Outlawmws
Well-known member
OK, I’ve mentioned the “New Shed” project a number of times, and between procrastination of the restart/completion and now, I finally got (made)time to post the pics and story.
The original plan was to do an “Eco friendly” build (Recycled materials as much as possible) but still have a nice looking shed when done.
Also I wanted to see how much of the materials could be had free/cheap from a number of sources. I’m involved with the local chapter of Freecycle, and of course there are pretty good offerings for free materials on Craig’s List as well sometimes. I would have to buy some things, but wanted to see if most of it could be done without real cost, just labor.
Concrete work gets into $$ fast, and I wanted it able to be at least partly “modular” in the event it was ever needed to be moved. So a wood floor on Pier blocks was the decision. Pier blocks were easy to get for free, as people regularly remove decks around here. I needed 15 for the “foundation” plus three more for the “porch deck” I wanted in front of the double doors. The double doors were planed from the beginning concept to be a pair of 36” reused house doors so there would be no real access issues, and minimal security issues as long as the “fixed” door was anchored well.
Square footage was difficult. My town allows me 120 SF without a permit as long as there is no electrical, no plumbing, and the midpoint on the roof slope is under 12’ (that and the usual setbacks to prop lines and adjacent buildings..)
10 X 12 is the obvious answer, but I didn’t like those proportions and it didn’t fit in the “Back 40” well (what we have always called one fenced corner of my 10K sq ft lot). After a lot of playing “What If” I settled on 16 X 7-1/2.
I was planning on using a lot of replaced slab type Garage doors, (ties into the 16’ dimension well…) but was unsuccessful getting a local Garage door company to actually come through for me. The Gen. Manager acted very interested, especially when I offered to provide my plans based on Garage door reuse to his company for free (so they can get more people to come haul off the old doors, which is an ongoing problem to them), but it never happened.
I was more successful getting sheets of plywood from various sources, enough for the floor (3/4”thick as well as enough 4X4 to do most of the floor framing)and all the roof sheathing in ½” ply. There is even enough ¾” left for the porch roof! (Yes it will have a covered porch)
About ½ of all the roofing shingles were free also (someone’s leftovers, all new) and maybe 1/4of the 2X4 framing; the remaining 2X4’s needed were not expensive and I also had some 2X6 redwood deck salvage for joists for a central loft.
The overall profile is a “barn shape” but NOT Gambrel as I don’t like that look for sheds. This plan would have a steep 12 on 12 central pitch and what wound up to be nearly 6 on 12 for the “wings”. The 7-1/2 ft width allowed me to use full 8ft width on the roofing sheathing.
I had salvaged a stack of LONG pallets, for their 1X6 planks (over 8 ft long) and planned to rip those lengthwise for vertical batting on the plain garage door ply, so it would have some architectural flavor instead of just vanilla plain plywood.
About 10 weeks ago I finally got tired of waiting, and we started finishing the framing using new wood. I figured and additional 6-700 in new T1-11 was still cheap compared to even an inexpensive kit. (We had actually built and painted the floor framing and “subfloor” over a year previously in anticipation of the garage door materials)
Here is that grading leveling and framing of the flooring, we had to do the final grading and setting pier blocks ½ at a time:
Looking South from the yard to the street:
And west from he Gate to the "Back 40":
Doing 1/2 the framing/Flooring (Due to space constraints; I had 2 vehicles back there PLUS the 47 cab and frame) at a time:
Once one side was done we inched the cab on ramp/rails to the cart it will live on "inside" the shed during the build... (No other practical place for it...)
Moving up the "ramp":
Almost there!
The original plan was to do an “Eco friendly” build (Recycled materials as much as possible) but still have a nice looking shed when done.
Also I wanted to see how much of the materials could be had free/cheap from a number of sources. I’m involved with the local chapter of Freecycle, and of course there are pretty good offerings for free materials on Craig’s List as well sometimes. I would have to buy some things, but wanted to see if most of it could be done without real cost, just labor.
Concrete work gets into $$ fast, and I wanted it able to be at least partly “modular” in the event it was ever needed to be moved. So a wood floor on Pier blocks was the decision. Pier blocks were easy to get for free, as people regularly remove decks around here. I needed 15 for the “foundation” plus three more for the “porch deck” I wanted in front of the double doors. The double doors were planed from the beginning concept to be a pair of 36” reused house doors so there would be no real access issues, and minimal security issues as long as the “fixed” door was anchored well.
Square footage was difficult. My town allows me 120 SF without a permit as long as there is no electrical, no plumbing, and the midpoint on the roof slope is under 12’ (that and the usual setbacks to prop lines and adjacent buildings..)
10 X 12 is the obvious answer, but I didn’t like those proportions and it didn’t fit in the “Back 40” well (what we have always called one fenced corner of my 10K sq ft lot). After a lot of playing “What If” I settled on 16 X 7-1/2.
I was planning on using a lot of replaced slab type Garage doors, (ties into the 16’ dimension well…) but was unsuccessful getting a local Garage door company to actually come through for me. The Gen. Manager acted very interested, especially when I offered to provide my plans based on Garage door reuse to his company for free (so they can get more people to come haul off the old doors, which is an ongoing problem to them), but it never happened.
I was more successful getting sheets of plywood from various sources, enough for the floor (3/4”thick as well as enough 4X4 to do most of the floor framing)and all the roof sheathing in ½” ply. There is even enough ¾” left for the porch roof! (Yes it will have a covered porch)
About ½ of all the roofing shingles were free also (someone’s leftovers, all new) and maybe 1/4of the 2X4 framing; the remaining 2X4’s needed were not expensive and I also had some 2X6 redwood deck salvage for joists for a central loft.
The overall profile is a “barn shape” but NOT Gambrel as I don’t like that look for sheds. This plan would have a steep 12 on 12 central pitch and what wound up to be nearly 6 on 12 for the “wings”. The 7-1/2 ft width allowed me to use full 8ft width on the roofing sheathing.
I had salvaged a stack of LONG pallets, for their 1X6 planks (over 8 ft long) and planned to rip those lengthwise for vertical batting on the plain garage door ply, so it would have some architectural flavor instead of just vanilla plain plywood.
About 10 weeks ago I finally got tired of waiting, and we started finishing the framing using new wood. I figured and additional 6-700 in new T1-11 was still cheap compared to even an inexpensive kit. (We had actually built and painted the floor framing and “subfloor” over a year previously in anticipation of the garage door materials)
Here is that grading leveling and framing of the flooring, we had to do the final grading and setting pier blocks ½ at a time:
Looking South from the yard to the street:
And west from he Gate to the "Back 40":
Doing 1/2 the framing/Flooring (Due to space constraints; I had 2 vehicles back there PLUS the 47 cab and frame) at a time:
Once one side was done we inched the cab on ramp/rails to the cart it will live on "inside" the shed during the build... (No other practical place for it...)
Moving up the "ramp":
Almost there!
After the porch deck and roof are on I'm thinking I'm in the market for a rocking char for the closed door side to relax in! 
Why can't people meet commitments these days, and run a reasonable operation?