Large shed/workshop recommendations

[martin_uk]

I am loath to sell my restorations, but am running out of room

I am considering buying a large wooden shed come workshop and wondered if anyone had any recommendations?

Thanks

[corromant]

Whatever you go for I would suggest getting one in tanalised timber, costs rather more but minimizes maintenance.

I bought a shed a few years ago via ebay, very heavy construction & the suppliers were very obliging to my specific requirements. The cost of using tanalised timber added about £200 to the cost of an £800 shed.

The framing was about 45mm x 65mm I lined with 70mm wall bats & then used flooring chipboard laid on its side & screwed to the frame, then bought some kingspan insulation which was cut & glued to the inside of the roof. Made a nice easy to heat shed, just wish it was bigger.

[SteveD CB500K0]

I'll second the use of tanalised timber.

Most unit-supplied (domestic) sheds come 8' wide and selectable lengths in 2' increments.

I bought a 14' x 8' (limited by space or I'd have had a bigger one!)

For use as a workshop you'll need to reinforce the floor!

Steve

[Tiny Tim]

I had a 14x12 shed built last year on a concrete base, no wooden floor. Good point solid base for a bike lift, bad point concrete floor needs to be sealed or covered to prevent dust getting everywhere.

[haynes66]

make sure its a wooden base, and the bigger the better.

[matthewmosse]

My bike shed was an ebay offering, an ex sub station, so fiberglass with presumably a wooden frame sealed inside somewhere, floor is paving slabs laid onto compacted sand, probably the most expensive bit was a spares or repairs vibro roller with a dead engine that I bought and got working to compact the ground, pavers eventually were tracked down on ebay as well as managing to clear the local builders yard of stock as they closed down. £500 excluding the roller ( most people would hire these but as there were some mole hills in the lawn which I find annoying and it can double up as a power pack to run the log splitter I treated myself to 3/4 ton of iron)  the result is an 18×9 foot shed with 2 sets of double doors accross the front and an annoying leak that I really need to seal where the 2 pre moulded roof sections meet. Paving slabs make a handy floor as they are fine for the hydraulic bike lift but also let any oil spills or water leaks drain away quickly and are not too costly and are cheap. Some dexion pallett racking from a farm sale means I can double stack bikes once the pile of building rubble is cleared from in front of it. Plus points, virtually zero maintenence, and easy to put up, with doors and locking included. And it just squeezes the right side of the local planning regs sqare footage to not need planning. Downside it was got rid of by manweb because it leaks, fiberglass compound failed to seal it on first attempt, I havent had time to try again.

[JamesH]

I got my 7 x 14 timber workshop through these guys Martin: http://www.shedsandthings.co.uk/

They're pretty flexible and manufacture to order - so you can specify exact dimensions & configuration. I added 1ft height to the walls as I'm 6'3"...quality is pretty good as well.

[Trigger]

Shipping containers make good workshops 

[SteveD CB500K0]

They make for great outdoor storage at my local primary school.

Tricky getting them down the end of the back garden though!

[Graeme77]

I built a 8.4m x 3.5m block workshop for about 3k.
Id not built anything before and had never laid a block.
To be honest, it was easy.

Something to keep in mind when pricing up wooden buildings.

[matthewmosse]

Or go the hardcore Diy route as my dad did for the barn that houses my workshop, for 3k or a bit more it is 2 stories high, 11 foot headroom downstairs, 8 foot under the eaves upstairs, - 4x12 metres, most of the cost being in the concrete floor. How so cheap, simples, bought the trees as windblow in the local forest, extracted and felled them ourselfs then hired a mobile sawmill to roughly prep it, then diy build. Roof is shingles, hand cut on a bandsaw.

[royhall]

We should start a best shed competition. Some of the buildings described on here sound like fabulous structures. Pictures please.

[Graeme77]

That barn sounds great. I kept mine about 30 square meters as thats as big as I could go before it needed to comply with building regs.

[martin_uk]

Thanks for all the ideas, Im getting very jealous of the space some of you guys have

[matthewmosse]

Dads shed may be big but it is full of dull stuff like horses and firewood most of the time.