Creating a New Shed

Taking a primative space and turning it into a fully operational shed is no small task, as I’m sure many other sheds have found.
Doing it all in 4 or 5 man working parties through a Covid pandemic was doubly challenging, in total taking nearly a year.

A year that instilled some great bonds, banter and – who cared if you went home tired – you had a great day.

Here are some of the results of a serious effort by our members to create a new and better Men’s Shed

The new building

Actually a very old building. It was built over 100 years ago as a cow byre and is now part of the Northallerton Auction Mart complex. Only services are a few flourescent lights.

Cleared for action

Still with a slurry trough, which needs filling in to reduce the trip hazard. There are many signs of its former use, but at 100ft long and 15 ft wide there is plenty to get stuck in to.

 On the right you can browse some images >

CONCRETE COMPLETE

This was one of very few jobs that we didn’t tackle ourselves.

STRUCTURAL REPAIRS

The years have taken their toll on the timber wall plates which locate the rafters. Fortunately we have all sorts of trades within our membership so cutting out the rot and replacing the timbers was soon accomplished.

THEN CAME PAINTING

Scraping, pointing and painting seemed to take forever.

AND MORE PAINTING

We just needed to get a coat of paint everywhere to give us a clean, bright surface.

AND YET MORE PAINTING

It took over 100 litres of paint for a single coat on the walls. Not to mention 50 litres for the trusses and beams.

SECOND COAT

and all accomplished whilst observing the distancing measures of the first wave of Covid-19

ROOF INSULATION

No point heating the shed unless we can keep the heat in. So a major expenditure was 80 sheets of insulation

INSTALLING INSULATION

Long, hard work, handling large, if not heavy, boards overhead. In all it took us four weeks, working two days a week.

TOILET CONSTRUCTION

We’ve got to have a toilet -We’re guys of a certain age ! 

TOILET COMPLETE

We managed to find a foul drain under the concrete outside, and our bottomless suply of talent excavated it and did all the magical plumbing.

THIS WAS THE PLAN

Being 100ft long and only 15 ft wide is quite a challenge but with a partition wall already erected, to separate the first 1/3 it seems natural that it should define our meeting and clean room area. The next 1/3 is designated as the WORKSHOP and the rest we call the MACHINE SHOP although it actually encloses our painting booth. We hope that the brick divider between the workshop and the machine shop will help supress the noise of the machines.

So How did we progress?  March-December 2020

Kitchen Installation

Sink and work top installed, using units recovered from a local shop which was being refitted.

 

ELECTRICALS

Our electrical contractor allowed us to intall all the cabling and trunking ouselves, so here he is doing the final connections and testing. Already our new LED lights are working and soon he gave everything his seal of approval.

BENCHES

We built the benches from recycled timber, mainly out of an old barn being pulled down.

Most of the work was farmed out among members who prepared the timber and cut to kits, mortise and tennon joined the frames and planed up the timber for the tops. Two finished and two more just awaiting their tops.

PAINT BOOTH

Constructed from a pair of double glazed french windows bought for £10 and a couple of sealed units taken from a patio door set that was being replaced and finally roofed with for lengths of kitchen worktop which had been lying about in someones garage for years.

Here comes the Gas

Who would think we could get so excited by somethaing as mundane as gas, but this was critical to getting heat into the shed.

Here Comes The Gas

About 50m of pipework were required and we are indebted to Northern Gas Networks for their help in getting this at a price we could afford.

Gas at last

The meter thinks it’s smart, we’re not so sure ! 

Heat at Last

We were fortunate to find such skills within our membership

In the event of Emergency - Exit here

The big heavy sliding door was viewed as impractical as an exit so we created a Wicket Door within it, with a crash latch.