New Workshop Progress

Blimey! I've just ordered a single 3m sheet of 34/1000 GRP rooflight. Making my new workshop watertight is the first critical step. A lot of rain is coming in because a sheet of 'conservatory roof' doesn't match up with the steel profile used for the rest of the roof.

Tomorrow I plan to start on the roof beams, these are all two pieces of 4x2 overlapped by about six feet and bolted together. They have sagged a bit so I will wedge/jack them up and put four or five dowels from broom handle through them. It should then be safe to get on top with ladders as crawling boards and fit the replacement sheet/fix the other two leaks.

I have been trying to get hold of steel sheet, but shipping is ridiculous compared to cost of the material and everywhere near me only stocks 32/1000 which doesn't match the profile.

In the grand scheme of things, GRP or steel doesn't really matter.

Once I'm sure the roof is sound, I will fit 50mm polystyrene insulation between the beams.

The next job will be to dry insulate and dry line the walls and paint the (concrete) floor. I've decided to go for painted concrete and rubber mats rather than a false floor.

After discussion with my dad, a new electricity supply is needed. There's a 40A spur supply up to the loft (that used to be for the old electric shower) that he used to run to it by a catenary but it's been disconnected and there's just a long extension lead at the moment - enough for hand tools etc..

I've decided the safest and long-term solution is to take the spur from the loft, along the garden wall to the garage in a steel conduit, and get a garage-type distribution box installed for a ring main and lights.

Progress at last.

Neil

Neil

Could be simpler to run the power to the workshop using an SWA cable.

Emgee

Don't whatever you do instll any machines until you have done EVERYTHING on the workshop itself. If you do you will never finish it off. (Thinks I'll just do this bit for my loco, fatal).

Sounds like you are getting there though. Well done.

regards Martin

SWA is the way to go, easy to terminate and you don't need stocks and dies or a bender either. Some wholesaler have a lot of short ends, cheap, to get rid of, and you might come across some good but used. John.

It's not possible for me to bury it.

Overhead on a catenary wire ???.

I've tried reading up on SWA cables but it isn't clear if it would be OK to run one above ground between two buildings.

In this case it would be fixed to the low concrete block wall on which a wooden fence is fixed for most of the run.

Neil

Use the swa cable, it’s made for such situations, much easier than conduit. Agree about the shipping costs for tin roofing sheets, just done my shed and was very lucky to find a guy that delivered on his way home.

The cost of delivery from anywhere else was way more than the cost of the material, would not have been worth doing the shed roof otherwise.

Ian

I think I will have to pick up two smaller sheets, rather than get one big one delivered. It's a pain!

I will go with SWA cable.

Neil

Hello Neil,

My experience of painting a concrete floor is not a happy one. It can condensate badly.

Moisture that the concrete could previously absorb and release lays in puddles on the sealed surface. Every situation is different of coarse, if I were to do it again (unlikely) I would paint a small test patch and see what happens through the winter.

Adrian.

Hi Neil, where I worked for most of my life, there was many hundreds of meters of SWA cable of many different sizes, running along catwalks, up steel structures, suspended attached to wire rope between buildings, in fact just about any situation you can think of, even in blazing sunshine (when we used to get it) and was in use for over forty years, never took any harm and nearly all of it was three phase, and were attached to wide cable trays as there could be a couple of dozen or so serving different motors etc. in the same zones. Most of it has gone now, but only because the plants were demolished.

Regards Nick.

I'm 100% convinced that SWA is the way to go now!

For some reason I always assumed it was used only underground.

Has to be better than the suspended T&E that was there before!

I've ended up stuck inside all day. Was expecting two deliveries - battens, insulation and four sheets of plasterboard from one store and the balance of eight sheets of plasterboard from another.

Battens and insulation turn up, no plasterboard?

Van with eight sheets of plasterboard turns up, but says only four are for me. I think these must be the ones from from the second store.

<waits a long time>

Then I got a call from their second store - the first one had no plasterboard so asked them to send me eight more.

All the eight on the first load were for me, and the other four had been cancelled by accident.

The driver will call back, with the four left in his van, at the end of his round.

Meanwhile, another driver has had to make a run to me with the now un-cancelled four originally expected from the second store.

In other news, my roof sheet has been cancelled, as the reasonable (£32) delivery charge on their website was 'wrong'. I don't want to pay twice the value of the sheet in delivery charges (or up to four rimes, I've tried everywhere else!)

I may have to collect from Wolverhampton, luckily I'm heading that way in a couple of weeks.

Neil

I've got a brand new 2 way distribution box you can have for the postage. If you're interested I'll dig it out and take a photo

Fixed to a masonry wall will be fine, but not a wooden fence please. That is because a wooden fence may rot.

You need to know how to terminate it into the proper glands and of course, if you are fitting a new CU, it will need to be notified.

Thanks Duncan, I already have the CU.

Yes, I understand the regs

Building Regulations (2010) or Wiring Regulations (BS 7671:2018)?

Both

At least as far as they apply to my workshop.

My last house was inspected a couple of years ago. I wired the workshop up twenty years ago and although the house passed, my workshop was the only bit fully compliant with current rules.

Much comedy as I sprawl across the roof getting sticky leak stop everywhere. Difficulty in getting steel cladding means I have instead used acres of flashing tape and more sticky leak stop. Hopefully this will do until I get some steel sheet.

Some gaps around the edges of the roof.. sealed using expanding foam. Grr... the supplied gloves are useless, the foam seems to teleport inside! Next time I will wear silicone gloves.

Three plasterboard panels up over 25mm polystyrene insulation.

Jury still out on the best floor solution. I'm worried that water seems to get in somewhere other than the roof.

I've stopped the plasterboard 1" above the floor and won't commit until I am sure everything is watertight. I may need to seal around the base of the front wall and maybe the south one as well.

One wall lined and painted. Guttering up, but a foot short so need to buy six foot of half-pipe. I will use the excess for bar stock storage. By taking water where it can soak away, the amount of water ending up on the concrete in front of the garage will be cut by over three-quarters, which should help with damp issues.

My brother insists the south wall has a leak near the bottom. The outside is inaccessible (a5" wide gap between it and a block wall, full of brambles and bindweed.)

I won't be sure until the next downpour, but as a precaution, once it is clear I am going to waterproof it, six inches up and well out on to the floor - also along the front.

Next jobs - make a rack for my dad's 13'5" model of Warspite, and re-fit the door. I can then start clearing the east wall, moving a 9' bench under the battleship. My dad is deeply attached to this battle-scarred bench as a college woodwork teacher made it for my grandad.