Now the misses is expecting the pins in the house have to go....outside that is!
So I thought I would post my progress on here. I've been planning this for a month or so now, and in the last couple of weeks it is starting to come together.
Last week I demolished my old shed in the garden and bought one of those plastic shed things to put the gardening stuff in. Not one for gardening (see pic below) I don't have a lot of gardening equipment.
My next dilemma was structure to get. Looking on line I found myself looking at sheds, brick built garages, then summer houses then log cabins.
Now I have 5 pins in the house, 2 stashed at a friends house and 2 more incoming. So that's 9 in total. So I needed to get a structure that was big enough.
After deciding on a cabin measuring 5m x 4m It was time to sort out a suitable base.
After looking into how much a skip was and how much earth I had to shift by hand I decided I would go with a man with a digger and a flatbed truck. It took the digger 4hrs and 3 trips to the dump to get rid of the soil. Would have taken me days to dig that out. There was previously a garage here if the neighbouring properties are to go by and so under the earth was remains of a concrete floor which I took out to use as hardcore for the new base going in.
Hole dug I then put shuttering around the edges. Put the hardcore back in and the man with a digger dropped off 2.5 tonnes of type one for a biscuit. Which I had to manually shovel the spread around.
I decided to have the base enlarge to 6mx4.1m
I was going to go the mixing of cement myself but on looking at the amount of earth coming out and doing a calculation of how much I needed Which I calculated at 3m sq the price for mixer hire and raw material was £270 and at least a 10hr workout for me and my dad. I decided to go down the ready mix route. On shopping around I found a supplier that would deliver for £402. The lorry would mix it on site as you need it to minimise wastage and non carrier charge! One supplier wanted to charge me £150 for space not being used in the mixer!
On talking to the company they told me that the mixer was 3m wide, 4m tall and 8m long! Being an end of terrace with no side gate in the middle up the road the only option was the back alleyway. The trouble was if the lorry did not fit it would mean wheelbarrowing the cement 200 yards up the alleyway. To make it worse the supplier told me it was 25 barrows per metre. That's 75 barrows over 200 yards one way to be done in 45mins!!!
I organised a crew of friends and family ready for the epic wheelbarrow run. 6 barrows, 6 guys ready for a relay race.
I measured the back access and it was 3.2m wide varying in places getting bigger. But it was still down to the driver of the truck as to wether he wanted to tackle the job or force me to transport the cement all that way.
Lucky for me...
This bad boy pumps 1m sq per minute! The base was filled in 45 minutes and took 4.5m sq to fill. That would have been 110 wheelbarrows in 45mins! Epic!
Base being laid, even the driver(orange vest) pitched in!
Base laid, just waiting for the cat footprints to appear! This is my progress so far.. The cabin I chose after going to the manufactures show room I decided was too small and so have ordered a 5.9mX4m cabin instead. Which will go the whole width of the garden. It is being delivered Friday 23rd and I will be putting. It up over that weekend.
I will post more pictures and updates as it progresses. Apologies if this thread is like watching cement dry, should get more interesting with the plans I have for my man cave.
So I thought I would post my progress on here. I've been planning this for a month or so now, and in the last couple of weeks it is starting to come together.
Last week I demolished my old shed in the garden and bought one of those plastic shed things to put the gardening stuff in. Not one for gardening (see pic below) I don't have a lot of gardening equipment.
My next dilemma was structure to get. Looking on line I found myself looking at sheds, brick built garages, then summer houses then log cabins.
Now I have 5 pins in the house, 2 stashed at a friends house and 2 more incoming. So that's 9 in total. So I needed to get a structure that was big enough.
After deciding on a cabin measuring 5m x 4m It was time to sort out a suitable base.
After looking into how much a skip was and how much earth I had to shift by hand I decided I would go with a man with a digger and a flatbed truck. It took the digger 4hrs and 3 trips to the dump to get rid of the soil. Would have taken me days to dig that out. There was previously a garage here if the neighbouring properties are to go by and so under the earth was remains of a concrete floor which I took out to use as hardcore for the new base going in.
Hole dug I then put shuttering around the edges. Put the hardcore back in and the man with a digger dropped off 2.5 tonnes of type one for a biscuit. Which I had to manually shovel the spread around.
I decided to have the base enlarge to 6mx4.1m
I was going to go the mixing of cement myself but on looking at the amount of earth coming out and doing a calculation of how much I needed Which I calculated at 3m sq the price for mixer hire and raw material was £270 and at least a 10hr workout for me and my dad. I decided to go down the ready mix route. On shopping around I found a supplier that would deliver for £402. The lorry would mix it on site as you need it to minimise wastage and non carrier charge! One supplier wanted to charge me £150 for space not being used in the mixer!
On talking to the company they told me that the mixer was 3m wide, 4m tall and 8m long! Being an end of terrace with no side gate in the middle up the road the only option was the back alleyway. The trouble was if the lorry did not fit it would mean wheelbarrowing the cement 200 yards up the alleyway. To make it worse the supplier told me it was 25 barrows per metre. That's 75 barrows over 200 yards one way to be done in 45mins!!!
I organised a crew of friends and family ready for the epic wheelbarrow run. 6 barrows, 6 guys ready for a relay race.
I measured the back access and it was 3.2m wide varying in places getting bigger. But it was still down to the driver of the truck as to wether he wanted to tackle the job or force me to transport the cement all that way.
Lucky for me...
This bad boy pumps 1m sq per minute! The base was filled in 45 minutes and took 4.5m sq to fill. That would have been 110 wheelbarrows in 45mins! Epic!
Base being laid, even the driver(orange vest) pitched in!
Base laid, just waiting for the cat footprints to appear! This is my progress so far.. The cabin I chose after going to the manufactures show room I decided was too small and so have ordered a 5.9mX4m cabin instead. Which will go the whole width of the garden. It is being delivered Friday 23rd and I will be putting. It up over that weekend.
I will post more pictures and updates as it progresses. Apologies if this thread is like watching cement dry, should get more interesting with the plans I have for my man cave.