In March 2022 I began the renovation of an old brick-built storeroom that is built against the rear of my garage at the QTH.
When we moved into the property some 5 years ago, I was excited at the prospect of having a radio shack separate to the house, allowing me to enjoy the hobby without complaints about unsociable hours of operation and noise in the house from the station manager.
However, the building was in bad shape. The roof was clad with corrugated concrete asbestos sheets and there was an opening through to the garage which allowed exhaust fumes through every time the car was reversed in.
To make matters worse, the roof had begun to leak and the entrance doors, which were rotten barn type swing doors providing very little protection from the elements.
However, I did manage to have equipment running with some success, but damp had become a major issue and I had been forced to run a dehumidifier through the winter to try and protect the equipment.
In April 2022, after careful planning and costing of the project I began the process of slowly pulling apart the old building and seeing what was actually solid (which wasn’t much).
I began by removing the Asbestos roof. Dressed in more PPE that a nuclear weapons inspector, I proceeded to carefully “peel off the lid”.
Having removed the roof sheets and securely double bagged them up I disposed of them safely at my local tip (pre-arranged over the phone), I began to inspect the roof beams.
After a bit of pressure testing and poking around, the completely rotten roof beams broke up and collapsed to the floor! To think, I had been operating in there for a few years with all that rotten timber frame over my head!
After a few more weekends of digging out old lime mortar pointing, removing the doors and window, and removing loose flints from the top of the back flint wall, I was ready to start the next phase.
I had made the decision to have a glass conservatory roof and sliding full width patio doors installed. The little shack had always felt like a dark unwelcoming area, so I was keen to lighten it all up and make it as cheerful as possible.
So, I began to start making this good. The QTH was built around 1850 and is a flint and lime construction. After some research I found that it would be important to make good using lime and not concrete. Lime is quite soft and when covered with rock hard concrete, the lime quickly wears away underneath and mortar joints fail.
I managed to find a local supplier of Lime mortar and plaster, and after completing the rewiring which included cutting out a long channel in the back flint wall to accommodate the cabling, I was ready to rebuild all that had been pulled apart.
By May of 2022 the building was solid again albeit without a roof or doors. The opening through to the garage had been bricked up and a local conservatory fitter had been on site and provided a sensible quote for installation.
Lime can take up to 3 months to cure. It is referred to as a “calcification” process. So, I thought it wise to hold off on the roof and doors installation until late summer 2022 to be completely sure all the lime had gone off sufficiently to support the roof structure.
After a lovely dry summer, the day came for the conservatory company to come on site to install.
It turned out to be one of the wettest days in months! Two lads managed to get the roof framework fitted, and some supports but the next stages involved using lime to secure capping and lead flashing on the back wall.
With the rain hammering down, we all called it a day and prayed for no rain the next day.
The following day we were blessed with sun and work moved on fast!
By lunchtime the two lads had done very well and just before they took a break for lunch, they started bringing in all the plastic fittings. That’s when I noticed something was wrong. All the fitting were white, and I had ordered the conservatory in grey!
Work stopped for an hour while lots of discussion and negotiating with the conservatory company took place. After a lot of haggling, they offered me a large reduction in price if I were to accept white. I was very annoyed but a chance to reduce the cost of the project was very tempting. I agreed and work resumed.
By 5pm the roof and doors were fitted and after all the bother over the finished color, I quietly decided that white was better than the original planned grey.
Over the next month I spent time lime plastering the internal walls, finishing up the mains wiring and with the reduction in cost was able to buy and fit a smart controlled electric underfloor heating system.
Prior to the heating going in, I installed 2 huge copper backed sheets of FR4 board that came from the shack of a local silent key. These sheets covered almost the whole of the floor in the shack.
I connected these to a 5ft copper ground rod in the garden and was interested to see how they would perform as part of a ground system later once the shack was complete.
The final part of the project was to rebuild my shack desk and make modifications so that it would fit in the space and neatly accommodate all my equipment.
The desk was bought a few years back and is an old reception desk. I added some extra shelving and LED strip lighting, installed it in the shack and began slowly setting up equipment.
The total setup took about a month as all the equipment had to be checked over and cleaned after being in storage for about 6 months. There were lots of repairs to do and new patch leads to make. But, by the end of October 2022 the project was complete.
I was keen to see how effective my ground system would be, and I am pleased to say that it has made a noticeable difference. Noise is a little lower and I can get much better results using my end fed long wire antenna now I am loading it up against a good ground.
In all the project was a long job and quite disruptive at times but well worth it and the cost was cut hugely by doing lots of it myself.
M0TVV
21/03/2023