Best off the peg shed to convert?

[skippyinspace]

OK have now had quotes and have bought the plans for the skyshed and things are getting a bit expensive, So its time to go back to basics.

IF I was to buy a B&Q, Homebase, etc shed, looking at 8 x 8 size, What would you reccomend, Metal, timber, Personal experience of converting.

And most of all a ball park figure to convert one of these standard sheds.

Thanks

[The Sailor]

I bought a metal 6 x 7 shed from Argos, £120, was a bit of a job to put up by myself but got there. The best part is the roof is in two parts, the centre spar splits so this enables me to roll both sections out sideways rather than the orignal way of the whole roof off longways. By doing it sideways I did not have the problem of needing more space. The shed was also big enough for all my gear, all the photo links on my sig.

Jim

[skippyinspace]

Forgot to say my scope is a 8" Celeston Newtonian Advanced non goto model.

All the words are right might not be in the right order though, The tube is about 3 or 4 ft long.

Must admit I like the idea of a double slide.

[Earl]

is that this one?

Buy 6 x 7 Apex Metal Garden Shed at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for Metal sheds.

[The Sailor]

Yes Earl, spot on. Skippy, you can see from my sig what equipment I have and if you look at the photos you can see how far the scope protudes out.

Jim

[Merlin66]

I went for the Argos 6 x 8 tin shed for my 12' Lx.... made such a good cost effective observatory I dismantled it and brought it to Belgium with me.

[Parallax]

Regarding wooden sheds from DIY stores:

These sheds are quite flimsy IMO. Remember that the rigidity comes from the shed being complete. That is, if you remove the roof then the rest of it becomes floppy.

You would need to beef up the wall bearers to combat this.

It might be more prudent to get a shed from someone who makes them, then you can specify the type of construction. Yes, it will be more expensive but it would do the job.

Steve

[Horus]

Imn impressed Sailor, very impressed and I like the wooden panelling as well, a great place to live when the wife chucks you out lol. Seriously well done I hope its well secure

[The Sailor]

Thank Super, yes the panelling has helped me route cables round to where I need them without them being in the way. The security is a problem but all I can do is cover it with cameras and a security light on the door, if someone is determined no amout of security will stop them but they will have to make a bit of a racket to get in

Jim

Oh SWMBO would never do that, well I don't think so

[Horus]

I know mate , my garage was attacked a few months ago but I did not make it easy and in the end they were caught red handed by place plain clothes police albeit after they did all the damage. Im contemplating having a small obsey but still bare the scars from a few months ago.

[The Sailor]

Yes the damage is the worst part, all your hard earned cash down the drain. Although surrounded by a large fence and wall I have tried to ensure that anyone getting into the garden has a hard time, axel grease on top of the fence and wall, the thorniest of rose bushes and what ever else I have learnt from my jungle days is there to give them a nice welcome The area by the observatory and fence has a bit of rubble, enough to give anyone comming over the fence a cracked ankle

Jim

[Horus]

Good lad............... I take it you have the pit with spikes covered with leaves etc lol

[Carbon Brush]

My 10'x8' shed was about £700 from a local company. Much better build quality rigidity than your average B&Q etc. Despite this, I still ended spending a few hundred quid strengthening further and making the roof slide off.

Biggest thing with any shed is that it relies on 4 sides & floor & roof to make a strong box. By making a moveable roof, you lose a lot of the strength.

Hope this helps.

[The Sailor]

Agree David, what I done to diminish any loss of strength was add 4 6x1 planks to the top, this also helped to establish the base for rolling the roof. I have to say that with the shed I bought it was quite rigid without the roof anyway, the corner panels were built in a way to alleviate this and were quite strong.

Jim

[Bizibilder]

Have a look at my Blog in my signature - you will have to go back quite a bit!! There you can see how I "upgraded" a metal shed with a new inner frame to get over the rigidity problem. Mine is only 6'x6' so I would suspect you will need around 8'x8'. The big advantage of the metal shed is the roof conversion is relativly easy - all the bolt holes are already there!!

When I was researching the project it was quite obvious that most commercial garden sheds are really not very strong at all. It is quite unlikely they would stay upright with the roof off and no additional framing,

[Helen]

My advice would be don't skimp on the rigidity/stability when you're building it or it will cost you 3 times as much and a lot of trouble to put it right later.

Helen

[G2EWS]

Lots of photos on your blog Bizibuilder going back to 2009. Thanks for sharing, might have to re read all of that if I decide to put an observatory in.

Best regards

Chris

[malc-c]

To be honest, a decent shed will cost £300 - £500 for something like a 5 x 7 pent roof, and then it will loose a lot of its stability when the roof is made to roll off. Years ago I was involved in the building of our societies observatory, and for around the same amount of cash we managed to build it from stock timber and tongue and grove. Have a look at these images for some inspiration.

[yesyes]

WOW, now THAT is an interesting roof design that I have not seen before. How has that worked out so far? Would you do it again this way if you had the choice?

[malc-c]

Well, the observatory was opened in August 1993, and apart from regular maintenance and modifications to the mount to take a Mead LX200 14", its been running fine. The roof is counter-balanced by a cable and counter-weight system, which contain buckets of lead shot used for grinding pigments. The drop of is south facing.

The design has held up for almost 18 years so yes I guess I would go down the same route again.. like a said, cost wise buying loads of 4" x 3" from a local builder worked our reasonable even back then. If I recall our budget was £1500 on the observatory, and £1500 for a scope and other bits and bobs, but we actually came in at around £1000 for the observatory and that included the concrete for the foundations part of which was a 1m cube for the mount... all laid single handed (and I mean that as I had just had my left arm out of plaster !) by yours truly !

[Merlin66]

Some images of the Argos TSO (Tin shed Observatory)

May be of interest.

[malc-c]

Looking at most of the sheds available, with the full height walls, the viewing, especially to the south would be very limiting in my opinion. The other option I guess is a fully roll off shed.

[Merlin66]

The other option is to cut the side walls at a height and make the "roof" bigger.

With the Argos TSO, I found that I was limited by surrounding houses, street lights, trees etc anyway, so there was no need to push further down to the horizon.

If you go for lower wall just make sure the "roof" will clear the scope!!

Also make sure you finish the build before the storm comes!

[Shandy]

ThAlso make sure you finish the build before the storm comes!

Oh no!

[adamsp123]

I slightly less bothersome option, which I adopted due to lack of space but do not regret in the least, is to have a roll off shed obsy.

If you have the "right" situation regarding the position of your obsy the roll off shed can be much smaller, mine is 6x4 link here - http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-observatories/106187-my-roll-off-obsy.html

Avantages, small shed, lower cost, no roof worries, no strength worries, plenty of space for the scope.

Disadvantages, more exposed to wind - I am lucky as I have a nice sheltered spot anyway, no warm room, again I had a seperate shed already for that duty!