TARDIS Shed

[Grantc93]

Hey Guys and Girls,

I have been doing up some plans for a shed on my allotment and I thought I would share what I am going to do.

I had thought of just buying a small shed to keep bits and bobs in, but the cost of sheds (over in NI anyway) is the guts of £200 so I had thought of building one and while I am at it I thought I may as well make something that looks cool so I started drawing up plans for the TARDIS.

Here is the first model I made in Sketchup


Now this was just a shell and really I could have just copied one from the internet but I wanted to get an idea of how exact the spacing of the panels needed to be to look good, what I found was there is plenty of room for error with this and it will still look good.

So I started planning out the top



With this I went back an forward about how large I wanted the tiers but I settled for a shallow roof just to keep the profile low to help mitigate the top heaviness of the shed.

I then mocked up the side panels, these took a few tries to get correct so that I can just slot them into the frame and fasten them to the main post.


Lastly I made up the base and frame for it all to come together


The main thing to note about the frame is that the posts on the corners come down about 700mm, this is because we are not allowed to build permanent structures on the allotment so I cannot put concrete down as a foundation so My plan is to stake it down with the posts so that it should stand up to a bit wind.

I have done a very rough working out of the wood I need and without any deals or shopping around the wood will cost around £300 ( I will be doing my utmost to not pay that much), this is giving plenty of room for error as there will be a lot of spare wood left over which I do not mind as it wont go to waste.

I am in the process of making the 3D models into proper plans so that if anyone wants to make something like this then they will have something to follow.

I hope this was interesting to someone out there and I will update when I get plans ready and when I start building

[Snoop Puss]

Looks good. Best of luck with the construction.

[nickdub]

To be honest yours looks much more of a professional effort than any of mine. I usually start from the opposite end of the project too ie I begin with what materials such as poly-carbonate roof sheets and large lumber I can get cheap or free, and then look at the size of roof I can get from them - that in relation to the space I have available, more or less fixes the "design" I eventually go with. Things tend to evolve a bit during the build as I find stuff in skips, or something which I thought would be OK when built obviously doesn't work or isn't strong enough.

I prefer plastic roofs as I like the daylight to work in and I can have a grapevine growing inside the workshop.

[Grantc93]

To be honest yours looks much more of a professional effort than any of mine. I usually start from the opposite end of the project too ie I begin with what materials such as poly-carbonate roof sheets and large lumber I can get cheap or free, and then look at the size of roof I can get from them - that in relation to the space I have available, more or less fixes the "design" I eventually go with. Things tend to evolve a bit during the build as I find stuff in skips, or something which I thought would be OK when built obviously doesn't work or isn't strong enough.

I prefer plastic roofs as I like the daylight to work in and I can have a grapevine growing inside the workshop.

Oh don't get me wrong I want to save money anyway I can so if i get my hands on wood for free or cheap the plans are going out the window, there will be no small amount of winging it in this project. but I like to start with the illusion I know what I am doing

[nickdub]

"...but I like to start with the illusion I know what I am doing "

Sounds all too familiar.

With my last major build I managed to find someone with a lean-to conservatory they were selling on Ebay. After paying for it and a hire truck to move it the cost was quite a lot, but I ended up with some high quality materials including strong glazing bars and some double glazed widows and doors. Only broke one bit of glass and only had to buy one extra roofing sheet, so I reckon I did OK.

That's my main workshop now - about 35' long and about 15' wide from memory.

Good luck with your search for materials - may be a wanted thingy on Freecycle might be worth a try ?

[lottie dolly]

My very first shed was old fence panels for the sidesand back,and a made up door,it did fine for a couple of years until we got better,could you put some slabs down to stand it on,they also can be got scrounged.