Henrik’s shed

[roblane65]

I wouldn't go stirring the poo with B.C by making masked threats I'm sure you'll sort it with them , if you put a bee in someones bonnet they can be quite vindictive and they can make life a lot more difficult for you than you can for them . Trust me ,

 

[James1979]

I wouldn't go stirring the poo with B.C by making masked threats I'm sure you'll sort it with them , if you put a bee in someones bonnet they can be quite vindictive and they can make life a lot more difficult for you than you can for them . Trust me ,

I agree from experience.

I also wouldn’t trust them further than I could throw one.

Had virtually similar with BC - had a phone call which he then denied we had had.

It attracts a certain sort of person it seems.

 

[roblane65]

Similar to traffic wardens but with a few more brain cells , I always found the older inspectors were easier to deal with than the young uns with no real practical expeirence . ( have I spelt that right ! )

 

[Onoff]

I wouldn't go stirring the poo with B.C by making masked threats I'm sure you'll sort it with them , if you put a bee in someones bonnet they can be quite vindictive and they can make life a lot more difficult for you than you can for them . Trust me ,

I fought a council and won. It was a parking issue. Horrible experience btw. Dealing with faceless entities threatening you with bailiffs etc.

Helps that my brother was employed as a barrister by the adjacent borough council so knew what buttons to push.

Yes he makes a damn good latte...

 

[addjunkie]

Now youve involved building control you best hope they dont want to inspect your foundations before the concrete pore..

I built a small porch on the outside of an old stone barn with no foundation's, and they wanted a 750 deep found. Ended up having to cut out stone with a sthil saw to keep him happy. Mental but easier to do than argue.

 

[Henrik]

Now youve involved building control you best hope they dont want to inspect your foundations before the concrete pore..

I built a small porch on the outside of an old stone barn with no foundation's, and they wanted a 750 deep found. Ended up having to cut out stone with a sthil saw to keep him happy. Mental but easier to do than argue.

Not worried about that. The rules say that only the fire rating is relevant for outbuildings < 30m2.

I’m half tempted just to build a smaller shed and have a hard standing outside for a bit, and then plonk up another shed in summer.

Slight shame, though, as it would mean two narrow sheds rather than one wide

 

[Seadog]

Not if you design and build it with expansion in mind.

 

[Morrisman]

Should have immediately emailed the bloke who was helpful just to confirm what he said.

When you phone them do they say all calls are recorded?

If he deffo said what you say and someone else said different then say this to them and to check their recorded calls to confirm. Add that you are considering making a Stage 1 complaint.

They don't like that, trust me.

That is exactly what I did when our local planning clowns did an about face once I was 3 months into a garage build. A guy had visited my garden, I had told him what I wanted to build, given him a drawing, and he had told me no problem, build anything you want as long as it is a metre from the boundary, and less than 3m tall.

I went into the offices and politely asked how I make an official complaint about the way they conduct their business. Within ten minutes I was in a room with three of them, telling them what had happened, and I they then agreed I didn't need planning permission afterall.

 

[Morrisman]

I agree from experience.

I also wouldn’t trust them further than I could throw one.

Had virtually similar with BC - had a phone call which he then denied we had had.

It attracts a certain sort of person it seems.

Friend of mine built a house in town, not far from me, so same BC, and it took two years for the clowns to finally give permission. They simply kept changing their minds about decisions they had already made. Move it forward a metre so it's not aligned with the house next door. So he had the plans changed. A week later, move it back so it lines up. Drawings changed again. And numerous other stupidity.

He was allowed into a meeting about his proposed development, as long as he promised not to speak at all. Then he sat listening to them talking totally wrong facts about his plans, and when he opened his mouth to tell them they were totally wrong, he was asked to leave the meeting. Bunch of over entitled, over empowered halfwits.

 

[roblane65]

" over empowered halfwits " and that's the one's that aren't to bad to deal with

 

[addjunkie]

" over empowered halfwits " and that's the one's that aren't to bad to deal with

Luckily I didnt have any issues with planning, If it had got silly, my grandsons other grandfather was chairman of the National Park, so the right guy to know who to speak too. Fortunatley the one I did have issues with left to make folk in Gateshead lives more difficult.

 

[Henrik]

Just to update quickly; after getting nowhere really with the council, I decided that life was too short, and I shrunk the size down to 15m2 floor area internally instead. The outside will be 5.4m x 3.4m, and with 20cm thick walls full of insulation, I should end up with a reasonably insulated shed.



Anyway, the first block that went down in the highest corner:

First / only row of blocks done and level (oops - not quite - the back section was still not done). This is where I was at when I contacted the council and they reneged on their initial advice:

Back and sides done and wrapped in some breathable membrane:

As I had ran out of blocks, I re-used some of the old paving blocks just to get the front timbers off the actual concrete:

And added some more sticks:

This is the state at the moment. This is also only "half width" of the outside so far - there'll be another frame built inside it to take the width to 20cm, so that i just squeak in under 15m2 floor area.

I've also ordered doors and windows... The windows are going to be double glazed sash units (170x170cm big), and a door in half glass. The windows are probably quite inappropriate for a workshop, but I will split off a bit for an office section for myself, and also whenever we come to sell the place, I think something that isn't "workshop-like" might be more appealing to people. The sash windows also tie in nicely with the actual house, as we have the same setup there.

Not sure what I'll do about the outside area at the moment - might build the walls up a bit further with breeze blocks and render them, or something, and make some sort of patio area there maybe... it's only about 1m wide, unfortunately, so maybe i'll just knock it all off and create a bigger paved area.

 

[Henrik]

Next up is the roof. I'm going for a flat roof, and I'm awaiting delivery of some 225x47mm joists for this purpose. It's only a 3m span, but as I'm going for a cold roof, I'm going to fill it up with 20cm of insulation.

The construction will be:

- roof felt or EDPM
- 18mm osb
- 47mm timbers attached to the top of the rafters
- 225mm rafters with insulation in between
- vapour barrier
- plasterboard

This takes me to about 245cm height at the front, which is perfect.

However, one question:
Can I fit some kind of permeable fabric between the "timbers on top of the rafters" and the rafters? I don't accidentally want to push the insulation up too far and block off airflow so I get condensation, and some kind of breathable membrane sounds like a good way of stopping that happening, but maybe it will also stop moisture from escaping the insulation if I pierce the vapour control layer by accident?

 

[Henrik]

Roof rafters went in without too much drama. I went with 220mm joists and also a 22mm strip of wood on top, to give 242mm of space for insulation + air gap. With OSB this brings me up to 246cm height, and there’s a fall of 5cm over 3.2m - remains to be seen if this is enough for water to run off, but I’m hoping it will be. 220mm joists are obviously massive overkill for a 3m span, but gives me the space for insulation.


Rafters in place:

Some of the rafters were somewhat banana shaped, but we used some 2x4 to push them mainly straight in the middle:

OSB finally on.

Also wrapped the OSB in breathable membrane - not sure how water tight it is, but too cold to apply EDPM at the moment. Hopefully this will let me leave the roof until after Xmas.

View from house. Visually fills the whole width of the garden, even with the 0.5-0.6m (or so maintenance gaps):

 

[Henrik]

So, after a long lull comprising Xmas, covid, then the actual flu, and a scratched eyeball, I should be back to this every so often

The only thing that’s happened since last update is really that the door and windows are semi-permanently in. Still need to foam the seams, but Screwfix seem to be out of fire retardant foam including online.

I fitted the windows all by myself and had to employ some Egyptian tactics to get the windows in. They’re so heavy I can only lift one corner at a time, so slowly built up a platform of wood by putting off cuts in under the corners.. also the original hole didn’t have enough clearance, so had to take out one 45mm plank, so sadly they now don’t line up with the top of the door, but it’s a shed after all…

The temp cover for the roof seems to have kept the roof deck dry, and I’ve just ordered fire retardant fibre glass to make the actual roof.

I think I’ve also decided on how the outside will be done. Basically the fences cover about 90% of the wall from the neighbour that can see it, so not going to go through the bother of rendering it etc, but rather the sides and back will be clad in metal sheets.
The front will be built up with cement board and covered in brick slips to give it a brick look (to look the same as the house, especially with the windows).

Luckily there’s not a lot of area to cover with slips as they seem to work out at about 60 per sqm.

 

[Henrik]

One small piece at a time.. screwed into the piece underneath to stop toppling..

Outside helper…

View from inside..

 

[cheb]

Good job moving the windows. I do quite a lot of that as I generally work by myself.

 

[Henrik]

Fibreglass roof and front panel (to be clad) fitted. The tyvek is doing it’s best impression of a ghost, so hard to see the actual edges

There’s very little area to be clad, so now in two minds about what to clad it with.

Brick slips or some kind of wood cladding? Or render?

Timber cladding might be nice with some kind of lights behind it? Glowing building at night…

 

[Henrik]

Galvanised sheets on on three sides.

Front will be rendered with some silicone render (ewipro system), as the Mrs suddenly decided she wanted it white instead of bricks.. thinks the pillars between windows and doors are too thin to look ok with bricks, and she is probably right. Now just waiting for a non rainy weekend to happen, so expect an update in 2024…


Wickes delivered another load, which took up the whole shed:

And a bit of insulation…

Ceiling insulation in, and 100mm in the stud wall too. Unfortunately my plan of using 200mm loft insulation for the roof went to pot . The 200mm roll expanded to more like 250mm, so it filled up the whole cavity more or less. To avoid damp issues we then scaled it back to just 100mm rolls in the ceiling… super annoyed at that tbh, and should have just paid for 150mm of celotex, but the price makes me wince hopefully it won’t be too cold with just 100mm.

With some vapour barrier:

There is no way to fit a plasterboard lift because it’s just too full, so we improvised with blocks of wood, a weird little t-section we knocked up, and mostly also a lot of swearing. Luckily my uncle is on hand to help me with all this work.

First 30kg sound rated plasterboard going in:

Board-holder-contraption:

Last sound panel:

 

[Henrik]

And then some fire rated boards. Comparably light at only 29kg a piece

And finally done

The joins are offset compared to the sound boards, and will be taped up and filled in too. Probably also plastered to get a nicer finish than just the board tbh.


Next step: fit the sound boards to the current walls. Once that’s done, build another stud wall further in, add more insulation and then add fire boards…

People might be wondering why I don’t have cables etc yet, but in my mind I have laid an enormous amount of money for a bunch of sound rated boards, and there’s no way I’m going to compromise them in order to fit cables and sockets etc. surface mounted all the way for me, with cables in trunking.