Author Topic: An ideal garage / Bike workshop in the garden  (Read 2889 times)

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DON GRAY

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An ideal garage / Bike workshop in the garden
« on: 05 December, 2017, 16:55:05 »
Hi All. I'm toying with liberating a bit of the garden to free up space in my main garage for further bike projects & wondered about others experiences of construction & use. From my perspective in my last house when i kept my bike in a wooden shed in the garden it suffered horribly with "sweating" in the summer - ie condensation all over the cold metal. I suspect this was because the bike & shed stood on a bare concrete floor with no damp proof membrane. Those of you with sheds with wooden floors, do you get this sweating problem at all? Ideally, I'd love to build a brick / block construction if I can afford it, with a tiled roof. Is this allowed under UK planning regs? Presumably you can construct it out of any suitable materials, provided it fits the rules governing distance away from boundaries & neighbours & size restrictions etc? Any thought's or ideas gratefully received, what you'd do better or ideal scenarios! Cheers chaps!  :D

Dean Southall

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Re: An ideal garage / Bike workshop in the garden
« Reply #1 on: 05 December, 2017, 19:52:46 »
I have  abig wooden shed with wooden floors that I store some bikes etc in. I have added some ventilation holes in the in the bottom of the door and the top of the wall to allow a through draught.  I have very rareky had any condensation in there. I think the only time was when it had been very cold for a while and I spent some time in  there so my breath was condnsing in the cold metal. I have glazed windows and have learned that condensation on the inside of the glass means its time to re-felt the roof.
Although the floor is planked on joists I still had a concrete base laid to get everything level and rigid.
Although the floor is still as good as the day it was installed I did notice one of the bikes was leaning at a jaunty angle after I'd given it one of its routine start-ups. One of the feet of the centre stand had dug its way through the floor plank!
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MITCHELL

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Re: An ideal garage / Bike workshop in the garden
« Reply #2 on: 06 December, 2017, 16:49:25 »
Hi, I'm pretty sure as long as the height is less than 4 mars and its not attached to the house you can do almost anything you want but bearing in mind your neighbours, as for floors wooden floors will all ways be subject to attack from below,damp ,insects ect,with my own garage floor I layed 25mm thick polystyrene with a polythene sheet over and flooring grade tongue and groove chip board ( glue the joints) over that, resulting in very stable and much warmer on the feet floor, thought.... can you pamper a bike to much? Good luck.

ROYC

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Re: An ideal garage / Bike workshop in the garden
« Reply #3 on: 07 December, 2017, 10:49:24 »
I have three double concrete sectional garages at the bottom of my garden.
As long as it is not a permanent building, more than 4ft from a dwelling, no planning required, that was in 1994.

Roy.
My bike is a 1958 A7SS

Greybeard

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Re: An ideal garage / Bike workshop in the garden
« Reply #4 on: 07 December, 2017, 12:47:54 »
Why not ring the local planning office - they're the experts? He/she will be able to give you the details of what's allowed under current regulations and will, if no planning is needed, send you that in writing at no charge.

Steve
Steve from East Yorkshire - Not the Greybeard of the A7/A10 forum who was not actually registered on this one when I signed up ;-)

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Re: An ideal garage / Bike workshop in the garden
« Reply #5 on: 07 December, 2017, 15:36:50 »
I think Don is not referring to Construction & Use Regulations but the actual construction and use of a shed for keeping bikes in??
Anyway Don, my advice would be not to lay it on a concrete slab without a wooden floor. My B25SS was beautifully restored by the previous owner and left in such a shed on concrete slabs for two years. When I bought it, the Chrome had suffered (cleaned up OK) but the chrome on the then brand new  -probably cheap italian- wheel rims had peeled off in places. Such a shame.
If you choose this method, you will need to keep them in a vac bag or coat them with ACF. 
Hope this helps
Chris

STAR TWIN

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Re: An ideal garage / Bike workshop in the garden
« Reply #6 on: 08 December, 2017, 06:55:18 »
I got a bit carried away when I built a new shed. It's essentially a pole barn, concrete floor, metal clad sides and roof, a wood lining and the walls have 2" polystyrene insulation. Condensation isn't a problem, though I do have a rarely-used dehumidifier in there too. The problem is it's already too small..

DON GRAY

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Re: An ideal garage / Bike workshop in the garden
« Reply #7 on: 08 December, 2017, 11:41:28 »
Thanks for the replies so far chaps. Yes, I was really asking about how others had constructed their sheds & the pitfalls or otherwise of going certain ways. I must admit to a certain degree of "Shed Envy" re Star twin's HUGE job! Lovely! My pal has a lovely brick built job with a machining area equiped with a mill & lathe, with bike storage to the side & a separate assembly / building area behind. Very jealous!

So most of you guys with sheds with wooden floors don't have problems with "sweating" or condensation on the bike's cold bits in summer? 

As I said, if money was no object, I'd opt for a concrete base with integral damp proof membrane, screeded smooth floor & brick / block wall construction, with a pitched tiled roof......then move out there myself!  8)

STAR TWIN

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Re: An ideal garage / Bike workshop in the garden
« Reply #8 on: 08 December, 2017, 13:02:47 »
My shed does indeed have most mod cons. Kettle, comfy chair etc. How it was constructed can be seen here: http://www.scothebs.co.uk/the-wool-shed.html 

Dean Southall

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Re: An ideal garage / Bike workshop in the garden
« Reply #9 on: 08 December, 2017, 17:14:34 »
For years my mate struggled with an overcrowded single garage. I'd go round and find him assembling an engine in the utiliy room on the free couple of feet of worksurface.

Then the lucky bugger got a great deal on a detached house that came with a modern block and concrete barn almost the size of half a football pitch. It had great work bennches and you could fit everything and anything in there.
Guess what?
A few years later and everything and anything has found its way on there and I now find him assembling an engine on the last free couple of feet of work surface!
To corrupt that old work saying: stuff expands to fill the space availabel for it  ::)
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