Moving shop again (again)...

[AdeV]

Do you need keep warm very big place? I would keep only a "hut" inside that structure warm and use residual heat to keep rest of the structure dry.

Keeping the whole place warm would be an exercise in futility... and a massive gas or electric bill! Unfortunately, the roof (what's left of it) is thin steel, so the heat goes through it like it wasn't there. Hence, the office... even without insulation it'd be possible to keep it somewhat warm, I'm hoping to be able to put something up (waiting for word on a bunch of reject Kingspan which would do me nicely) which will keep it warm in winter & cool in summer; but we shall see.

Underneath the mezzanine, I think it will be easier to keep warm; the low roof  will help, and I can put some kind of cover over the front - either sliding doors or that heavy duty plastic stuff you see in warehouses, which will also help. The rest of the place.... well, we'll just have to freeze in winter, and roast in summer....

[mattinker]

Adev,

I insulated the outer walls of my workshop with panel from accident damaged fridge trucks! A friend of mine works for a fridge truck builder, when a driver tries to get under a bridge that's too low the resulting damage even if it's only in the front means replacing the a of the insulated body (apart from the floor!) as the panels can't be replaced! -18 degree trucks have continuous sides and roof panels, both sides polyester with 50mm of high insulation foam between. The roof sections are 80mm. an aditional bonus, on the inside there 1mm stainless cladding about 1.5meters high! My mate is always pleased to get this stuff "recycled", they have to pay to get it recycled!

All the best, Matthew.

[AdeV]

Matt,

I would be very keen to know if your friend would be willing to part with some of this stuff? Could I possibly ask you to contact him & find out if he'd be happy to hear from me? I could take loads of stuff off him.... got a few ideas which need some stainless steel sheet too! Depending on where he is, I could show up with a large van to be filled... and it'd all be going to a good home!

Cheers,
Ade.

[mattinker]

Well, that would be difficult as he's south west of Paris and on to of that, they don't have them all the time. You also have to cut the panels up yourself. I was thinking more like you could ring round your local fridge truck builders and see what they say!

Cheers, Matthew

[AdeV]

Well, that would be difficult as he's south west of Paris and on to of that, they don't have them all the time. You also have to cut the panels up yourself. I was thinking more like you could ring round your local fridge truck builders and see what they say!

Doh! I was hoping this was a friend from before you scarpered off to France!

Good intel though, I'll do the yellow-pages dance & see what I can find.

Cheers!

[mattinker]

I don't have many friends from when I left, it was thirty seven years age!

All the best, Matthew

[AdeV]

Ohhhhh, I thought it was more recent than that? No idea why.... just me getting the wrong end of the stick... 

Anyway... I spent most of the day (when I should have been working on the day job) slaving over a hot* calculator, and I figure I can insulate the whole office, sides & roof, with 50mm rockwool (100mm on the roof) for about £250 quid, minus the VAT which I can reclaim. So TBH I'll probably go down that route, it's not too bad an expense, and the company will deliver it all to site which saves any faffing about. And most of the rockwool will simply squeeze between the studs, there should only be a little bit of cutting involved, e.g. around the window, and where the stud spacing has been "tweaked" for various reasons.


* No pun intended...

[mattinker]

50cm is what's used on internal walls for sound proofing! Did you work out what expanded polyurethane foam would have cost? Eight centimetres on my roof is supposed to be the equivalent of twenty centimetres of fibreglass wool!

Cheers, Matthew.

[howsitwork?]

Ade

unless you want to itch from Now until Christmas buy / beg a tyvec suit and wear the damn thing whilst installing the rockwool

I also recommend buying some hydrocortisone 1% cream ready for afterwards. Tell em it's for a rash ( it will be).

Have fun in USA before they wall up.

[AdeV]

♪ ♫ On top of spag-♫EEEEEEEHHHHHHH♪-tiii, all covered in cheese! ♪ ♫ 



Some of the plasterboard was sagging a bit where the joints didn't meet the joists... So, I threw together a couple of right-angled bits of OSB (handy things, mitre saws...). then clambered up onto the roof & nailed it into place (air-powered staple gun, yeaah). That done, I could return to ground level & screw the plasterboard up to the new wooden support. Which has nicely cured the bowing.

It's quite a long way down from up here...



A fairly alarming building wobble was cured with some wooden wedges (pics next time). Fitted and fettled the front door into place. Thank goodness for electric planers... as I accidentally forgot to allow for the carpet clearance.... Couldn't be bothered moving the hinges & top of the door frame...

No more pics (I forgot, and they're boring anyway).... next jobs are to fit insulation & walls...

[AdeV]

A bit of weekendus interruptus this time, Dad - at the tender age of 70 - is getting hitched again, so Saturday evening was his stag do.... beer & curry = little forward office progress... Sunday morning, of course, being "recover from hangover" time. Fortunately the advanced age of most of the participants kept table dancing to a minimum, and usefully disguised my appallingly low tolerance for alcohol since I hardly ever drink these days. Anyway... I managed to finish off boarding up the ceiling, added noggins between almost all of the studs, added a couple more braces to hold the walls solidly to the building, and made a few more "things" to hold the ceiling boards up where the joints don't line up with the joists...

Speaking of which, this is they:



3 "brackets" made of 2x2 cheap'n'nasty wood (acquired for free from a friend) & cut on the mitre saw, stapled to some OSB offcuts. These are then stapled to the joists, thus:



And then the plasterboard below is screwed up into the flat bit, which brings the ceiling nice and level (ish) ready for a skim. The air-powered staple/nail gun is one of the most useful woodworking tools I've got... it's handy for sticking carpet tiles down to a wooden floor as well  If I recall correctly, a snip at £20 or £30 from Aldi. Or Lidl. One of them.

Last job of the day was to get the first corner wall up. I'm using OSB here, because I will be screwing lots of those little storage draw cabinet things, all full of electronic components, to the wall in this corner; this being where the electronics work will take place. Once again, the nailgun came into its own here, and the plasterboard lift usefully held it in position while the first few nails were shot in. The plasterboard will have to be screwed to the wood, the nailgun is far too vigorous for such a feeble material.



Now there really isn't a whole lot more I can get done before the insulation arrives... which may well be after Christmas now... so I can't bore you with any more woodwork pictures until then 

In next week month's exciting episode:

• How to get rockwool insulation behind an 8ft board, without falling down a 10 foot sheer drop!
• The best way to extricate oneself from a 10 foot sheer drop onto sharp and jaggy things without severing an artery!
• Making square holes for sockets in plasterboard, yeah baby
• ....and more!

 

PS: No spirit levels were harmed, or even consulted, during this construction project!

[awemawson]

Ade, an ordinary Stanley Knife will cut your square plasterboard holes nicely, or if you want an excuse to buy a new tool Google Rotazip

[AdeV]

I bought a Ryobi Multi-tool a couple of weeks back, that chops through plasterboard PDQ. Unfortunately, it's hopeless at going through OSB... fortunately I have jigsaws and drills for that. I do plan to have many sockets on the electronics wall, I have a row of 10 (or maybe 12, I forget now) in my existing office, and even that isn't enough!

[mattinker]

Plaster is surprisingly abrasive!

Regards, Matthew

[PekkaNF]

Are your junction boxes square like in USA or round like some parts in europe?
http://media.taloon.com/image/upload/q_70,f_auto,w_1200,h_1200,c_limit/cloud/k/ensto/1152303.jpg

Round ones are nice on that respect that holesaw makes it easy and tidy. Alhough I mus say that I made a jig for multihole models. Alhough you can use that throw away blue dust shield to trace outside and mark centres:
http://media.taloon.com/image/upload/q_70,f_auto,w_1200,h_1200,c_limit/cloud/k/ensto/1152389.jpg

Wiring is pretty nice when prior sheeting, best to plan ahead. After wall plates are done.....it is a pain.

Pekka

[awemawson]

Ade, for lots of sockets in a small space I use  the distribution strips used in server cabinets. (Not to be confused with the 4 way rubber domestic ones).

[micktoon]

Ade, for the square holes in plaster board, after marking off, I would just drill say 20mm hole with spade bit then small pad saw is neat and quick and only a couple of quid too 

 Cheers Mick

[David Jupp]

Plastic 3 compartment trunking isn't cheap, but does make the wiring of sockets (and subsequent alterations) very simple.  You can also run phone and Ethernet cables inside.  just a thought.

[AdeV]

Thanks for all the suggestions chaps 

I have a padsaw, and the multi-tool, and the air-powered reciprocating saw (like a jigsaw really, only shorter) for the plasterboard. So that won't be a problem.

For the OSB, drill and jig-saw or the air saw should be fine. The air saw is a bit slower than the jig saw having finer teeth, but I reckon that could be solved by sticking a jigsaw blade in it ;)

Andrew- i already have a few strips like that, a couple of 12-ways and at least one 10-way... but they're ugly and stick 2" out from the wall (before plugs). I'd like this place to look a bit classy at least, so I'll be going with flat double-gang sockets & lots of them. Possibly in black Nickel finish I don't mind spending some extra time cutting holes, and I think the end result will be worth the hassle.

[howsitwork?]

Ade

merry Christmas and a Relaxed New Year !

For rockwool- tie the damn stuff there with bailer band (polypropylene string very strong and available in vast lengths cheaply via your local farmers supplier. ) Drop it from the top of the office into the cavity and tie to the uprights with bailer band. Don't forget the Tyvak undergarments mind you or the itch will surely get you. Oh and wash your hands before dashing outside for a leak .

Ps whilst up there might be an idea to lay and staple some thick polythene sheeting over all that OSB and joists just in case of water leaks ?

Have fun

Ian

[AdeV]

Hi Ian,

Thanks - same to you 

As the insulation is going to be a while before it's delivered, and due to impatience on my part, I've decided to crack on with cladding the walls, and I'll figure out the insulation later...

Anyway, a few hours work tonight and it's starting to look a little more like a room and less like a skeleton:





Hmm, maybe not in all directions though...



I'm running out of plasterboard again, so another pain-inducing trip to Wickes is in the offing... well, unless I can persuade them to deliver 

Meanwhile... the Wall of Power is up 



I'll replace one of those double sockets with network points... but that'll still leave 24 power outlets, should be enough to cope with my electronics bench. There's a few more to go on the other wall too... Went with white ones because they were literally 1/4 the price of the fancy ones; but I've got some chrome ones as well, they'll be hooked up to an uninterruptable power supply, so the computers (and whatever's plugged into them) will stay running even if there's a power cut.

Back at it tomorrow 

[AdeV]

Starting to look a bit more like a room now  Another couple of plasterboards will see the interior walls done, then there's just the outside front wall to cover. That will have to wait until Spring/Summer for various reasons.



The work benches are up on some temporary trestles, I wanted an idea of where to bring the water supply in for the coffee machine (got to get the basics right!  )



The pub games end of the room  Dartboard will go on the left-hand side of the short wall... beer tap on the right hand side...

Today I will finish the internal walls & start on the electrics, then everything grinds to a halt for months on end as I'll be spending most of my time in China for the next few months.

[RobWilson]

Coming along very nicely Ade 


Will you be having a grand opening?   ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,with bait and beer 



Rob.

[howsitwork?]

as I'll be spending most of my time in China for a few months" - bloody long way to go for a take away ? Don't they deliver down your way?

Looks really nice and very comfy. Where does the biccy barrel live though?

Happy New Year

Ian

[AdeV]

Hi Rob,

You know what, that's not a bad idea.... what with one thing and another, the "grand opening" is likely to be sometime around Summer, we should have some homebrew beer ready by then (minimum estimated strength: 8%), and the lack of insulation will mean it's not unpleasantly cold  Now.... if I combine the grand opening with learning to do some casting, that'd give you a bit of an excuse to show up wouldn't it? No need to book a hotel, we can throw a mattress on the pool table