41-43 Standard Road Timber Build

The proposed design is quite simple, three spline walls divide the space up into four workshops and provide support for a floor. The room shapes (relatively long and thin) require some compromises (for example some cuts on a full sized 2.4m x 1.2m sheet will have to be done with a tracksaw rather than the table saw), but they allow for a simple construction that can support a floor that meets E2 Light Industrial or B1 General Use Office requirements of 250kg/m².

The upstairs is (initially at least) an open-plan space. We envisage this layout will develop over time with use, with floor-standing partitions not only to demarcate areas but also to provide somewhere to hang tools and lighter storage.

Obviously, only a selection of equipment appears in these plans: the metal shops are pretty much complete but the woodshops just show a selection of key items for the purposes of illustration.

Upstairs just the laser cutter and a 3d printer have been put in to give a sense of scale, but the rest of our facilities (electronics, sewing, model making) would live there. They would actually have slightly more space between them than at Wembley.

In order to meet the legally required fire ratings the studwork walls will be clad in fire resistant plasterboard and for acoustic damping they will be filled with rockwool.

Current calculations of the materials cost for the walls and floor (including timber, plasterboard, rockwool, floorboards and joist hangers) plus a prefabricated (to measure) staircase are coming to around £11k inc VAT at online retail prices. Labour for most of the work would be provided by the membership (we have members with experience of building studwork walls).

We are currently estimating that a budget of £15k should cover materials for the timber construction as well as access control and electrics (including paying an electrician to put in the circuits which we can then extend as we need them).