Portacabin

[Dave]

Can anyone tell me if there are any hard points in a porta cabin?

I have been tasked, by the school I work at, to connect a goal post to a porta cabin side wall, so as to prevent the posts from falling and hurting a pupil.

Looking at the lower porta cabin wall (it is the wall that is on lower ground than the entrance side, at about 2 to 3 foot lower) it looks like a skirt of ply has been nailed onto it, but initial investigation does not give me much info. A stud finder does not give me any indication of a anything substantial behind the skirt (I suspect metal has influenced it. I have taken off a small air vent to look behind, but there turned out to be just three 19 mm holes in a row behind it. Short of finding a dentist sized mirror and a dark afternoon, I can't see me finding out if I could use this as a hard point

I really want to fasten something a bit higher up the wall; hence...

How is a porta cabin constructed?

Dave

ps I googled for this and found lots of sites that would sell me a porta cabin :-(

[Rob Morley]

Can you not fix it to the ground instead?

[nightjar]

To judge from the work needed to make one secure on our industrial estate, probably not.

Colin Bignell

[s--p--o--n--i--x]

Couldn't you pass long bolts through the wall, with metal plates on the insude to spread the load?

sponix

[s--p--o--n--i--x]

..or simply paint goalposts on the outside?

sponix

[Dave]

No. But would you believe, the games master wants to play football on a slightly sloping piece of tarmac :-(

At the upper end of the slope is the porta cabin and no grass, hence the requirement to anchor to the building. At the other end is grass. Now tell me where he is coming from?

Dave

[Dave]

LOL, now that's thinking laterally :-)

Dave

[Dave]

That is what I expected.

Thanks to all for your replies

Dave

[Owain]

It's character-building, innit?

Obviously he doesn't want to get his Timberlands muddy in wet weather.

Owain

[Badger]

Jacking legs perhaps otherwise no.

If its a rollalong (often mistaken for portacabins) it has substantial floor skid members but the walls are quite thin sheet material.

[Dave]

I never thought about that :-)

Thanks for the info :-))

Dave

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 21 Sep 2005, Dave wrote that s--p--o--n--i--x wrote that Dave wrote

Seriously (FWIW), I think both of those are *excellent* lateral- thinking ideas -- particularly the painting-on of goalposts.

What about trying that out with the games master? (Honest question; it's worth exploring.)

[Dave]

The walls are all thin sheet, but there looks like a substantial bit of timber that some skirting boards have been nailed to. So perhaps you are right on the construction.

As I said earlier, I'll pass the problem onto county.

Many thanks to all.

Dave

[Rob Morley]

Is it too late to take him back and get another one?

Dunno, but I know where I think he should be going ...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Portacabin is actually a trademark, and they are very protective of it. 'The Bill' did a story which involved one burning down calling it a Portacabin and they sued and won. Seems genuine Portacabins don't burn.

[Dave]

Perhaps he likes the despondent look on the goalie's face as he retrieves the ball from the net :-)

Dave

[Dave]

Having looked at this problem with the thoughts of this ng in my mind, that is what I am going to do.

The playground had newly tarmac laid 4 weeks ago, but what I will do is drill a hole through the tarmac and ballast and then hammer in an eyebolt. It will be too close to the wall of the porta cabin to be a trip hazard.

Many thanks for all the advice,

Dave

[Steve Walker]

Nah, the caretaker would soon get fed up of repairing the ball-holes every time someone scored.

[Dave]

It's mate, that was demolished last year, could have been one of those then. It was due to be demolished in the 4 days prior to Easter. In the end, I had to let him into the grounds Easter Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday before he got the thing flat packed.

On the last day, he called me to say he had left the site and I could come and secure it, but he failed to hit the hang up button and I could hear him saying to the young lad that toiled al week with him 'well, that job didn't want us go go away, did it?'

I felt quite sorry for him. That cabin was one tough customer :-)

Dave

[Alistair Riddell]

IIRC it's "Portakabin"

They bloody do burn; a friend once had an old derelict one to dispose of and one match and half an hour later there was not much but a few pieces of smouldering steelwork left.

I wouldn't recommend repeating this - apparently the smoke could be seen from miles away.