Building Small workshop

[JimSiam]

I am looking at building a small workshop and just after advice on construction

Size - 6m x 8m

Flat roof (10 Degree fall over the narrower 6 m)

4m post spacings

either 4m cement plank or stramit decking for the roof

Looking at 4x2" C section for the main rafters

If using the 4m cement planks would 4" posts be sufficient?

Does this sound doable or need to upsize anything?

[eyecatcher]

Your small workshop is bigger than my house! You lucky man.

The principle of your design is ok but difficult to advise fully as you dont mention the floor slab+ wall construction.

Stramit board is a western flat roof board and not available here unless you are referring to the particle ply board. Either way stick to a corrugated cement or steel roof panel.

Roof steels personally I always favour using a lesser depth steel say 75mm but adding a couple of purlins to help distribute load onto the other two walls and it helps when you can tie all the rafters to the purlins.

With a purlin you never know when you will need it to hang something or someone!

Smaller steel are easier to manage and handle and you can increase the guage thickness to give you the equivalent of the deeper section.

If i was surrounded by trees I would take the roof pitch down as low as that. When leaves and blown twigs end up on that roof they stay there until you manually remove them....it may be better to make a pitched roof; a bit more work but arguably a better result.

Good luck.

[JimSiam]

The floor will be a standard slab, walls using breeze blocks with a special coating on the outside for heat reduction.

The roof has to be stramit style decking or the cement planks as it will have a greenroof layer on top to reduce heat doing it like this

[yankee99]

subscribed for costs and pics! good luck

[Crossy]

Should be an interesting build, please post progress.

A green roof is HEAVY, so I think you're looking at beefing everything up to keep it up there. If it's grass are you going to cut it (mower plus operator loading).

Although aimed at timber structures and in imperial units (US site) this could be a useful starting point https://www.bae.ncsu.edu/topic/lidconference07/Post%20Conference%20Green%20Roof/3.Jones.Green%20Roof%20Structural%20Design.pdf

or this http://www.greenroofguide.co.uk/design/

plus loads of other Google results.

[JimSiam]

Going to use low growth plants to avoid the need for maintenance, all they should need is watering, via sprinkler system, the weight will be in the water mostly as the plastic panels are light, membrane too, the soil will be a special mix to retain water

Thanks for the links Crossy

[wayned]

With a span of 6 meters and the increased weight of the "green roof", I would use 4 x 2 "D' rather than "C", and space the rafters 1 meter apart rather than the standard 2 meters. Not a big increase in cost.

[JimSiam]

The roof area will be 8m x 6m, what I didn't make clear was the room area will be 8m x 4m giving a 1 m overhang at the fron and back as eaves. hopefully giving some counter leverage to the 4m span as well (maybe an overall of 8m x 5m, making 500mm eaves is an option too)

Considering there would be only 3 D sections to buy, its only a few hundred baht it would add, but the wall thickness of each also needs to be considered, also considering just doing a full formwork and pour the columns and beams myself, it may work out better.

Also what are peoples thoughts on Hebel vs breese blocks for the walls?

[godden]

Locks locks and more locks, fort knox.

[carabou]

Srtramit?Sounds as if you are an Aussie.

Slab and blocks specs are not too important but the roof structure is as you will have a HEAVY wet load to cope with.

Without getting in to really big rafter/purlin sizes you will need a centre support fo give a 3m max. span.

This is for a light weight roof material ie gal iron of some sort. Low pitch would need a Stramit/cliplok style materia. But I do not see how you can use the sort of cover material/system you are contemplating for it.

Metal 'c' sections are the light and cheap way to go. Readily avalable here too.

If you use pre cast concrete panels for the roof an effective waterproof membrane will be needed as well as a cast insitu or precast concrete beam system. Get an engineer to look at this as strength is crucial.

If heat control is the aim you are going to be better off using a good insulating system under a light weight roof.

Hope it helps.

[BadBouy]

Not sure what you will be making but does this leave enough room for assembly area and finishing? It's nice to have a separate clean room for finishing.

[LNKDES1]

Locks locks and more locks, fort knox.

a 20' shipping container might help with security here for when you're on holiday.

[siamike]

In the tropical climate of Thailand, vines grow extremely fast,...so if you're into "green" insulation, instead of putting soil on your roof you might consider planting some vines around the sides of your shop and encourage them to grow up onto the roof. If you plant edible grape vines, in a few season's time not only will the vines be shading your shop but you'll be able to eat the fruits of your labor

You didn't mention what type of work you'll be doing in your shop, but perhaps this link will be useful: http://modelengineeringinthailand.com/

Please do post your progress & final build,...I may want to copy your design

Best of luck to you.

[JimSiam]

Not sure what you will be making but does this leave enough room for assembly area and finishing? It's nice to have a separate clean room for finishing.

its a test for larger scale use on the house

[JimSiam]

In the tropical climate of Thailand, vines grow extremely fast,...so if you're into "green" insulation, instead of putting soil on your roof you might consider planting some vines around the sides of your shop and encourage them to grow up onto the roof. If you plant edible grape vines, in a few season's time not only will the vines be shading your shop but you'll be able to eat the fruits of your labor

You didn't mention what type of work you'll be doing in your shop, but perhaps this link will be useful: http://modelengineeringinthailand.com/

Please do post your progress & final build,...I may want to copy your design

Best of luck to you.

Vines tend to work their way into the structure and cause cracking and moisture problems, the system I have sourced locally is an Australian design and made in Indonesia, it looks pretty good, I got some samples for the wall panels already to try, this is a 50x50cm square panel.

[JimSiam]

I found 2 companies doing clip lok decking here, but no idea of price or gauge of decking on one, it would need to be up to Lysaghts 406 or Bluescopes decking, will report back once I have pricing and spec.

This company does a 0.5mm which is thicker than Lysaghts 406 which is 0.48mm, so could be be a goer, but the ribs do not look vertical enough to provide the same support as 406 does (pictured below)

Lysaghts 406, this can take loads of 5.6kg/m2

As you can see they are very different beasts