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Monthly Archives: May 2019
Cracking On with Phase 1 Build
Or: “You’re only supposed to put the bloomin’ doors on”
Today, Friday 31st May, has seen rapid progress towards our Phase 1 Men’s Shed Premises. We are now “wind and water tight”. Many thanks to Alan P for staying with it all day to make sure it went according to plan.
Earlier in the week, the “windows” on the right hand wall were blocked in and a small painting party (Alan and Howard) on Tuesday finished off the first, sealing, coat on the blockwork.
Today’s progress can be seen in the slideshow below, and now the doors are on, you begin to get a feel for the place, and that the workshop area will be a very useful space.
Cracking on
The pics show the set of fluorescent lighting ready to be put up, and the main thing left now is the electrics. These will consist of the ceiling lighting, plus a number of power points around the room with, finally, emergency power shut-off buttons to allow for any machines that may need them.
Now the up-and-over door has been moved to Bay 2 we can also get at the steelwork to fireproof it. The final thing will be the final painting of the walls.
Powering ahead with funding from Apache North Sea
The Banchory and District Men’s Shed has received a generous donation of £20,000 from Apache North Sea towards converting the open area of the Legion’s undercroft into a multi-purpose workshop and social area – what we refer to as “Phase 2”.
Banchory Legion Undercroft
Karen Williamson, Human Resources Manager, Apache North Sea, commented: “Apache has a strong focus on the health and wellbeing of its people and is delighted to be able to contribute to the local community in supporting the expansion of the Banchory Men’s Shed. This in turn will help to prevent isolation, improve wellbeing and bring people in the community together to a welcoming space, to share skills and most importantly, have fun”.
For the full Press Release, please click here (opens .pdf file)
Understanding Phase 1 Build
As many will know, we have started to actually build the Banchory Men’s Shed.
“Phase 1”, which is fully funded, is the creation of the Workhop area in what we know as “Garage Bay 1” of the Legion, beneath the ballroom. Initially, this will be what we need it to be as our desired usage becomes clear, with some workshop facilities, but probably also some Social capability – all to be decided, and down to you, the Shedder.
Garage Bay 1 was the garage in which the Legion kept their minibus, so for its new home, it will be moved to Bay 2 or 3. However, the front of Bay 2 is currently bricked up, with garden tools stored behind. What we will be doing is to knock down the Bay 2 blockwork and move the up-and-over door from Bay 1 to Bay 2. This gives garage access to both Bays 2 & 3 for the Legion to site the bus, garden tools etc., as they need to. We will then put our own doors and windows on the front of Bay 1.
These are the basic elements of the build, and some photographs can be seen below
Which bay is which
There have been some small complications, but nothing insoluble. Already “fixed” is the fact that behind the block front of Bay 2 used to be some central heating piping which feeds the heaters in the Ballroom above. These would have prevented the up-and-over door mechanism from being fitted, so the piping has been re-routed to give clearance.
There are also some “holes” – three old windows from back when Bay 1 was alone, which are already blocked up inside Bay 2 – and a couple of vent duct and air gaps at the back. All these are next on the list, to be blocked up with matching blockwork.
Also to be done is to fireproof the bare RSJ members in Bay 1, which is a modern building regulation requirement, and all quite normal. This will be done using “Intumescent” paint to give the required 60 minutes fire resistance. However, the up-and-over door is restricting access at present, so we can only do that after the door is moved.
We will be sealing and painting the interior blockwork, and fixing lighting and electrical supplies round the walls, and finally fitting the double-glazed access doors and windows either side. The exact construction sequence has been developing as we come across these various issues.
The Phase 1 “build”, as you can see, is really just a reconfiguration of a number of building features and is a combination of quite limited pieces of work, but we are looking forward to the end result. We’re still waiting to get a better idea of the final completion date, but at present this is looking like August or September.