Shed Project: New Construction Build Thread

[lupinsea]

All the blocking for the wire chase / wainscoting is in. Picking up a lot of electrical outlet boxes, wire, switches, out lets, cover plates and other items last night.

.

The shed is a bit crowded while I moved all the storage racks
off of the walls to get the wire chase / blocking installed. Looks
like the previous photos so not much exciting to post.​

 

[mrb]

Thanks for the heads up on the electrical. I'll look into seeing what I put in. I figured a 12v feed shouldn't be a big issue.

the problem is twofold. the unlisted wire types are not flame resistant, and fire will travel along their length inside a wall. The other issue is that while yes its only 12v there is alot of current available (if not supplied by a class 2 power supply) enough to start a fire therefore the same chapter 3 wiring methods used for line voltage wiring are required.

 

[lupinsea]

the problem is twofold. the unlisted wire types are not flame resistant, and fire will travel along their length inside a wall. The other issue is that while yes its only 12v there is alot of current available (if not supplied by a class 2 power supply) enough to start a fire therefore the same chapter 3 wiring methods used for line voltage wiring are required.

Ok.

I ran the landscape wire through the 40 ft of conduit running between the two buildings as well as running it from the exterior of the building up into the small shed building. The thought was that since it could be either buried or left on the surface of a garden it should be ok in a conduit where it's better protected.

Would I need to pull it out of the conduit and re-fish the wire or can I just remove it from where it's running through the wall studs once it's up inside the buildings? Currently, I have the landscape wire running between two junction boxes immediately out of the conduit coming out of the foundation (~6" above the foundation). It is then connected to a shorter run of the landscape wire (~6-9 ft) from the junction box to the wall sconces.

FWIW, the only place the landscape wire is running is to the low-voltage wall sconces.

 

[mrb]

Ok.

I ran the landscape wire through the 40 ft of conduit running between the two buildings as well as running it from the exterior of the building up into the small shed building. The thought was that since it could be either buried or left on the surface of a garden it should be ok in a conduit where it's better protected.

Would I need to pull it out of the conduit and re-fish the wire or can I just remove it from where it's running through the wall studs once it's up inside the buildings? Currently, I have the landscape wire running between two junction boxes immediately out of the conduit coming out of the foundation (~6" above the foundation). It is then connected to a shorter run of the landscape wire (~6-9 ft) from the junction box to the wall sconces.

FWIW, the only place the landscape wire is running is to the low-voltage wall sconces.

the landscape wire is fine outside. Inside the garage you would have to use a 'normal' wiring method. you have a few problems with doing that though. where are you located and is this thing permitted and being inspected?

 

[cobraman]

This project is looking nice. I'm anxious to see the final product(s).

 

[lupinsea]

the landscape wire is fine outside. Inside the garage you would have to use a 'normal' wiring method. you have a few problems with doing that though. where are you located and is this thing permitted and being inspected?

Ok, cool. I'll replace the landscape wire in the walls with some UL listed wire.

The city doesn't require out buildings under 200 sf to be permitted. And because there is no permitting there's no need for inspectors or to even conform to set back requirements for that matter. I have this in writing via e-mail confirmation with the city's building department. Printed the e-mail out and made two hard copies for my records.

 

[lupinsea]

Ah, the wiring is allmmmooooost done. Everything was hooked up last night and the power switched on so I could try out the lights and outlet. Everything works very nicely. But I need to finish installing the wire chase panels and cover plates in the small shed building as well as stapling the wire to the studs in both buildings. The "wainscoting" wire chase not only protects the wires but offers some protection to them as well.

The lights worked out very well, too. Leviton makes their 9860 utility fixture which uses a GU-24 base CFL bulb. For $13 you get the 13w bulb, base plate and polycarbonate protective lens. Everything installs in about 3 minutes. The light out put is actually pretty good and it's a nice color, 2700k. So you don't have that old-school ghastly fluorescent color cast. The lights warm up pretty fast, maybe a minute to reach full brightness and this is in cold winter weather.

There are three of these fixtures in the big shed. Two flanking the transom window above the door and one on the west wall about halfway down the length of the shed. In selecting the placement of the lights I was trying to balance a good distribution of light throughout the shed without being able to actual see the fixtures from the house. I didn't want anyone in the house to look out and see a bright, glaring light fixture in the shed. To that end the lighting turned out great. It's somewhat sad that the shed is better lit than most rooms in our house.

Extra wire was routed and a second switch installed (but not wired up) in case I want to add additional work lights over the corner where the work bench will eventually go.

Everything is a big mess in the shed right now as I first crammed the storage racks in there, then had to scoot them away from the wall to work on the wiring. Once I finish with the panels and cover plates in the small shed building I'll clean up around the perimeter and move the storage racks against the wall and finish off cleaning the floor. Then it's finishing and installing the doors and back filling the foundation and it's all done.

These are the light fixtures I'm using, they're the modern
equivalent of the procelain socket. It consists of a plastic
base plate that fits over a junction box, the 13w CFL bulb
(60w equivalent), and the polycarbonate protective lens.

I've had one temporarily wired up to a power cord as a
work like for months while I evaluated it. I like them a lot.
Oh, and they're only $13 at Home Depot. The 9860 fixture
by Leviton.

Finally finished wiring up the sheds last night. I still need to put the
paneling on the wire chase in the small shed building and install the
cover plates. But I just wanted to test out the lighting. I like it,
there's good light distribution and the fixtures were placed so that
there's no bare bulb glare from in side our house and I don't think
the neighbors can see any glare either. I still need to staple the
wiring to the studs.

The wire chase and cover plates are all finished in the big shed
building. There's a 1/2" reveal joint between the concrete and
the plywood waintscotting. The plywood sits flush with the
concrete since I stepped the stud wall 1/2" back from the inside
of the foundation wall for this purpose. A 1x2 caps the top of
the wainscotting and sits flush over the blocking between the
studs. The cover plates flanking the window may seem high now
but they're nicely situated if / when I build a work bench for this
corner at some point in the future.

I was working on the wiring until 1am this morning. When I
finished there was a break in the cloud cover with the moon
overhead. Good opportunity to take some photos.​

 

[Amitygravel]

Looks great. The 1:00 am shot is too cool !

 

[R1chy]

Looks great. The 1:00 am shot is too cool !

+1 on the 1 am shot - that is a keeper for sure.

You should post it in the Garages at Night Thread ->
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70650

R1chy

 

[lupinsea]

Ok. I'm calling the wiring done now. Put the ground clamp on last night and button up the last access panel. Then spent the rest of the evening in 30 deg weather cleaning up the interior of the structure. This is the first time that has happened throughout the project. For most of the summer and fall there has always be something left out on the floor of the shed, either piles of sawdust, scrap wood, saw horses, material, something. It's very nice to have the floor swept clean for the first time. The storage racks have also been arranged on the east wall. I'm not sure if this is their final resting place but I'll have to double check some of the bolts and fasten some diagonal straps and bracing to firm them up.

Next up: Doors

Ah, finally, for the first time the shed floor has been swept clean.
Storage racks set up on the side.

Back of the shed.

Back corner.​

 

[lupinsea]

No progress to report. Simply got up early to take care of Nathan and noticed the sunrise.

 

[rlwhitetr3b]

I'm not sure how cold your area gets in the winter, but do you expect to have any problems with the CFLs when cold?

 

[lupinsea]

I'm not sure how cold your area gets in the winter, but do you expect to have any problems with the CFLs when cold?

Not really.

Temps have been down in the mid-to-low 20's this past week. When I've headed out to the shop and turned on the light things were a bit dim at first but there was still plenty of light to see by. After about 1-2 minutes the lights are on at full brightness and they're bright.

But usually it doesn't get this cold in the Seattle area. At least not for more than a few days usually.

 

[lupinsea]

I've been waiting a week or two to get started on the doors. We've been wanting to replace our back door of our house so it made sense to finish it off when I did the shed doors. And it made sense to wait on the shed doors until we had the new back door. Now that we have the new back door . . .

Got all the doors set up in the shed to do the sanding, taping, and finishing work. Spent about 11 hours Sunday out in the 34 degree weather. Man I was freezing when I came in that night close to mid-night.

By setting the doors up in a zig-zag pattern and screwing a board to the
top this creates a free-standing structure so I'm able to coat both sides
of the door at the same time. When I'm done with the door faces I'll need
to get the ends.

New unfinished doors often have goobers of window
putty that need to be trimmed out. Not a big deal
for one window or pane of glass. . . more of a deal
for 32 panes of glass on the french doors. Nothing
a flexible putty knife can't make short work of.

After sanding and vacuuming the doors, and trimming off
the window putty it was time to mask off the windows.
This is the procedure I used:

1. Lay down masking tape on either side of the window,
overlapping the ends slightly.

2. Using the flexible putty knife, the tape was tucked into
the corner of the mullion.

3. Tape was then trimmed off with a utility knife, cutting
along the glass.

4. Remove excess tape to reveal a crisp corner.

5. Add top and bottom tape, it only needs to overlap the
side pieces.

6. Go back and smooth down all the edges with the flexible
putty knife, this presses the tape edge down to minimize
seepage under the tape.

Repeat 66 times (30 panes of glass for the french
doors x 2 sides + one area for each of the screen
door, house exterior door, and shed oak door).​

 

[TonyB]

Very nice,great ideas and great workmanship/attention to detail.

I registered because of this thread as I have been lurking for a few years for ideas and general window-shopping, but this shed build has inspired me to do a similar project...rather than a pre-built.

Something to do with my children and get my **** out of the house.

Great project.

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

Lupinsea,

What an amazing project! From conception to completion, it is so well done those 'sheds' deserve their own house numbers!

Just curious, does the ArchiCAD product produce a Autocad equivalent file or is it a standalone application? Might I ask what firm your work for?

Signed,
A former Seattle-ite
Subscribed.

 

[lupinsea]

Thanks guys.

Sorry I haven't posted up in a while. . . The project isn't finished yet but there's not a lot left to do:

• Doors
• Top coat of paint on the siding
• Stain soffits
• Backfilling
• Landscaping

That's about it. I'm back to working on the doors after nearly 6 weeks of doing nothing while I sorted out some hardware issues as well as waited for the temps to warm up. I'm not quite sure when I'll get around to the landscaping. But now that a lot of the ground around the shed is upturned earth it's a good time to plant something. I think in the next month or so would be a good time to do any transplanting while the plants are dormant and so they'll be ready to go when spring rolls around.

The painting and soffit staining will be waiting for warmer, drier weather.

Omphaloskeptic: ArchiCAD is a stand alone product. In fact, they are a competitor to the Revit software. The software can export in DWG or DXF as well as a few other formats but it won't have all 3D data, as far as I know, when exporting to the autocad formats.

I work for Peter Stoner Architects here in Seattle.

 

[lupinsea]

Oof, been a LONG time since I posted any updates on the shed because it's been a LONG time since I've done anything on it.

It turns out that I got a bit overly ambitious with my custom milled door jambs and didn't take into account some hardware issues. Because the jambs extend past the plane of the door faces by a good 3/4" I needed special "wide throw" hinges. And you know what, they are freak'n expensive. Even with my trade discount they were running $37 PER HINGE at the local hardware store. And I needed six of those for the french doors. For the big commercial oak door the hinges were $47 PER HINGE. Facing $400 in hardware it was utterly ridiculous since I only spent a total of $200 for all three doors. I just couldn't do it.

So I started scouring the internet. Learned a lot more about door hardware and the seemingly endless number of choices out there. Ultimately, I found some hinges that would work for my application for $5 ea plus $26 in shipping bringing the hardware total to ~$72. Much better.

There was also the lock sets to get. I ordered three dead bolts that were keyed to our front door and three door knobs. The dead bolts will lock up the sheds at the end of the day but the regular latches will let me open and close the doors through out the day.

After consulting with a contractor friend of mine it was STRONGLY recommended I not even start finishing the doors until I get all the hardware to verify everything. Then I needed to borrow some mortising jigs as well as his lock set boring jig. After getting the doors mortised and the lock set bored using the jigs I don't think I'd want to do this again with out them. It's possible, but the jigs make it MUCH easier and more accurate. In any case, it was worth waiting on the jigs.

And then once I had the jigs in hand the weather dipped into the low 20's and high teens. FREAK'N cold to be working outside in the shed. So I waited another chunk of time to get back to work on the doors.

Long story short it's been almost 6 weeks since I did anything on the shed doors.

Setting up the mortising jig for the door hinges. Note
the rail that connects the jig plates. This keeps
everything in alignment as you transfer the jig from
the door edge to the door jamb.

After running the router over the jig plates this is the
result. It's important to double check the thickness of
the hinge plates so the mortise is the proper depth.

And here is the hinge jig set up transfered to the door
jamb. It uses special pins that are tacked into the
jamb to hold it in place. And you might notice a plate
at the top of the jig. This is set to the top edge of the
door and when the jig is set on the jamb it maintains
the proper offset and spacing for the hinges.

This is the lock set boring jig. All cast aluminum
with firm right angle drill bits for the main bore as
well as for the dead bolt / latch bore at a 90 deg
angle to this. It's nice that it keeps everything in
alignment and you don't need to move the jig
around to bore the two holes.

Once the jig is remove there's a rectangular chisel
piece that comes with the set that fits into the hole
on the edge of the door. A number of whacks with
a hammer and you get a nice clean rectangular cut
through the edge of the door. Then some time with
a chisel to dig out the wood and there you have it.
A nicely mortised, aligned lock set.

Tonight I'll need to back bevel the door so it can
open and close without jamming on the door jamb.​

 

[redlinetoys]

Subscribing to this thread. GREAT project!!

 

[abstamaria]

Incredible thread and a great shed, Lupinsea. I think you've set the standard for threads. Your thread is as well constructed as your build. I may just have room fpr a storage shed; you've given me many ideas. Thank you for posting. Andres

 

[Victorymike18]

Wow, those are some SOLID looking sheds! Your attention to detail and fit/finish is quite outstanding.

 

[lupinsea]

Thanks guys.

Ungh. . . Doors!
I must say. . . getting the doors bored, mortised, finished, hung, and what not has been the bane of this project. I goofed the jamb installation and it's caused issues since. There has been a lot of futzing and fine tuning the doors. Gaps aren't even and so forth. The pair of french doors on the small shed building actually came out the best and even then I had to shave down the doors stops and one of the doors and ended up with un-even gaps at the door edges. But they close and lock. I still need to bore out a hole in the concrete for the lower cane bolt on the secondary door panel.

The door jamb on the big shed building, however, was incredibly screwed up. I don't know how I got it so far off but I think it would have been best if I had help rather than try and do it on my own. I was also tipped off after the fact to use some diagonal strings as a method to check that the jamb was in a flat plane. Apparently, where the strings cross they should juuuuuuuuust touch eachother. If they are pressing against eachother or if there is a gap then the jamb is not in a flat plane. This would have been good to know back in October.

As it is, last night I took the sawzall to one side of the door jamb to cut through the shims and nails (I used nails to pin the jamb in, then went back with screws). I ended up moving the lower leg of the jamb out about 1-1.5" and had to shave a 1/4" x 3 ft wedge off the door itself. I still need to go back and shave down the door stop to keep the hinge side from binding.

Dang it! The rest of the project was coming together so nicely, too.

Lessons Learned The Hard Way

• KNOW details of doors and door hardware and how they work
• Study hard how to install doors properly
• Have a helper
• Check, double check, and tripple check squareness, plumb, and planar dimensions
• Plan on marking and cutting doors before finishing
• Plan on finishing doors flat
• Plan on spending a lot of time finishing the doors if clear coating

In any case, since December this project has really draaaaagggggeeeeedddd along for the last 5 months. Nonetheless:

• Backfilling the foundation is finished
• Finish grading of the whole yard is done, incl filling in the concrete truck ruts
• New grass seed has been spread
• The french doors are installed, almost done with the single door

All that is left is:

• Install door knob and dead bolt
• Top coat of paint
• Staining the soffits
• Finish landscaping with some shrubs and such

I'll post up some more recent photos once I get the door knob and dead bolt installed.

 

[Sriracha Me]

I like your style of documentation, thinking and diligence. Probably because i'm studying architecture as well and have hands on building experience. A very well executed project.

 

[lupinsea]

Well, keep up the studies.

I went through the Univ. of Washington Architecture program eventually earning a Masters of Architecture with a Bachelors of Science in Construction Management as well. It's an enjoyable profession.

 

[lupinsea]

Some things to note:

I **** as a door installer.

It's taken months to get these doors on the shed. First I got ahead of myself setting up the doors for finishing before cutting the hinges and boring out for the lock sets. Then it took me forever to figure out the hardware because of the corner I designed myself into. Then I had to wait for said hardware, then mark, measure and cut the hinges and lock set bore. THEN go through the finishing phase which took forever. With the product I was using and the temps and humidity this winter I had to wait 48 hrs between coats. And I had about 4-5 coats / side of the doors. It was a several week process finishing the doors.

Then I go to install them and find out I need to make a lot of adjustments to the door jambs and shave the doors down.

THEN I find I royally goofed one of the jambs and had to take a sawzall and cut it off the wall framing and re-positiona and re-shim it.

But, last night I finished installing the lock set and so now both sheds are fully operational. I can start moving stuff out of my garage and into the sheds for storage. I still need to do some finishing touch up on the doors and door jambs with paint and the clear coat. Plus put the top coat of paint on the siding and stain the soffits. Somewhere in this whole process I also back filled and smoothed out the finish grade around both structures.

So, after 13 months of work on the shed project it's now functional and drawing to a close. The other touch up and painting tasks I'll do more toward late spring or mid summer when the weather is better.

The doors FINALLY installed.

Still need to get rid of the door sticker, clean off the
frosting, and remove the stickers on the transom window.
But it's installed, a commercial solid oak door w/ glass panel.​

 

[redman43]

Damn. That is all I'm going to say about this project.

 

[Mikie]

Very nice work! I also had to demo a shed, it wasn't as easy as I had planned...

 

[Sriracha Me]

Well, keep up the studies.

I went through the Univ. of Washington Architecture program eventually earning a Masters of Architecture with a Bachelors of Science in Construction Management as well. It's an enjoyable profession.

How is the architecture/construction field out there in the west coast? Are you a RA?

 

[993James993]

Your's has always been one of my favorite projects. I am glad to see your doors are installed. To me they look great.

I know how you must feel about the difficulty you had installing them. I've found it to be always the case that by the time I gain a little skill with a particular task I have pretty much finished it. So while I now consider my self an expert in many areas, all of the work I have finished was done by a rank amateur.

 

[spaut]

Really love the way these turned out.

Do you have detail photo of how the hardiplanks meet at the corners? Did you just lap one over the other or ... ?

 

[mrmusic92]

Looks like a fun project. And your 3D renderings were very good.
I recently built a shed too and did something inexpensive when building the foundation. I did a write up about called how to build a shed foundation at http://newbuildingideas.com/how-to-build-a-shed-foundation

 

[Scottishross]

nice work mate

 

[draider]

Any current pics of the sheds in use?

 

[J-man67]

Any current pics of the sheds in use?

??????

 

[oifla]

i know this thread has been dormant for some time but it sure would be nice to see the pics (any of them!). what happened?