Big Shed Build

[kevinbe111]

Thanks for sharing Andy, you’ve created a nice space there!

[Fonzey]

Great work that, I'd never in a million years be able to look at that property/garden/old garage and be able to picture a double garage going there - I just don't have the vision for it!

Neighbours sound like they need to shit a hedgehog though.

[andyzim]

One weekend in January 2018 I went and bought lots of bits of plastic and cobbled (bodged) together some gutters. The garage people would have done this (better) for me but it was a minimum cost of £150. I think I spent about £70 on parts and did it myself.









I then fitted an alarm to the garage and moved some stuff from the shed into the garage. I decided on a space in the garden which meant I could keep the shed for garden'y stuff and not have the garage full of lawnmower etc.

[andyzim]

Several weeks of slow progress saw me to the end of Feb 2018 (flu, bad weather, other commitments).

I cleared an area next to the garage to move the shed to. Threw together something quick and dirty which resembled a level base and asked everyone I knew to come over and help move the shed. It turns out 8 pairs of hands was more than enough to lift the empty structure.



We lifted it down over the wall





Swung it around and left it in the new location.





This left me with the area clear to finish leveling for the hard stand and build a new gate etc.



I tried to continue digging out the chalk to level off the area but the ground was just way too cold and hard to make any progress. There is an annoying tree stump in the way too, in the process of removing this I somehow managed to land a sledgehammer blow on two of my fingers which swelled and bruised up nicely. Snow was then forecast for the following week.

I also spent some more time clearing the area behind the fence, where there is another big plant stump and a concrete post sunk into the ground. I had a track day booked for April and the car had to be out and MOT'd before then.

[andyzim]

Progress was very slow over the next few months, first a lot of snowy weather, then a holiday to Italy over Easter, shortly followed by the arrival of a new puppy to distract us constantly.

First task was to remove a tree stump which was in the far corner. Screwfix purchase of a £50 electric chainsaw did the job nicely.



It even snowed a bit while I was doing this. I finished leveling off the rest of the area so I would be able to get the car out without scraping splitters, sills etc



This was what I'm still dealing with behind the fence. Two kerbstones still to remove, the remains of a concrete post and a few big plant roots.



The main task was to prepare the concrete footings for the sliding gate to run on and the gate posts.
I dug the hole for the main support / guide post and dug out the footings for the track run off area





Then I ran out of time. I had to get the car out of the garage and MOT'd, then go up to Snetterton for a trackday.



To get the car in and out we had to take down two of the fence panels again, putting them back up afterwards. This means that although the car was now back in the garage after the trackday, it won't be coming out again until I actually had a gate. The odds of being able to use the car in the summer weren't looking good.

On the early May bank holiday I managed to get a bit more done. I dug out the hole for the receiving post - the one which the gate will close onto and lock shut against. I also measured up so I could buy materials to put in the shuttering for a concrete pour. This will form the base of the track which the gate will run along. The gate track will be almost 12m long - the gate itself will be 6m in length.

[andyzim]

Got some more done over the end of May bank holiday weekend. As mentioned before, the next big step was to build a sliding gate. The framework was finished for a concrete pour. This channel will be where the gate runs along on a rail. It's about 12m long, the entire width of my garden, as the gate will be 6m wide.





In these photos you can also see I've set the two support posts - one at the end which the gate will close and secure to and one at the other side of the opening, from which the gate will be supported and guided from while opening and closing. If I was to do this again I'd use steel posts - I can't remember why I chose wooden ones at the time.






I had to raise the ground height of the fence line. The easiest way to do this was by installing some additional gravel boards between the fence posts. Although not ideal it will be a strong enough solution so I can run the hard standing right up to the fence line. The gravel boards are freaking heavy to lift over head height.



I then went back into the lane behind the houses and finished removing the final kerb stones so I can build the new ramp access onto my land.



I still had to deal with these big root stumps and concrete post.




So on Monday morning I had a spare hour and started digging out around the root, once I've cleared enough of the dirt and chalk I'll be able to get a chainsaw in there to remove the rest.

[andyzim]

Another 4 hours of digging on a Sunday morning and I'd finally cleared all the roots, stumps and concrete posts out of the way.



This is a pile of stuff that came out



And this is what it looks like now. I still had to dig out the chalk across the other half of the opening again, it was temporarily put there so I could drive the car into the garage but now needs to come out so I'll have a good base to pour concrete for a ramp up from the lane.



The project still essentially seems to be about digging a hole in order to fill it with something else, rinse and repeat.

The steel for the gate frame has been ordered. And then 3 days later I called to change the order because I got a measurement wrong (height, didn't take into account the extra the wheels would add to the overall height).

Roller guides, wheels, rails etc have all arrived. I've contacted a local 'mobile welder' who can come and weld the box section for the frame together for me too. It was looking like I could use the Elise again some time in July if all went well.

[andyzim]

Concrete pour on a Wednesday (middle of June 2018), having finished the shuttering for the gate/rail footings and the ramp from the lane up to the area in front of the garage. The concrete truck arrived, it took about an hour to pour and level off 1.8m3 of C30 mix concrete.



And down the side of the garage, behind the fence, where the gate run off will be (so when the gate is open)



And how it looked from the back lane, the first time I've seen the full 6m opening width because I'd not taken all the fence panels down before. This shows a bit better the gradient of the ramp, should be easy enough to get the lotus up that.

[andyzim]

At the start of July a big milestone was reached - full access to my garage for the first time since it was built 7 months previously!

I designed a gate frame and bought in some hollow section steel and hired a mobile welding man to come and stick it together. I'm really pleased with his work - he arrived on a Saturday morning, measured and set everything up and had welded it together before lunchtime for £100 and change.



This is a 100x50mm bottom rail, with all other pieces being 50x50mm and 3mm wall thickness. It's 6m long, 170cm tall and weighs about 100kg.



We bolted the wheels on and bolted the rail down into the concrete. Set the gate in place and then gave it a couple of coats of paint.



Here you can see the roller guide bracket. This is basically enough to support the gate through it's full width of operation. However, I was concerned that on windy days with the gate partially open that it is a lot of leverage on a single support so I've also put in a second guide half way down the run off area for extra support.



I then attached some wood batons to the gate, the bolts go through the wood, sandwiching the gate frame between. This means no wood is actually attached to the metal so differing expansion rates won't cause a problem.





And then I started to clad the front of the gate with feather edge boards. Until I ran out because I had changed the design and now didn't have enough.



A week later, work continued:



Followed by a lick of paint. Now I really need to replace the old fence panels at some point! (errr.... 2 years later and I've still not done this but it's another job for this summer!)



Two years on and the gate is still holding up well.

[andyzim]

Things took a bit of a diversion at this point. I left the garage and gate project how it was for the summer of 2018, it was good enough to get the Elise in and out. Remember how I'd dug that big hole for a patio outside the back doors?

Over the next 18 months the chalk wall remaining had gradually collapsed. I needed to build a retaining wall so first I had to clear out all the fallen debris and dig the trench/footings for the wall. A fair amount of chalk had to come out. The bricklayer friend was going to be called upon to finish the end of the wall up at the garage hard stand (it was not run all the way to the fence line originally) so it made sense he could do the patio wall at the same time.

IMG_20190420_160138438_HDR by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr

The next day, we mixed up and poured the concrete for the wall foundation, I think this was about 8 or 9 loads in the mixer. The worst part really was that all the ballast etc had been delivered to the top of the garden so it had to be carried in buckets all the way down the garden first.

IMG_20190420_160126295 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr

When the retaining wall was built at the top of the garden for the garage and driveway, at the time I was thinking I might put steps up at the side/end so we never finished the wall. I've since changed my mind and wanted to take the wall all the way to my boundary. Last year I had dug out the footings for this so now we just had to pour the concrete and then finish building the wall

IMG_20190422_135447277_HDR by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr

Now that this has finally been completed I can finish leveling off the drive area and get that concreted and finished.