Small Hobby Workshop Rebuild

[TomN]

I'm looking to rebuild my mini workshop. I will use this as a sort of 'blog' to document my progress and also try and call upon the varried knowledge of others on here to help me make good choices.

 

I used to have a really cheap gazeebo up, that was used to keep the rain off. I had the whole thing weighed down with breeze blocks in each corner and the whole thing lashed down with ropes.

It worked well for a while, but during a period of high winds the gazeebo, bent and sort of tore itself apart. I had to scrap the whole thing and put all my forging gear into storage.

 

Now i'm looking for a bit more of a semi-permanent solution.

Essentially I am looking to form a much more solid surrounding for my mini workshop that will stand up to the wonders of our British weather.

It would be an added bonus if I could move the resulting construction to a new property, when the wife and I manage to get a mortgage.

 

I have taken some photo's of the area I am aiming to build in the workshop in, as well as some roughly drawn (and coloured in like a child) plans, for a very rough beginning idea.

 

The area in question:

 

The concrete area, where I hope to construct the workshop

 

Little alley between the garage and metal store

 

Shot from further back, from grassy area, which contains a dumping ground for grass clippings etc. Flammable, so needs protecting!

 

Garage on left, metal store to right. Shows height difference.

 

Shed and garage side. Shows that roof will need to be set onto the gargage, rather than the shed roof.

 

Left of shed, showing bushy hedge

 

This goes to show that I have a nice (if small) section of concrete to build around. My thinking is that if I raise two walls to protect the hedge and grassy area, then I have a nearly enclosed box in which to work.

I hope this means that I will not have to worry too much about fire risks, from hot sparks and other things, effecting my surroundings.

 

The next step is to get a rough idea of where to build the walls and 'rough out' the workshop and roof.

 

I did some measurements around the area to get a rough idea of what sort of area I had to work with. Stupidly I forgot to measure the height of the garage side, to give me a rough idea of what sort of height I would need to make the walls.

Below is a picture of a very rough (not to scale) plan I drew out of the site.

 

 

I messed up the measurements, thinking I was doing it in mm's. I was actually doing it in inches. So remove the final 0 from each number and that is what it is in inches.

E.g. - 910 on the picture, really translates to 91 inches!

I have corrected the measurements on all future images, when I realised just how dumb I had been.

 

Below is an idea for where the walls should go.

 

The walls in RED have been given a rough sizing. I need to leave a path up to the left of the shed and another opening, onto the grassy area opposite the shed.

 

Below is an image of a rough out of the small workshop 'layout/floor plan'.

 

 

I think a sliding door to the right will be a sensible solution, as this will allow me to close off the workshop to the outside world and also maybe lock it as well.

 

Below is an image of the plan with an area highlighted in orange, where the roof can go.

 

 

This should make the workshop pretty well wind and rain proof. If I can get that area closed off, then I will have a nice little workshop to work in.

I think I will need to build a small hood and extract to allow a lot of the heat and fumes out.

 

Now I need to think about how to construct the walls and out of what materials. Also the roof needs consideration as well. Need to select a good material, work out how to secure it to the walls and work out a sensible slope for rain run off etc.

 

More to come soon!

[DSW]

My 1st thought would be some sort of "shed" or slanted roof. I'd be real tempted to attach a long board across the back of the block wall out to a post in the corner where you have the sliding door listed to form a beam to support one side of the roof. The other Beam would be attached to two posts located at the other two open corners ( by the shed and where you have the forge marked. I'd be tempted to slant it away from the walk towards the hedges, but I can't tell if you have the height to do that if the beam is only attached to the block vs jacked up in height. If you don't have enough height, then I'd still use the beams, but the garage side would need to be high enough to drain onto the existing roof. If height is an issue I might also look into a more conventional peaked roof sloped towards both beams. Either form trusses or frame conventional rafters.

 

Walls should be fairly simple to do. some plywood siding on 2x's attached top the posts would do.

[TomN]

Thanks for the reply DSW. I had also thought about the possability of using posts and wood. The only problem I have with that is that I will need to sink it into the ground and I don't want to wreck the garden. Me and the wife are renting this place from a friend, so I don't want to push my luck with the guy, as we are very grateful to him, to allow us to rent there for cheap.

 

I currently quite like the idea of making the walls out of angle iron. This way I can use cheap wood, bolted to it. Also it means I will be able to have a really solid structure, that will last. Plus I may be able to take it to another location, for when we manage to get a mortgage.

 

The total ideal, would be to take those two walls and use them as the basis for a bigger workshop, in the garden of a new place when we move there.

Sadly I have no idea when that will be though, as we won't be able to get a mortgage until I have a fulltime job. Not having much luck with jobs at all at the moment.

 

Later on I will go and measure up the heights of the shed and garage sides. At least I will have a better idea at roughing out the heights etc.

Will try and come up with some more plan drawings for this.

 

I'm thinking of using some corrugated iron for the roof. Presuming this will be relatively cheap, but will also last well.

Bolting it to the frame is a concern though, as well as weighing it down, to stop it being blown around.

[DSW]

Trying to plan to reuse stuff in advance usually ends up restricting you later unless you have a final plan in mind right now. Best bet would be to figure anything you can later salvage as "found" materials and not worry about it now other than possibly make everything easy to disassemble. Otherwise you end up with neither shed really doing what you want.

 

Posts don't necessarily have to be sunk in the ground, but you do gain a bunch of things if you do so. An L shaped free standing wall will support your roof ( well at least 3 corners of it with the garage supporting the 4th.). The ends and corner of your L would be your main posts. Posts are easier to do simple framing with vs wall construction. With a post and beam construction,  the wall material is then just infill and can be anything or nothing. if you opt to go with a "wall" type construction, then the wall itself takes the load and you have to do studs or use a solid bearing material like a stress skin panel.

 

 

Sinking the posts in the ground would lock the wall in place so it won't shake or move in the wind. You can accomplish the same thing if you bolt the walls to the concrete instead. Down side of that around me is that a concrete slab moves when the ground freezes and thaws, even in our relatively mild winters. Many people are amazed at how powerful ice can really be. Moving walls have a bad tendency to cause roofs to spring leaks.

 

I'm personally not a big fan of corrugated roofs. They are noisy in the rain, and hot under the broiling sun as they radiate the heat. They also usually need to be used on a fairly steep pitch to not leak at the sides and ends. The pitch I'm envisioning on your structure is fairly flat for a corrugated roof. One nice option is to use the translucent fiberglass panels. That way you let in a fair amount of light.  If you go with steel or alum, keep in mind that you need to make sure you use the right fasteners if it's for long term use. We used to have a corrugated alum roof on the old shop and when someone patched the roof, when some panels loosened up, they used steel nails to replace the alum nails the heads ripped off. The alum roof rotted out right around the nails due to dissimilar metals corrosion.

[TomN]

Those were my concerns with the corrugated roof as well. I just couldn't think of anything better. Nice to have the know how of so many others to draw on with this site.

 

I was also envisioning a relative flat roof as well, because it will need to be above the height of the shed (or at least the top of the shed door) and this would also make it easier to weight down, on top of the garage.

 

The fibre glass roof sounds great, in terms of letting in light etc, but that sounds costly to me (I could be wrong and apologise if I am) and I wonder if it would stand up to the heat of the forge......

I'm guessing the roof is going to end up at around 6'4'' in height, at the lowest, where the forge will most likely go. Thats pretty high I suppose.

 

How would I secure the fibreglass down though to the angel iron though?

 

As for moving it to a new house, I don't think that will happen for quite some time anyway, but I am unlikely to get a large enough garden to build a big workshop in anyway. So it would more likely than not be more of a case of just making two opposing walls turn the structure into a square, rather than an L.

[DSW]

6'4" roof height is very low. A standard door in the US is 6'8" high. Not a lot of room to swing a hammer unless you really are a Dwarf. My downstairs den ceiling is 7'6" vs the standard 8' and it seems very low. The storage area of my shop has a 2nd floor "loft" and the lower storage area and upper area is around 6'6" and almost everyone ducks when they go in there. The upstairs is a bit better since the rafters are actually a bit higher up and it's only the cross ties that are set at 6'6" so it fells "taller"

 

 

Around me fiberglass corrugated panels aren't too bad in price. Most of the home centers carry them. For a flat roof, I'd probably look at asphalt roll roofing for a shed. Shingles don't usually seal well under a 3/12 pitch. You pretty much just roll out the roofing and muck the seams on all sides to seal all the edges well. Option 2 would be some of the roll on liquid roof mucks designed to recoat trailers and mobile homes. Personally not a great fan of either one, but that's mostly because flat roofs naturally tend to want to leak and cause issues.

[Chinobi]

FYI you can eyeball the dimensions to your roofline from that second pic, you have 10 rows of CMU blocks plus about a 4x header, so if English CMU are the same as American CMU that's 8"x10 plus the 4x, bringing you to 84" (7 feet) to your garage roofline.

 

also, unless I missed it somewhere, what do you have in mind for the gap between the left side wall and the wooden shed? will that be left open?  and speaking of the shed, how are you treating the gap between the edge of the new workshop roof and the existing pointed shed roof?  again open or panel it with something?

 

I prefer to do drawings like that on graph paper and get the scale as close to accurate as I can, because I have a horrible tendency to draw things in as just a placeholder that are either too small or too large, and then the setup in the flesh has totally different proportions.  so im thinking that workspace may be a bit more snug than you anticipate.  can you move your equipment into the space and put some rocks on the ground to mimic the walls and actually go through the motions of walking around it and see how many times you Charlie yourself on the horn of your anvil? :)  it also appears that you have left off your slack tub, which is typically not a small object, so consider where you will want that to live.

 

I think for a temporary/easy structure I would stay away from a sliding door, depending perhaps on how you execute it, as a simple hinge or a pole bolted to the side of the garage wall that allows you to open the door flat against the garage and fully out of the way seems more beneficial than a door that slides out into the grass and may or may not need some kind of rail above and or below it to keep it from falling over.

 

are you going to put up any kind of protection for that shed (old looking wood slats) in terms of fireproofing?  that seems just as vulnerable as the green hedges and the grass clippings.

 

great job planning it out beforehand and troubleshooting the design before you start cutting stuff :) you definitely get a better product that way.  hope it all comes together for you!

[TomN]

Measured up the heights of certain areas around the workshop site.

The heights are as follows;

 

Garage = 97''. 8 feet.

Shed roof = 82''.

Shed door = 67''.

Post = 63''.

 

I've been given permision by my landlord to anchor bolt the frame to the floor. He is also getting me a few of the anchor bolts from work. He also gave me some threaded bar as well, to make the fittings, for attaching the wooden walls to the frame.

 

Drawn up a few rough plans and if I go for a height of ~ 85'', then there will be a 22'' drop over the 72'' length. Should give me a good angle for rain to run off of the roof.

 

My plans are for the long side to be 71'' long and the shorter side to be 65'' in length.

This works out to be 13.4 metres of angle iron. Going to go and get priced up tomorrow.

 

The anchor bolts will be 18mm, so I think angle iron of around 1.5'' should be ok. Bigger would be better, but it all depends on cost. Once I get the frame up and secured to the floor, then the wood 'cladding' on. Once that is sorted, then I can sort the roof out.

Can't wait to get this sorted out, then I can get back to making stuff. First job is to get the new anvil stand welded up and deadened up to sound a bit. Going to fill the legs with expanding foam and cut up an old car tyre to act as a spacer between the anvil and the stands base.

[TomN]

Went to my local metal merchants ad have ordered my framework. Should be ready in a few days time.

40mm, by 3mm angle iron. £26. Not bad at all.

 

Now onto souring the wood panels and the roof.

[TomN]

Right, i've got some more HSS drill bits and my angle iron frame. Now all I need is for this accursed rain to stop, so I can get on with it!

 

Been hammering it down for the past three days.

 

I've got some anchor bolts, threaded bar and all the things I will need to get set up.

I also had a friend of mine tell me about a local wood merchants, where I can get some sheet materials for cheaper, as well as some good advice on what to go for.

[TomN]

I have had to take a bit of a break from the rebuild at the moment, as I am climbing Kilimanjaro for charity in February and my fundraising wasn't going well. Needed a lot more time spent on it.

 

At the latest I will be back to finish this off in late February, early March.