Concrete sectional garage - possible workshop conversion

[JHWatson]

I have a (quite old) concrete sectional garage and am thinking about converting it for use as a workshop. My main question is this: would it be possible to remove several of the sections from one of the long sides and replace them with a timber frame which could hold a door and a window? I'm thinking that this might be easier than cutting two separate openings into the existing intact concrete wall.

The panels appear to be bolted together at top and bottom, and are also fixed to the wooden beams supporting the (corrugated metal) roof. I'm not sure if they're bolted to the concrete base or are kept in place purely by their weight.

Assuming that I could undo or cut through some of the bolts (and release the fixings to the roof beam) could say three or four of the panels then be removed without affecting the rest of the structure? There would still be several panels left standing either side of the gap, and that's a huge amount of weight to leave relatively unsupported, even for a short time: I'd like to know in advance that everything would be stable while I fitted the timber frame - and indeed that the entire wall would be stable with the frame inserted and fixed.

Many thanks.

JHW

 

[noseall]

Sounds to me like you are tying to make a silk purse out of a sows' ear.

Would it not be more beneficial to build from scratch rather than spending a lot of effort into rehashing what is considered a 'low end' structure?

You will also lose a lot of stiffening once you start removing the connection between roof and wall.

If you must explore this option then you may be better off building a timber cell within the concrete structure, secure the roof and walls to this internal cell then fabricate the outside as you see fit.

 

[JHWatson]

Thanks for the reply and I appreciate your main point. But for various reasons, budgetary not the least, a conversion job is the only really viable option just at the moment. I don't expect to end up with a luxury purse, merely a servicable one: canvas rather than silk, maybe.

I was planning to line and insulate the walls anyway, so creating an inner shell before removing any wall sections could be a good move. I'm grateful for the suggestion.

JHW

 

[JHWatson]

Thanks again for the replies.

On a related subject: sometimes the garage suffers from condensation, which forms on the inside of the corrugated metal roof and drips down. I've wondered about replacing the metal panels with something else: plastic maybe, or even wood (or other sheet) and roofing felt. Any thoughts on that would be welcome.

Searching around, I see that an alternative might be to line the metal with insulation: thin polystyrene is available (but sould it be bent to follow the corrugations? Or perhaps it could be applied flat to create air pockets?) and there also seems to be foam spray, but only available as a professional service.