some of them 4.75m in length), I laid them out and painted the machined bit, and the bottom edge:

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The Barn Paint I am using is not only water-soluble when wet, but it also paints any building material you can think of, so covering up the bricks seems like a good idea. The best way I could come up with was to staple some plastic (DPM) on the back of the bottom boards, and once it is finished with it will just be pulled out:

0x3CKhN.png

Feather-edge boards should be nailed, but this bottom board is fixed to a thin wedge, and a nail could split it, in addition to it all feeling a bit "bouncy" under a hammer........so I decided to screw the bottom board only.

I marked out a measured distance above the brickwork, having checked that all the boards were the same width, and then offered the boards up in turn and screwed them in place. It's important that they aren't too tight a fit lengthways, because this pushes the corner posts out of position and then you'll never get neat joins at the end of the boards. The only adjustment necessary was to the two internal corners, which needed a bit of scribing and sawing. I really like the result:

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Note the two marks. This was early on, and I decided to lower the boards a bit from my first stab at it.

The rain won, in the end. I retreated into the house, very damp, but pleased to have the fiddly stuff out of the way. The rest of the boards will be an absolute doddle.

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So what does the FE or F/E stand for? Over here they're called clapboards.

Kirk
who has actually never seen them used in new construction...
 
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