Cycling

I blogged here about my need for a bike shelter for round the back of my house. This is really simple, and not at all secure, but might be of interest to anyone wanting a quick fix to the problem of bikes (or other things) getting wet!

Here's a picture of what it should look like when it's done:

I built the main bit of it out of tongue and groove planks of wood, with three struts across the back. The dimensions were 180cm long and 80cm wide. My DIY shop sold the planks pre-cut at 180cm length, which was convenient, for about three quid for 5. I used 9, which made up the 80cm width.

Start by cutting two of the struts (mine were 5cm x 2cm) to about a metre in length. I didn't want to second guess how well the tongues and grooves would fit together, so I left myself some room for error at first. Then, fit together a few of the planks, and nail them to each of the struts 30cm in from each end. I used two nails per plank to avoid them rotating.

When you've nailed on all of the panels, you can add the third strut (also cut to 1m) half-way along and nail that on too. You should have something like this next picture. Then (now you know how well your tongues and grooves fit together) you can just saw off the spare bits of strut.

This is what you should now have... looks nice!

And it looks like this from the other side.

We now want to attach the cover. I used shed roofing felt, and cut a piece 2m by 1m (which gives us 10cm extra at each side). Nail this on around the edge with large headed nails (clouts).

Then turn the thing over, fold over the edges, and nail them in too.

We now want a couple of long Japanese hinges (the sort used on gates). I attached my shelter to an already existing fence, so I first experimented with the hinges a bit where they would be going, to make sure I had them the right way up to get the range of movement I wanted. Then screw them in to the struts on the bottom side.

Now it's ready to be attached to the fence or wall.

Here we go, the finished thing. I attached a couple of chains to some screw-in hooks to make sure the thing wasn't resting directly on my bike, but that's up to you.