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| Supacat Member Since: 16 Oct 2012 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 11018   
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Nice little article:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tips-fo...-6ks6q5m33  Click image to enlarge "The key to happy shed-dwelling is proper planning. What I want for a shed is for it to fulfil three basic functions — the triumvirate of shed functionality as I like to think of it: a place to sit, a place to fettle and a place to stash. Here’s the bad news: you’ve got to be thinking in the £2,000 to £7,000 region. Spending £500 at B&Q is fine if you literally want somewhere to store junk that you attach no value to, but for that money you’d be better off using the cash to hire a skip, because the stuff you put in it will be ruined anyway. If you want a den, a workspace, a private place where you can reconnect with what’s important, where you can nurture your soul and incubate your creativity, you are going to have to add another zero on the end. The key to creating a proper shed is that it’s a place you want to spend time in. That means you need heat and light, so you have to have a proper power connection, not a heavy-duty extension cord. It’s also got to be dry, so you need concrete foundations. I strongly lobby for carpet on the floor. It has to be just as good a place to be a human being as to be a human doing. By sitting and looking at your hobby over a cup of tea in the shed, whether it’s a collection of Daleks or classic Ferraris, you’re getting a therapy session. That therapy can last 30 seconds one morning, or three days if you fancy getting stuck into those wheel forks at long last. The shed is a place that is yours. You design it and create an environment. And that’s the thing about shed-dwelling; it’s the one place where everything happens on your terms. I am the president of my own shed. A concrete pad on which your shed will stand is vital, but it’s the element that people most often forget when they are working out the cost. You can try all the alternatives, such as laying a brick base, raising it up on blocks, or even building it on staddle stones so it’s half a metre in the air, but without a concrete base it is going to let water in and it’s not going to be solid when a storm comes. The alternative is a kind of plastic grid that you lay on flat ground, and fill with gravel, and then build the shed on that. It’s more ecologically friendly, so I use that sometimes as well. Also, you need to think about what kind of electrics you’re going to want, because you may want electricity to come up through the floor. Personally, I just have it coming in as a feed through the wall to the junction box. I’d say you ideally want to make your shed 5m by 3m — that for me is perfect if you’re not putting a car in there. If you are, then it’s 5m by 4.5m, double doors and all that kind of stuff. You can go smaller, but if you want a shed for motorbikes, stationary engines, petrol pump restoration, furniture restoration, I would say the minimum you can get away with really is 3m by 3m. Also, you need to decide where you want the sun to be. Most shed-dwellers tend to put windows on only one side of the shed because sheds don’t generally have views, and because they use up valuable shelf, storage and workbench space. Obviously it’s tempting to say the windows should face south. But be aware that as the sun comes in through south-facing windows (or from skylights) it will a) cook you in summer and b) fade items that you have left there and forgotten about. With the north-facing side being colder, you might think you don’t want the windows to be north-facing, unless steady light is really important to you because you are going to be painting in there or doing stop-motion movies on your iPad. So think about how the sun is going to interact with your shed and what your priorities are before you start pouring that slab. Think about the outside as well, because maybe you’re going to want to sit outside on summer evenings with the shed doors open while you clean something, in which case face the doors west. But if you’re a morning person, it might be smarter to have your main outside area facing east. It makes all the difference on a cold dark night to be able to transform your shed instantly into a warm and welcoming space. And when you leave, it’s handy too, otherwise it takes me half an hour to switch off all the lamps and knackers my back. Without power you have no heat, and without heat, in my humble opinion, you don’t really have what I mean when I talk about a shed. A shed really comes into its own in the winter months. Sheds are September to March affairs. Get it heated, get the kettle on, avoid the family and you can start to be at peace. If you ain’t going to heat the shed, you might as well just go and sit under a tree to get away from it all. Taking the plunge into shed-dwelling is metaphorically about building your world, but if you are lucky enough to have the time, the skills and a few generous mates to help you, actually physically building your own shed is one of the best ways you can spend two weeks of your life. I know what I’m talking about because I’ve done it a few times now. That is what therapy is all about. Not only are you going to find spiritual contentment inside your shed when it’s done, but the life-changing magic of sheds will exert its mysterious power on you during that building process, long before you fix your first brake pad. Don’t worry if you’ve never done it before — the important thing is to get stuck in — but be ready to call in the professionals if things start going awry. Obviously the best thing is to have a mate who has done a bit of building who will help out, but there’s no shame in looking up a local builder and asking him to finish it for you. That’s actually the core of shed-dwelling, right there. It’s a place where it’s OK to make mistakes and it’s OK to ask for help to learn how to fix those mistakes. Maybe, when you finish it, you’ll think, “I really should have done this bit a different way.” But that’s OK, man. That’s how we learn, that’s how we enrich our lives in sheds. The Life-Changing Magic of Sheds by Henry Cole is out now (Quercus £16.99)" |
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21st Sep 2020 6:55am |
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