workshop building

[master_of_wishes]

Anybody here had much experience mixing n laying concrete bases?
situation is this,started to build my workshop and the missus said she would buy the materials needed to lay the base,only prob is i dont know how much stuff i will need!
the base is going to be 11x14 feet and the concrete is going to be layed at 4 inches thick,what mix should i do,how many 25kg bags of cement will i roughly need n how much mixed ballast?
thanks folks :)

[Doro]

we just had foundations dug and the area was 21' x 12' and our builder used 8 tonnes of cement

the depth for the cement on top of the hardcore was approx 1' deep

so I reckon about 4 tonnes for yours



workshop???


more like a seperate house lmao :D

[Peirre]

we just had foundations dug and the area was 21' x 12' and our builder used 8 tonnes of cement
workshop???
more like a seperate house lmao :D
sounds like my kinda garage, the bigger the better to put all my new toys in.
given a choice i`d settle for a factory unit, and live in a caravan in the corner ;)

[dracken1]

on that area you are going to use just under 1.5 cubic metres so best to round it off to 2 cubic metres

this is the measurement you want to tell the builders merchants when you are enquiring about the amount of material you will need.

i've just laid the base for our new workshop which is 25' x 32' but i used readymix.

2 cubic metres does not sound like a lot but it's a lot of mixing in a standard cement mixer.

as readymix companies charge a fee for every cubic metre of unused space in thier wagons a small amount can be expensive as a full sized wagon carries 6 cubes.
but some companies have a baby wagon which carries 2.5-3.5 cubes. you might find that it will work out cheaper to get readymix.

do use a screen (blue plastic sheet) otherwise the water in the concrete could drain down and leave you with a constantly dusty floor, and you will spend a fortune on unibond trying to seal it (usually unsucessfully.

if you intend painting the floor, forget expensive floor paint, use "autopaints"
http://www.autopaint.co.uk/

2 pack polyurethane it has the hardeners already mixed and is a quarter the price of some so called floor paints. plus you can have any colour you like.

[master_of_wishes]

Given my ideal choice,i would move everything out of the living room and put upstairs in the spare room,rip the front wall out of the living room and install a roller shutter door,living room becomes a top workshop then and is joined directly to kitchin!!!as if my missus and neighbours would let me get away with that lol

[xjtriker666]

just built one 16x10ft..used approx 2 ton ballast an 8cwt cement ..mines approx 3"thikk floor ...if ya mix concrete yaself as i did mix is approx 3shuvels ballast one cement...as draken sed use 1000 gauge visquine under ya concrete...get that from builders cost ya bout 25 squids a roll..leave about 3"round ya edges trim that off ltr if ya want to......sorted....ballast about 25 quids a ton cement bout 31/2 quids a bag....plus the dreaded vat crap

[GSX Hooligan]

unless your gonna park a tank in it go for a 2 inch slab, and make up the rest with hardcore (rubble, not your porn collection!) - save you a fortune...

[weldy]

and make sure the workshop is gonna be big enough for what you need (saves any hassle later on)
i started with an 18 by 11 garage and within 6 months it was too small so put an 8 foot wide extension on in the summer and guess what !!!! it needs extending again ..but as i manufacture steel framed buildings im gonna build one this summer prob about 30 by 20 .... :D


weldy

[defarter]

Check out your local yellow pages and look for someone who does mix and lay, no waste doing like that but you do pay extra for the service, As GSX-H says get a good hard core base down first.
Or go for a ready mix with stranded glass mating in the mix ;)

[dracken1]

a cheaper way than constructing a workshop from scratch is to buy sectional garages. i bought 2 the same, cost me a total including collection of £100.00

those garages give me enough panels for both sides and a section of the front plus corner posts.
i weld/fabricate but no matter how i constructed it i would not be able to fabricate that much area for £100.00.
i'm using box profile sheets for the roof. i take one sheet which are polyester coated give it a coat of mould release wax and lay 2 layers of 6 oz glass fibre over it and wallah opaque sheets for a fraction of the cost that you would normally pay for them :)

[Sir Ewok]

What about planning permission?

[dracken1]

what a load of non sensical bollocks planning is for such a building

within 5 metres of your house (not your property) you can have a max of 30 square metres and call it a garage.
over 5 metres from your house it's no longer classed as a garage it's a shed :D
and can only be a max of 15 sq metres (which is why single car sectional garages are the size they are)
but you can cover 2/3 rds of your land with buildings so although you need permission to build a 30 sq metre workshop you can put up say 3 15 sq metre ones without permission.
providing you keep at least a metre from a boundry

as i said load of bollocks
if you build it in sections then its not classed as a permenant structure unlike a block built one :confused:
http://www.diydata.com/planning/planregperm/planning_rules.htm#shed

[Sir Ewok]

Thanx for that, when me compo comes through, I want to buy the land next to my house and build a workshop on it.

[Peirre]

A Garage to die for
A friend of mine has a garage, quite a big one as it is, big enough to drive 4 transit vans in to be precise, beutiful it is all properly built in brick and fully insulated etc,complete with a pit, benches and all the tools you could dream of, inc welding and heating gas cylinders, he also has a 10,000 litre diesel tank at the back ;) , he uses it to make a few ££`s on the side doing repairs for his mates, it cost him about £40k to build.
now heres the cautionary tale, at 5pm on sunday night, hes in the garage with a mate doing some welding, he has to nip out to the shop, takes oh about 20 minutes to come back, leaving his mate to get on with the welding,so at 5;20pm he returns home, only to see the street full of fire engines, police etc, yup you guessed it, his garage is well and truely on FIRE.
acording to what I was told last night they where still dowsing the fire at midnight, and cooling the gas cylinders down till 2am.
the garage will have to be demolished, hes lost all his kit and aparently because he`d got acetylene cylinders on the site, he may not get paid out on his insurance, to get it rebuild,
IF you are considering building a workshop, make sure;
1.your insurance will cover your activities.
2. you got adiquate fire extinguisher available

[dracken1]

when you mention that word "welding" insurance companies pale. :(

[GSX Hooligan]

re extinguishers - its always worth remembering that argon doesnt support combustion, if you get a fire and its going tits up, take the regulator off your bottle, open the valve, get out and shut the door. When the garage fills with argon, no oxygen and therefore no fire................

[Peirre]

re extinguishers - its always worth remembering that argon doesnt support combustion, if you get a fire and its going tits up, take the regulator off your bottle, open the valve, get out and shut the door. When the garage fills with argon, no oxygen and therefore no fire................
Ah, but whos gonna stand around near a blazing building trying to knock the top off a gas cylinder, especially 1 thats got 3400 PSI inside it.
have you seen how much fun that can be??
those compressed gas cylinders have a tendancy to want to become rockets, and are capable of firing themselves through brick walls.never mind doing it while theres a few propane, acetelene, oxygen cylinders and a 10,000 litre diesel tank in a blazing building :rolleyes:

[GSX Hooligan]

no, if your trying to fight the fire and it aint goint too well, simply open the valve, gas at 3000psi will do the rest - no need to crack top off etc, will only take a matter of minutes to fill the room and put it out!

[Peirre]

I think I`d be wearing my bomb technition shirt, if the garage was burning in that situation, "if you see me running ...try to keep up"

[smeghead]

i,ve just put up my workshop it's 15 x 11, drackens idea is the easiest, i was given a concrete sectional garage, the base i put down was 11 x 21 and 6 inches thich, that cost me £500 delivered and layed(but i had a strong mix made up) , the base is that thick as i have 3 lathes and 2 milling machines down one end and hopefully the thickness of the base will damp down the vibes, one word of warninig with the sectional garages is to scrape all the mastic off and apply fresh mastic to all the grooves when you rebuild it(i didnt do this and spent the best part of a month chasing down leaks and have finally got it sealed up, also lay your water pipe and armoured cable for the leccy on the base before you pour the concrete( even got a porta potty down there so i only need to come in the house for food and sex), i layed me water pipe and forgot the leccy cable so now have to groove out the base to bury the cable grrrrrrrrrr, as for planning permission over yer i have a lane down the rear of the house and the council have adopted it so technically we need planning permision as its within 6 meters of a public highway hth