Big Issue vendors have a wide variety of skills and experience, so we bring you the best of their knowledge each week. This week, Kent vendor Rob Lovett has some tips for both the ambitious and the amateur on how to get started when it comes to woodwork.
At the moment I’m building a shed for a friend, 10ft by 12ft. All the structural work is reclaimed wood but what you see on the outside has been bought, and so has the roof. The doors and the windows are reclaimed too. I like going round to see what I can find, I go to builders’ yards and industrial estates and there’s some good-quality wood there. Always get permission though, don’t just take it!
I know how to do some joints but usually I just use screws. I like working with shiplap because it’s easy to put up. For a shed like the one I’m doing now, you just need to make sure it’s level and put in two or three screws then you’re ready for the next piece.
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Also, because it’s shiplap it’s pretty watertight. I finish by painting with outside weather paint. That’s guaranteed for five years, but it’s a good idea to give it another coat every two or three years.
A shed is quite an ambitious project, so a better place to start might be small boxes or raised beds for the garden. I recently built a little shed box that was about 3ft high and about 6ft long. I built a little 2ft fence as well out of battening I picked up from a local builders’ yard.
