Ice Shack

[Muckin_Slusher]

Haven't built one since 2008. Canadian Ice Shack Build

Building this one with my 13 year old boy. We're taking our time and discussing all aspects of what we're doing. It's awesome, but time goes so fast.

Working on building a guest house, since I've got guests every weekend, and my kids are near "girlfriend" age...

This is what I've got so far.

Standard twin bed is 75x39. If I stack like shown, I can make the upper one foldable, and gain more living space.

Shooting for a 7x10 footprint, and ability to sleep 4 people (2 sets of "friends").

The upper bunk will partially fold up (and probably be like this 99% of the time).

The red is wood stove, the green is propane ventless heater.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Picked up some materials today. Everything is expensive.

2x10 PT for the runners. Did a nice curve that I can hopefully bend the 5/8 PT ply without scoring. You need a nice shallow angle to make these things slide nice.

Don't know how many times I've seen people miter their runners. **** just digs in and the plastic breaks off (usually they're cut at the miters).

I'll be continuing the plastic past the runner and up the wall some (under the steel siding). This does two things, first it's a bulletproof way to attach the runners to the shack so they won't pull off when jacking the thing out of frozen in ice. Second is that it's flashing that will keep rain water from getting in the runners and pooling and rotting in there.

Runners will be 16 inches wide, spanned with plywood, then skinned with cattle walkway plastic.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Soaking wet 5/8 PT plywood, bent without kerf cuts. Only had some minor splitting.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Floor.

5/8 PT ply, 2x4 joists layed flat. 1.5 inch rigid insulation.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Hitches.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Used 1/2 inch hot dipped carriage bolts. 3 at each corner, then once the floor is on top I'll add one more bolt at each corner up through the floor. I'll use stainless for those because reduced thermal bridging (steel bolts make ice bumps on the floor).

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Floor bolted down. You can see there's 2 inches of floor hanging over outside the runners. This is so the walls won't cover the screws holding the runners on. Also so the outside walls can be screwed down from under the floor. We started doing this once we got to the point of changing rotten floors on some shacks----build everything so it can be disassembled with least amount of drama.

Good shot of the plastic getting curled up the walls. This keeps them flashed under the outer steel siding to prevent rain water getting into them, and it's also a bulletproof way to make sure the runners don't get pulled off the shack when they freeze into the ice and we hi-lift the shack out.

 

[36truck]

Nice setup. Looks like that will come off the ice fairly easy.

 

[Jayman17]

Cool project, following along. Makes me think of the movie Grumpy Old Men.

 

[Jgaz]

Nice build!
I like the vise mounted on the old floor jack frame

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Nice build!
I like the vise mounted on the old floor jack frame

That thing has been ridiculously handy. Hand drilling holes in stuff is so much easier when you're drilling straight down and gravity is your friend.

And, yes, it sounds exactly like you'd expect being rolled across the floor!

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Child labor in the truss factory.

Roof will get built right on the floor, including the roofing steel, then get hoisted out of the way and lifted onto the finished walls once they're done.

 

[tarmy]

Love the build. I have ZERO knowledge of what goes into these….so will be following to actually learn something.

 

[Southernbuild]

I don't know anything about these, but its a cool build! I'll be watching!

 

[hh76]

How about a trap door so you could use the open space in the runners for storage?

 

[WoodsTruck]

How about a trap door so you could use the open space in the runners for storage?

I was picturing trapdoors to allow forced warm air through them to thaw them out of an icy jam.

 

[2oolhound]

Isn't there a trap door in the middle you can fish though? Never been ice fishing but I've seen pictures.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

How about a trap door so you could use the open space in the runners for storage?

Naw, that's the first place the fish cops look for fish. No good hiding them there.

I was picturing trapdoors to allow forced warm air through them to thaw them out of an icy jam.

I've considered looping heat trace in there, but never have because don't have a generator. Warm air is a great idea. I usually keep my shacks on double 8x8 timbers and haven't frozen one in over ten years. Only downside is you gotta build a wooden staircase to get in.

Isn't there a trap door in the middle you can fish though? Never been ice fishing but I've seen pictures.

For fishing shacks yes, but this is a "sleep shack" so I put more priority to keeping it warm. I never did on my first shack (see link in first post to see it). Reason was because I was fishing with my kids on overnight trips starting them out at 3 months old. I didn't want a toddler falling through a floor hole (and throwing everything the can down the hole also).

We fish outside. It keeps you moving. Gotta get up and check the lines every 10 minutes so you don't get old.

Side note about doing this with babies. When they were able to walk I would take their arm and force them to put their hand close enough to the wood stove to really understand the danger. I did the same thing with fish hooks. I would hold their finger and show them the fish hook, and then poke their finger while they watched. I obviously didn't draw blood, but it was enough that they understood not to play with fish hooks or wood stoves. Never had an incident and the kids grew up just fine.

Understand that I did this with their best intentions. World-proof the kids, don't kid-proof the world.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Screwed down the gable trusses and set everything and temporary braced it all.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Dug some nasty old vent tubing out of the dirt. Washed off the diesel soot and hung to dry.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Put on a layer of synthetic underlay (this will be visible from inside the shack) then covered it all with a single piece of vent tubing. I nailed this down good as it's structural (to resist racking).

Ripped 2 2x6x12 in half and attached as strapping and insulated. Left the strapping overhang 12 inches at each end. Think I'll leave the roof that long to keep some of the rain off the doors and windows.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

 

[NUTTSGT]

Interesting build... I'll have to check out the original build in the link.


Keep taking pictures and posting.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Having a bit of a time finding a roof flashing for a 6 inch singlewall stove pipe. Gonna try to find a galvanized b-vent flashing.

Lifted off the roof and laid out the new floorplan. Cooler is the wood stove. Bed in place and door in place (36 incher).

Pic of my shed chimney, this is the plan.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Actually using a full size twin and not a cut down piece of foam ? I think a "cot" size foam mattress is only 24" wide and that would save you over a foot of floor space.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Actually using a full size twin and not a cut down piece of foam ? I think a "cot" size foam mattress is only 24" wide and that would save you over a foot of floor space.

24 inches isn't nearly enough room for me and momma to snuggle.

A real mattress is heaven in an ice shack.

 

[NUTTSGT]

24 inches isn't nearly enough room for me and momma to snuggle.

A real mattress is heaven in an ice shack.

Full twin on the bottom and little bit on the top ?

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Full twin on the bottom and little bit on the top ?

Yes, the upper bunk will be a 24 inch.

New layout:

green is door, red is wood stove. pink is lower bed, purple is upper bunk. Blue is occasional bunk for 4th person. Probably store the plywood and mattress for that bed on the upper one. If there's only three people then the upper bunk guy gets a double thick foam mattress.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I was going to ask about the wood stove but I see a home built in the linked thread. I would assume another home built.

 

[Copymutt]

Jealous here. I’m an avid hard water guy, have 4 huts, but all man hauled. That means weight is critical. One material breakthrough I had a few years ago was boneyard truck bed liners for the floor. Super tough & lighter than plywood. Looks like a very comfortable shack

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Walls. Since the walls are 7 foot, I was able to square and frame them on my floor, perfect jig even has clamping edges all around.

Plywood is the inside, used tyvek where the vapor barrier should be. I intentionally make my shacks a bit drafty, helps keep mold out as well as venting combustion gases from vent-free propane heaters.

Used short ringed nails to keep them from frosting.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Walls.



Roofing.

It's great doing roofing while standing on the ground.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Upsy daisy.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

2 of 3 windows mounted.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

First time making a door jamb from scratch.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

3/8 plywood. Added a third window between the bunks.



View of the ceiling (you're looking at the synthetic roof underlayment, with vent bag above that, then insulation above that.



Working out placement of the wood stove.

 

[mike93lx]

Cool build.

4 people in a 7x10? One fart away from serious danger

 

[NUTTSGT]

Cool build.

4 people in a 7x10? One fart away from serious danger

With a wood stove to boot

 

[gahrajmahal]

Might I suggest one of these for splitting your wood? I got one last year after several years of anxious monitoring my grandsons trying to successfully use an ax to split logs for the fire. Now, they just wail on the log with a rubber mallet until they get exhausted. The occasional miss might result in a bonked leg instead of a cut one.

 

[PCustoms]

Having a bit of a time finding a roof flashing for a 6 inch singlewall stove pipe. Gonna try to find a galvanized b-vent flashing.

So you need 6" pipe or can you run smaller? With such a small area to heat it shouldn't take much stove...