gnarlyleech
Well-known member
I am building a workshop for my father to spend his retirement days in. Dad needed a nice place to go to get away from the house and all the crazy that goes on there. I also needed a place to spend my spare time and keep all my tools organized. My 10x16 shed is chock-a-block full of equipment and tools and the disarray is driving me nuts. I had planned on building a man cave for quite sometime but the old ball and chain would drain our funds and make it impossible to have any money left over for anything extra. I had some choices to make, either live in ******* my whole life, or cut off the leeches with a knife and escape the POW camp RAMBO style.
SO, this now newly single man and his father got together and decided to build a nice place for them to spend their time.
Okay so my plan was to follow the shed building plans that I bought of the internet. Which I must admit, its easy to get scammed these days. I did find a really good plan set with material list and such for several different size sheds. The largest being 16x32 gambrel. My construction background is non existent at this point in my life. I just built a nice 10ft deck for my walmart pool before summer started. It turned out great. With that confidence boost, I figured I could finish this shed very quickly. I ordered all my material from the local yard, a few nail guns from Amazon, and a cement mixer from Lowes.
Here is the rundown on my building specs and materials:
-16' x 32' 2 story gambrel shed
-The foundation with be 3ea treated 4x6 beams sitting on 15ea concrete piers, 5 per 32ft beam
-The floor is 2x8 treated joists with 3/4" treat plywood deck
-7' x 7' double door on one end, no windows at first.
-Double bubble foil radiant barrier all around the walls
-LP smartside reverse batten exterior panels over studs
-Radiant barrier OSB on the roof and shingles on top
-2nd story or Loft floor built with 2x8. should have 7' head clearance
Having never built anything before, I'm terrible at estimating how long my projects will take to complete. I guessed that 2 days was enough to finish this shed, maybe 4. Which would be possible with a few friends.
The fine print:
-I will be building this shed by myself. The ex scared away most of my friends over the course of our marriage, and I haven't built that core group back up yet, and my friends that I still have, have back problems or live too far away.
-So of course that 2 day estimate seems freaking ridiculous. I had 2 weeks off of work to complete it.
-I had all the wood and materials dropped off at the build site by the lumber store. This was my first time getting materials delivered and its much easier than picking through lumber. I just had to accept the fact that a lot of it would be crooked and figure out what a professional would do in that situation.
Enough BS-ing. You came to see the pics of my build, so here you go.
View media item 54224This is where I will build the shed. It's only 50 feet from the service pole which will save money on wire. I measured and marked out where I would set the 15 pier concrete post. Then started post hole digging, always tons of hand blistering fun.
View media item 54225Here we have the crooked 4x6 beams. I thought about calling and getting them replace but there just isn't any good lumber out there anymore and I wasn't about to waste any time sorting through 16ft 4x6 beams. I set out all the blocks and got them level, then set the beams on top.
View media item 54226So by now I am cursing these crooked beams that lean left on one side and left right on the other side. I just made do, and moved on.
View media item 54227Built the Rim joists and started to nail the beams to it.
View media item 54228View media item 54229All of the floor joists are installed, then I leveled the floor based off of the joists. I decided to do it this way because the beams were just atrocious, and there isn't any way to straighten them, not that I would if there were.
It took me 2.5 days to get to this point. I took 2 days off to spend time with the family and rest. I would restart on Monday.
View media item 54230Hey Look!! It rained!! YAYYYYYY!!!
After some youtube research, I sucked the water out of the pier holes with a shop vac. Then I drove to Lowes and bought a cement mixer, which I had never used in my life. I can give some advice on this, if its rated for 4 bags of cement, only mix 3 at a time. Also, you need to tilt the mixer very slowly when pouring it, because once the weight shifts you can't react fast enough and catch all of the cement in your arms to prevent it from spilling onto the ground. 40 bags of cement later, the holes are filled.
Why did I buy a cement mixer? well I had enough cash to buy a cement mixer OR a wheel barrow. I bought a mixer and a 5 gallon Lowes bucket. Pouring cement in a 5 gallon bucket is very do-able and I actually recommend it you anyone, and after you try it, tell me about it and we can laugh about how that was the worst idea ever.
View media item 54231Next day, nailing on the plywood floor. I was literally going to do this with a hammer. My friends advised against it and I got a nail gun. Best decision I ever made.
View media item 54232Here you can see my pier post and beam connection. You can't go wrong with Strong ties. And you can never install too many of them. From my extensive research, I knew I needed a continuous load path and I will use hurricane 2.5AZ for all the other connections. Simpson's strongtie catalog is awesome and will show you cool things even a wizard wouldn't know.
View media item 54233Floor is done. That was fun. I'd continue to rhyme but I don't have time.
View media item 54234Lets cut some truss boards. The dewalt Miter saw and the big stand it sits on came in handy. I just cut my first truss board, and set the stops on the stand up for the rest. So no measuring every board. I was able to cut 100 boards in an hour. I AM A MACHINE!!!!!!!
View media item 54235Flash forward to the next day, I forgot to take pics of the complete truss build. I put two boards together on the floor and built a jig. I assembly the 100 boards until I had 50 1/2 trusses. The shiny piece attaching the truss boards is Radiant barrier OSB. I am using this for the roof and could have saved $2 on the 3 sheets I used to mend the truss boards together by buying regular OSB, but I did not think about it at the time.
View media item 54236Here is my pile of 1/2 trusses. Lets put them together and they will give birth to a full size Truss.
View media item 54237Its easy, put the boards in until they **** up.
View media item 54238Then put 8 or 10 or 20 nails into each side. I must admit that using the nail gun is really fun and I like trying to see how fast I can set 8 nails. The greater the speed the lower the accuracy, hence the more nails I used. So, nailing speed is directly proportional to the amount of nails used. Its almost Linear.
SO, this now newly single man and his father got together and decided to build a nice place for them to spend their time.
Okay so my plan was to follow the shed building plans that I bought of the internet. Which I must admit, its easy to get scammed these days. I did find a really good plan set with material list and such for several different size sheds. The largest being 16x32 gambrel. My construction background is non existent at this point in my life. I just built a nice 10ft deck for my walmart pool before summer started. It turned out great. With that confidence boost, I figured I could finish this shed very quickly. I ordered all my material from the local yard, a few nail guns from Amazon, and a cement mixer from Lowes.
Here is the rundown on my building specs and materials:
-16' x 32' 2 story gambrel shed
-The foundation with be 3ea treated 4x6 beams sitting on 15ea concrete piers, 5 per 32ft beam
-The floor is 2x8 treated joists with 3/4" treat plywood deck
-7' x 7' double door on one end, no windows at first.
-Double bubble foil radiant barrier all around the walls
-LP smartside reverse batten exterior panels over studs
-Radiant barrier OSB on the roof and shingles on top
-2nd story or Loft floor built with 2x8. should have 7' head clearance
Having never built anything before, I'm terrible at estimating how long my projects will take to complete. I guessed that 2 days was enough to finish this shed, maybe 4. Which would be possible with a few friends.
The fine print:
-I will be building this shed by myself. The ex scared away most of my friends over the course of our marriage, and I haven't built that core group back up yet, and my friends that I still have, have back problems or live too far away.
-So of course that 2 day estimate seems freaking ridiculous. I had 2 weeks off of work to complete it.
-I had all the wood and materials dropped off at the build site by the lumber store. This was my first time getting materials delivered and its much easier than picking through lumber. I just had to accept the fact that a lot of it would be crooked and figure out what a professional would do in that situation.
Enough BS-ing. You came to see the pics of my build, so here you go.
View media item 54224This is where I will build the shed. It's only 50 feet from the service pole which will save money on wire. I measured and marked out where I would set the 15 pier concrete post. Then started post hole digging, always tons of hand blistering fun.
View media item 54225Here we have the crooked 4x6 beams. I thought about calling and getting them replace but there just isn't any good lumber out there anymore and I wasn't about to waste any time sorting through 16ft 4x6 beams. I set out all the blocks and got them level, then set the beams on top.
View media item 54226So by now I am cursing these crooked beams that lean left on one side and left right on the other side. I just made do, and moved on.
View media item 54227Built the Rim joists and started to nail the beams to it.
View media item 54228View media item 54229All of the floor joists are installed, then I leveled the floor based off of the joists. I decided to do it this way because the beams were just atrocious, and there isn't any way to straighten them, not that I would if there were.
It took me 2.5 days to get to this point. I took 2 days off to spend time with the family and rest. I would restart on Monday.
View media item 54230Hey Look!! It rained!! YAYYYYYY!!!
After some youtube research, I sucked the water out of the pier holes with a shop vac. Then I drove to Lowes and bought a cement mixer, which I had never used in my life. I can give some advice on this, if its rated for 4 bags of cement, only mix 3 at a time. Also, you need to tilt the mixer very slowly when pouring it, because once the weight shifts you can't react fast enough and catch all of the cement in your arms to prevent it from spilling onto the ground. 40 bags of cement later, the holes are filled.
Why did I buy a cement mixer? well I had enough cash to buy a cement mixer OR a wheel barrow. I bought a mixer and a 5 gallon Lowes bucket. Pouring cement in a 5 gallon bucket is very do-able and I actually recommend it you anyone, and after you try it, tell me about it and we can laugh about how that was the worst idea ever.
View media item 54231Next day, nailing on the plywood floor. I was literally going to do this with a hammer. My friends advised against it and I got a nail gun. Best decision I ever made.
View media item 54232Here you can see my pier post and beam connection. You can't go wrong with Strong ties. And you can never install too many of them. From my extensive research, I knew I needed a continuous load path and I will use hurricane 2.5AZ for all the other connections. Simpson's strongtie catalog is awesome and will show you cool things even a wizard wouldn't know.
View media item 54233Floor is done. That was fun. I'd continue to rhyme but I don't have time.
View media item 54234Lets cut some truss boards. The dewalt Miter saw and the big stand it sits on came in handy. I just cut my first truss board, and set the stops on the stand up for the rest. So no measuring every board. I was able to cut 100 boards in an hour. I AM A MACHINE!!!!!!!
View media item 54235Flash forward to the next day, I forgot to take pics of the complete truss build. I put two boards together on the floor and built a jig. I assembly the 100 boards until I had 50 1/2 trusses. The shiny piece attaching the truss boards is Radiant barrier OSB. I am using this for the roof and could have saved $2 on the 3 sheets I used to mend the truss boards together by buying regular OSB, but I did not think about it at the time.
View media item 54236Here is my pile of 1/2 trusses. Lets put them together and they will give birth to a full size Truss.
View media item 54237Its easy, put the boards in until they **** up.
View media item 54238Then put 8 or 10 or 20 nails into each side. I must admit that using the nail gun is really fun and I like trying to see how fast I can set 8 nails. The greater the speed the lower the accuracy, hence the more nails I used. So, nailing speed is directly proportional to the amount of nails used. Its almost Linear.
