Small outbuildings, erection and maintenance

[mr brightside]

So, i need to refit the felting on my shed and summerhouse this spring, both are used for timber storage and low value tooling/bolting etc. Can anyone recommend a good quality felt? I'm going to underlay it with roofing underlay.

Also i'm tempted to build a small 3.5 sided outbuilding in the corner of my garden, something small enough to not get noticed and require retrospective planning. Is concrete block best on price? How deep for the footings and can you just use compacted rubble? How is this best done? i'm just going to be storing fuel in it like timber and anthracite. I have very little building experience, but i'd like that to change!

[Catweazle]

I much prefer using fibreglass to roofing felt. It's incredibly tough and very easy to incorporate gutters, vents, down pipes etc.

[adam2]

I much prefer using fibreglass to roofing felt. It's incredibly tough and very easy to incorporate gutters, vents, down pipes etc.

No direct experience of fibreglass roofing, but I have found that roofing felt seldom lives up to expectations regarding durability. It is also flammable.
Corrugated iron is cheap and easy and lasts for ten to twenty years, or almost forever if painted every few years.

[mr brightside]

Probably don't have the skills to reroof a shed/summerhouse in wrinkly tin yet, but i'm working to it.

As for my outbuilding, i'd like to learn how to lay and compact footings, and lay blocks and mortar; i can mix mortar okay. I was thinking 3 courses of blocks with one in the ground sat on the rubble footings, then screw a ring of timber down with caulking under it to seal it. From that i'll build a timber frame and do the sides in fencing panels with the roof in wrinkly tin painted dark brown. Nobody will see it as the neighbours have got 7 foot high fencing in that corner on both sides, and in front is the house. It's close enough to a temporary structure for my money, and its construction is simple but skill enhancing. Keep it below the fences and nobody will know.

[adam2]

Corrugated iron roofing is very easy to install, and made even easier with modern materials and power tools.
Self drilling fixing screws are available, these cut their own hole in the roofing and fix it to the supporting timbers. Fixed in seconds with a cordless drill.
Use plenty of fixings, and generously sized supports.
The fixing points tend to rust, apply zinc based anti rust paint generously.

Take great care in the vicinity of overhead power lines.

As regards the rest of the structure, concrete blocks are cheap, simple and durable. Laying them needs a little training or experience but is not that hard.
No elaborate footings are needed for an outbuilding. One simple design is a trench filled with rough concrete. Another uses old paving slabs, and then blocks.

[kenneal - lagger]

If you place the building one metre away from the boundary and it is less than 2.6 metres high for a monopitch roof and more than 5 metres from the house you do not need planning permission. You do however need building regulations approval.

[mr brightside]

Finally got my shed and summer house re-roofed. I didn't bother buying any felt, i just used some Protect A1 underlay felt that i had knocking about, it lasts very well as long as it doesn't flap about in the wind, in which case it will disintegrate. I could have bought 25l of Creosote, but didn't need that much so went for 8l of Creocoat substitute stuff instead. I had wanted to thin it and spray it on with a garden pressure sprayer, but it was too thick so i ended up brushing it on instead. If you thin it with white sprirt it will brush on quite well.