Shed Project: New Construction Build Thread

[lupinsea]

Hello all. I'm relatively new here but I've been enjoying everybody else's posts about their garages and other shop projects. Since I'm just starting to build mine I figured I'd post up here to contribute to the forum.

Shed Project
Kenmore, WA​

I've been wanting to replace our rotting, old backyard shed since last year. But due to economic concerns we put off that project until a) we were on better economic footing and b) for a change of seasons and good weather. Since both of these conditions have been met, we're proceeding with the project.

Most of the written info to go along with the pictures will be posted on my website where the content is presented in a much nicer format, along with links to larger photos if anyone is interested.

Lupinsea's Shed Project Website​

Since I've already got a bit of a start here's a big rush of images in the first post. Updates will probably slow a bit after this and match progress. I'm figuring with my spare time out look that I'll be working on this for several months with a goal of completion before the bad weather returns in early fall.




PROJECT SCOPE & DESIGN
The scope of this project involves tearing down the old shed (work currently in progress), prepping the site, and then building the new shed in it's place. The "shed" is arranged in two structures: the larger main shed of about 180 sf and a separate smaller structure of 72 sf for the yard tools. Total square footage is over 250 sf of storage. Our local codes allow up to 200 sf per structure to be built without a permit, this is part of the reason for splitting the project into two structures. The other was to separate the "dirty" yard tools from a cleaner storage environment for other tools and materials.

Due to budgets constraints and anticipated usage, this will largely be for storage. It will be used in conjuction with the main house garage, however. The garage space will be the flexible workspace for future projects and I'll run the equipment and tools I'll need over from the shed. This will allow the work space in the garage to be configured on an as-needed basis.

A rain screen siding system will be used to clad the exterior of both structures. And the foundation wall will rise higher than necessary and project proud of the siding face to give the buildings a pronounced base or plinth to rest on.

Unlike many sheds that use pier blocks and wood floors, this will have a concrete stem wall and footing with a slab on grade floor for durability and long-term integrity.

Site plan.

Floor plan.

West elevation.

3D model of our property, house, back patio, and the shed.

Close up rendering of the shed proper and the yard tool companion building.

Section perspective cut through the main shed building.

View looking out across the new patio (to be poured at the same time as the
shed footing) to the shed in the southwest corner of our property.​

BEFORE PHOTOS

The existing shed dates back close to 40 years. Over that time it has been remodeled at least twice with two additions. The first expanded the internal storage and changed the roof from a symetrical gable to an asymetrical one. The second addition added an enclosed, elevated play structure that was poorly details. The poor details left a large gap between a wall and roof intersection that let rain in to the interior of the structure. Between this and poor clearance between the base of the wood walls and surrounding grade the whole structure is in an advanced state of rot and decay.

Panoramic image of our back yard and the existing shed.

The shed back behind some vegetation.

.

The existing shed is rotting to pieces.​

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[lupinsea]

DEMOLITION
There were grand plans to use a sawzall to surgically cut the old shed into 3 ft wide managable sections, neatly stack them onto my trailer, and haul everything away. After two cuts this plan fell to pieces, literally, as the roof and two walls collapsed. After that it was minimal work knock down the western 1/3 of the shed. By that point it didn't make sense to try and cut things to neat and tidy pieces. Instead I hooked up the winch from my Jeep and simply tore the building down.

Cutting down the large shrub / small tree that is in the way.

Getting the Jeep and utility trailer into position in the backyard.

Two cuts and the roof and two walls collapsed. Minimal extra work and 1/3
of the shed was knocked down.

Hooking up the winch on the Jeep to rip the shed down.

The shed as-is, awaiting disposal.




Demolition Video: Tearing Down Shed With Jeep




.​

 

[ErickForest]

I like the design and drawings. Looks like you put a lot of time and thought into the layout. What did you use to draw the 3D plans?

 

[Jack Olsen]

Wouldn't it be easier to render yourself and your family in 3D and just move into the plans? Somebody render me a cocktail!

That software is outta control. And I mean that in a good way.

One question, though. Why the nice glass doors on the lawn mower shed, and the run-of-the-mill door on the place you'll actually be going into and out of?

 

[Sterff]

The design and plans look very nice!!

 

[lupinsea]

I like the design and drawings. Looks like you put a lot of time and thought into the layout. What did you use to draw the 3D plans?

I used ArchiCAD, a program we use at work. When we start a project we just start building and developing it in 3D. Then when the model is far enough along it's a simple matter of slicing and dicing the 3D model to help us develop our plans, sections, and elevations that are all very well coordinated.

I put some time into it because I had the time but also because I've been a bit fussy with this project.



The overall model of our house and yard I did about 4 years ago when we bought the house and moved in. About a year after that I did my own topo survey to get an accurate terrain modeled in. Since then I've used the model to work out other project designs around the house, such as a stacked concrete retaining all that was part of a patio expansion we're doing soon. For that I used the program to conduct sun studies to determine exact placement of some tables and chairs so they would be situated in some shade between 5pm and 7pm in the summer months.

The program has also been used recently for some work on "building" 3D cabinetry for a built-in bookcase for our office. That project is nearly wrapped up.



Retaining wall project.

Home Office Project (no 3D model images but the drawings are a product of one)

Wouldn't it be easier to render yourself and your family in 3D and just move into the plans? Somebody render me a cocktail!

That software is outta control. And I mean that in a good way.

One question, though. Why the nice glass doors on the lawn mower shed, and the run-of-the-mill door on the place you'll actually be going into and out of?

Yes, it would be much cheaper to render ourselves and move into the 3D model, al la Tron. Unfortunately, I don't have access to that type of scanner.

The door on the main shed isn't finalized. I'm hoping to find a matching door. The ones on the small structure . . . well, I found some solid core VG fir french doors on Craigslist, two 3' x 6'-8" doors with no lock set or hinges cut yet (nice, virgin doors). Got the pair for $100. Couldn't pass it up.

I could simply use one of the doors on the shed but they're a perfect matching pair and I need/want double doors on the small yard tool building. I'll probably frost the glass or obscure it slightly in some way.


So I'm still looking for a door for the shed.

 

[lupinsea]

( Demolition Continued )

Hacking up the larger pieces of the shed
into smaller ones with a sawzall

Once most of the shed was hauled off I attacked the stump
of the large tree/shrub I had cut down at the start of everything.
Took a while digging around it to locate all the main roots and
cut them out. Then rigged up a ****** block to my winch line
which doubled the line pull.

The first time I did this I ended up dragging my Jeep across
the lawn toward the stump.

Then I did more digging, more root cutting, and on the second
try the stump ripped out of the ground.

Stump gone and shed debris pile gone . . . except for the
small pile of pink fluffy insulation. . . some bees decided
to make a home there and after I got stung twice I
decided to wait until I got some bee spray.

.

Started to break up the old concrete slab. On the left picture you
can see where I used a sledge hammer to strike a series of blows
in a straight-ish line across the slab. On the right, a few whacks
on the edge of the slab and it fractured along the strike line. Then
some pry bar and fulcrum work to lever out the chunks of concrete
and it was on to the next pass.​

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[IGOR]

Looking very good!

 

[Granite Guy]

great thread lupinsea.....your particularness cracks me up you remind me of myself! Good looking plan, looking forward to seeing more pics.

 

[lupinsea]

Thanks guys.

Still working on finalizing the actual construction drawings. Trying to work them up to the same detail we do for the houses we design in our office. In part, I do want to see how easy/difficult it is to build off of our plans. Who knows, it might enlighten me on how I can produce better construction drawings. Not that page count is any metric but I have four construction drawing pages so far. Printed them up today and redlined them for editing (I try to "fix" as much stuff on screen before printing that I can but invariably I always miss stuff so I need to do a test print).

Busting up the concrete slab is kicking my ****. I was sore Sunday evening and most of Monday, might have also had something to do with removing the stump on Sunday, too. Got something going on tonight so I can't work on the shed but I'll be back at it on Wednesday. I'm thinking if I can develop some wedges I can jamb under the edge of the concrete to put some upward pressure on the edge it might help to break it up easier / faster when I smack it with a sledge hammer. But the wedges have to be broad enough that they don't sink into the dirt under the slab. I'll try something out.

 

[rlwhitetr3b]

I've found if you can raise the concrete a little before you hit it, it will break much easier.

Love you drawings! I'm trying to layout my garage with a cheap CAD program and I'm still trying to climb the learning curve!

 

[santagary]

Can an average guy access this Archi Cad program or a similar program...I love the idea and the outcome you've shown us all.

 

[lupinsea]

You can download a full version of the program free for a demo. The only thing you can't do is save, print, or otherwise get your "work" out of the program. But otherwise, it's a full version of the the program, IIRC, and you can use all the other features.

Here's the company's website: Graphisoft

Just quickly poking around their site I think you can "rent" thier program. Basically, buying a license to use the program for a pre-defined amount of time. I have no idea what that costs but the time periods are 1, 3, and 6 months or 1 year. One strategy would be to download the program and run it as a demo to get you through any learning curve. Then rent it for the time period you need.

Also, I thought I saw an e-mail notification from the company that they have a stripped down version for around $1200 (full versions are ~$4200) or so for small users who don't need the ability to work on team projects. It's called ArchiCAD Start Edition.

The program is massive overkill for my little shed building but it was available through work. It's a commercial grade program used by firms around the world to design everything, including sky scrapers, factories, hospitals, transmission towers, etc.

 

[RobSmith]

MAKE IT BIGGER MAKE IT BIGGER...everone needs a bigger shed !

 

[NOVA87Wrangler]

Can an average guy access this Archi Cad program or a similar program...I love the idea and the outcome you've shown us all.

I use Google SketchUp, it's a free CAD program, pretty easy to get the hang of, just give yourself an hour or two messing around.

 

[lupinsea]

MAKE IT BIGGER MAKE IT BIGGER...everone needs a bigger shed !

Yeah yeah. It's going to be the size it is. If I go any bigger the costs go up significantly and that's out of budget. Simply not going to happen.

 

[lupinsea]

Continuing to bust up the concrete slab. Last night I tried jambing some wedges under the edge to put some upward pressure on the concrete. It didn't save any time factoring the time it took to set the wedges. But it made breaking up the slab easier. I'll keep using the wedges. By the end of this weekend all the concrete should be gone. And I hope to have the site laid out with batter boards set up. Then I can rent the excavation equipment.

Anyways, last night I finished up the construction drawings. Here they are. I may do some framing layout and prep an interior elevation for the work bench. But that is partly waiting on the final window sizes and I won't know those until I actually buy the windows. I need to see what's available on the used market.

 

[lupinsea]

Bunch of little things happening on the project.

This last week I've tried to make some progress setting up the batter boards (no picture of these yet) with some rough measurement first, now i need to go back and do final measurement. Had to re-set about half the batter board stakes because I set them too low.

Then the lumber package showed up this Saturday. Spent some time restacking all the wood so that it was out of the line of access for any trucks to get to the actual construction site. This also let me re-order the material by size/type and the order it will be incorporated into the project.

This week I need to finish up some little things and mark the ground where I need to dig because next weekend I'll be renting the excavation equipment.

Truck dropping off the lumber package.

$15 delivery fee for over 3000 lb. of wood sounded like a bargain to me.

The lumber pile was reorganized and restacked out of the way. The new
sort order grouped the boards by size and by order or use in the project.
The roof rafters are toward the back of the stack and the footing formwork
boards are toward the front, for instance.​

.

 

[kizer]

Hey,

I didn't know you had a build thread here. I know I probably converted you over to the darkside when I was posting this site over on the Jeep forum.

Anyways for those of you that don't know lupinsea as I do. Hes not one to build anything withou plans that cover every detail known to man on them before a board is ordered. I mean come on how many people use a CNC to cut wood for a shelf for a desk?

http://www.links4jeeps.com/forum/off-topic/home-office-remodel-(diy-project)/

 

[lupinsea]

Yeah, thanks for tipping me off to this site, Kizer. One more place to take up too much of my time.

BTW, I'm almost read to move our "stuff" back into the office. Just did the edging for the formica for the top of the bookcase, install the electrical outlets, and lower doors. Just need to vacuum all the dust off the floor and a little more clean-up and my wife and I can move back into our office (as opposed to having all our stuff set up on the kitchen table). There is still some touch up to do on the painted wall and clean up on the base trim but that can be done after we've re-settled in the office. I'll post new pictures of the office soon.

 

[kizer]

Please do that would be great. My wife and her new little side business I could use some ideas since my design or what I should say what I had invisioned might change because I have to address some needs of hers because she wants to use my desk for her doing.

Anyways Ramble, Ramble

 

[lupinsea]

Starting to lay out the string lines on the shed. It took me a few days to get the batter boards set up right. And it's taking me some time to make very careful measurements to get the strings 1) in the proper alignment and 2) at true right angle to eachother.

Just remember, it's a 3-4-5 triangle relationship. As you measure out along an axis if you keep the sides of the triangle ratios of multiples 3, 4, and 5 you'll end up with a 90 deg angle. And ideally, the bigger the triangle, the more accurate the angle. For instance, the first triangle I set was for the main alignment line perpendicular to the house. I was able to measure out 18 ft to the side, then measured 24 ft straight-ish out from the face of the house. And when the hypotenuse measured 30 ft I found my right angle. This is a simple but accurate way of measuring but the trick is to keep the tape measurers consisten. It helps to have a partner but with my big-*** tripod as a "floating anchor" I was able to do it myself, albeit taking a bit more time.

If my measurements were accurate enough, I think the primary string I set up last night are probably within 1/4" of 90 deg to the house as measured out nearly 50 ft away from the house. Good enough for me. . . and the two perpendicular strings for the north and south walls of the shed should be within about 1/8" of 90 deg.

The big-*** tripod acting as a floating anchor. I would set this up right
under the "4" leg of the 3-4-5 triangle and clamp a second tape to the
tripod. Plenty sturdy for pulling the tape tight.

The construction site looking north to the house with
two of the string lines visible.​

There is a lot to do before I bring the rental equipment home in 4 days. There is still a small tree I need to remove, plus finish setting up the rest of the string lines, digging up 2 more feet of the electrical cable, and finally marking the ground under the string lines so I know where to dig.

 

[wrigh003]

I dig your renderings.

 

[lupinsea]

Thanks....

Here's the latest, bunch of stuff happening recently:

- Finished laying out the string lines.

- Transplanted a tree that was in the way

- Marked the rough outline of where I would need to excavate

- Failed to get the intended tow-vehicle running, nearly caught it on fire

- Scrambled to call the rental place and have them deliver the excavator

- Used excavator to dig a big freak'n hole (comparatively)

- Used left over time to re-grade the future patio area

- Discovered unknown buried pipe

VIDEO of Excavator

It took forever, it seemed, but I got the string-lines all set up and measured off.

Getting started with the excavator, visible on the ground are the
paint lines for where I needed to dig.

.

Occasionally I'd hop out and take a depth reading with the laser level to make sure I was
digging too deep, then it was right back to it.

Big freak'n piles of dirt everywhere. About 1/3 of the way into the excavation I started
seriously worrying about where I'd put all the extra dirt temporarily. The concrete trucks
needed to have approached kept clear for access. And I didn't want to put the dirt too far away
because I will be backfilling the foundation by hand.

Pano shot of the construction site. I tried to leave the middle of the main shed building
undisturbed so there would be that much less to back-fill.

And since I paid for a full-day of rental and I had some spare daylight I used the small blade
on the excavator to level off the site for the new patio expansion.​

 

[kizer]

I need to rent me one of those. I have a few bazillion tree stumps I could beat on in the backyard.

Nice looking progress.

 

[Kevin54]

Wow . I can't wait to see the build going on Great photo, renderings and attention to details And most definitely post up pics of said completed office.

 

[lupinsea]

I've set myself a goal of getting the footing (and patio) poured by June 5th. On one hand that's almost 3 weeks away and I should definitely meet that deadline. On the other hand it seems a bit daunting as I still need to properly level out the bottom of the trenches, set up the footing formwork and get that all leveled off, then bend and place the rebar. On, and do the same to the patio area.

 

[lupinsea]

Ok, now that my site is back up and running. . . some updates:

After the excavator was returned to the rental place it was time to do some final shaping with the hand shovel to get the bottom of the footing trench flat. Some areas that were over-excavated needed to be filled up and compacted. When everything was ready, dirt wise, it was time to set up the formwork and bend the rebar.

Prepping the bottom of the foundation trenches. The excavator only got so
far, then I needed to finish things off by hand with a shovel.

Some grade stakes were set in the bottom of the footing trenches and
leveled with the top of where the footing needed to be with the laser level.
This made it easy to measure down and level out the bottom of the footing
trench to the proper depth

Some parts of the excavation were dug a bit too deep. For these areas I used up
some of the left over concrete rubble from when I broke up the old shed's slab. The
rubble worked very well as it wouldn't compact and provided a good base. Then
some small crushed rock I had left over from last year was used as a bit of filler and
finally some dirt / crushed rock was mixed and compacted over the rubble. In this
manner I'd build up the low spots. In the end it resulted in a very firm, compacted
subgrade for the structure.

To help with soil compaction I built some "compacting shoes". As comical as
these look they actually worked. The principle is similar to the sheeps foot
cleats on big compacting equipment where the weight of the equipment is
distributed on a smaller foot print resulting in higher pressure load for a given area.

In the case of these shoes, they let me exert 4 times more pressure on the
soil than what the finished shed building will do.


​

.

 

[lupinsea]

When the bottom of the trench was finally leveled and compact then it was time to set up the
formwork. The outer forms were set up first and set on the ground. Then shims were built up
under the boards until the whole form was leveled with the laser and anchored to some stakes.

Some scrap would was screwed into the corner of the form work with the outside face of the
foundation marked. This corresponded to how the string lines were set up weeks ago. It was a
simple matte of moving the formwork around until the corner marks lined up under a plumb bob
marking the intersections of the string lines.

Using a rebar bender I borrowed from a friend to bend and cut the rebar to shape. If you're ever
doing rebar work these things are flipp'n awesome. Made the task so easy and simple.

Just set the rebar between some pegs on the side of the bender and the compound leverage will
bend the steel like it's playdough. There are also some notches in the hub for shearing the rebar to
cut it. Super easy and quick.

During the evening one day I bent all the vertical rebar in preparation
for the next day's placement in the forms.

Setting the rebar into the footing formwork. While "professionals"
will set the rebar on the ground and simply lift it up through the
wet concrete during the pour I'm not a professional. The wire
"seats" that support the rebar are pretty cheap and keep the rebar
a consistent 3" off the ground for the proper coverage.

Since I was working with 20 ft pieces and I had over 50 lft
of foundation in the shed building a number of pieces
needed to be spliced together. The rule of thumb is to
overlap the splices by 30 bar diameters. Since I was using
#4 rebar (1/2" diameter) this equated to a 15" minimum overlap.

In order to set the vertical rebar stubs I needed at least one horizontal
bar up off the footing. So the first horizantal band above the footing
was bent and placed at this time. Some blocks of 2x8 scrap kept it a
consistent elevation above the footing formwork and made it significantly
easier to then tie the vertical rebar in place.

A spool of tie wire and some line man's pliers
got the separate pieces of rebar all tied together

All ready to go, the footing and vertical rebar is now
all tied in place and waiting for the concrete truck
to show up.​

.

 

[theroyz71]

That's a lot of rebar for a shed.

 

[c5golfguy]

Looking forward to seeing the build.

 

[mjozefow]

This shed is going to be built like a brick **** house! Nice work!

 

[Greg-nwo]

I pity the fool that tears that out in 100 years or so hehe Can't wait to see more, looks great!

 

[wrigh003]

While "professionals" might lift the rebar up into the pour, folks attempting to do it right use chairs.

 

[993James993]

Awesome design, awesome attention to detail, awesome thread! Can't wait to see more.

 

[lupinsea]

Thanks for the comments guys.

There might be a bit much rebar for just a shed but I wanted to give the structure the same integrity as the house. It's all #4 rebar with two horizontals in the 10" wide x 8" deep footing and three horizontals in the 3 ft stem wall. Verticals are spaced at 24" o.c. Plus I threw in an extra piece of rebar within 3" of each side of each door opening.

The bottom of the footing extends a minimum 18" below grade to reach below the code required frost line for the Seattle area. The foundation wall comes up a bit higher than the 8" minimum clearance required between any wood and finish grade. Mostly this was an aesthetic move as I wanted to show off the foundation more as a plinth or base that the building would sit on.

Ufer Ground
I've been reading a bit on the electrical forum here on GJ about the Ufer Grounding systems and decided to try that on this building. One thing that was not clear was just how much over lap or splice was needed between the rebar that sticks up out of the foundaiton and the footing rebar. Also, while the NEC said that regular rebar tie wire was sufficient to bond to the footing rebar it didn't mention number of ties or anything like that. To play it safe I figured that folding some tire wire over to create a triple stranded tie was the way to go, then I used six of the triple ties to wire the rebar extension to the footing rebar. I also came across other info where one jursidiction had a z-shaped piece of rebar that connected the inner and outer loops of footing rebar. So I did that, too, with the triple tie wires. It didn't take much extra time at all to do this and the rebar extensions and Z's were made with some left over rebar. Figure (if I did it right) that it is easier than trying to pound in a grounding rod. If for some reason this doesn't cut it and I can't use this as a ground it's no big deal. It didn't cost me any extra money and I only wasted about 30-45 minutes of bending and tying the rebar.

Put a bit of a dog-leg into this piece of rebar. This will be the grounding connection for the
Ufer Ground system. The dog leg gets the rebar to come up through the center of the
foundation wall.

.

The left pic is of the 6 triple strand wire ties holding the ground extension
on (and yes, I don't doubt I'm getting the terminology wrong). The right
pic shows the Z shaped rebar that ties the inner and outer footing loops together.​

Pouring Concrete
Saturday was a busy busy day with the concrete pour. By 7:45am I was out the door and doing last-minute preparation. First to the rental company to rent a bull float, brush, and handles for the patio slab finishing. Then to my neighbor's cabinet shop to rip a bevel on some 2x4's to make control joints. Then back to my house to start cutting the control joints to size. About that time a friend showed up to help and I had him start packing dirt at the base of the footing forms (they were about 1 - 1.5" off the ground) to keep the concrete from oozing out the bottom. Followed by brushing diesel fuel on the interior of the forms as a release agent. While he was doing that I was finishing other prep work on site and doing last minute rebar cutting for the slabs.

At 2pm my neighbor showed up and we waited about 15 more minutes before the concrete truck arrived. Once he showed up and started offloading the concrete it was on. No breaks for the next several hours as we offloaded 26,000 lb. of concrete, most of it in buckets or wheelbarrows. Time was of the essence for two reasons:

1. There is a limited amount of time to work the concrete before it sets up
   
   
2. You are allotted X number of minutes per cubic yard to offload before the concrete companies start charging wait times of about $1.50 per minute.

It took about an hour (all of my allotted time) to get the concrete in to the footing forms. Then there was an extra nearly 2 hours for us to get the patio poured. During the whole time I kept thinking that this was going to be costly but at the end the concrete driver didn't charge me for the extra time. Whew!

Once we had the patio forms mostly filled up I signed the paperwork and the truck was off. It still took some more time to finish screeding, then floating the concrete. When my neighbor had finished floating the concrete he headed out while I cleaned up the tools and waited. After floating you need to wait a certain amount of time for the surface water to get reabsorbed and for the concrete to loose the wet sheen. Then you go back over it with a steel trowel to get it even smoother followed by any special finishing. In this case it took about 45 min to an hour until the concrete was ready to work again. Back on my hands and knees with the steel trowel before hitting the patio slabs with the brush for a brushed finish. It was getting dark, about 9:15pm by the time I was done with the finish work.

Talk about a looooong day.

We had about the right number of people to get the concrete into the shed footing formwork but it would have been very helpful to have an extra 1-2 people for the slab work. Two guys on the screen and two with the wheel barrows going back and forth from the truck.

This type of concrete truck was actually a mini-mobile batch plant on wheels.
The concrete was mixed on site as it was delivered out the back of the truck.
This way you can get just the right amount. The total yardage I was placing
today (~6 cu yd) is about the break even point between hiring a short yard
delivery service like this one vs. ordering a normal concrete truck and having
to pay short yardage fees for less than full truck loads.

Backing the truck up to the formwork. I thought the truck would be able to
reach both shed building footings but it became apparent that even the slight
grade of my back yard was pushing the envelope of what the concrete truck
could manage. And the slope steepened slightly where the guy in the
orange shirt is standing.

As it was we ended up pouring about 1/3 of the big shed footing by filling up
a wheel barrow in the middle and then shoveling the wet concrete into the
form. And the small shed footing was entirely poured by buckets in a make-
shift bucket brigade.

Success! Both footing were poured and screeded off.

The next day I nailed the wall formwork cleats to the top of the footings.
Ideally, I should have done this the day of the pour, it would have made the
nailing much easier.​

Bonus Post - Patio Poured Same Day as Footing
While I had the concrete truck scheduled it seemed like a logical time to pour a patio extension. That was a project that was started last year with the construction of retaining wall made out of broken concrete. We couldn't put in the patio last year due to the economy but were able to do it now.

Doing the patio pour was actually a much bigger job than getting the concrete in the footings. If it wasn't for a friend and neighbor helping me (who's a contractor) with his know-how I would have had a lot bigger problems. I completely underestimated how much help I'd need on this project.

Here is a link to the write-up I did on building the wall last year.

And pictures of the patio pour and some pre-pour prep pictures.

Used some remaining time with the rental excavator to de-sod the patio area.

Grading the patio area by setting grade stakes with the laser level on a rough grid
then measuring down to grade from a board spanning between two stakes. Add /
remove soil as needed until consistent.

Getting the formwork set up.

Concrete poured and floated.

Brushed finish done by this here rank amature (after my
contractor friend did a great job with the bull float).

Photo taken this morning after I hosed down the slab again. I put a 1/8" per foot
slope to each section of the patio so that it would all drain. So far so go, no puddling
except at the control joints. . . and I'll pull the control joints out in a week or so.​

 

[cdrewferd]

Looking really good. I wonder though, with all the rebar in the foundations for the sheds, why not some rebar in the patio?

 

[lupinsea]

I put some #3 bar into the larger patio slab sections. Basic 3-4 ft o.c. grid. Some of the smaller patio sections I didn't bother. I just hadn't gotten it cut and tied off when I took the picture of the empty forms.

Actually, I didn't get the patio rebar cut and tied off until about 20 minutes before the truck showed up.

I'll be picking up the rental formwork for the shed foundation walls this Friday with the next pour scheduled for June 19th along with a pump truck (line truck instead of boom truck). The prospect of doing half the 6 cy order via bucket brigade was not appealing.

 

[Tman]

Very Mockeby-Coker in its design. I built something very similar at our old house. Thanks for the detailed thread!

 

[Stuart in MN]

That's going to be a pretty solid shed! By the way, I believe an Ufer ground is supposed to be 20 feet long.