Category: Stuff I build

Given that it was starting to get cold and that the slates were working out incredibly expensive aaaaand I had six rolls of felt in my garage I decided to buy some OSB and felt my roof to get me through the winter.

Here it is with all the OSB up and the beginnings of a pretty bad bit of felting being done. Getting the OSB and felt up was very hard work and I couldn’t have accomplished it without the help of Oli.

After finishing the felting I took the waterproof membrane and started stapling it over the stud walls.

The next step was putting the windows in. The windows were bought off eBay for £70. I just chose the windows that were the cheapest and in roughly the size that I wanted then I built the stud walls to fit the windows.

This was about the time storm Ciaron made an appearance so I started running around the workshop and tacking fence panels up to protect the membrane. I also added some batons to the membrane up high in the triangle bits to keep everything intact. As I write this it’s all still in place and the cladding should arrive in 2-3 weeks to “finish” the outside.

I have my own nail gun. It’s a little one for doing quite small jobs like pinning T&G to the outside of the OG shed, maybe a light bit of furniture work or attaching a skirting board. What I needed was a kick ass nail gun capable of firing 90mm nails into a rafter and holding up the roof of my new building.

Fortunately – as always – Hodgsons had one.

This is by far the best tool I’ve ever hired. It’s heavy, it’s loud it’s dangerous. It’s just every man’s dream.

I was almost sad when I had to return it to the hire place. Fortunately I’ll probably rent it again when it comes time to putting the cladding up. I could use a hammer but at £24 quid for a days rental why would I bother with a hammer?

Coming along nicely. All the stud walls are in, the ridge beam is up and all rafters are in place.

The next step will be to put a roof on. One option is a membrane followed by shingles or slates. The other quick and cheap option is to temporarily put some OSB up and felt it, then next Summer do a proper job. After that I’ll have to put a membrane on the walls and then clad to entire building in either Oak, Larch or Cedar.

I used some rafter hangers to put up the mezzanine in my new workshop. Initially I just fixed them in place with some 40mm 3.5 screws. However on the rafter hanger was written to use square twist nails. Being a bit of a novice at this I’d never heard of square twist nails so I decided to investigate.

I bought a couple of bags from my local hardware store and set to it.

They are an absolute thing of beauty. They twist as you hammer them in and everything! Those rafter hangers are not coming out again!