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.

 

 

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