The Craftmans Shop > New from Old

Resurrecting a Portakabin

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awemawson:
When we moved here eleven years ago we inherited two Portakabins, an 18 footer and a 20 footer. Both had been used as kennels as the previous owners trained Greyhounds, both had been clad it Shiplap to disguise them, and both were in pretty horrid condition with leaking roofs.

The 20 footer got a new floor, the roof covered in hot laid roofing felt and the wife adopted it as a potting shed / farm cat housing / small mower and tools store.

The 18 footer had never been properly levelled, but I stored construction tools in it, spare tractor wheels etc, and a few years ago fibre glassed the leaking roof. It also houses my Hydrovane compressor to keep the noise out of the workshop. Fibre glassing had proved a bit of a disaster - I had started the job on an overcast day, carefully measuring the roof temperature and applied the correct ratio of catalyst. It started off well, but when I was about 2/3rds done the sun came out, the roof warmed up and the resin set before I could properly get it down  :bang: It looked a mess but it actually stopped the leak  :thumbup:

Last year the leak came back - just a little drip. Now one of my tenants on the farm is a builder who occasionally fibre glasses roofs, and he volunteered his man to re-do it. This was NOT a good idea - what had been a minor leak turned into a major torrent so something obviously needed doing. Replacing The Portakabin sounded a good idea, but when the logistics of  moving a replacement here, and more importantly disposing of the old one were taken into account it would have been a very expensive exercise.

Then I had a flash of inspiration - if corrugated roofing sheets can be curved to form Pig Arks, they should be able to curve some for me so that they just over span the width of the Portakabin. So discussions took place with Southern Sheeting, and the outcome was I've ordered six curved sheets that span 10 foot and a rise of 12" which gives about 6" overhang to keep water off the walls. Delivery about 2-4 weeks.

So in the mean time I need to work out how to level the Portakabin.

This brings me to this morning. The last expectant Ewes are hanging on to their lambs so nothing to do there - can't finish the chicken shed as the cladding hasn't arrived, so use the time at least measuring how big the problem is - certainly the tilt is sufficient for things to roll on the floor  :lol:

Now the obvious measuring tool is my Spectra Physics rotating laser level, and equally obviously what needs measuring is the top of the four jack legs as they are fixed to the structure of the building and should be fairly stable whereas the floor is somewhat wavy in places - probably something to do with the four tons of sandblasting grit I had in there at one time  :ddb:

OK the laser sits on a tripod, the resulting swept beam needs to be above the Portakabin roof - tripod too short by a long way. Need a suitable 'something' to put it on. My Diesel Bowser proved up to the job - just had to clamp a bit of heavy angle to it to stop one leg slipping off.

So a few pictures of the issues

awemawson:
Usually you would mount the sensor for the laser level on an extending surveyors pole - but I find that a bit of 2x1 lath is easier in this sort of situation, and you can write on the wood to preserve the measurements.

Once the laser was levelled (that was fun balancing on the tank and not disturbing the tripod  :clap: ) it was a simple matter of holding the lath against each of the four Jack Leg tops and drawing a pencil line.

This has allowed me to draw up a plan of the four jack legs showing how they vary in height. 4" from highest to lowest but the jack legs are 48" from the ends of the structure so if you do the maths this equates to over 7" in the 18 foot of the Portakabin. Some trains would struggle up that incline  :lol:

Next job - work out how to get at the two jack legs that are obstructed - probably involve removing planks from the fencing - better not do that today - expecting 60 or so guests tomorrow for our fund raiser tea for the Hospice - be in trouble if I make a mess !

Jo:
SNAP   :dremel:

I put corrugated iron on the top of my old porkie bin about 20 years ago. Jacked up on the front of the roof with a bit of 4 by 2 and a couple of supports. The sheets were just big enough to over hang front and back of my 20ft by 10ft Porkie. The birds think the holes (wobbles caused by the corrugations ) are wonderful I always have them nesting under there every year (not sure if the youngsters get toasted when it gets really hot  :palm: ) Wood cladding does make them look a little more shed like  :thumbup:

Looks like you still have the original hardboard ceiling with the wafer of fiberglass above it. I took that down and keep promising myself I will put something else back up there

Jo

awemawson:
Decking up the sides - that should be pretty substantial  :thumbup:

I didn't want to leave a gable end opening - no problem with the birds nesting but the rats would take up residence as this Portakabin is adjacent to the straw and feed store.

awemawson:
Hanging around this morning waiting for a delivery of cladding for the chicken shed so I thought I'd have a go at exposing the two Jacklegs that are obstructed by overgrown fencing.

Jackleg C was behind an amazing growth of Ivy - one root of which resisted until I gave up trying manually and tucked the bucket of the JBC803 behind it to show who was boss. Even so it resisted for a while !

Jackleg D was far easier - relatively little ivy.

Then is was just a case of removing the feather edge fencing sufficiently to allow me to get at the jacking points. Fortunately I saved some identical fencing from a length I removed years ago - all stacked alternately thick / thin edge and tightly banded to prevent warping - they seem to have survived the ravages of time  :thumbup:

Between the two Portakabins is a roof forming an open fronted store used for the ride on Mower - the roof is 'Onduline' a bitumen felt corrugated and slightly flexible material. As this Portakabin is jacked up the  Onduline is going to have to absorb the movement, although the two sheets nearest the gable end will have to be removed to give access. One sheet has sagged and needs replacing anyway as vegetation has built up on it and water has puddled over the years.

 . . .OK done all that and the cladding is still not here  :scratch:

 

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