New garage / garden project

[g8jka]

This is a sort of a progress thread, not so much the zed but will be for the zed eventually. If anyone would like to see I'll keep updating as we make progress...

We bought our first house back in November, complete with garage. A pretty scabby and small prefab concrete type. The guy we bought the house from is a petrol head and had an old 5 series Alpina in there which he used on track. I wasn't so keen on putting the zed in there as it was tight, although I did try the other day since clearing it out and didn't get very far. It was so tight getting through the doors I didn't want to risk it. On the survey we had they said the roof possibly contained asbestos.

So today we thought we would make it into a convertible A few pictures what it looked like before.

Let there be light

 

[andyglym]

Yup, an interesting thread

 

[t-tony]

Great project Dave, nice to see you're keeping the mature members busy ......

Tony.

 

[Jjim]

What are your plans for it?

 

[g8jka]

We got the roof down pretty quick, so my Dad said shall we try and remove some of the panels. So we decided to try and take down one side (nearest the garden) and the rear, we were only planning on doing the roof as the rest could wait for another day, first we took down one of the doors. Them concrete panels are very, very heavy! Our little helper came out to inspect between stages

They came out pretty quick, the top panels had to be loosened off and pushed out with the middle and bottom panels able to be lifted out. At this stage it wasn't very stable so we carried on with the other side.

Next off was the other door leaving the front apex along with the beams and rusty roof frame. The rear apex pretty much came down by itself when the rear supporting beams had a little nudge. It was not safe at all at this stage, them beams just rest on top of the concrete so we weren't getting too close. Making sure everything was well out of the way, the front beam was giving a push and it didn't take a lot for the whole thing to come down

The whole thing was down in about 4 hours. By the end of the day we had a nice pile of rubbish at the end of the garden and a new parking space for the zed

Now we need a big skip, unfortunately @gookah's one at the front of the drive wasn't big enough

 

[g8jka]

What are your plans for it?

We will be putting another one up, a bit longer and slightly wider. Due to being limited on planning restrictions without having to get permission, it will be the same height. I was looking at other prefab ones, second hand but there is not much in the size I want although they can be adapted. But the problem is most of these type will need a new roof and door for starters and if they are in the condition this one was it could get costly having to patch up and repair. Plus the hassle of having to go and dismantle carefully and transport it back as most need to be taken down by the buyer even though they can be picked up very cheap. So we are going for a wooden one and will put a decent roller door on instead of the double doors that usually come with them.

 

[Grumps]

I've got a new prefab. (Well a year old when we bought the house so 3 now)

I have around 4 feet length left if I reverse right in and it's around 1 and half times the width of the car so a nice size. It's great expect in really cold weather it drips off the metal roof beams so put some pipe lagging around them to stop it.

 

[g8jka]

I've got a new prefab. (Well a year old when we bought the house so 3 now)View attachment 144203 I have around 4 feet length left if I reverse right in and it's around 1 and half times the width of the car so a nice size. It's great expect in really cold weather it drips off the metal roof beams so put some pipe lagging around them to stop it.

That's a decent size, do you know the rough width, looks quite a bit wider than standard? New ones are more than I want to pay unfortunately. Yours is the type I was looking at with them sort of panels that bolt together I think and not with the beams and brackets and panels like I had on mine. Only thing is getting a decent second hand one that comes down easily and goes back up the same is difficult. I would use a wooden apex roof with tinted panels if I went for a prefab.

 

[t-tony]

I bought mine 2nd hand about 33 years ago Dave. It’s a Cotswold made building and has 2 rows of 3ft x 2ft steel reinforced cast concrete panels. Angle iron roof frame and corrugated asbestos sheet roof. We paid (I think) around £300 for it but had to dismantle it and my brother Steve helped me bring it home from Lincoln on his milk float. The lower row of panels have an extended edge which sits over the edge of your concrete base slab.

Tony.

 

[g8jka]

I bought mine 2nd hand about 33 years ago Dave. It’s a Cotswold made building and has 2 rows of 3ft x 2ft steel reinforced cast concrete panels. Angle iron roof frame and corrugated asbestos sheet roof. We paid (I think) around £300 for it but had to dismantle it and my brother Steve helped me bring it home from Lincoln on his milk float. The lower row of panels have an extended edge which sits over the edge of your concrete base slab.

Tony.

Wow that would make it older than me! They are solid once up, plenty for sale for not a lot of money but most are smaller than I would like so it may mean mixing and matching to make it to the size I want. I'd need to hire something to go and collect one, plus take it down. Taking one down is not a problem, doing it carefully and being worried about damage is more the issue. I would like an apex roof just for a little more storage, the garden isn't overally big and by the time a garage is up there is no other room for an additional shed. So it will be a bigger garage than normal as we have room to extend a few feet as well as moving the whole lot back. The concrete slab that is down at the moment is terrible, one side is lower than the other and has been laid very badly in sections. All of that needs digging out, there is a dip in the drive and it goes up into where the garage was and there isn't a lot of clearance when I'm reversing in so that needs levelling out also. Then lay a new slab

 

[t-tony]

I have added a lot of things inside my garage mate. I'll take some pictures to show what you can do.

Tony.

 

[Shelly]

Interesting thread
I’ll keep watching

 

[g8jka]

Not a huge amount done yesterday and today because I need a skip to start getting rid of the crap before digging more out. We did get the 2 gate posts out yesterday that sat between the front of the garage and fence down the side of the drive to corner of the house. These were well and trully bedded in so ended up cutting them. I then pulled up the patio that was already in place, as well as digging out the old cement under the original slabs. We will reuse these slabs but going to change the layout a bit once it's all level, at the moment you step out the house down onto a small area and then up onto the bigger area.

Today I pulled up the smaller area of the patio, knock out the small brick wall and started to rake some rubble across to try and level it all up a bit. I'll take some pictures tomorrow as it's dark now and I forgot.

 

[t-tony]

I see the Director has been there again mate. He left his chair .................

Tony.

 

[gookah]

If you look at the photo's you will see the worker.

The chair is for the young shirker.

Funny that my back and knee is knackered now, and not David's.

 

[g8jka]

If you look at the photo's you will see the worker.

The chair is for the young shirker.

Funny that my back and knee is knackered now, and not David's.

My arms ache from taking the photos. You knee is knackered because you keeping banging into that cupholder on the Z4.

 

[g8jka]

Lower area temporarily raised up a bit to get it sort of level all round, but I think the area that was already raised will need to be dug out some more as we can't really afford to go much higher around the conservatory.

Today I dug out almost half of the old concrete slab base from the old garage floor. Hopefully it can be dug down quite a bit more so it's slightly lower than where it is now then we can grade the slope up into it so it is not as severe. But that means getting rid of even more rubble

Hopefully tomorow I can get the majority of the remaining base up and then put down a walkway so at least we can wheel out the old garage and rubble into the skip coming later in the week. Then the whole garden needs levelling up and I can start marking out ready for a new slab for the garage.

When we took down the garage last week, we also removed the old aerial from the apex of the house as I put a new one in the loft. Any guesses how we got it down?

 

[t-tony]

Is that how Pop hurt his knee, climbing up the drain pipe?

Tony.

 

[petecossie]

Lasso!!

 

[g8jka]

Is that how Pop hurt his knee, climbing up the drain pipe?

Tony.

Jeez if he climbed the drain pipe he would probably pull the house down with all that weight behind it

Lasso!!

Not quite. We didn't use any ladders though. The bracket was bolted into the wall which also came down