A Garden Shed... On track!

alderslade2000

Hi everyone, advice needed for something weird...

Essentialy I want to put up a new garden shed for a small home office and badly needed storage for our ground-floor flat. I'm looking at one a little under 8' x 14'.

The problem is I'm worried the shed will cramp the garden which is fair but isn't enormous. There is however an alley running the the bottom width of our garden, which is about 3-4' wide which is zero used. The land is technically ours, and most of our neibours have reclaimed the land. Unfortunately our immediate and very absent neibour hasn't but we can't reclaim that land as it will block his access.

So my crazy thought was to put the shed on a steel platform on rails that could be slid over the alleyway, when not in use (99%) of the time and then easily rolled foward into the garden when access to the alley is desired.

So my thoughts are...

Has anyone seen or done something like this before? I seem to remember George Bernard Shaw's writing shed was on a turntable to catch the sun....

Does anyone know of any imaginative metal-smiths that could build the platform, track wheels and track?

And any other thoughts and advice, I'm not an engineer or experienced with structures so keen to have your input. I'm wondering what would be the implications of putting a wooden structure on a steel platform.

Feel free to say I'm crazy!

And thanks in advance!

Papi Jo

Hi there and welcome to our forum!

I have no idea what you mean by "The land is technically ours, and most of our neighbours have reclaimed the land. "

I do think you are crazy... but then a number of useful inventions came out of crazy ideas.

wild edges

Maybe you're over engineering from the start? What you've basically described is a caravan and they don't need rails to run on Even if you keep just the chassis of a small caravan or trailer and rebuild the top part it should be easy enough to move if you keep the balance right. A rail system does sound Thunderbirdsy and fun though.

Dovefromabove

What you need is a Shepherd's Hut

https://www.google.com/search?q=shepherds+hut+on+wheels+for+sale&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab

You can get them ready made or in kits.

JennyJ

If most people have incorporated their section of the back alley into their garden, doesn't that block the other neighbour's access anyway? I'm struggling to visualise it.

alderslade2000

Papi Jo said:

Hi there and welcome to our forum!

I have no idea what you mean by "The land is technically ours, and most of our neighbours have reclaimed the land. "

I do think you are crazy... but then a number of useful inventions came out of crazy ideas.

Hahaha! The land I'm referring to is the alley... originaly the alley was part of the garden then during mid/late 20th Century the alley was built at the end of everyone's gardens to provide a through-route for rubbish collection.

The problem was the alleys quickly become over-grown and dustmen couldn't collect rubbish from them, so now all rubbish is collected from the front. Very occasionally builders will use them, but they usually need cut through the various jungle first. They also became a route for break-ins. So many neighbors who weren't blocking their neighbors' access to the alley simply reclaimed the land. 

I would love to simply reclaim, land in London is precious, but its not that simple. 

alderslade2000

JennyJ said:

If most people have incorporated their section of the back alley into their garden, doesn't that block the other neighbour's access anyway? I'm struggling to visualise it.

Essentially the access from the alley to the road is to the right, everyone to the left of my neighbor has reclaimed - we are bang in the middle of a row of terraces!

DyersEnd

8 x 14 shed would be fairly heavy I should think and wouldn't you need electricity for a home office?

alderslade2000

wild edges said:

Maybe you're over engineering from the start? What you've basically described is a caravan and they don't need rails to run on Even if you keep just the chassis of a small caravan or trailer and rebuild the top part it should be easy enough to move if you keep the balance right. A rail system does sound Thunderbirdsy and fun though.

Hahaha I love Thunderbirds!

Great idea, but it has to to be easy to move, I spoke to the council and they essentially said it has to be easy enough for the neibour to move.

Now I imagine in a few years, even if well kept, a rail system will get stiff and rusty but by then I imagine future neibours will have reclaimed the alleyway, but its a stop gap...

JennyJ

It's probably worth having a chat with the neighbour to see if they actually need that access, and if so, how often.

alderslade2000

DyersEnd said:

8 x 14 shed would be fairly heavy I should think and wouldn't you need electricity for a home office?

Yes that's what I was thinking, I may need to scale it down. If it does need a power supply the thing will only be moving 3' back and forth so sure we could find another solution.