Kncking a concrete shed, erecting a wooden one?

Howdy folks.


Was wondering if perhaps anyone in here could throw an opinion or two at me with my current idea.


I have a concrete shed in the garden. It's pictured below. It has a leaking roof (can't see where it's leaking exactly, but there's not enough of a drop on the roof, so i think the overall roof is in poor state and could do with being replaced entirely, and with more of a slope).

The shed is used as a home gym. It's a bit small for it's purpose, so I'd like to make it bigger.


Had a builder over and worked through various options. All relatively pricey.


An idea i had, was to knock the shed entirely, flatten the surface/foundation, and get a wooden shed in it's place, supplied/built by someone else.


So what I'm wondering is, can I do this myself (flatten the concrete shed)?

Would I be right in guessing that it would be a one day job with a sledgehammer?

One of the walls on the shed is the boundary wall of the garden, which is a mild worry, but the shed appears to be cracked/breaking away from this wall as it is anyway (see pictures).


The shed is currently 10.5 x 11.5 inside. I was going to then buy this:

http://www.gardenshedsforsale.ie/index.php/our-sheds/cabin-range/16ft-x-10ft-cabin-shed




To replace it.

I was hoping that I'd be able to get a skip for about €200, and was hoping the cost of dropping the shed would be fairly minimal. Then that shed costs €1,500. So my optimistic hope is that I'd be able to do this with a €2k budget. Maybe too optimistic?


One of my (potential) issues is, never having had a wooden shed, I'm concerned about the durability/longevity of one. Do they start to break apart and leak after a year of assembly or am I laughing? I see a few of them around the place, and other than looking uncared for and ill maintained, they all look to be still standing after a long time..


Cheers for any advice/insight.

Here's what I currently have:






EDIT: Changed the rest to links, as they're quite large to have them all on show. Too much scrolling


https://s31.postimg.org/unk9yz7vv/20160724_180136_2.jpg


https://s31.postimg.org/5nx0v8fqj/20160724_183841.jpg


https://s31.postimg.org/jm3l6zgcb/20160724_183731.jpg


https://s31.postimg.org/9690rmgmj/20160724_183803.jpg


https://s31.postimg.org/md324w1pn/20160724_183851.jpg

asteroids over berlin

i see you pm'd me. There is one thing i spot straight away with the wooden shed - the height!! Its not high enough.

I got one made by timbertrove (google them) and got an extra 1ft in height (they will build to spec). Ferndale.

Good quality sheds, although if i was doing it again i would buy a pressure treated one. I then reinforced the floor with these:
http://www.diy.com/departments/chipboard-loft-panel-pack-of-3-l122m-w325mm-t18mm/61765_BQ.prd

insulated it with this (worked out pretty expensive - works pretty well though): http://www.diy.com/departments/thermall-reflective-insulation-l75m-w600mm-t-4mm/940936_BQ.prd

but i see they now have this:

http://www.diy.com/departments/aluminium-foil-garage-insulation-kit-l1000mm/1291493_BQ.prd


then i got just got a rug and put it over the floor, i am not lifting huge amounts any more though, say dealifting 4 & 20kgs plates these days

pixbyjohn

Take the decking out of the yard, knock 1 wall out of your existing shed at deck side and build a block extention to your shed, rise the backwall by 1 block to give you the fall. Put a new roof on with sturdy timber supports and cover it with 8 x 4 wbp plywood. Then put torch on felt. A gutter on the front with a water butt.
Decking only encourages rats, so throw it out.
You and a friend would do the work in a week.
Cheers

robbie checker

I have 2 of the smaller wooden sheds, 1 used for coal/fuel & storing the kids bikes and the other for gardening equipment including the ride on. They need to be painted every year as the fencelife stuff I use wears off very quickly although they do look well when freshly painted but like a lot of jobs in the garden, it gets put on the long finger. The roof also leaks a bit as the felt lifts up with the wind even though I have repaired them a few times. The wooden sheds are also positioned on blocks which I think creates shelter for rats. I have put poison down in the garden and it has been cleared loads of times. I grow a lot of vegetables & fruit in the garden which creates a food source and also have a few compost bins where I have seen a few rats, not a huge problem but I do think the wooden sheds create shelter for them (similar to decking) and I would repair the existing concrete shed.

Howdy folks,

The decking will be staying and isn't hollow underneath. There's soil under the deck and a lot of weed cover. There's not really space for rats or such to be living comfortably.


I'm not at all concerned about rats, as the place was an absolute dump of a place for about 5 years. I only recently started changing things about a year ago. If I didn't have rats back then I probably won't have them now, is my thinking.


The shed will be sitting on a concrete base, and i will be facing this off with lengths of decking. This will cover the gap under the wooden shed and will hopefully neaten the place up (so there's not gonna be any visible concrete).


Asteroids, as you rightly pointed out, i looked at a few wooden sheds today in 2 local shed places, and the roof is too low. However, they both said they can add height. If I wanted an apex roof, I can get it so it's 6ft at the lowest points, and 9ft at the highest. With that in mind, I think I can get away with overhead stuff by simply doing overhead lifts in the centre of the shed if need be. I'm 5' 9".

The roof will be steel clad. I've been told to avoid the felt in general if I can.

It's more the overall durability, strength and lifetime of a wooden shed I'm interested in.

asteroids over berlin

i see. i am in work but will have pics tomorrow. I couldn't see your concrete picture earlier, now i can and to be honest, if it were me, i would keep that little shed and maybe extend it onto the wooden platform - well worth doing and also adds value to the house.
I have to paint (seal) my shed every year, which is why i would buy a pressure treated one next time, as you don't need to do this. Life span of a shed, paint it and it should last a long time but the manufacturers usually will say 10 - 15 years. Personally i think the ferndale style of sheds are much better.

10.5 X 11.5 is all you need really. Get some squate stands and you can use them as a bench press holder too. You'll also be able to fit a cable machine or 2 in there. Get some dumbells (preferably a proper set - which are pricey) and your good to go

Well I've been around looking at shed places. There are two locally, KW sheds and Funshog Garden Sheds.

Funshog seem to be happy to let me provide my own windows/doors and they'll fit the frame around them for me, they say. So i think that wins it for me.

They want €2,100 for a 16x10ft with a roof that's a foot higher (standard apex seems to be 6ft to 8ft, so I'll be going 7ft to 9ft). I'm hoping this will be sufficient for what I need (With my hands over my head, I'm 7ft, so it should be okay). So I reckon I can demolish this shed i have, bung it all in a skip, and get a PVC window, Door and have the new one, for less than €3k. However, as i'm gonna be weight lifting, I'll have to get some 18mm sheets of mdf or chipboard to put on the floor as a means of reinforcement (the floor will also be covered with foam matting for comfort) so if a weight is dropped it won't damage anything.


I'm still a bit unsure as to whether or not I'm gonna pull the trigger on it, but that's the way I'm leaning...

doctorchopper

Demolition hammer on sale tomorrow might be of some use http://www.lidl.ie/en/Offers.htm?id=844

colm_mcm

would reroofing the shed not be a way simpler option?

Re-roofing the shed solves the leaky issue with the shed, but I would imagine a re-roof would cost about 600-700 there or thereabouts (I could be way off the mark there, though, but taking into consideration that I'd say it'd be a 1-day job for two people, I reckon I'd be looking at a minimum of €200 on labour straight away).

Another issue with the shed (I don't know if i mentioned this in the OP or not) is that the floor, whilst generally level, has 'pot holes and speed bumps' on it, for lack of a better term. It's rough and drops a bit randomly. Which is not ideal if you're squatting or deadlifting a heavy weight.

So to make it ideal, i'd really want to pour a small bit of concrete in too. If that costs, for argument sake, €300, then I could be looking at a grand to get the shed up to spec. With that done, I still face the issue of the shed being a bit too small for my liking.

So I reckon, even though the wooden shed is still a pricy option, I'm breaking it down as follows:


Shed - €2,100
Door - €100
Window - €50
Builder 2 days @ €120 per day - €240
skip - €230
Friend to help out for 1 day - €70
Rubber mats for floor - €50
5 sheets MDF 18mm to reinforce floor - €200
Electrician: €150

TOTAL: €3,190



(The windows and doors are priced separately as the crowd doing the shed priced the shed, with and without windows/doors, and said if i bought it without them, i could supply my own, so im picking up PVC windows/doors on donedeal and the likes).

But I reckon, with the above done, then that's the shed finished with. The garden is (finally!) complete and there'll probably be about another €500 to be spent on miscellaneous stuff, but it'll be things I can do long-term or over a longer period of time to finish it all off.


It's killing me to pay that kinda money on what is effectively an extra 5 foot of space, but I am trying to justify it by reasoning that the shed will still be there in 10 years. With a bit of a treatment every year, all will be good in the world.



DoctorChopper - I am gonna get a builder to help me demolish the shed that's there. He wants €120 a day, which is fair enough, but it means I won't buy any tools as he has everything already and I can use his stuff (it also means I don't have yet another tool in the garden that I'm trying to find storage space for, haha).

Rancid

A few thoughts and questions in no particular order....

Will the 16 ft shed fit between the existing decking and the house and still leave a little passageway, or will you have to dismantle part of the decking?
In the event of there being a few hot and sunny days ever again, the wooden shed will heat up a lot faster than your concrete one, factor in some very good ventilation.
Assuming one side of the new wooden shed will have to be lined up against the garden wall you'll not (easily) be able to treat it with preservative every year.

Should you decide to keep the concrete shed and refurbish it, you could clad the outside with wooden laths, a few coats of Fencelife and it would totally improve the appearance!

Cheers Rancid for the reply.

I reckon the 16ft shed will start beside the deck, exactly where the current one is. The current one is double blocked apparently, but it's external footprint if 13' 3". So what'll happen is the new shed will further close the gap between the shed and house. I reckon there will be a remaining gap of about 3', meaning a wooden side gate would possible be the order of the day.


You're right about the shed being tight to the wall, though, and not getting treated annually. This is the issue I currently face. My initial thinking, is to leave about 3" between the wall and shed. Stick a length of decking at each end to close the gap (for aesthetics) and then stick some guttering along the top to close the gap, there, too.

I could be waaay of the mark here, but my thinking is that if I can close in the side of the shed facing the wall, so it's not really getting any weather hitting it (except temperature, obviously), maybe it wont necessarily need the annual treatment? But I don't know if this is merely creating further issues that I'm not aware of.

The guys in the shed place reckon 1 - 1.5' of a gap should be left, to allow me room to get in to treat it each year. I personally think 6" is sufficient with a roller on an extenson pole doing the hard work. But again, im still not sure if just closing it off will help.


I reckon I can get away with 11x16, but this will mean definitely going tighter to the wall. This will also mean an extra €200 on the cost, so i'm not sure if i'm able to justify it. On one hand i think €200 for an extra foot wider is a bit pricy, then on the other i think, 6 months down the line will i curse myself for trying to save 200 and having a smaller shed.

I think if i start coating the concrete shed with wooden lats then the cost of the concrete shed will soar and be on par with just replacing it. Tomorrow I'll be with the shed crowd and will have a concrete (har har) answer to what I'm doing.

Sorry, I meant to comment on the ventilation thing.

This is the one thing that really has genuinely got me thrown and slightly worried.

My concrete shed is growing it's own mushrooms at this stage (it really is!), so dampness, condensation, etc. are real concerns I always have with sheds. And they are very valid worries, too.

From what I can see, ventilation can help. From my basic understanding, when the shed is fitted, i can simply buy two vents. Cut holes in the shed, front and back, and screw the vents into place. As far as I know, this then helps create an air flow to prevent moisture build up, condensation, dampness, mould and other bad side effects to stale warm air.


However, there are two windows going on the shed, although they'll both be on the same wall, PVC windows usually have an open/locked setting where they're about 5-8mm open, but still locked. I'm guessing that if I just never actually closed the windows, but instead always udsed the open/locked position, this would be the equivalent of installing vents, as there are two minor openings for air to travel in and out of the shed?

Rancid

At a guess, 6 inches behind the shed is cutting it fine if you want to get a roller in there to treat it. Standing on the wall you'll have a bit of leverage to put pressure on the roller, but not much. And it's shiplap so a bit harder to coat it all. Still, a generously laden roller could probably do the job!
I like the idea of putting up some kind of guttering, channeling away as much rainwater as possible has to be good.

As regards the ventilation, the vents front and back will help and I know the type of window-closing mechanism you're talking about, they can always remain safely slightly open.
Better by far if you could place one of the windows on a side wall, it would improve the chance of through-flow of air a lot. You might still end up buying a fan and keeping the door open on hot days!

If you're even half considering the 11' x 16' you should go for it even if it narrows the path a lot. You might get the price down a bit if you haggle!

Decided to pull the trigger on the 11x16. They reckon it'll be about 3 weeks before I get it.

So in the meantime i'll have to start dismantling the shed that's there. I've an electrician coming on Thursday to knock the power out of it so it's safe to tear down. Should be good fun ahead.

bigbrotherfan

It would be a better option to do some remedial work to the block shed. If you go with the other option, you're left with the ongoing maintenance of a wooden shed and at the end of the day, you're left with a wooden shed that will wear away over time.

I posted this already on boards, but only realised i posted it elsewhere and not on this thread a moment ago (multiple windows open! )


As ye know I've settled on the wooden shed. It'll be 11x16 but will have PVC window/doors. I've an extra foot added to the height so it'll be an apex roof that's 9ft at it's highest (centre) and 7ft at the lowest (sides).

I got my Argos stuff and general gym gear.

Picked up a Cable Crossover machine, decent bench (or so it seems), standard 6' bar, standard EZ bar (but neither are spinlock, which is what I was looking for, as I loathe spinlock!), and also have a pair of 5kg and 10kg hex bells I got online. Picked up 2 weight trees that i posted about before too (one for olympic plates and one for standard ones). Picked up the extra floor mats I needed, too.

I have the roof off my concrete shed and will do some more damage to it tomorrow. The crowd making my bigger wooden shed gave me a thumbs up to let me know it's built and ready for delivery, and now all I have to do is get the walls of the concrete shed into the ground and I'm good to go. (well, have to order sheets to re-enforce the floor, too, but that'll be a tuesday or wednesday job).


All going well I should have a decent home gym with a cable machine by the end of the week. Always wanted a cable machine. I think they're class. Needless to say I'll probably only use it twice before forgetting it even exists, but i'm still excited anyway!

Poor image quality, but ye olde concrete shed has said its goodbyes and left me, to go and live in the big garden in the sky.









Need to order some 4" concrete blocks tomorrow for the wooden shed to sit on, and then I hope to have the wooden shed installed by mid week next week.

vicwatson

Good job !

And the excitement all culminated with the arrival of the new shed!










There's a bit of work yet to be done. I've a load of aeroboard I am gonna use as insulation (already have the ceiling done, since taking the photos). Then I have to plyline the interior and paint it, and reinforce the floor with some 18mm ply (which i already have but haven't put in place yet).

Then on the outside, the plan is to pick up some more decking and cover up all the concrete that's visible, to make it look a bit neater all-round. Stick a side-gate between the shed and house to hide the bins behind and take a break from the garden work for another summer (if you could call the last few weeks of drizzle and wind a 'summer'!).


Getting the gym gear in will be the fun part.

Unfortunately I'm flat-out working for the next two days straight, possibly doing 12-14 hours a day, but then i'll be back to sitting around and can get stuck in.

Would anyone here be able to tell me.. can I get away with plastering the inside of the wooden shed?

Was gonna line it with MDF and paint it but id rather the flush, smooth and generally better finish that I'll get from plastering it.

My concern is that it's a wooden shed, and it'll be a gym, so I'm afraid that if I lean against a wall, drop weights etc. the impact will cause the plaster to crack or break (or If the wood changes or warps with temperatures etc).

But not sure if the plasterboard will strengthen the wooden walls, either. It'll cost more to plaster it (about 300 more at a guess ) but don't mind spending that if it's gonna last.


Anyone able to advise?

I've Googled to no avail. :-(

Cheers

doctorchopper

There is a lot of flex and movement in them sheds, if you were to sheet the walls with plywood then plasterboard that might work out but i wouldn't say straight plasterboard to the walls would last

CJhaughey

Going from personal experience I'd line it with 9mm plywood. Nothing fancy just the cheapest stuff.
It will last aa long time and give a lot of rigidity to the shed plus you can mount things to it easily without having to find a stud behind plasterboard.
Paint it white and the inside will be very bright.