Long term garage 'modification' - Recent update...

[Mr S]

It's a small win, but I've finally got round to renovating and fixing in place (mechanically, cosmetically will come later!) an old vice that was siezed solid and purchased at a car boot sale for a couple of quid some time ago. You can see it 'mid soak' and pre-renovation in the last photo above.

Until I didn't have one and I started to actually do a few jobs in my garage that I realise how vital a decent vice is - it makes even simple things like sawing a piece of metal that much more awkward.



Also, the remaining roof tiles have been ordered and will hopefully be available for me to collect next weekend. Tuesday morning will see some 4x2 bought for the garage ready to board out and insulate behind and to the side of the workbench. Then if I've got enough birthday money left over, I'll get some glass for the front doors, now that really will be a big boost!

That's all for now....

[ruffgeezer]

If you are getting single panes of glass, have a nosey on ebay for greenhouse glass, there is a boatload of it local to me on there at the moment for next to nowt, it's fairly easy to cut down and will save a few quid?

[Mr S]

As it's in a door, it has to be toughened I'm afraid (building regs...), so the local glass merchant it is!

[pablopancake]

May 19, 2012 22:35:40 GMT Mr S said:

As it's in a door, it has to be toughened I'm afraid (building regs...), so the local glass merchant it is!

can you still use laminate these days?

[Mr S]

Dunno mate, the plans I have specify toughened, I might ask the building regs guys for clarification. Either that or get some security film for the inside

[Mr S]

This afternoon I had that rare combination of time (Mrs and her kids away for the weekend!), materials (plasterboard, wood, paint and a quick trip to Screwfix yielded some frame fixings and a T30 torx bit...) and enthusiasm!

It's been my plan ever since I started building the garage to have a 'workshop end' down at the bottom where my main workbench is. I want this area to be generally more comfortable to work in and somewhere I can do smaller jobs (like working on engines or other 'not-full-vehicle' stuff). As such, I wanted to insulate the walls, fit an insulated ceiling and have some kind of heavy duty curtain/retractable wall. All this is so that it can be heated with a little fan heater and just take the chill off during the colder winter months...

A mate gave me some roof insulation some time ago which has been waiting in the wings, and with some birthday money I had I bought some 4x2 timber and some 8x4 sheets of plasterboard.

A couple of hours of moving things around and a bit of drilling and screwing, and I had this :



A further couple of hours, and it's done around the bench (which was my main aim, I want to get that fixed into its final position so I can put some shelves up and treat it as a bench rather then a dumping ground. Needless to say, I straight away use it as a dumping ground ;D But that's only so I can paint the floor....





After a quick stop for some tea (Chicken and Sweetcorn soup followed by sweet and sour chicken balls and rice from the local Chinese!), I got on with painting the floor. The edges still need to be done, but they need brush painting due to the erm 'hilly' nature of the concrete at the edges. And I don't have a suitable brush right now...! Any excuse, eh?

The only remaining bits to be painted now are underneath the Chevy, round the edges and underneath a couple of larger items that I'll move tomorrow and paint









Off to pick my new (ebay bargain!) car up tomorrow, but hopefully there will be a further update either later on tomorrow or on Monday.

Feels good to actually do something productive in there - bloody hard work doing it all on your own tho!!

EDIT: I've got a bit of tidying to do now too.....!!

[ashley115s]

Looking good you'l soon be out here till midnight getting it finished!

[Mr S]

Just finished for today. Granted I only started at about 6:30 this evening, but I had other things to do during the day (well, ok I had to go and collect a car which took until early afternoon, then I lazed around watching bike racing....!).

This is what took up my morning....



So the first job was to make 2 good kitchen cabinets out of the three that I had (cheers Drew!). After a little while of swapping legs, hinges and door bits around, I had two that I was happy with. Both double door units with drawers. Or tool drawers as I like to call them now.

Once they were sorted, they were put into place under my bench and looked right at home.



Then I put some shelves up over the aforementioned bench - it's a good job I'm tall, it's a bit of a stretch to the top one. Still, it's ideal for that stuff that I don't need too often! And my speakers and hi-fi that's no longer allowed in the house.... Bloomin wimmin.





Not much more to say really, just general tidying and trying to find homes for things. There's a pile of stuff for the tip - when that's gone in the morning, I can put the new acquisition in.



The next big jobs are to finish the roof (tiles have been ordered, just not arrived for me to collect them yet...). Finish glazing the windows and doors and then move onto the electrics. There's lots of other little bits that I can do too, but they are the main ones before I'll consider it finished(ish!).

[Mr S]

Bit of tidying, curse word dumped outside ready for the tip and hey presto, the Jeep is in ready for work to commence

[dodgerover]

I'll have the GT550 thats in the tip pile!)

[Mr S]

Hehe, that's my bad-weather commuter machine, hands off!

[Mr S]

Just a quick look at the retro garage audio that will be gracing my build as soon as I sort out the wiring....

[skinnylew]

excellent work, really coming on well

[Mr S]

Finally (after ordering them on the 17th May!!), my last roof tiles arrived today. After taking a couple of hours TOIL from work this afternoon, picking my daughter up from school and visiting her school fete, I thought I might as well 'just have a look' up the ladder.

An hour or so later and the 'quick look' had turned into 'I'll just put the last 40 odd tiles up ready for the ridge tiles'



Fingers crossed the weather will hold out until the weekend (unlikely...) and I can have a bash at getting the ridge tiles up. That'll be another first then ;D

[tigran]

Awesome to see this progressing dude. Looking back as what it started at is amazing!

If you ever feel mojo-less just remember that it's come from this



Can't wait for it to be all finished.

[trouble]

Great work as always

[Mr S]

Quick question, as I know there are some knowledgable types on here.

What are the wiring regulations regarding overhead wiring? I now plan to run the 6mm or 10mm SWA overhead to the garage, I might run it in some conduit or pipe of some sort, would this be ok? It'll be around 8 feet off the ground.

I *could* run it underground, but I don't want to - it will be clipped to the side of the house, then up, across the gap of just over 5m, then into the garage.

And yes, I know I need to get it all signed off by a part P registered person when it's done...

As an aside, one of the side windows is fully glazed and secure now.... It's not much, but it's progress!!

Cheers, Martin

[MiataMark]

Sept 24, 2012 7:20:56 GMT Mr S said:

Quick question, as I know there are some knowledgable types on here.

What are the wiring regulations regarding overhead wiring? I now plan to run the 6mm or 10mm SWA overhead to the garage, I might run it in some conduit or pipe of some sort, would this be ok? It'll be around 8 feet off the ground.

I *could* run it underground, but I don't want to - it will be clipped to the side of the house, then up, across the gap of just over 5m, then into the garage.

And yes, I know I need to get it all signed off by a part P registered person when it's done...

As an aside, one of the side windows is fully glazed and secure now.... It's not much, but it's progress!!

Cheers, Martin

A quick google found this,

www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Book/7.13.1.htm

[Mr S]

Yeah, I'd already spotted that, although I believe it's the 17th edition that counts now, and that is seemingly difficult to get hold of unless you're in the trade. Cheers tho.

In retrospect however, I've had a rethink and come up with a much easier way to get it underground, so I'll probably do that instead!

[pablopancake]

let me know your plans, i have installed some traveller powe (super heavy duty extension lead in plain sight overground) so interested in a more permanent way to install some armoured cable.