Discussion: What makes a good workshop

[Steve Cousins]

Hi all,

I recently moved house and have started to build a workshop in the garden - see photo of progress so far.

I have been giving quite a bit of thought as to what a workshop should contain and how it should be laid out. Obviously, this depends on your areas of interest, but it seems to me this would make a good topic for discussion.

My workshop needs to contain a computer and printer, storage of components for development projects, storage of components for my kits, an area to assemble and pack kits, an area to solder and assemble electronics, an area for basic woodwork and general DIY tools, a nice comfy sofa (to relax on when "working"), a large workbench, and space for miscellaneous "rubbish". 

I want good light so I plan to have several roof windows and lots of LED lights. Lots of power sockets, of course. A large television screen would also be nice. 

As my workshop is in the garden and thus a little inconvenient to get to a sink and water, I want to include these in the workshop. Similarly, I want to be able to make drinks, prepare and eat snacks - all in the comfort of my man-cave.

Here in the UK we can build things like workshops in the garden, with some limitations on size and position, without getting permission from the authorities or having to meet any building regulations (except for the electrical installation). This is called permitted development and covers what I plan to do. My workshop will have internal dimensions of approximately 3.16m by 7.0m (10'4" by 23'0")

So, not much to ask for really.

And, yes, that is a chicken in the photo. She seems to think the bag of sand is actually a bag of chicken feed. We have 5 chickens and they have all been getting in the way when I've been digging. Apparently, the worms are a nice treat.

Steve

[G Kr]

Great project Steve... but the best are the chickens.

Gerd

[Nick Brok]

Hi Steve,

Generous of your government... Here in the Netherlands you need permission for nearly everything you want to build.... But with your chickens you have fresh eggs. ;-) I hope you will isolate your workshop-shack for wintertime. ;-) Looks nice to have your own place for designing, building your electronics project....

Nick

Op vrijdag 30 oktober 2020 om 23:01:54 UTC+1 schreef Steve Cousins:

[Mark T]

Hi Steve,

You also need a fridge for beer and a bed for when your wife doesn’t let you back in the house:)

Here in canada I’m lucky to have a basement with windows, same area as ground floor so lots of room. I think every house has a basement, probably the same in the us, and some even have sub basement. I viewed one house that even had a sub sub basement as it was on the side of a hill.

Mark

[Steve Cousins]

Hi Mark

Good advice thanks. I'll add a fridge and bed to my wish list. I'll probably need a bigger workshop!

Basements are rare in the UK. Our house is 240 years old and has a small cellar which has a ceiling too low to allow you to stand up straight and is only under one room. A full-size basement (or cellar) would give a huge amount of extra space. I wish basements were common here so I could collect even more "junk".

Steve

[Greg Holdren]

Most houses in California don't have basements. Most US house probably do. I remember my grandmas basement and it was scary. dark musty and scary. :) The house in Illinois, were I spent the in the 60s, had a basement which was the TV room and Ham Shack. Seemed like the rest of the house to me.

Greg

[Tom Storey]

Steve,

Sounds like you just need to build a second house, or maybe have a list of things you *don't* want. :-D

Make sure you have a good dust extractor for your woodworking tools (wait .. is that just another thing on the list?) - I can imagine everything becoming covered in a fine dust. Perhaps even some dust curtains that you can draw across one section of the room to block out the electronics area from said dust... Or a solid wall in between.

I would love to have some chickens even just to watch them, but I don't know how they'd go in the middle of the 'burbs - too many cats etc wandering around and for some reason my lawns seem to be the neighborhood cat bathroom... :-/

Tom

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[Alan Cox]

Or you can do it on a larger scale...

http://www.computermuseum.org.uk/

[Steve Cousins]

Hi Tom

I think you are right, it is starting to sound like a second house. Perhaps I'm expecting to get too much in my "workshop".

Chickens are very entertaining.

Steve

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[Steve Cousins]

Alan seems to be suggesting I have quite a bit of tech to find a home for. I'll have you know I don't have any "problems" with my collecting instincts. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Steve

[Francis Pierot]

Hello Steve, 

Your project looks great but I think your main problem is not what to put in it, but rather how to build it.

I’d put an armed concrete screed on the ground first. Within years if not monthes, rain will make the earth ground soft and moisty and unable to support the weight of your walls and roofing and everything could start to move slightly, break and eventually fall. You need a solid base on some isolating and draining (sand, gravel, PVC) layers so it doesn’t lie directly on ground earth. 

If you don’t, at the very least put some draining system under the ground around the building to attract water as far as possible from your walls base.

Not that it rains so much in UK, of course ;-)

[Tom Szolyga]

Hi Steve,

Great start to a Workshop!  I took over the garage for mine.  I would like to offer a suggestion along with Francis.  I would add a footing of rein forced concrete below the brick wall.  Where I live, a footing is 6" to 12" high made of concrete (obviously I live in the US) with 1/4" to 3/8" rebar wired together.  This will keep the bricks from shifting regardless of rain or frost.  I grew up in the "Great White North" where footings were required to be 3' deep to survive the winter frost and frozen ground.  That was REAL digging!

Best regards,

Tom 

[Steve Cousins]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I appreciate the need for serious foundations to prevent movement. However, my workshop is going to be a wooden building that can stand a little movement. The inside will not have a pretty plaster finish so I won't have to worry about small movements causing ugly cracks. I plan to use sheet material like ply or OSB for the internal walls, allowing easy fitting of anything I want to hang on them.

I built a workshop/office (for me) and a gym (for the boys) in my last garden using similar construction. The first was workshop/office I built about 18 years ago and where I worked for about 14 years. This building did suffer some visible movement as I did not account for a transition from firm soil to soft soil along one side. However, it was not a serious problem and the building probably has many more years left in it. When I built the gym I made sure the blocks were set on firm, undisturbed soil. Movement was never a problem with the gym. I've attached photos for your viewing pleasure. The one with the solar panel is the gym.

As for drainage, the new workshop is on a slope with a large drainage ditch about 10 feet away from the back wall. I think a little gravel around the building will be all that is needed to provide adequate drainage.

My list of things I want in my workshop now exceeds the space in it, so I will likely build two buildings - eventually. One for clean activities and one for dirty activities.

Any ideas on what makes a good workshop would be most welcome.

Steve

[Jerry Chapman]

Whatever size you think that you need, just double that.  Yours maybe limited by the area available, so maybe build up like a second story.  Or maybe a attic for storage.   It doesnt add that much to the cost to build up.

You never can have to much room.  The cost of the building is cheap, the expensive part is filling it with all the new toys and equipment.

Jerry

[Bill Shen]

I so wish the answer to the lack of space is more space, life would've been so much easier.  I don't know the answer, but I do know I have a garage 60ft x 33ft that can accommodate 8 cars and a 600sq ft 'man cave' over the garage with kitchen and bathroom.  The 'man cave' is now overrun with TV, poker table, couch, plants, and electronic benches; the allegedly 8-car garage is holding (precariously) exactly 1 car and the rest are gardening equipment, wine making equip + 100 gallons of wines, woodworking tools, and electronic parts/equipment stacked to the ceiling--Oh wait, I've just pulled out the one car so I can "temporarily" store the dahlia bulbs I dug up from my garden this week.

  "horror vacui" which loosely translated to "retrocomputer hobbyist abhors a vacuum" is so true!

  Bill