Welding in a small garden

[diywhy]

Hi all,

I've been playing around with the idea of learning to weld for a while now. My main concern, being based in London, at the moment is whether or not my garden is safe to work in. It's quite small around 8mx5m with some bushes and trees around the outer edge. Most of the garden is gravel which is in my favour though.
Is it too much of a fire hazard to myself and for my neighbours gardens when grinding and flux core welding in this space?

Id appreciate any advice you could give

 

[Agroshield]

Do a controlled test.

Go out into your garden with a grinder and a piece of metal. Stand in the middle and try as hard as you can to set something on fire using it.

Spontaneous combustion is difficult unless you are a drummer for Spinal Tap.

Have all necessary extinguishing materials on standby before you start and have 999 pressed into the phone ready to hit the green button.

A pragmatic approach is to have a piece of dampened plywood to direct the sparks against. Implement a hot works procedure where you inspect the area 30 minutes and one hour after you stop work.

Your neighbours are more likely to raise concerns about the bright light from welding. Educate yourself on the matter so you can provide them with a factual answer. Consider a cheap pop-up gazebo frame with the roof and maybe one or two sides made from a welding curtain (https://www.toolstation.com/sip-welding-curtain/p11627).

 

[winchman]

Just shield the neighbours from sparks and the arc you should be fine have a bucket of water and fire extinguisher just incase. I have re built several cars in the street over the years

 

[bricol]

I think your problem will be noise more than anything, if you can contain the obvious sparks within your garden.

A potential problem will come when your neighbours work out that before you started welding and grinding, their plastic window frames and cills were lovely and white . . . and now they have lots of orange spots all over them.

The finer dust blows away, settles down, and rusts in place.

 

[Matchless]

Noise will shut you down quicker than you can imagen, grinding being the culprit, if you had a shed you could thoroughly insulate you may be OK, what about trying to find a welding class at a local college or is there mens shed nearby? or model engineering club? what part of London are you?

 

[arther dailey]

the noise of grinding will be the concern worrying neighbours , it is pretty anti social .

 

[gaz1]

we have a round plastic bin to collect rain water

we also have used said water to put the connifer fire out with builders buckets so it gives you a good idea

as goes for a shed you can fit one in there and use it to grind stuff

 

[arther dailey]

the noise of grinding will be the concern worrying neighbours , it is pretty anti social .

don t read that wrong ,its just my brother in law gets a lot of complaints due to grinding

 

[Pete.]

A gravel standing is good for not relecting noise and good for catching sparks but poor for finding stuff you've dropped and cleaning up. I'd clear a spot you want to work in say 3m x 1m and put a bench on it. You're unlikely to set fire to any greenery and if you do as Gaz1 said have a bucket of water handy and take more care in dry weather. The neighbours should be too far away to be bothered by arc-eye. 10 metres is considered a 'safe' distance.

5x8m is plenty of space. My last workshop was 5x4m and it was fine for this kind of work. As for noise, if you work at reasonable times there's naff all they can do about it. If you get on with your neighbours let them know what you're going to be doing, if not tell them to bugger off if they complain. For the easiest life just keep your times to reasonable hours.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I do my projects in the winter when everyone is indoors with their windows closed...also when it's raining I can pretty much do whatever I want...never had any complaints.

If you start grinding and welding on a lovely warm weekend when everyone is in their gardens then you're likely to have problems.

Of course you'll need a shed (preferably metal) to protect you from the weather!

 

[Barking Mat]

Go for it.

 

[Memmeddu]

the noise of grinding will be the concern worrying neighbours , it is pretty anti social .

I've used arcair in front of home once I don't think there's something worse than that.
I've just remembered about my ported jonsered, this one was way worse than everything else

 

[Memmeddu]

Most of the garden is gravel which is in my favour though.

That's your biggest hazard.
Explain to your wife, girlfriend, mom or whoever why the garden is now filled with black and rusty stuff.
You're likely to get injured for that

 

[Popcorn]

The main problem I can see with this, is once the neighbours find out you can weld stuff.
You will be inundated 'can you fix this' daft little jobs from said neighbours.

 

[Memmeddu]

The main problem I can see with this, is once the neighbours find out you can weld stuff.
You will be inundated 'can you fix this' daft little jobs from said neighbours.

Followed by can I borrow this, can you lend that

 

[diywhy]

Do a controlled test.

Go out into your garden with a grinder and a piece of metal. Stand in the middle and try as hard as you can to set something on fire using it.

Spontaneous combustion is difficult unless you are a drummer for Spinal Tap.

Have all necessary extinguishing materials on standby before you start and have 999 pressed into the phone ready to hit the green button.

A pragmatic approach is to have a piece of dampened plywood to direct the sparks against. Implement a hot works procedure where you inspect the area 30 minutes and one hour after you stop work.

Your neighbours are more likely to raise concerns about the bright light from welding. Educate yourself on the matter so you can provide them with a factual answer. Consider a cheap pop-up gazebo frame with the roof and maybe one or two sides made from a welding curtain (https://www.toolstation.com/sip-welding-curtain/p11627).

Thanks for the fast reply! I'll have to give it a go and see how it goes at first. Honestly I'm only looking at a small 100A for now so the danger of flashes to the neighbours is likely a minimum.
Will definitely have a look at a welding curtain and see!

 

[diywhy]

Just shield the neighbours from sparks and the arc you should be fine have a bucket of water and fire extinguisher just incase. I have re built several cars in the street over the years

Will keep in mind. I may be being overly cautious but it's better to be safe than sorry!

 

[diywhy]

I think your problem will be noise more than anything, if you can contain the obvious sparks within your garden.

A potential problem will come when your neighbours work out that before you started welding and grinding, their plastic window frames and cills were lovely and white . . . and now they have lots of orange spots all over them.

The finer dust blows away, settles down, and rusts in place.

I can see a few conversations already occuring about that.... Thanks for mentioning it

 

[diywhy]

Noise will shut you down quicker than you can imagen, grinding being the culprit, if you had a shed you could thoroughly insulate you may be OK, what about trying to find a welding class at a local college or is there mens shed nearby? or model engineering club? what part of London are you?

South of the river Battersea / Clapham area. Unfortunately most workshops are further north

 

[diywhy]

A gravel standing is good for not relecting noise and good for catching sparks but poor for finding stuff you've dropped and cleaning up. I'd clear a spot you want to work in say 3m x 1m and put a bench on it. You're unlikely to set fire to any greenery and if you do as Gaz1 said have a bucket of water handy and take more care in dry weather. The neighbours should be too far away to be bothered by arc-eye. 10 metres is considered a 'safe' distance.

5x8m is plenty of space. My last workshop was 5x4m and it was fine for this kind of work. As for noise, if you work at reasonable times there's naff all they can do about it. If you get on with your neighbours let them know what you're going to be doing, if not tell them to bugger off if they complain. For the easiest life just keep your times to reasonable hours.

I appreciate the lengthy response. From what I understand the fire hazard side is probably more likely in much drier climates than here in the UK. Personally I don't mind cold wet weather so maybe it's just a case of sticking to specific times of the year! In terms of noise I'm not overly bothered as we have used jigsaws and stuff outside while working with wood so I can't imagine it being too much louder.

.