Hi Tim and Tony, I would go for lumber frame construction every time. Skin the outside with plywood and vinyl siding, use asphalt shingles and vinyl windows, and put the whole thing on a floating concrete slab. Insulate with fibreglass batts, sheet the walls with gypsum drywall. Rule one though is that any lumber in the structure must be kept dry and away from the earth, ie up in the air or on concrete with 4"-6" minimum distance from any earth. If kept dry, good spruce,pine or fir lumber will last 60-100 years minimum. Naturally, Canadian lumber is preferred if available 8>) . With the lumber frame, you can prefab the walls and roof trusses before assembly, to use small blocks of time to build them while not risking getting an uncompleted structure wet. When you have all the walls and trusses built, ask a few friends over to assemble them and put the shingles and siding on. For an 8x10 foot shed, this final assy can be done in one day by three guys. Wiring and heating are easy with lumber construction and it feels much warmer and cosier than a concrete wall structure, no matter what you insulate concrete with. The vinyl siding and asphalt shingle products today make it easy to get a great looking structure with almost foolproof results and good weatherproofing. If you run the electrical service underground, with one unbroken length of underground cable, up through the floor slab there are no visible wires and the service will be kept absolutely dry at the terminations with no wall openings to seal. Lumber framing is how 99% of outbuildings and most houses are constructed here in Ontario Canada. I have built several for myself and friends and would say it's the way to go. Basic carpentry skills and light labour are all that's required. Adding on to the building if need be, and adding internal shelving (or any interior wall mounting/fastening is much easier with lumber walls as well. Just my $0.02. Cheers, Jeff Dayman Waterloo Ontario Canada ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tony Wells" <oaksfield@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 6:30 AM Subject: [modeleng] Re: Workshops > Tim, a friend of mine has just built a new workshop from scratch, using > timber stud construction with insulation between the inner and outer skins. > Apparently, whilst it is very cosy and snug, his attitude is "never again" > due to the unexpectedly large amount of work, and therefore time, involved. > It is 14' x 13' though. Why not go for a pre-cast concrete shed, from one of > the garage suppliers, and line the inside with some form of insulation? Just > remember to run all of your electric cables round first though. > > Tony Wells. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Tim Rickard" <the_viffer@xxxxxxxxxxx> > To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 10:49 AM > Subject: [modeleng] Workshops > > > > We are considering some building works at Rickard Heights. > > SNIP > > > MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. > > To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, > modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line. > MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.