Need Advice On Building A Workshop Shed

[Martin of Wick]

On Martin of Wick Said:

A shed is where you keep the lawnmower, spades and shovels, next years onion sets and disused bicycles. A workshop is where you keep expensive / valuable machinery. The OP needs a workshop.

You can purchase a ready made ‘shed’ structure and adapt it, but a quick trawl will reveal that at the size required a suitably solid, tanalised quality unit comes in at well north of 2K. Sure you can buy cheaper, but a unit with 7mm cladding on 25mm frames would be  a waste of money. Then ground works and insulation/internals and electricals have to be added.

Off the cuff, DIY using pressure treated timber you are looking at at least 1K for 15mm TG / shiplap cladding 0.5K for framing 3×2 at 300 to 400 centres, .5K for floor barding at 18mm,  1K for wall and roof boarding 12mm and then everything else like roofing materials, insulation, membranes, doors, windows, electricals, certification, planning ground works etc. on top

The problem for the OP is his budget is tight. If he can acquire the primary materials for free, construct the unit from scratch and can do all the labour, himself then he has a chance on the stated budget.

 

WOW!

My “shed” has served me well for 17 years and made me a lot of money!

Jimb

[Martin of WickParticipant @martinofwick]

A wooden structure does not necessarily mean a shed, depends how it has been installed and adapted.

Jason, according to your description you have a wooden building that is soundly supported on a concrete base using close spaced heavy duty timbers, thick ply flooring and insulation. That structure been designed and built from the ground up to be a workshop and mine is similar.

You are in shed territory when the structure sits on the bare ground or slabs or the ridiculously expensive plastic honeycomb they try to flog you. It is a shed when the structure is spindly 25mm timber, with thin untreated cladding (usually with plenty of knot holes), 12mm flooring and without any damp protection or insulation.

The point I was making is that there is a significant cost adjustment between what is acceptable for a shed (for the garden tools etc.) and what is needed for a reasonably dry and stable workshop environment, which I would expect yours to be, because that is how you planned it.

Thinking about the OP, I am sure that a structure can be acquired within budget but will that budget be sufficient to cover all of the extra requirements to make that structure a suitable workshop.

Sadly for the OP it is not just a case of sourcing the lowest cost unit, plonking it on the ground, moving his lathe or whatever in and jobs a good’un…. If only life was that simple.  In this scenario, joy will turn to angst   as his shiny new tools start to take on the rust and patina of well aged garden implements in a short space of time.

 

 

[RainbowsParticipant @rainbows]

Lot of mention of wood so I’ll point out that metal might be a cost competitive cladding idea.

 

I have a shed shed made out of two industrial racking shelves facing each other across a ~2m gap. At the top scaffolding poles form rafters and tarpaulins create the roof and walls. Set on paved ground it cost me about £300 evenly split between tarpaulin and shelf. Obviously not secure but I put things that I don’t care enough for to have inside but enough to not leave in direct rain. Took two days to assemble with some help from a friend.

You have a tight budget and a possibly semi transient housing situation which is a bit rough.

I’ve seen some old workshops and let me tell you they did not have a 150mm engineered hardcore and 100mm of concrete. They had 75mm yorkshire paving over rammed earth or 25mm of concrete over rubble. Rust prevention was keep using it, keep oiling it and have the apprentice keep polishing it.

It all depends on what you can access and what your used to working with but if I had to make a semi temporary shed on a budget I’d probably use 2 to 4 pallet racks as the load bearing structure, wrap that in vapour barrier + 20-25mm PIR (the first inch of insulation is by far the most important) and make sure its nice and airtight and over that throw whatever cladding. Corrugated bitumen roofing sheets are I seem to remember the cheapest per m2 if buying new. Building a studwork flat for the insulation to live in means that come moving day the entire thing could be stripped down and reassembled very easily and fit in a van.

A south bend heavy isn’t actually all that heavy. Assuming you aren’t trying to fit a Bridgeport in you could dig down a few inches, ram the earth, lay DPC, dry lay brick/paving stone (many people give these away), screed, [optional 25m PIR again), plywood/chipboard floor. This would give you a floor that your lathe wouldn’t immediately sink into or collect rain water and thats the nicest thing I could say about it.  It will subside, the floor will buckle if the brick separates from the plywood underneath something heavy. But it will cost £300 rather than the £3000 mentioned earlier in the thread and if you have to move it will come up easier than a slab.

[derek hall 1Participant @derekhall1]

There was an article in Engineering in Miniature many years ago where the late Elliot Isaac described building his new workshop, I think it was called “Tales of a Welsh Workshop”. He came to the conclusion that a horse stable 12 ft by 12 ft was a much cheaper method than the same size “shed”.

He describes how he prepared the concrete base and modifying, insulating and fitting it out.

I modified a single garage, but if I were to build a new workshop Elliot’s method is what I would choose. Horse stables are built MUCH better and with bigger timber – if its strong enough to contain a cantankerous horse then it will be fine for a mild mannard Myford!

[VicParticipant @vic]

My workshop is a wooden cabin, the timbers are 45mm thick. It has an insulated roof but still gets too warm on hot summer days. An insulated floor with plywood over floorboards is a delight in winter after the nightmare of two previous workshops with bare concrete floors.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Fred Dibnah started off with tarpaulins suspended from trees over his steam roller. A railway sleeper floor was eventually added and then stout wooden walls with glazed windows and a tiled roof. He considered his outbuildings to be sheds.
regards Martin

[File HandleParticipant @filehandle]

Martin
It was fairly common in the past to find sleepers on workshop floors. My grandad had a shed made completely out of sleepers. But due to Beeching they were virtually given away.

[Author]

Posts