# Forum Home Renovation The Garden Shed  Had a new garage / laundry built, but...

## AndyDel

H All 
We have a had a replacement garage / laundry built to replace the old termite ridden POS that doubled as an indoor pool when it rained. (It wasn't very good). The brief was to build a replacement building in steel (termite country), with power and water to the laundry which will be lined and tiled, floor and walls. Assured that this was easy and wold pose no problem. 
Bottom line, after 8 months we have the building up, and last week the laundry was finally lined in blueboard. Power, water and drainage are in place f or the tub, washer, plus a shower and extra toilet - all council approved. BUT, the builder, who put up the shed and did the steel framing and lining does not tape the board joins. 
And here is the rub, getting a plasterer in, he refused to do the work, citing:  excessive gaps everywhere, up to 40mm in placesscrew heads protrudinginsufficient screws, need to be max of 300mm apartinsufficient framing, max of 450mm apart, there are spans up to 700the walls flex, and any tiling will crack and the grout fall out in short order.  
This guy recommended the tradie doing the work try again and get it up to standard, or, he would do it, for a fee of course. The kicker is the wall flex was a deal breaker and needed to be addressed. Seems I was sold a steel shed that is supposed to move all over the  place, and no one in their right mind would consider tiling it! Apart from me, who was very clear about this from day 1 to the dealer. 
Apart from running about going 'boo-hoo', I need to engineer a solution, to add structural stiffness to this pretty, but wobbly lump of steel. 
Sooooo, it seems there are few upright members, apart from 4 frames spanning over the pitched roof. The ends have NO uprights (mullions? I'll call em that), just 3 girts the sheeting is tek screwed into. 
My question is - will adding mullions help stiffen the structure. I can see them being bolted into the slab and top purlin(?) top metal frame, with the girts being screwed into them. Then add 22mm vertical frames to screw the boards to. 
Any advice? Good idea? Bad? Buy some bricks? 
cheers 
Andy

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## cyclic

Without pics, my guess is a separate frame should have been built inside the shed for the bathroom/laundry and not attached to the shed frame, because attaching anything to the shed frame would usually void the engineering of the shed, and anything you add to the shed that is not on the design drawings will also most likely void Engineering. 
As for the shed seller, they don't care what it is used for as long as they get a sale, in fact they like it when people change the sheds because it voids their warranty.

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## Marc

:What he said:  
Wooden frame away from the shed wall.

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## mudbrick

A builder built this, was he licensed?

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## pinger

Sounds dodgy. The shed would have needed to be engineered to "Class 1" or dwelling standard to be utilised in such a way. Maybe check that it was, may be a recourse against the "Builder", emphasis added. If it is not it needs to come down.  
It would have been prudent to do it out of steel stud frame, not shed frame. That said, the addition of 25mm ceiling batten to take the gyprock at appropriate centres may assist in taking out some movement, however that is on the proviso that the shed frame is correctly engineered and supplied in a section suitable for "Class 1" or dwelling requirements.

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## Moondog55

> Sounds dodgy. The shed would have needed to be engineered to "Class 1" or dwelling standard to be utilised in such a way.

  Why?/ It's only a laundry. Personally I see no need to make a laundry in a shed pretty by using tiles etc but if I had to line a LW shed I'd use ripple iron to keep "The Look" Was the inquiry to the shed dealer in writing? Is so would you have recourse to Fair Trading as it surely isn't fit for the purpose intended

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