Shed phase 3 - extending the working area out into the light

Shed Phase 3 has finally happened...

I had always planned to add an exterior decking to the outside of the shed so I could get outside. Sometimes making stuff just gets really messy, like sawing, planing, sanding, using fumey chemicals etc.

Anyway, it's always good to be out in the air and light when making things.

And thus...

After much excavation and wood scrounging, we have a new platform deck outside the shed french doors...




It's crude, but functional and pretty solid. I will cut the edge into some curvilinear contour at some point...

The objective was to extend the working floorspace of the shed annexe out into the open air. The decking is 2.2 metres long, so with the french doors there is room to work on really long stuff.
Job done!



From the inside looking out...



It gives loads of room to work on long things like planing down a door...

Scrounged materials

As ever, this cost pretty much nothing. The foundations are the usual pallets suspended on bricks to keep them off the damp earth

The surface decking itself is a double layer of 9mm plywood. These are pieces that came out of a reliable skip. They are packing crate faces that get thrown out on a regular basis.



This is the base layer...



The final layer with a deliberately erratic edge. I will cut this to a nice edging shape later, just to make it less square and more aesthetic. It is painted with three coats of brown fence panel paint, which is acrylic based. This is waterproof for now, but after working scuffs I may need to consider a more durable protection or the boards will rot if they get damp. This is not urgent. This will last for ages before it gets to be a problem.