Shed Project: New Construction Build Thread

[lupinsea]

Not a lot of gee-whiz in this update as not a lot has been happening for the last several days. I took some time off the shed project to go Jeep'n over an extended weekend.

Mostly this is the floor slab picture with the plastic sheeting removed. The coloration is blotchy but the floor surface is smooth-ish. Definitely the poorest workmanship of the project so far. Who knows, maybe a light acid wash and scrubbing might even out the blotchiness. Though in reality I probably won't do an acid wash.

Starting to cut and drill the mud plates now. But I'll be doing that in my "spare time" from other household chores. We have visitors coming in a few days and I need to get the yard in order.

 

[Amitygravel]

lupinsea, Really!? Please , nothing you have done so far even remotely resembles poor workmanship. It is staggering the lengths you have gone to on details that will never be seen except for the photo documentation you have been posting. I think it is safe to say that your finish work is probably going to be nothing short of stunning. Can't wait to see the completed project.

 

[993James993]

Lupinsea, don't worry about the blotchiness. From my experience the discoloration that you describe is part of the curing process. It will disappear. I would keep the concrete wet as much as possible for the first month. That will make it nice and strong. Take a look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete#Curing

When my slab was first poured I sprayed it with water 3 to 5 times a day on the weekends and 3 or more times per day during the week. I thought that my neighbors would be convinced that I was crazy but turns out that one of them is a college professor who knew all about concrete. He gave me the technical explanation and told me to keep it wet! By the way, the discoloration slowly disappeared. There was one spot that outlasted all the rest but it's gone now.

By the way, your project is looking great!

 

[lupinsea]

Thanks guys. But there is a reason I didn't take close-up shots of the slab.

It'll be "fine" but trust me, it's a "bad" slab finish that would have gotten any pro either fired or they'd have been required to either do a topping slab or tear it out and do over. I know I'd never accept this finish from someone I would pay to do it for me.

That said. . . I work cheap for me.

So. . . it'll do. And it's just the finish that came out bad. I have every confidence in the strength of the slab.

What makes the poor workmanship stand out even more is that I went to a job site visit for one of our projects and had seen again the true professional concrete job for our client's house.


It might be a few days before I get around to any initial framing. My wife wants me to help get the yard in order for our son's 2nd birthday party. A yard that I've basically neglected this entire year so I could build the shed.

As it stands now I have all the mud plates cut to size but have drilled the bolt holes in only half of them. Once I get them cut I'll start framing up the small shed. Figured I'd use that one to "practice" on before tackling the large shed.

 

[Davi]

Thanks guys. But there is a reason I didn't take close-up shots of the slab.

It'll be "fine" but trust me, it's a "bad" slab finish that would have gotten any pro either fired or they'd have been required to either do a topping slab or tear it out and do over. I know I'd never accept this finish from someone I would pay to do it for me.

That said. . . I work cheap for me.

So. . . it'll do. And it's just the finish that came out bad. I have every confidence in the strength of the slab.

What makes the poor workmanship stand out even more is that I went to a job site visit for one of our projects and had seen again the true professional concrete job for our client's house.


It might be a few days before I get around to any initial framing. My wife wants me to help get the yard in order for our son's 2nd birthday party. A yard that I've basically neglected this entire year so I could build the shed.

As it stands now I have all the mud plates cut to size but have drilled the bolt holes in only half of them. Once I get them cut I'll start framing up the small shed. Figured I'd use that one to "practice" on before tackling the large shed.

just say its a textured finish to improve grip lol

 

[lupinsea]

just say its a textured finish to improve grip lol

Ha! I think I'll stick with what you suggest.



Update:
Finally. Got started on the framing last night. I'm doing the small shed first. Figured there'd be a learning curve and I might as well "practice" on the least important shed building.

One thing I'm doing is I'm using hot dip galvanized nails to make the connection between the pressure treated mud plate and the bottom of the studs. Modern chemicals used to treat the pressure treated wood can corrode regular nails. The galvanizing helps to protect against this.

This is the back wall of the small shed building. The studs spanned across
the foundation walls so it made sense to use the concrete structure as the
building platform. Originally I was planning on tilting up the wall after it was
built but now I'm thinking of using this first wall as a "deck" upon which to
frame the other three walls.

.

Photo on left shows a big clamp (also seen in the first pic above) that was
used to twist a very slightly warped top plate into alignment. Note slight
recess of the top plate from the face of the studs. This is to ensure that
the corner of the angled top plate mets the plane of the stud faces. It'll still
provide good support for the plywood sheathing but means I don't have to
rip down a 2x6 with a plumb cut.

On the right is a picture of the ratchet strap I used to **** the top and
bottom plates together. This ensured a tight fit of all the lumber
pieces for nailing.​

 

[Kevin54]

Very impressive work. The attention to detail is amazing.

I believe Rbrtwhyt asked if it was code to build it as bulletproof as you are and you stated that there is no code on anything under 200 sq.ft.? I may be wrong on this, but wouldn't a foundation change that? I know where I am at that any outbuilding over 25 ft. away from the main structure does not need a building permit (we live in the country) and a shed does not have to meet any codes UNLESS it is built on a foundation which then makes it a PERMAMENT structure. Normally a shed is classified as a temporary structure. As in my shed, which is a 12'x16', I am not taxed on it. If I put it on a concrete slab, I would then be taxed as the concrete makes it permament.

Anyways......just asking. Other than that, I can't wait to see the updates. I also went back and looked at the thread in the Jeep Forum on your office remodel. Again, very impressive

 

[lupinsea]

One thing I've noticed both reading about everyone else's projects here in Garagejournal.com as well as what I've seen locally in my capacity as a professional is that building requirements vary by jurisdiction. In the Seattle area they're all "pretty similar" throughout the region from city to city but there is still some important differences. For instance, Seattle itself has a 120 sf limit for sheds before you need a permit and most other neighboring cities are similar. However, my home town which is about 2 miles from Seattle's city limit has a 200 sf limit. When I read that I couldn't believe my eyes and double checked with the local building department. I actually got it in writing and have kept two copies. Needless to say, I was pretty jazzed about not needing to run it through the building permit process. It saved some coin and time.

But in none of the local codes I am familiar with is there any restriction on the type of foundation for these types of structures. After all, if you don't need to permit it and technically don't "need" to build it to code, then there's no reason you can't put in your choice of foundation.

There's also a lot of variation among different parts of the country in terms of different building techniques or systems. Two things I'm surprised by is how prevalent earth formed footings are around the country. That is, simply digging a trench with a backhoe and filling it up with concrete. It makes sense from a cost stand point (no need to bother with formwork materials or labor to build then strip them) but it seems like it would be harder to get a consistent, flat, level footing which is what the rest of the building is built upon. Concrete will level out to a degree as a liquid but it's also stiff enough that there might be lumps or dips across an entire wall length.

The other thing I'm surprised as is the prevalence of CMU (cinder block) foundation walls which are typically then built on the earth formed trench footing. I don't recall having seen a CMU foundation in the NW. Maybe one or two that I've noticed on a house built in the 40's or 50's. But nothing on any project I've worked on in the office. Around here it's all formed up poured concrete walls. The "old" houses often have board formed concrete. But any house built in the last 40+ years have all used plywood-based form panels for the foundation walls.

One last note on the building codes. Most of the time they specify a minimum level or quality of construction. There's nothing to say that you can't exceed that and build stronger than code minimum.

 

[lupinsea]

Lots of work accomplished the last few days. Thursday night I got the back wall built (seen above). Friday no work happened. But on Saturday the other three walls were built and all four were tiled up. On Sunday I had enough time to get all the walls plumbed and nailed together.

Using the back wall as a flat "deck" to build the other three walls on.
Here one of the sloped end wall is being assembled. A scrap board was
marked off with the stud spacing and set parallel to the bottom plate as a
way to align all the studs. Then a measurement was taken down the "slope"
to determine the length of the top plate.

Also, while I didn't bother to draw up any framing plans for the back wall
(the one on the bottom), I did draw up framing plans for the sloped end
walls. It was easier to do that and then snap some dimension strings on the
computer to get the length of each stud.

The second end wall is now built and scrap boards nailed at a diagonal for
bracing after getting the wall trued up.

The end walls were picked up and moved to the lawn so that the fourth wall
could be built on the "deck". The braces on the end walls kept them from
racking during the move.

.

Left: For the long walls with consistent stud lengths it made sense to clamp
a number of studs together and do one gut. It was a lot more accurate /
consistent to do this than to cut them individually.

Right: When building the last wall I made a header beam out of a pair of
2x8s sandwiching 1/2" plywood as a spacer, this brought the beam to a 3
1/2" total width which fit perfectly in the 2x4 wall (which is actually 3 1/2"
wide). When the header was set in the door opening I used a bottle jack to
press it tight to the supporting studs lining each side of the opening before
nailing it in place. This would ensure that there was good bearing on the
support studs, think of it as pre-loading. This way the stud takes the weight
rather than the nails.

With all the other walls moved off of the "deck" I could then adjust the
squareness of the wall using a ratchet strap to pull it into square. Again,
once square a scrap 2x4 was nailed at a diagonal as a brace.

First wall tilted up and set in place.

All four walls tilted up, set in place, and clamped together. I got so excited
to get the walls up I forgot to nail in the cripple studs above the header.
Once up I went back and added those. Note the blue strips under the base of
the walls. That is a "sill sealer", a foamed plastic strip normally used to seal
the bottom plate to the concrete to prevent air leaks in a house. Here I'm
not worried about that but instead it was a plastic gasket to help minimize
any moisture between the wood wall and the concrete foundation. Even
though I'm using a pressure treated mud plate it's just a smidge of extra
protection. Costs about $0.10 per foot.

The walls were amazingly plumb when they were first tilted up and set in
place and I didn't need to do anything with the long walls. But the short end
walls were both out of plumb by about 1/4" along their entire height. It was
easy to pop off the braces and get the walls plumbed by tightening the
ratchet strap. In this photo the brace was nailed back up on the inside of the
wall. This way the walls remain braced but I can easily nail up the wall
sheathing without impediment on the exterior of the walls. All the other
braces were moved to the inside of the wall, too.​

 

[gasgas17]

Why would you build the walls with sloped plates. Why not make the proper seat cuts in the rafters. Now you will have to rely on a mechanical fastener to keep your rafters from sliding on the plate.

 

[Colin-Roberts]

Why would you build the walls with sloped plates. Why not make the proper seat cuts in the rafters. Now you will have to rely on a mechanical fastener to keep your rafters from sliding on the plate.

if he runs the rafters parallel to the side sloped plates which i assume he is doing this won't be a problem

 

[lupinsea]

if he runs the rafters parallel to the side sloped plates which i assume he is doing this won't be a problem

Yup. I'm not anticipating much of an issue with the roof sliding off the walls. True, there will be a reliance on mechanical fasteners but the slope is not so steep that it should be a problem.

 

[lupinsea]

Continuing with the framing, moving on to the roof structure. Next up is all the blocking for the roof before any sheathing goes on.

Setting the first of the rafters into place. I started with the middle
ones because the rafter spacing will be all even and centered
on the walls.

Cutting the notches out for the look-out boards in the second-to-last
rafters. A series of thin keft cuts were made with the skill saw set to a
1 1/2" depth (thickness of 2x4). It was then easy to knock out the
wood fins (middle) and finally clean up the not with a chisel and a
few minutes of effort. Very easy, very clean notch.

And this is the notch with the look-out board set in place. The
look-outs support the very end rafters out beyond the end of
the walls.

End view of the small shed building.

The small shed building.​

 

[993James993]

This is awesome! I imagine how you must feel seeing your progress.

 

[lupinsea]

It's very gratifying seeing the whole thing come together. But especially now that I've been working on the concrete for so long and how the last month seem to go by so slowly with little visible progress. Now that I'm on to the framing there is more dramatic day-to-day and week-to-week progress.

However, I'm having to pause again for a few days to get the back yard ready for my son's 2nd birthday party. So I'll be getting back to work on the blocking Saturday night, probably.

In the mean time I'm working on this in the evenings after I can't fix up the yard anymore once the sun goes down. . . .

Because there isn't going to be any facia boards on this some flashing will be used to cap the ends of the rafters for weather protection. Some experimentation last night with some 5" x 8" pieces of pre-cut flashing from the lumber store and I've worked out how I'm going to do it. Each piece takes a few minutes to make which isn't too bad. I can make them in the evenings in the garage after dark. These will be installed after I get all the blocking nailed in.

The 5x8" metal flashing is cut down to a 3 1/2" wide
pieces. Bend lines are drawn on with a pencil and
notches are cut in from the sides.

Several layers of masking tape wrap the jaws of
the vice to keep them from scratching and marring
the finish on the flashing. Because the jaws are
relatively short one bend was done at a time to
keep the bends crisp.

After making the four bends the end cap looks like this.

The final bend finishes off the flashing end cap. It's
now ready to fit over the end of the rafter. Some
small 3d galvanized nails will be used to fasten it on.​

 

[lupinsea]

The last several days the shed was on haiatus as I worked on getting our back yard ready for Nathan's 2nd birthday party on Saturday. But Sunday I was back on the shed, working in 92 degree heat throughout the day.

And it was a full day spent doing nothing but blocking for the rafters. About an hour and a half into it my nail gun blew a seal of some kind in the trigger actuator and was leaking massive amounts of air, not to mention simply not working any more. Fortunately I was able to borrow my neighbor's nail gun and keep working

I didn't want standard vent blocking with the big round holes. Instead
I calculated the needed air opening and made my own. The simple slot
reads a lot cleaner than the big holes. and it was reasonably easy to make.
Just drill two holes at either end of the slot. Then use a saber saw and cut
between the holes. Galvanized mesh was stapled to the back of the blocking.

The first blocking to go up was between the more or less uniform rafter
bays. Then it was on to the more difficult part of doing the ends of the
building. Since I'm using the blocking as a trim element to clean up the
intersection between the framing and the siding, the blocking stands proud
of the wall face by a decent amount. This "reveal" is carried around the end
walls. On the ends the actual trim blocking needed to be supported by a
second blocking that picked up the mid-span of the lookout rafters.

This is the completed trim blocking as it wraps around the end of the small
shed building. All neat and tidy and the whole system gives a very uniform
point at which to stop the siding.

And this is all the blocking in place. Note the slotted custom vent blocking
at the top of the long wall. All the blocking between the rafter bays is
"compression blocking". It's all individually measure and custom cut on a
per-end, per-rafter-bay basis to ensure a very tight fit to keep the whole
roof assembly from racking.

It might seem a lot of work now but it's much easier getting all this set in
place before the roof sheathing goes on.​

.

 

[Stargeezer]

keep it coming! Excellent detail on this build..

 

[Quiksilver]

Looking good, love the detail involved. Subscribing to see how this finishes out.

 

[kevbo5482]

Re: Bomb Shelter Shed Project: New Construction Build Thread

WOW! That's a heck of alot of concrete for a shed..?..! Round here we just either sink posts in the ground, build a wood platform on blocks or pour a small concrete pad. Nice work! Keep the updates coming.

 

[Motown 454]

Nice work. Thats going to be one rugged shed.

 

[Nostraquedeo]

Looks awesome! Any concern that the 2x4 "lookout boards" will bow?

 

[lupinsea]

No worries. . . . yet.

When I put in the blocking I added an extra board under the lookouts that bears on the wall's top plate. This reduced the unsupported span from 24" o.c. to about 12" o.c. and end up with a back span three times longer than the cantilever (which I think is where one want's to be, rule-of-thumb wise).

Ultimately there will probably be more flex on the ends than in the middle so it's somewhat expected. But otherwise I'm not anticipating any significant sagging.

 

[lupinsea]

The weather has cooled off nicely the last few days with overcast skies in the 70's but no rain. Near perfect working conditions. For several days working only a couple hours a day I've bee cutting and installing the wall sheathing (plywood) on the small shed building. It's now finished and I can start on the roof. This process was very straight forward.

The rafter flashing (dark end caps) are now installed. This will protect the end
grain of the rafters from the weather. The end grain of wood is the most
susceptible to wicking up water and often the first source of rot.

Before the plywood sheet are hung I went around the foundation and marked
the stud locations with masking tape. Then marked on the masking tap the
centerline of each stud. This helps with the nailing because once the
plywood is up it covers the bottom of the stud and it's hard to tell exactly
where the stud is.

Once the plywood sheet is clamped in place and maybe one or two nails set
at the top I'll go back with a long straight edge and line up on the mark on
the tape with the center of the stud visible above the plywood. Then draw a
guide line down the center of the stud location. Nailing along this line
ensures the nails penetrate the stud and won't miss it.

The first row of plywood sheets is installed. It's important to run them with
the face grain perpendicular to the studs for maximum strength.
Additionally, a 1/8" gap is left between each adjacent plywood sheet to allow
some room for thermal or moisture expansion (wood swells depending on
it's moisture content and humidity level).

The first course of plywood was simple to cut with only one cut needed to fit
it on the wall. The second layer required angle cuts to meet the roof line or
notches for the window and door openings. Here is my plywood cutting
station on the floor of the big shed building.

Most of the plywood is installed on the small shed building.

All of the wall sheathing is now installed. Next step is getting it put up on the roof.​

 

[mjozefow]

All of this for such a small shed? Looks good but man...

Wanna build me one?

 

[993James993]

This is more like furniture building than rough framing. Looks great!

 

[zeug]

looking good.

If it is not too late, I would pull the rafter flashing off and prime underneath with a good oil based primer. This will do more to prevent moisture issues than the flashing alone. Water has a way of wicking behind flashing in this type of installation. I go so far as to caulk under the flashing with quad 4 after the primer is dry. This way I dont have to wonder if I will have problems later.

Keep up the good work.

Zeug

 

[lupinsea]

Thanks for the tip, Zeug, but it's a bit late at this point. I'll do that for the other shed building when I frame up the roof.

Just got the roof sheathing and roofing done this weekend. I'll be starting on the big shed building next. Once that is at the same point I'll do the siding for both at the same time.

Installing two layers of 1/2" plywood. Normally, 5/8" plywood is used for roof
sheathing. But using two 1/2" layers provides enough depth to the roof deck
that 7/8" roofing nails will not poke through the bottom. The top layer of
plywood was staggered and overlapped from the bottom
layer so that any joints in the bottom layer had full coverage.

Subfloor and Decking construction adhesive was used on the perimeter and
at staggered panel joints. Note the clamps on the upper roof edge keeping
the plywood between rafter supports clamped together until the glue cures.

Almost forgot to put down the starter flashing (held on with clamp, until it
was nailed down). The starter course of 15# roofing felt has been folded
back so the flashing could be nailed down.

Starting to lay down the roof shingles. I'm just using a 30 year comp black
roof single. Something simple and straight forward. Should be good until
the year 2040. First time I've done any roofing. There were comprehensive
instructions on how to lay up the roof on each bundle of roof shingles that
told how to lay the starter course and how to stagger the pattern properly.

For low slope applications it also said to put down a double layer of 15 lb.
felt. Given that this roof is a 2 1/2 : 12 roof pitch it warranted the double
layers. After the roofing felt went down some drip edge flashing was
installed over it on the eaves.

Almost finished with the roofing. My son is on the ground looking at the
mower and taking a break from asking me "what is daddy doing?"

Final touches: installing the ridge flashing using some self-sealing roofing screws.

.

The roof is all finished and ready for service. Detail of an upper corner of
the roof with everything all flashed. The top drip edge flashing was folded
over on the end to add that little bit extra of protection. Due to the slight
overhang of the shingles it's not super tight to the facia but it works.​

 

[T VETTE]

Big or small I like em all!!

 

[993James993]

Those rafters are not #2 Doug Fir. I imagine that you spent a good three hours digging through a bin of prime fir picking out each board. I doubt that you will have an issue with water wicking underneath the flashing but if you are at all concerned you might consider sealing it with an oil finish that can be injected under the flashing with a syringe. My local woodworking shop sells some that are used to apply glue to tight places and you could easily adapt those. I assume that you are not painting the rafters. As always, your attention to detail is unequaled and this is a beautiful project.

 

[Dustoff]

I can't wait to see what you planned for the finishes and interior...with your attention to detail I'm sure it will be something to see.

Shaun

 

[lupinsea]

Those rafters are not #2 Doug Fir. I imagine that you spent a good three hours digging through a bin of prime fir picking out each board.

Actually, they are DF #2 rafters. And I didn't even pick them out. It's just what the lumber yard grabbed off their lot and bundled on their truck for my delivery order. Pretty much ordered the lowest grade lumber the yard had for the majority of the framing. I did go to SPF for the blocking because it was like I'd might toe-nail that and it has a very good resistance to splitting.

As it was, the DF #2 was the second cheapest lumber they had, just barely above HF and I hate HF. Splits like you wouldn't believe in my experience.

Anyways, this is one reason I went with the lumbar yard I did instead of through Home Depot or Lowes. Both of the ubiquitous big box stores have noticeably crappier lumber products, from framing lumber to plywood. They also have significantly more limited variety and options.

And the kicker is that the independent local lumber yard was either the same cost or within a few cents of what HD or Lowes pricing was. Despite how much wood I was buying it probably amounted to a $50 difference on a $2400 lumber package. Definitely worth it.

I doubt that you will have an issue with water wicking underneath the flashing but if you are at all concerned you might consider sealing it with an oil finish that can be injected under the flashing with a syringe. My local woodworking shop sells some that are used to apply glue to tight places and you could easily adapt those. I assume that you are not painting the rafters. As always, your attention to detail is unequaled and this is a beautiful project.

Great idea with the syringe. I think I'll be able to finish the ends under the flashing after all.




Last night I was laying out the framing plans on the computer. It's super easy to draw out some 2D lines representing the framing, multi-copy out for at 16" o.c. spacing, then trim to the top slope of the wall. I could then snap dimensions to each stud and get them precisely pre-cut.

(Un)fortunately I don't have a printer at home so I then quickly re-sketched the layout and wrote the dimensions down. Still, it was helpful to have the computer to do the heavy lifting with the graphic layout. Only took a few and it was very accurate.

 

[lupinsea]

I can't wait to see what you planned for the finishes and interior...with your attention to detail I'm sure it will be something to see.

Shaun

Um, er. . . the interior is not in the budget at this time. The foundation was much higher than I expected and so I'm trying to put off as much unnecessary things for later. I'll get the core shell in but the interior wall finish and the workbench are definitely things for another day. The lighting will probably be cheap and basic, too. Not thrilled with having to do this but it's easier to get back to those at a later date than make compromises now on the major structure.

However, I was planning on cutting either plywood or OSB down into some 1x8 planks and installing it in a grid pattern. Maybe giving it a whitewash to lighten it up some. Maybe even a very slight bevel on the edge of the plywood.

For now the most I'll do is probably just enclose a 14" tall race way with a plywood cover for the electrical outlets.

 

[lupinsea]

Getting started on the big shed building now. Somewhat chaotic evenings have kept me from putting in much time in the evenings. That and the fact I've lost about an hour of day light working time from about a month or two ago. Still, putting in 1 to 2 hours a night I've got the first of the big shed walls framed up.

Construction is similar to the small shed except that these long walls are so long that I don't have continuous top and bottom plates. As such the walls will be spliced together. Temporary boards have been nailed across the studs to connect everything. And they'll be a bit delicate until they're tilted up.

Due to the shape of the walls it's also more difficult to frame these walls up. They don't fit on the foundation as nicely so a lot of temporary boards are used to suspend the studs in mid air until everything is nailed together. It ends up looking like some Rube Goldberg contraption.

And like the end walls of the small shed building, it's been very helpful to have a CAD program for the framing layout. The wall was laid out on the computer and the stud locations plotted. Then a measurement was taken for each stud. Because I don't have a home computer I hand sketched out a diagram and noted the dimensions. Then pairs of studs were cut to length (one for each wall) with a top bevel of 13 degrees (the slope of the roof). Each stud was labeled to match the framing diagram and set aside.

Then the framing began with the bottom plate marked off with the stud locations before nailing on the studs. The top ends were left "loose" until second board was clamped parallel to the bottom plate. The stud location were marked on this parallel board and the studs aligned and the wall reasonably squared off. The top plate was then nailed to the sloping tops of the studs. In this fashion I worked my way down the length of the wall.

From here out most of the framing will be very similar to the small shed building so I wont' dwell on the same stuff. But I'll note the particulars to the large shed building that are different (such as some brackets I'll be building).

The framing diagram with each stud length noted.

The pairs of wall studs all cut and marked according to the diagram.

Starting to lay out the framing for the big shed. Note the parallel
board clamped across the studs to help with alignment.

Working down the length of the wall it became trickier to
support the shorter studs.

The end of the wall looked like some Rube Goldberg contraption
with clamps hanging studs off of support boards.

The end result was a nice straight top plate. This wall is
ready to tilt up after a few more boards and temporary
braces are tacked to the face of the studs.​

 

[T VETTE]

The more I look at this build the more I can appreciate the quality. I would say, living in earthquake country, this would handle an 8.0 or more. I am thinking bank vault.

 

[kyleholmes]

I wish I could watch a livestream of this project.

 

[jocool1585]

impressed.

 

[Motown 454]

Wow awesome job. it looks great.

 

[lupinsea]

Thanks guys.

The shed is actually built to minimum code requirements (even though I didn't need a permit) and is better built than our house. Given that our house has been around for a half century so far I figure there's plenty of life in the shed.

This morning I picked up the steel plate to fabricate the strut brackets. A little more than I figured but otherwise not too bad. About $60 in 1/4" x 6" wide plate steel.

Starting to get very worried about the timeline on this project. Some aspects seem to go pretty quick but there's a lot of work left to do. And rainy fall weather really starts hitting bad by the end of September to middle of October.

Finished framing all four walls this weekend and got them tilted up and set in place. As I was working to set the top plate on it became clear that this is a much taller building. The a-frame ladder was set to it greatest extension and even then I found myself standing on the very top rung for some key operations. It's going to be interesting as I move on to the roof framing.

Standing inside the "front end" of the shed it's going to have some nice natural light in there from the tall, high windows. Toward the back (where the roof slopes down) it'll be darker but there should still be lots of diffused northern light.

Setting up to cut all 8 studs for the back wall at the same time.

Three of the four walls were tilted up in about 10 minutes
once they were framed up horizontally.

Because of a lack of space the fourth wall was framed up on the
ground. Ultimately, the lumpiness of the ground wasn't a critical
factor as the wall stilled came out flat. Wish I would have framed
the other walls this way.

My neighbor helped me tilt up the last wall.

Taking shape.​

 

[wrigh003]

Looking good.

 

[drmoonshine]

Your very thorough in you documentation it's neat to follow as you build. Congratulations on the progress, I bet your excited that it's looking so great.