Garden shed workshop *in progress*

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CraiGDaniel

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So i didn't want to be in the house when doing repairs. As i offer mobile & workshop repairs, it seemed a better option to build my own workspace so that i feel like im in an office, rather than being distracted in the house by the little one & partner etc.

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Next step is to insulate & board the roof + door. Then beef up security on the shed and fit some sensor alarms, camera etc.

Plan to have monitors mounted to the back wall, soldering station in the corner. Other nice personalisations as i go along. Will post pics as things progress.
 
I had thought about this, but thought damp proofing and insulating would be a hassle, also that after there wouldn't be alot of room inside, i'd be interested to see how yours turns out. How much will it cost to add electric from your house to the shed?

I have a garage behind my house so plan to try and utilise that (after I clear the crap out :rolleyes: )
 
I considered doing this at home too, but my concerns were:

  1. security
  2. weather proofing
  3. security again
  4. internet access (I would have had to buy a wifi extender, powerlines didn't work :( )
  5. electricity to the shed
  6. fire risks
  7. space, depending on how many computer you're working on
 
dont use wifi, just have the electrician or if you do it yourself run a cat6 cable in a conduit pipe from your house to the shed
 
In order to keep the humidity out and keep the heat down (for you while you're out working and also for system heat issues) I'd keep it simple and install a little window A/C unit in there.

+1 to security concerns though =X

As a remedy though, I highly suggest a claymore or hand grenade + tripwire at the entrance. (jk)
 
I'm really excited about it.

I have insulated the whole shed for about £6. ($9) from B&Q. Just horrible old fiber glass loft insulation.

Once the insulation was in place we stapled heavy duty plastic bin liner, covering the whole shed. This adds damp + weather proof. The shed barely got damp before this anyway and i sat in there in a horrible storm the other day, was warm and not a drop got in.

As for electricity, i have a sensor light on the outside wall of the house. This was hooked up directly into the mains, so i'll mod it and run a cable to the shed. Just gotta factor the extra electric as a business expense.
 
Some good ideas flowing here Craig, and I take my hat off for you getting this far.

As I have already done what your doing on a larger scale, I can offer some additional advice.

Basically when it comes to the electrics, get yourself a small fuse box for your shed. I'm not sure exactly on how many sockets your thinking of using in the shed, but opt for as many as possible. In doing this, though, you will need additional fuses.

Originally when I first came down here, there was a single fuse box, and a max of 5 sockets. Fast forward 6 years, there are now 29 sockets (only 22 in the house), and I was running everything off a single socket, and extension leads here there, and everywhere. Then 4 gang extn's.

Each year or so, I was adding additional sockets as and when I needed them. 3 years ago, you can imagine the horror on my sparky's face when I said that I needed an outside light putting up. He saw all the sockets everywhere, and mentioned, I was extremely lucky that a fire had not occurred.

So now, I have a 5 fuse box setup.
1 x fuse powers all the lights.
1x does one side of the workshop
1 x does the other
1 x for the fish tank
1 x All outside lighting, camera's alarms etc.

I realise this may not of been incorporated within your initial budget, but seriously think about it.
 
Nice work on that shed! Was it a kit or did you do it from scratch. Either way, looks like you've always got carpentry to fall back on, nice work!

I've been looking at something like this for myself as well. Probably not for another year or so, but its nice to see yours. I'd like to see pics when its all done as well. The heat may be something to think about, though. Summer months could make that quite the little oven without a/c or ventilation.

@Cadishead - What's a fish tank? Unless you mean an actual fish tank, you know, with fish and all? And how are you feeding the fuse box in your shop? Does it run straight off the main supply (prior to the fuse box in your house) or does it go back to your house's fuse box?
 
I spent an entire weekend converting our interior shed into a workshop. I created a spur from the ring main and put sockets in, I upgraded the lighting and made good the failing ceiling.

I then painted it all.

The workshop lasted a week, it was too cold, it was too cramped and generally just not nice to work in.

My current workshop is a converted bedroom and is around 85 sq even that is a bit small. You need a lot more space than you can ever imagine.

PS My workshops electrics are not great, I have four sockets, and one of them is a spur possibly of a spur! (not strictly legal in the UK) the rest of the sockets are on my benches but they all plug into extension leads etc. I have a spark coming in a few weeks time to upgrade the entire houses electrics, I am not looking forward to seeing his face when he enters my workshop!!
 
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'putertutor said:
@Cadishead - What's a fish tank? Unless you mean an actual fish tank, you know, with fish and all? And how are you feeding the fuse box in your shop? Does it run straight off the main supply (prior to the fuse box in your house) or does it go back to your house's fuse box?
Click to expand...

Yes I do mean an actual fish tank. I ave a 210L tropical tank. It's soothing to simp,y watch the fish, when im stressed down there. Also a nice talking point with clients.

I've done a tiny bit of research, and found that people think fish are calming. So when clients come into the workshop, all wound up, harassed over their machine etc, couple of mins after watching the fish, they have calmed down :).

The electrics come direct from behind a socket in the kitchen, through armoured cable, pinned to the wall, under a concrete path, and then a deep channel was dug in the garden. The armoured cable goes into this channel. Then it feeds the fuse box in the workshop.

Everything was passed by the council back in '83 when the garage was built. However last year we had issues with the concrete path, and it all had to be dug up.

Naturally my cable was shown, the workman contacted a spark, who said that the cable was not buried deep enough, as it needed to be a min of 24" to confirm with current regs. Mine is 18".

My argument with that (and I won) was, that back in '83 the regs were completely different. everything is buried. only 24" or so is buried in the concrete. I was not going to pay to dig up the garden, order another 150+ft of armoured cable, and redo everything. Just for the sake of 24" of cable, which is not buried deep enough according to the latest regs. Even though it's all in concrete.
 
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CraiGDaniel said:
I'm really excited about it.


As for electricity, i have a sensor light on the outside wall of the house. This was hooked up directly into the mains, so i'll mod it and run a cable to the shed. Just gotta factor the extra electric as a business expense.
Click to expand...

DO NOT DO THIS!

The security light is probably on the lighting circuit, it will probably use thinner cables. You cannot simply take a feed of that to run sockets unless you're certain its not on the light circuit and the cable is thick enough (2.5mm from memory but don't quote me).

If you do run sockets of a light circuit at best you will probably trip the fuse/MCB or at worse you will have a fire on your hands.

DO NOT MESS WITH ELECTRICS! So many fires are caused by people not understand the basics of ohms law.

Even if the security light is on the ring main its most likely to be on a spur or possibly even connected to an FCU so again you cannot run sockets of it.

Also the outside cable should really have an RCD.
 
I am in the planning stages of a similar project. Currently the womenfolk (wife and 2 teenage daughters) are MOST unhappy with my "computer sprawl" in the house.
After some checking of local regulations I discovered that a "portable building" has no codes to be met, or building permits to purchase.

Current plans are to place a shed on 8 inch well casing for skids, and to tie it down with mobile home tie downs that auger into the ground. For wiring, I plan to do it like a mobile home - an external post fed with buried cable, with a "main fuse box" with 100 amp breakers and a large gauge 220 volt extension cord to the shed. I will also run ethernet underground to the shed.

12 x 14 or 16 feet is the size of the shed planned, with a simple single pitch shed roof with colored roofing tin and white tin siding. I live in a rural area, and this will blend right in with what the rest of the neighbors have for outbuildings. I already have a large assortment of used windows and assorted lumber and electrical supplies. For the workbench, I obtained some used kitchen cabinetry including overhead cabinets, and a 16 foot length of stainless steel counter-top at a garage sale for pennies on the dollar.

Bonus #2 - a man cave to retreat to when that is needed for some personal sanity!
 
CraiGDaniel said:
As for electricity, i have a sensor light on the outside wall of the house. This was hooked up directly into the mains, so i'll mod it and run a cable to the shed. Just gotta factor the extra electric as a business expense.
Click to expand...

We won't even go as to how far outside the regulations are on this !!!

Where are you based? I seem to recall NE somewhere unless I got mixed up, I'm up there shortly do I'll quite happily drop in and go through what you need if it'll help, if not PM me and I'll try and set out what you should do to be safe!
 
Lots of nice ideas on here, may implement some.

Think i'll end up using wifi as my landlord wont allow me to drill through the house or anything like that, really annoying. My sheds no more than 7 meters from my router anyway - £5 a pop for wireless dongles i should be good.

As for electrics, i have no idea. I had a knowledgable friend over to give me some advice and he seemed to think the light idea was bullet proof, and that it ran on the main circuit so i should be able to run a good amount of plugs off it safely. The guy is very credible and has done lots of this sort of work. Perhaps ill pay a sparky to come over and give me some advice on it, better safe than sorry.


DCGPX, i'm south east in Essex. Bit of a hike for you ;)
 
Yep defo get a spark to look at it. Too many people think they know about electrics and it burns houses down.

It may well be a ring main but then there are regulations and rules on how you can tap into it. You will not be able to take a spur of the light itself in any case, but there be a socket some where which is not already on a spur you could perhaps take a feed off.

In reality though you're better off just creating a dedicated circuit from the consumer unit but it depends how much space there is etc etc.

I am no way a spark myself but I do have some electrical knowledge, just enough so I know what I can't do :).
 
Ethernet is surely the only way to do it? It won't be hard to put in either.

Also what about security? Are you going to bring all the computers in at night?
 
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