The house has slowly but surely become full of bits of wood, beams, insulation, tools, bits of furniture, scaffolding, tools and materials of all sorts and as we progress from upstairs to downstairs it was becoming obvious we needed some storage space that would cope not only with the current “stock” but also become the “workshop” once the project was finished.
As cosy and well organized as the current workshop is it also happens to be in what is to become the utility room and MrsBs studio, an concept I have been reminded of on several occasions .
We also need to get the kitchen floor laid with the water main underneath it, along with the UFH, other plumbing and electrics to the various areas of the kitchen, plus the drain our from the sink etc.
We toyed with the idea of putting up a temporary shelter in our bit of land across the lane because we own a massive “eurocamp” tent but were not sure if it would do the whole winter erected.
In the end, rather than sort a temporary fix, we decided to go for as large permanent shed, as big as allowed under what we understood to be the current planning law.
General consensus was that if it was under 20M2 we didn’t need planning permission but that it was polite to inform the mayor of our plan.
We duly popped into to see the mayor to be informed that we had to submit a plan and that I would not be allowed to use corrugated iron or corrugated cement board (as was the original plan) for the roof or walls. This is despite the fact that there are half a dozen buildings sporting such materials within eyesight.
Anyway rather than spend any pointless, and somewhat gormless, time arguing against the mayor or logic of the French planning system we submitted plans as requested only to be told that we couldn’t build it where planned (I wanted to leave a meter around the back for mowing strimming etc and also for some rainwater butts) but it either had to be on the boundary or 3 meters from it.
Although I think it doesn’t make any sense to do it that way, they are the rules and we were not going to get permission otherwise, so with some new measurements of the location ie right on the back border, but 3 meters in from the sides we just ended up with a longer thinner shed rather than a shallower deeper one. The end result of floor space is the same 19.5 meters.
We also decided it would be built in concrete block (which was acceptable to the mayor ) and then clad it in wood later when we take the sheds down form the back of the house that we currently live in.
I had already graded the land down to near level and so now we had to try and peg out Mr Pythagoras 3-4-5 to get the right angles we needed . My son is doing the ground work while I look important (and inot the distance) on the digger.
We went for the measurements of 3.5 x 5.6 to give us about 19.6 M2 floor space and so then it was a case of putting in some rudimentary footings to take the blocks. It is only going to be one skin of blocks, so we laid out some footings and then went through the task of leveling them with the laser level. We used an upturned rake and a bit of tape to work out higher or lower and applied some “boofing” (using the rake to tamp down high spots) or putting in and leveling extra cement where required .
Here is MrsB on the rake and me trying to get the laser level itself to be level.
And here is ZFB getting his own bit of “lazing about on the digger”.
Here goes up the first days blocks running to a string line. We had 4 pallets of blocks delivered and placed as close to the job as we could get them. It made for a few awkward turns with the muck filled wheelbarrow though.
Here it is after day two
After a couple more days it is starting to look a bit more like it
So the plan was to have a simple sloping roof, during the planning palarva we were told that we had to use the flat metal f roofing (with ridges) so we bought enough to do just the roof of the shed for now.
The plan is to overhang the chevrons to create a lean to later as you will see .
Once I had fitted the door frame ( a railway sleeper is the bottom bit) sleeper I then laid on the extra blocks for the height differential to give the slope. I then fixed heavily treated chevrons to the top of the wall for the roof supporting chevrons to sit on (and be nailed to)
You can see the idea here with a 5.2 chevron laid across the span, although we did go up another block course
Here you can see the treated chevron on top of the wall and the supporting chevrons holding up the roof. We treated the wood with a mixture of creosote engine oil and some black bitumen stuff all mixed together. I think they will still be there long after the concrete blocks have crumbled to dust.
The roofing material is flat metal with pressed ridges. We double treated the wood where it will be in contact with the ridges to make sure it didn’t rot. We used 68 x 43 chevrons (or near as dammit) and the 43 bit just sits in the ridge perfectly.
I will fill the sloping gap with blocks at the end shown and with timber on the other end that you can see in place in the second photo
This is the overhang that will become the wood store when roofed. Didn’t roof it straight away as unsure of the rules regarding lean to’s so we may just wait a while and do it at later date when no one will really notice. The chevrons will be extended a bit further and guncked up with treatment.
Once I had done the roof I thought it was a bit “bouncy” so decided to retro fit a support beam. The lateral span for the chevrons is about 3.6 meters which is a bit long for a chevron so I bought a 250 x 50 for the 5.6 meter longitudinal span to add some “beef” to the roof and also give me a solid beam to act as lifting point inside.
Here it is before the doors so hopefully you can now see that it will have the extended wood store roof on the right hand side and on the left hand side it will also have a lean to roof with wood paneled fencing sides that will become the home for our Harry Chuffer the tractor
Here it is with the doors on and the scalping floor down. I will probably lay a concrete floor and when we do the kitchen we will order an extra cube or so. (a golden rule I have learnt during tis is that if you are getting concrete delivered for a floor etc then always have another job that they can put the excess in, because they wont take it away with them and the last thing you want is a big blob of unwanted concrete hanging about)
It will also have one of the three spare small wood burners installed for using up old wood when I am in there in the winter months creating masterpieces. The wood cladding will come later as will the proper work benches and tools etc. WE don’t intend to run a separate supply down there and will just have a heavy duty extension with its own plug and breaker up at the house to cope with some high kilowatt machinery in the future.
So Shed three is nearly complete apart from its wood cladding and the side lean-to roofs.
It has already swallowed all the excess stuff we had lurking in the house and has bags of room to spare
Simple design, easy to build, total time 8 days total cost 800 euros. It has already proved its value.
Love and Peace
Bentley
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