Thread: Midnight's Shed

I have also found that some of the Clipsal products are sourced from China making the price disparity even more proof of Clipsal gouging.

Just to throw a little more confusion into the mix, you might also like to consider this style of industrial outlet, which is much more robust.

Power point 15a IP66.jpg

They only come as singles and this was the first one I saw so I don't know if it is a good price or a high price. It is not a named brand: A "knock-off."

Regards
Paul

The price disparity seen across many sources is rather incredible, isn't it? It's also great, and very much appreciated for everyone to be sharing their ideas and links - thank you all, it's great to get other perspectives and sources, and also to save considerable coin in doing so!

I had done a fair bit of looking around, and found a place that (strangely) had the Clipsal Iconic 15A dual GPO outlets for a whisker under $52 each. Strange, because these were cheaper than the "standard" Clipsal range from several other sources, and I was figuring on using those, as I hadn't found a cheaper source for 15A outlets until Bohdan kindly provided his link (thank you!).

Paul, a million thanks for the link and suggestion on the industrial style outlet - I've seen and used these before, they certainly are sturdy outlets! Unfortunately, there are several places where a double GPO is going to come in super handy, and we've already run cabling to some of these (not that it can't be undone, but I feel whilst they're awesome outlets, they are a bit too limiting being single outlet only).

I'll be taking a few options to the sparky to approve before purchasing (I figure it's best to get his approval, as he's got to sign off on the safety of the job after all)

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

The higher priced item is the Clipsal brand while the lower priced item is a no-name. However, that does not necessarily mean the no-name is unsuitable and neither does it mean the Clipsal cannot be found at a better price. I think Bohdan was pointing to the disparity in the market place and the need to shop around.

Regards
Paul

The reason I posted this was surprisingly the Deta gear that they sell is quite good, marked as made in England. I was an electrician in another life and I personally don't like Clipsal GPO's, they have the worst switches of all the brand's.
Just my 22 cents worth.
Crocy.

Originally Posted by Old Croc

The reason I posted this was surprisingly the Deta gear that they sell is quite good, marked as made in England. I was an electrician in another life and I personally don't like Clipsal GPO's, they have the worst switches of all the brand's.
Just my 22 cents worth.
Crocy.

I was in there today, needed some double GPO's, marked made in China so who knows?
Crocy.

Some more progress over the past few weeks on this.

Some walls are ready for wiring:

Wiring to be done.jpg

Others have the lining completed, and are ready for reveals/architraves etc:

Finished details.jpg

What can't be seen from these photos is that the lining is nearly so far done that we'll be setting up the electrics in the next few weeks - the big thing left to do is to build the wall that will divide the space into two, one third home office, two thirds workshop.

More to come soon!

Double GPOs are handy but if you want to minimise plugging and unplugging (which adds general wear and tear) devices they are simply not enough.

I started out with 15 double 10A, and 2 single 15A outlets in my shed.
Since then have
- converted the 15A outlets to doubles and added 4 more.
- added 4 more 10A double outlets.
- converted 2 of the the 10A outlets to 6 outlet points so I can leave stuff plugged in.
Have also added expander boards to 7 of of the 10A outlets. In most cases I've affixed the expander boards to the walls or roof

Adding expander boards has the advantage that all of the expander outlets can be turned off by one switch although there are some (expensive) expander boards that do have a main switch on them.

An alternative would be to install 2 doubles at each location - this is what I have considered doing as these outlets are usually cheaper than switched expansion boards or multipole outlet GPOs.

Originally Posted by Midnight Man

Some more progress over the past few weeks on this.

Some walls are ready for wiring:

Wiring to be done.jpg

Others have the lining completed, and are ready for reveals/architraves etc:

Finished details.jpg

What can't be seen from these photos is that the lining is nearly so far done that we'll be setting up the electrics in the next few weeks - the big thing left to do is to build the wall that will divide the space into two, one third home office, two thirds workshop.

More to come soon!

Looks great. Can I ask what you've sealed the floor with. The finish looks really good. As shown in my thread I used Rustoleum Rock Solid which has come our pretty good for DIY. Mine has a bit of colour variation but probably won't be too noticeable once i get everything in there. It cost about $340 for 30m2.

Originally Posted by farm_boy

Looks great. Can I ask what you've sealed the floor with. The finish looks really good. As shown in my thread I used Rustoleum Rock Solid which has come our pretty good for DIY. Mine has a bit of colour variation but probably won't be too noticeable once i get everything in there. It cost about $340 for 30m2.

The floor was contracted out - there's a lot of stuff I will do, but this wasn't something I felt good about tackling myself.

Two processes occurred - the first was to have a chap come in and pour a levelling compound across the whole floor - it turned out the original slab, whilst it wasn't out very much from flat, was enough so that machinery was "catching" on mobile base feet when being rolled around.

The second process was a light grey epoxy done over two coats on separate days, then three coats of poly over the top.

It's a very hard wearing floor - we've been doing all sorts of construction over the top without any issue whatsoever. Keeping it clean is a breeze, and mostly just vacuums up, and you can always mop it down with some detergent to get rid of actual dirt etc (not that we're doing that currently).

Hope this helps!

I’ve been eagerly following this thread, I’m doing a very similar fit out in my new shed!

I see your ceiling is currently just the bare silver insulation. Are you planning on adding any further insulation or lining to the ceiling?

Originally Posted by SteveSaysHi

I see your ceiling is currently just the bare silver insulation. Are you planning on adding any further insulation or lining to the ceiling?

Yes. Whilst I have several ideas, and am exploring several options, I haven't settled 100% on the final "how this will be done", though that time is coming close.

At this stage, I envisage making some 150mm long blocks from 90x45 framing timber. With 4 machine screws, nuts and washers, these can be affixed to the flanges of the top hat that runs along the length of the shed supporting the colourbond roof.

Onto the end face of each of these blocks, I plan on attaching a Rondo bracket: 394 Rondo Direct Fix Clip

Onto these, I will clip 28mm furring channels, and onto that I will then install a ceiling material - I'm not sure what that will be, but I'm looking for something that could span 450mm that won't sag, and is lightweight, and looks good when painted white. Perhaps some type of ply, maybe 9mm, or otherwise.

I plan on spacing the furring channels 450mm apart to provide good ceiling strength, and so that I can make smaller "panels" that will make up an entire ceiling, but in such a way that I can drop some out of the way to work on electrical circuits etc that will be buried in the ceiling (more to follow in this thread in the coming weeks).

The top of the bracket I plan on aligning flush with the top of the wooden block, and thus, it will drop down (including furring channel) about 208mm from the top of the block. If we then include the height of the top hat (in my shed, 61mm), I then have a 269mm "void" from the top of the furring channel to the top of the already installed lining.

In that space, ideally, I want to find a way to install 2 layers of 88mm, R2.5 acoustic/thermal batts for a total of R5.0 insulation (I am aiming to thermally break each layer from the other, and the roof, as there will be enough space to do so, and this too will aid in thermal insulation).

It's all a bit hard to explain in text - I will try and "mock up" a couple of these blocks to show my plans better, and take a photo in the coming week or two.

Was there any particular reason for putting in the framing before the levelling and epoxy floor? I am thinking about doing something similar. However I was thinking of doing the levelling and epoxy before the framing.

“I'm not sure what that will be, but I'm looking for something that could span 450mm that won't sag, and is lightweight, and looks good when painted white. Perhaps some type of ply, maybe 9mm, or otherwise”

One of the best workshops I’ve ever worked in had a ceiling made from perforated ply, like the old pegboard masonite, and above it was fibreglass batts, sound went in, and stayed in. It was also very cool in summer because the rising heat from the floor could be absorbed into the batts, it worked very well and it is definitely something I would do in my own shed fitout.

Originally Posted by DaveVman

Was there any particular reason for putting in the framing before the levelling and epoxy floor? I am thinking about doing something similar. However I was thinking of doing the levelling and epoxy before the framing.

Hi Dave,

Well, actually - the reason was that we had done all the framing, then looked at what was actually a really sorry looking floor (the previous owner had used it as a workshop for car/motorbike for himself), so there were oil stains, a few surface cracks, it was a bit uneven etc.

So, we decided afterward to do the floor.

For us, it won't matter, because these wall frames will never come out.

You could certainly level the floor beforehand, but I would caution that you will need to make a lot of "dams" to prevent this very liquid levelling compound seeping out the typical gap between slab and colourbond in a normal shed - in our case, these frames provided a perfect dam that the levelling compound could be poured into (save for 1 normal and 1 roller door, which they dammed by using a thick foam tape.

You should also note that the frame bases are screwed into the concrete using Raptr screws - again, no biggie, but if you frame after levelling, you're going to be putting some kind of hole in the levelled surface to screw in your frames, assuming you're aiming to do the same.