Timber flat-pack garages?

Adrian realised it was 26 Sep 2004

11:19:22 GMT and decided it was time to write:

We've just had the garage enlarged from about 300 to 900ft^2. I thought I'd be clever and cheap by retaining the old floor (which looked reasonably good) and casting the new floor around it. It worked, but I doubt it was cheaper than ripping it all out and putting down a whole new floor. On knocking down the old (brick) garage, the old floor crumbled and a specialised company spent half a day cleaning up the edges with a huge cutting wheel. Then, when the new floor was cast and professionally leveled and hardened, it was painfully obvious how uneven the old floor was. I now wish I'd removed the old floor and put in a completely new one, since the old floor really is an eyesore next to the new one and its wobbly surface is also much harder to keep clean.

"Adrian" wrote | As the timber single garage we currently have is rather past tense, | I'm currently thinking about alternatives.

And 5th Nov offers a convenient opportunity to get rid of the old one :-) | Final question - Power! To my mind, it seems easiest to take power | down some external conduit to the garage - it'd be easy to take the | feed from fusebox (MCB, but I just can't bear to call it a "consumer | unit"..) out, and along several external walls fairly unobtrusively. | Feasible? Or do I have to bury the soddin' thing underground - | which is going to involve lifting a lot of brick paving.

It is permitted to run cables along walls, but not fences.

Owain

Probably best if you conduit it all the way to the garage, normal Twin & Earth is not designed for exterior work, and will weather. It also prevents somebody snipping the wire, accidentally or otherwise.

Alex

Alex ( snipped-for-privacy@cbmsys.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

That was the plan, yes. Simple to do. Out from under the living room, across the front of the downstairs bedroom, up a brick wall, and along a brick wall. Two 90deg corners, that's all.

Normal T&E inside metal conduit would do it?

Sounds reasonable

Haven't used a supplier for ages, I built a new wooden garage from scratch a few years back though. If possible get one made from tanalised timber, it will take much longer to get into the state that your existing one is in.

If your existing floor is in passable nick, putting a foot wide strip of concrete down one side shouldn't present any problems, apart perhaps from a stiff back if you don't hire a mixer. It might be an idea to put a row of bricks around the edge to sit the wood on rather than have it direct on the floor. Some kits might even have some sort of base for the walls to achieve this. You might have to extend the doors down a bit if you raise the building more than its designer reckoned on. Whatever, don't forget a damp-proof membrane for it to sit on.

Shouldn't be a problem, bolting the panels together is done from the inside. You'll just have to be careful not to knock the bolts out of the corner when you bring the panels together. Might be best to build that bit first so that you don't have to dismantle too much if you do. There is usually a thin strip of wood that is nailed on the outside to hide the join, but if it's right up against another building, then you can't see the join anyway and the other building will stop rain being driven sideways at the wall. Some way of sealing the join might be an idea though.

If you have to take the power feed underground, try to find your local moler. Not a mis-spelt tooth but a guy who digs a small hole either end and then launches a little device that burrows from one to t'other. Our local one (Mid Warwickshire) calls himself Mr. Mole, so I suspect it might be a franchise operation. Your local phone book may help, or a local builder or someone similar.

Good luck

Ron Robinson

Don't forget to earth the conduit as well.

Alex

I got a massive erection in the garden around 18 months ago - a 22' x 14' timber garage - from Warwick Building (Long Itchingdon, near Leamington Spa). It's absolutley faultless quality, with 7' wide side hinged timber doors, side door, 3 opening windows, 7'7" eaves, and a 38kg mineral felt OSB boarded apex roof. All I had to do was lay a suitable base (I laid it 12" thick - if I drop a big-block V8 off the workbench, that floor ain't gonna crack!). It's a round edges timber frame, clad in tanalized plu than tanalized T&G. Not a bad price, either - £3400, including VAT, delivery and erection (1 day for 2 guys). As for the electrics, my garage is about 40' from the house, so I ran power from the consumer unit in the house to a seperate consumer unit in the garage using that exterior/underground 3 core cable - bl**dy hard to bend (in a tight radius, at least), and incredibly heavy (for cable), but designed for the job. Enough cable to take the power out theat far was somewhere around £35 from Wickes. Dale Turley

'39 Standard Flying 8 (Brit in Pieces)'55 Morris Minor II (Brit Slow)'66 Singer Vogue IV (Brit Difrunt)'69 Vauxhall FD Victor 'wagon (NeeHi)'71 Triumph Herald 13/60 convertible (Brit Rusty!)'93 Yamaha SRX600 1JK'02 Citroen C3 1.4HDi 16v Exclusive'04 Schwinn Cruiser 4

MrT ( snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Ta! They are on the list...

You did that on purpose, didn't you?

I'm surprised the neighbours didn't complain.....

Alex

They were probably scared stiff. ;-)

Mark S.

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Dan Drake saying something like:

He just did it to frighten the neighbours.

And after me avoiding comment on the subject of Adrian buying a shed, too.