My Garden's Working Progress

Sterling effort JJ!

I would happily lift those chunks out for you, but no way would I want to have to tackle the job of breaking it up as you did!

 

Thank you to everyone's kind words of encouragement! It is one of the things that keeps me going on jobs like this when there appears to be no end in site.

The large slabs I posted pictures of have now been broken up. We decided to invest in a sledge hammer and propping up one corner with some pallet underneath would smash the corner off with not much effort.

Started attacking the old lean to base, having still not found the drain pipe after digging down into the soil where we were told it was. Have concluded that it was never there, as my OH put it "that's the long route, the shortest would be directly along the door". The lean to base is coming away much easier than the previous layers as the concrete seems pretty soft. However this is counterbalanced with it being reinforced round the edges - at least I hope that's the only place they are - which is slowing me down as the breaker can't go through them, or gets stuck.

How it looked yesterday afternoon. You can just make out the reinforced bars in the last two pictures.

 

Thank you Folly! But unfortunately I'm already doing the grafting for my OH who suffers from sciatica. Although he seemed to be ok with the sledgehammer Sunday

Thanks for getting back to me on that.

Yesterday I found this blog from a guy who built a shed from pallet and won a competition Ronseal were holding.

http://cabbagedan.com/2012/05/19/project-pallet-summerhouse-day-15/

I showed it to the OH and he said it was ugly. He still reckons that each piece of cladding for the shed would have to be rebated by a rebate plane on both sides so it would then act like ship lap rather than feather edge like in that blog I just posted up. I don't mind if I have to rebate every single piece, but I'm not doing it with a rebate plane. I suggested to him we use the router but he said it would take just as long setting up.

Any advice on how we could clad this "properly" would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to invest in properframework for the shed rather than just cable tying a load of pallets together to make a wall though. It just seems that cladding the thing is going to the most expensive bit.

Also I'm still trying to track down a door and window. My nan had promised me a load and said that the workmen who took them out said they were completely rotted through, so I'm back to the drawing board with that one. If anyone can suggest a good place to find good usable doors and windows I would appreciate it.

 

I have a door that you could have, but I'm in Oxford..............

 

Tell your husband my pallet shed is "rustic" not ugly

 

Welcome to GC CabbageDan! and well spotted that you were being mentioned in dispatches - I expect your electronic ears were burning

 

Good morning CabbageDan
and welcome to GC, we all gather in the shed some nights and there's a brew of Comfrey tea on the go usually...
get's a bit loony some nights - hope you're up for a laugh!!

 

Welcome to the forum Cabbage Dan.

You should ignore my husband's remarks. He doesn't seem to understand that some people want to make something from next to nothing. I, on the other hand have found your shed you built highly inspirational, as I share a similar way of thinking.

Could you please tell me how you managed to clad the shed without the pallets splitting lengthways? How are they spaced and how many pallets did you use roughly to clad the shed alone?

 

JJ, I have two new windows that you are more than welcome to have for free. I'm in Sussex, but without knowing where you are in the country, I don't know of how much use that this may be to you.
Ref the boarding, I was thinking more along the lines of placing it vertically with small cover fillets to hide each joint. Kind of dutch boarding style but not (if that makes sense)
Now that we have the computer sorted again, I'll get onto to finding some photos for you.

 

Thanks very much for your offer and help Eddie. Unfortunately I'm based in South Essex so it would be a bit of a trek to get them.

I don't understand what you mean by dutch boarding style. I tried looking it up on google but couldn't see what you meant. Care to elaborate please?

 

After several weeks of chipping and having my shoes and socks filled with dust and grit, it's finally gone. All the rubble was taken away last night and this is how it looked soon after in the evening.



We found our cold water pipe hugging the wall under the door when we removed the last piece together. Unfortunately it seems to be above ground level so we will have to make the base of the steps higher to compensate. The drop from the patio doors is roughly 19inches so we will have to build some substantial steps anyway.

 

Bravo Jane,
looks like the worst is over. How big an area are you gaining and what future plans do you have for it?
Jenny