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We had an old rundown fibro garage in the back of our property, similar to many older Sydney properties.  we used it primarily for storing any stuff we no longer had use for as well as our camping equipment, bikes etc.

In the middle of last year , with the boys growing up we decided to transform the shed into a multipurpose room that still had a dedicated space for storage and a small workshop but would primariliy be an extra entertainment room away from the main house for the boys.  Somewhere they could play games, watch TV entertain their friends.

The old garage was built on a concrete slab that was still in reasonable condition and the steel roof had only recent be replaced.  I inspected the roof timber when replacing the roof and there was no termite damage or any indication of the trouble to come.

My initial plan for this renovation was to simply remove all the interior and exterior linings using licenced asbestos removal people.  Followthing this to repair any damage to the structure and simply reclad and reline the existing frame to update the finishes.

As often happens when renovating the initial plan turned out to be shear fantasty, as soon as the interior linings came off we discovered the extent of the termite and frame damage.  See my previous post on the killer termites in the shed.

The revised plan

1. The Roof and roof structure were sound

2. All four wall frames needed rebuilding

The attached video will give you a good idea of the extent of the framing and repair work that was required.  Below I will continue to outline the schedule of work I completed to repair and transform the room.

1. Selecting the weakest wall I commenced by creating a temporary support structure to support the roof.

2. Once in place I removed the old termite eaten wall and replaced it with a frame made from structural termite resistant timber remembering to use ant capping on the existing footings

3. Continued doing this for each of the exterior walls.

4. Once the exterior frame was in place I started work on the interior wall frames.  The design for the new ares wasto split it roughly 60:40 into 2 rooms

Room 1 measuring 4.3m*4.7m – Kids entertainment

Room 2 measuring 2.8*3.6m – Storage and Shed area.  This room also has a low roof as on top of this I have created a mezanine style area for guest accommodation or extra storage.

With the framing now completed I contracted in Town and Country Renovations to complete the exterior cladding.  They were also fantastic in assisting with installing the windows I’d purchased from ebay as well as the door frames.

This takes us upto lock up stage I was glad that the room was now structurally sound, water tight and looked great.  Now I could relax and roll into christmas.

In part 2 I’ll cover the remaining part of the story which will look at the interior completion and finishing touches.