A question of aesthetics

I'm still making my garden shed. The question is about the gable end flashings/trims. These are made of galvanised iron.

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The thing will be fairly visible once the garden's tidied up a bit. I thought about a little trompe l'oeil on the doors (someone tried this rather crudely in the past), or just painting the doors a solid colour.

But the gable end fascias. They look, to me, rather clumsy. Should they be painted, perhaps scalloped, tapered or curved, or do they look OK as they are? What d'you reckon?

Reply to
Chris Bacon
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An application of one of those metal bluing solutions perhaps - make them much darker but still leave a bit of "interest" in the lustre...

Reply to
John Rumm

Not sure that will work on zinc, but a coloured varnish would.

Personally I think I might go for something like the "Victorian Railway Station" look, either by sculpting or perhaps painting. Could go for "fake cast iron" 3D effect by doing fretwork on timber or plywood, painting that (say) dark green, and painting the metalwork underneath black.

Reply to
newshound

You could get a decent effect by applying a "frame" to the front made from architrave or similar, and painting that. It would echo the railway station look :-)

Reply to
John Rumm

Placing a frame may raise problems with rain drainage unless the frame and facing where placed out from the gable end so the rain can run down the inside of the frame and be allowed to drip If fixed tight to the barge board then it would need flashing down on to the top surface of the barge board. I hope I am interpreting what you mean by 'placing a frame' correctly

Reply to
fred

Is that your own design of shed. The low pitch intrigues me. What is the roofing material? Did you build the shed yourself? I'm in the process of starting a new shed so details of how you executed it would be helpful, especially truss design and spacing

Reply to
fred

It's a repurposed and redesigned 5m x 6m concrete sectional garage. The trusses are the originals, but cut and welded to a shallower pitch so as to meet "prermitted development" rules. The roof has been tested empirically by dangling human weights off the trusses.

The original building I got for £1. Bargain! The concrete base was probably about £750. Extra steel for end trusses (which were previously timber) about £100. The corrugated iron and flashings, bolts, about £400. I'm going to line it, using insulation various, and plasterboard. I have not costed that yet.

If some pics would be of interest, I could upload some.

I think concrete sectional garages are a good start for a shed, bearing in mind that they can normally be had quite cheaply. The reason for that though is I think asbestos removal( if necessary) which can cost money if your local council hasn't a tip to chuck it in (mine has :) ), but mostly transport. I got mine home in about 10 trips in my van, concrete in the van, trusses on the roof-rack.

Reply to
Chris Bacon

Oddly enough I have been thinking about adapting a concrete sectional garage as a replacement shed (this has a couple of slightly awkward constraints). I had not thought about looking for second hand bits, but I will now!

Reply to
newshound

Thanks for that. I think I have seen previous posts from you on this

Reply to
fred

Having bought a second-hand concrete, sectional garage earlier this year from about 40 miles away, I just hired a 7.5 tonner and did it in one trip.

The only downside was that the wagon only had two seats (last time I hired one, the passenger one was a double), so I only had one assistant with me for the loading and the panels were full-height (2m) rather than the half-height pairs of my existing garage, so it was very hard work.

Reply to
Steve Walker

How much does each panel weigh?

Reply to
GB

If you upload them on the wiki, I can turn them into an article for you...

Reply to
John Rumm

About 110 kg.

Reply to
Steve Walker

That seems a lot between just two of you.

Reply to
GB

Yes, but they are tough and rigid and relatively easy to grip. So you can walk them to the tailboard, and lean them in place while you have a rest. Then lift and slide them on with the lorry bed carrying some of the weight. You'd want good gloves and boots, and beer afterwards.

Reply to
newshound

My problem is that I'm not as tough and rigid as Steve and his mate. :)

Reply to
GB

I'm not sure about that - I have severely arthritic knees and it was killing me. My helper was my 17-year old son ... not as much lift as me and lacking in stamina!

We couldn't walk them as we had to lift them from the pile, move them about 8 feet, then lift them over an obstruction, while turning 90 degrees, before we could put them on a trolley - and to add to the fun, it was very icy!

Once on the trolley (2 at a time), we could roll it another 8 feet, push hard, while lifting and get the trolley onto the tail-lift.

Once up to the bed height, we could roll it along, but then had to lift each one off and put it down, with nowhere to stand behind them, except too high up on the previous pair, and nowhere to stand at either end.

The seller did help with some, but replacing my son, not me and only for the lift to the trolley.

Once home, it was a little easier, as my 15 year old son could help, so it was me on one end and the pair of them on the other.

The two of them could pull the trolley, without me and then we lifted them off and stacked them.

We picked up the 7.5 tonner at about 09:15, drove to the seller, loaded up, drove home, unloaded, returned the truck at about 17:45 and came home. Nothing more than 5 minute breaks for a drink throughout. By the end of it, I was in agony and we were knackered.

Reply to
Steve Walker

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