So...starting to think about Tour 2012 which will possibly happening in a few months time. In the meantime, there's lots to to at RT Mansions and some ongoing planning and work for Eco-Tipis over in Wales.
We had to move the contents of our warehouse at work. The empty unit over the way has been leased to us as a storage area for a 'nominal rent' by the landlord, but he has just leased the unit to a new tenant which meant we had to clear all our stuff out. We minimised what we really needed to keep and have rented a couple of containers at a local self storage centre, but we had rather a lot of old junk which we kept on the premise that 'it may come in handy one day...'.
Two weeks of panic and 'everything must go' and I was given the opportunity to help myself to any old stuff I wanted or it would be taken to the dump.
Loads of old timber....neatly sawn up and added to my wood shed, some nice stock-steel (I have a project in mind) plus a load of old random cable, conduit, panels from office furniture and a load of hardboard sheet, plus three 8x4 sheets of 75mm foam insulation board.
It's suprising just how many 'little jobs' I managed to find to make use of the several car-loads of 'crap'!
The Toolshed now has, er, for want of a better word, a shed! A little bit too 'basic' to call it an extension I suppose, but a couple of sheets of the Hyfloor Insulation board, ten minutes with a measuring tape and a saw and a few noggins of inch batten and a tube of sealer, and I now have a 'lean to' on the back of the Toolshed, for storing the 'outdoor' or 'gardening' tools. The concrete base of the shed extends to the back fence and I decided that it was just the right width to store the mower and the other gardening tackle like spades, forks, strimmers, rakes, etc.
The roof of the 'shed' also makes a nice 'shelf' to store the ladder! I doubt the roof is structural enough to take my weight (although I suspect it just might....I don't weigh much) but it's certainly man enough to keep the rain out. A door will follow in due course!
The floor of the Shed proper is made up from 4" x 3/4" planks, nailed to the timber bearers. The walls of the shed are then sat on the floor and screwed together to make the structure. All well and good, and a pretty solid floor, but the gaps between the planks are really handy for dropping screws and small items through, and also letting in the wind from underneath. Over the years (and I've had the shed for six now), the planks have warped and buckled and been splashed with all manner of paint, timbercare, oils and other gunk so were starting to look pretty manky as well as not helping with keeping the winter out.
I replaced all the loose nails with screws, hammered in the nails that looked sound and then laid a hardboard floor over the planking. All tacked down along each plank at six inch intervals with 20mm panel pins, and frame-sealed around the edges. A coating of dilute PVA adhesive to seal the surface and render it damp-proof, and I could then tile the floor with washable vinyl tiles. I had a couple of packs left over from a job in the house, so I threw them down to see if I likes them. I did, so I bought enough to finish the job and now I have a pretty smooth, waterproof and airtight floor. That should keep the shed much warmer in winter, or at least stop the wind whistling up through the floorboards and chilling my bits!
Et voila! Smooth, level, easy-to-clean shed floor, and now all the very dark planks are covered with light-ish tiles, the shed is much brighter and cleaner looking. The new shelf on the right runs from the front of the shed by the door to within a few inches of the back. There is a small gap so that I can stack the folding chairs in the corner.
The gap was one of several fortuitous little coincidences that sometimes just 'happen' in life. The shelf is actually a tall office cupboard door. When I measured the internal depth of the shed and then measured the cupboard door (originally intended as a general stock of constructional chipboard) I figured it would make a nice 'almost full width' shelf.
I had the Camping Gaz two-burner stove with griller sat in the corner by the door on a fold up camp kitchen thingy. That now sits stably on the new shelf and blow me if the hole where the door-knob/lock mechanism used to be isn't exactly the right diameter for the gas pipe! And the 22mm x 22mm timber I used to make the legs came from work too, as did all the screws.
Total cost for the lean-to shed and the flooring and shelving....£24 for the extra vinyl tiles. Bonzer!
We had to move the contents of our warehouse at work. The empty unit over the way has been leased to us as a storage area for a 'nominal rent' by the landlord, but he has just leased the unit to a new tenant which meant we had to clear all our stuff out. We minimised what we really needed to keep and have rented a couple of containers at a local self storage centre, but we had rather a lot of old junk which we kept on the premise that 'it may come in handy one day...'.
Two weeks of panic and 'everything must go' and I was given the opportunity to help myself to any old stuff I wanted or it would be taken to the dump.
Loads of old timber....neatly sawn up and added to my wood shed, some nice stock-steel (I have a project in mind) plus a load of old random cable, conduit, panels from office furniture and a load of hardboard sheet, plus three 8x4 sheets of 75mm foam insulation board.
It's suprising just how many 'little jobs' I managed to find to make use of the several car-loads of 'crap'!
The Toolshed now has, er, for want of a better word, a shed! A little bit too 'basic' to call it an extension I suppose, but a couple of sheets of the Hyfloor Insulation board, ten minutes with a measuring tape and a saw and a few noggins of inch batten and a tube of sealer, and I now have a 'lean to' on the back of the Toolshed, for storing the 'outdoor' or 'gardening' tools. The concrete base of the shed extends to the back fence and I decided that it was just the right width to store the mower and the other gardening tackle like spades, forks, strimmers, rakes, etc.
The roof of the 'shed' also makes a nice 'shelf' to store the ladder! I doubt the roof is structural enough to take my weight (although I suspect it just might....I don't weigh much) but it's certainly man enough to keep the rain out. A door will follow in due course!
The floor of the Shed proper is made up from 4" x 3/4" planks, nailed to the timber bearers. The walls of the shed are then sat on the floor and screwed together to make the structure. All well and good, and a pretty solid floor, but the gaps between the planks are really handy for dropping screws and small items through, and also letting in the wind from underneath. Over the years (and I've had the shed for six now), the planks have warped and buckled and been splashed with all manner of paint, timbercare, oils and other gunk so were starting to look pretty manky as well as not helping with keeping the winter out.
I replaced all the loose nails with screws, hammered in the nails that looked sound and then laid a hardboard floor over the planking. All tacked down along each plank at six inch intervals with 20mm panel pins, and frame-sealed around the edges. A coating of dilute PVA adhesive to seal the surface and render it damp-proof, and I could then tile the floor with washable vinyl tiles. I had a couple of packs left over from a job in the house, so I threw them down to see if I likes them. I did, so I bought enough to finish the job and now I have a pretty smooth, waterproof and airtight floor. That should keep the shed much warmer in winter, or at least stop the wind whistling up through the floorboards and chilling my bits!
The gap was one of several fortuitous little coincidences that sometimes just 'happen' in life. The shelf is actually a tall office cupboard door. When I measured the internal depth of the shed and then measured the cupboard door (originally intended as a general stock of constructional chipboard) I figured it would make a nice 'almost full width' shelf.
I had the Camping Gaz two-burner stove with griller sat in the corner by the door on a fold up camp kitchen thingy. That now sits stably on the new shelf and blow me if the hole where the door-knob/lock mechanism used to be isn't exactly the right diameter for the gas pipe! And the 22mm x 22mm timber I used to make the legs came from work too, as did all the screws.
Total cost for the lean-to shed and the flooring and shelving....£24 for the extra vinyl tiles. Bonzer!
No comments:
Post a Comment