Office Construction

Well now that the van bodies are in place, it's time to start fitting them out. The Woodwork and Metalwork Shops are going to have non-symmetrical double doors. Non-symmetrical because it means less cuts on a standard 1220mm x 2440mm sheet for the larger door, and because the 'personnel' access door doesn't have to be as big an opening as the other door.

The Site Office is going to be a little different, having a conventional glazed timber external door and a wall across the front, fitted with a non-opening window. I could have gone for an opening window but it's more for natural light purposes than ventilation and I happened to have an old sealed double glazed unit in stock that I 'framed' when I was still down in Surrey, on the premise that 'it might come in handy one day'!

So, the first job was to obtain some 44mm x 44mm planed timber and give it a woodstain coating. I could have used treated timber, but it is going to be an enclosed frame and I find planed is a little easier to work with.

I'm going to be using a fairly standard 762mm (30") wide external double glazed door, so the frame has been designed to accommodate a 22mm internal door lining. The exterior of the frame will be lined with a breathable membrane and then clad with shiplap or similar timber. The internal wall will be insulated and clad with either a sheet material like OSB or ply, or clad with T&G softwood.

The frame has been bolted to the galvanised aperture of the van body using 8mm x 75mm coach bolts which you can just see in the image above, This, plus a continuous bead of flexible frame sealer should ensure a weathertight fit into the door aperture. The box sections down each side will be filled with an insulating material before being clad up to the interior walls of the van sides. This should give a reasonably good cosmetic finish, as well as mitigation of heat loss through the body corners,

Hopefully a reasonably strong construction to protect against westerly winter winds. The frame has been skew-screwed and assembled with No-Nails. By the time this has the door casing fitted, the door hung, the breathable membrane attached and been clad, it should be pretty solid. I'm looking at a minimum of a five year life for this assembly, and longer if any protective coating is renewed periodically.

Kind of looks like it has been 'Photoshopped' in, doesn't it?! Should look pretty good once the cladding goes on.