malc-c

Normally a wall plate will be used to bear any kind of joists either by a joist hanger or directly. The wall plate (or sole plate in this case) will be bolted down to your block work allowing the the load to be distributed more evenly.

Something like the attached ?

looks nice and solid...but if that blue line is a DPC it's a little close to the ground. Typically you would take 2 courses above the ground using engineering or other frost resistance spec before a DPC.

Note taken - thanks

Also a treated batten to act as a sole plate (on topof the bricks) would be better to hang the joists off...this distributes the load a little better and is easier to fix into...as you're building a timber frame on top this will also give a better footing to the frame to fix your noggins and studs to. If each of these goes into brick you'll have a bit of a nightmare.... hitting holes (or frogs if you've gone old school with the spec.)

The sketch isn't that clear. Basically the studwork hopefully will do that job - something like the attached, or are you suggesting I still need a soleplate ?

The added bonus of doing that way is that the flooring can be lifted if I ever needed to do so. Stud work off the brick it is then

This is the construction for the floor / walls

Basically a suspended floor using decking joists, supporting 18mm ply flooring. When drilled and screwed should provide a strong structure. I'm not yet certain if I will but the flooring upto the studwork, or take the floor to the edge of the brick and place the studwork on top.. .

LOL - yeah, I don't think this obsy is gonna move

Well it's been a busy week. The first thing I dd was get my levels set for the footings, thanks to Steve's laser leveler it was a breeze to insert lengths of old pipe as markers. Then it was a call to Jewson's to order 2 bulk sacks of ballast and 16 bags of cement. Then a call to HSS and booked a mixer for the weekend... It's amazing how quick you can spend £200 !!

The ballast and cement arrived on Friday morning, and thanks to my son and his friends moved the cement to the safety of the shed just in case it rained, and then they shoveled the ballast out of the bags and barrowed it to the rear garden.

8.00 am this morning I made a start

Fortunately the weather held off with only just the odd spot, and I mean spot of rain whilst we continued with the mixing and laying of the concrete. My Son and his friend turned up and helped with the loading of the mixer, which helped no end.

By 2pm it was obvious that we were going to be short on ballast. A quick trip to Wickes and we returned home with 10 bags which was just enough to finish off the final leveling of the back trench.

So approx 7hrs after starting, we had mixed 2 tonne of ballast with 14 bags of cement, and I still need to do the pier base ! But that will have to wait until next week as we have other plans for tomorrow.

Next step, mark out and make the shutters for the pier base, then order another bulk bag of ballast, 10 bags of cement, bulk bag of sharp sand and around 300 bricks. Hopefully by the time the bank holiday is here in two week time I'll be able to start building the suspended floor.

Footings!! You could almost build a house on them! You will have one sturdy obsy!

That's the idea

The idea is that the footings will provide a level base to build a dwarf wall that will be one or two courses above ground at the lowest point. Then with the shuttering for the mount base in place, and a few of those re-enforcing panels in place, the slab will be poured - thus ending up with a perfectly level brick skirted base, 16' x 8' on which to bolt the flooring framework. - well that's what the guy next door suggested and he does ground works for a living for the past 30 years !

I'm still undesided on the mount... part of me wants to go the same route as Gina, with a concrete pier, the other suggest a traditional tube with flanges that is bolted to the foundation. The latter would allow me to work out the height of the pier once I have the walls in place so I can get a better idea of clearances...

Well, a few hours later the footings are dug, along with a hole for the mount base.

Been pricing up ballast and cement and hope to order this for delivery by next weekend. I have also managed to strike a deal with my son to get the huge pile of earth bagged up ready for dumping at the local council tip. He wants his moped fixed so I've agreed to foot the bill if he helps by clearing the spoil and laboring for me when it comes to pouring the footings for the walls. - Works out about the same cost of hiring a skip but then I would still have to get a couple of cubic yards of earth some 40 yards from the back garden to the road (nearest access point) to dump it in the skip, so that seem a result.

You know when you're too deep in astronomy when you see a picture like this and think 'I could remove that digger arm and mount a big dobsonian on that!"

I've been looking for the USB port on it so I can plug it into Stellarium to control it

Just got to think what to do with the 2-3 cubic yards of earth that has now formed a mountain in the middle of the lawn ! - I know.. my 17yrs old son has just asked me for a sub until his allowance comes in... There are 50 rubble sacks in the shed... I've got just the job for him

8/5/11 - Update

Well there is no going back now !

The guy next door turned up with his digger and I'm pleased to say it managed to get through the side gate JUST !

Next job will be hiring a mixer, and laying the footings down for the wall !

It's finally happening...

Hi,

The tree is effectively NNE and trust me it will be pruned before building commences (I did ask a chap who cut down the hedge at the back to trim it but he didn't have a chain saw powerful enough). Trust me I was lucky enough to get permission to take up half the top patio to re-locate the shed from the other half... and as you can see there is the froggy sandpit to contend with (wife's a childminder ).

It's so frustrating having to wait on others, but the ground is so hard, and I have to watch what I do due to a previous back injury I have little choice but to wait for the digger. I did look at hiring one, but wouldn't know how to drive one and would probably end up destroying the garden !!

I'm waiting for my neighbor to acquire the small digger so not a lot of physical work has been done. I've spent best part of this long weekend bookmarking various websites and costing out materials. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have some additional funding in place and I'll have some idea of when we can start purchasing materials and hiring equipment

TBH, Having it half a meter between the fence and observatory will allow for the odd spot of maintenance such as re-painting both the fence and building, but it's nice to know that I could of gone in tighter if I wanted to - thanks for the clarification

Thanks guys !

Guys,

Sourcing material suppliers etc... can anyone identify what these are

Wayne stated he got them from screwfix, but I've been entering things into the search box and not getting anything like these !

Looks good.

Does anyone ever get planning permission for their shed? Most of the builds on here have the shed up against the property boundary, and permission seems to be required to have a shed within 1m of the boundary.

I suppose worse case scenario is that you have to move it, which shouldn't be too big a deal (compared to moving something with foundations).

It had crossed my mind, especially as I am laying shallow foundations, and I intend to pour concrete to make the base rather than slab or block it... However, I'm not sure on the 1M boundary as there has been a shed in that location for years, and when we replaced the previous shed the company never mentioned that when we stated that it was going to be that close to a fence. The only rule I am familiar with is the 3m height restriction.

Like you said, worse case could be I get asked to take it down, but in most cases, provided it's not something like an illegal 2 story extension, that they issue retrospective planning permission should it contravene some classification (ie it's deemed as a living space or office rather than a storage shed)

Looking really good Malcolm

Got your pier sorted yet?

Cheers

Not yet.. I'll either buy one of the SW piers and use that, or sort out having one made by a fabricator which will be much more sturdier - I've yet got to measure up the heights of the walls (having a raised floor) and what height I thus need to make the centre plinth.

Well I've finally taken the plunge and made a start on my observatory (see my previous ramblings on this thread http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-observatories/137615-observatory-planning-permission-granted.html )

Sun 24/4/11

The first thing I needed to do was to move the 7 x 5 shed that was in the top corner of the plot.

My 17 year old son did his usual vanishing act so I took on the task single handed. The contents were duly emptied onto the lawn and the the shed levered up on to the patio. Using the tried and tested method of using rollers (old broom handles) I rolled the shed to it's new position.

Yes my back is aching today and I've found muscles that I've not used in years... but I had little choice. Anyway, after an hour or so of leveling and bracing the shed was nice and stable in it's new position. Everything was then placed back in the shed, and the security light re-positioned as the shed now blocked it ! The last thing to do was to reinstall the weather station sensors, which also had it's batteries replaced whilst I was at it

Mon 25/4/11

I struck lucky in a couple of ways today. The first is that my next door neighbor (John) works in the civil engineering department for a council and has loads of experience in building, paving and the like, so I've tapped his expertise in what I need to do for the base and footings etc. No sooner had I shown him the plot he asked if I needed the large flag stones that formed the base for the old shed. As he offered to help me with the build if I get stuck I offered them to him.

So the slabs were lifted and some of the lawn edging dug up to allow a clear path for the footings to be dug.

The second bit of luck was that he let slip that one of my other neighbors (Steve) is landscaping his garden this week and is having a mini digger delivered in the morning, and as John will be helping Steve, said that they would use that to dig the foundation footings for the base as the ground would be like rock ! - RESULT

Once the slabs had been removed from the plot John vanished muttering something about being "back in a mo" and promptly returned with some stakes, string and a spray can. Next thing I knew was that I was told to "hold this" and he began measuring out the plot, making the grass with white paint.

He made it look so easy.. so now the 16' x 7' plot has been marked up ready for the digging to commence. All that was left for me to do was to move the compost heap, and tidy up the rest of the plot. I'm hoping to pain the fences tomorrow / Wednesday and get some prices on readymix... just happens that my wife minds a child (she's a professional child minder) who's father sells concrete for a living... Guess who I'll be phoning soon then

Looking back I think I've done OK in the past two days... Hopefully I'll update this thread later this week with more pictures of the build, but for now thanks for looking

Just wanted to say that I've had fantastic service from Ian and Adam at RVO. They processed my order quickly, kept me informed of any changes, and have provided excellent after sales service too.

Their pricing structure is also very keen, and will always recommend them when the opportunity presents itself