Small pole barn build

[vtx531]

Small pole barn build - shed

8x8 - told you it was small...

I decided to do this instead of a regular shed. I got the idea from here: Yard Barn

I dug out 4 holes with a post hole digger to 42". Then I dropped in the 4x4s and used them to tamp the bottom of the holes. I attached the grade boards and the purlins and then I plumbed the holes and added the temporary cross bracing. Next I filled up the holes with dry concrete mix and that is the point I am at now. 1 full day so far.

I am going to do osb with khaki vinyl siding the match the house along with 3 tab shingles on the roof. For the door - I am planning to use T1-11 painted burgundy to match the house shutters along with 1x6 white trim. Double doors so the opening should be about 6' wide. The door will be about 6' tall without a floor. 6/12 roof pitch with 2x4 rafters.

No plans for the floor yet but I think I may need concrete because the ground slopes toward the door opening.

Anyone have any comments or suggestions??? Please let me know!!!

 

[camarotoolman]

Why soooo small? Not that much more work or money to make it bigger. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[boseefus402]

I think you are on the right track! Are you doing a sloping shed roof or some type of trusses? Looks great so far.

 

[vtx531]

Why soooo small? Not that much more work or money to make it bigger. Just my 2 cents worth.

Originally I wanted to do 12x16' but my wife said she didn't want a "garage" in our backyard. I can see her point. I didn't want anything in the backyard either but we need some storage so I had to build this shed and she agreed to 8x8 because it is the same size as the neighbors. You are completely right though - not much more work and money to make it twice as big or more.

I think you are on the right track! Are you doing a sloping shed roof or some type of trusses? Looks great so far.

Thank you- I am going to do a gable roof from 2x4 rafters that I will make.

 

[vtx531]

Shed is coming along. I ended up making some trusses instead of rafters like I planned. I think it will be easier to box the ends and they were quick to make. At first I started attaching them with hurricane ties but then I got some other brackets that fit perfect and made it really fast to put up the trusses. They are 16"oc.

The front truss will be more supported in the furture but I don't think it is required. The post holes were spaced a little bit too far front to back so I am having to work around that.

I also put on some sheathing and removed the cross braces on the inside of the sheathed walls.

Next will be the facia boards then roof sheathing. I'm going to have the front gable overhang about 4" like the sides.

Still trying to decide what to do for the front and the doors. Right now I am thinking double wood hinged doors (t1-11 type). Hard to figure out how to mount them and what flashing and stuff to use. I hate to do wood with the no-maintenance vinyl but not really any other options besides a rollup which isn't very asthetic.

Any ideas how to plumb the trusses? I was thinking of nailing a 2x4 on until I am able to get one side of the roof sheathed.

 

[dittle fart around]

Nice job. If you level up one truss then you can cut 2X4 spacers to plumb the rest. Place them where you have a plywood seam and that will take care of the edge nailing.

 

[vtx531]

Nice job. If you level up one truss then you can cut 2X4 spacers to plumb the rest. Place them where you have a plywood seam and that will take care of the edge nailing.

Great, thank you!

 

[vtx531]

I ended up using a 1x2 to temporarily space the trusses. Worked nicely.

Fascia is steel with vented vinyl soffits. It was very hard for me to figure out especially because I did a 4" overhang on the front but the detail turned out really good. Also, I did a roof vent to help with air circulation.

The roof is almost done. Still need to do the ridge and trim shingles on the back side.

Siding is done on the back side. Turned out nicely. I decided I'm going to do a window on the left side and maaaybe one on the right side.

Still need to figure out what to do for the door and how to do the door details. Thinking of a double door with "continuous" hinges (piano hinges?) The only ones at local stores are steel coated in nickel. Will these rust?

 

[vtx531]

Almost got the sides done. I need to get a snaplock punch for the strip at the top. Here are some detail pics.

 

[vtx531]

I got the ridge cap on. I had to open an entire pack of shingles so I could use 2 pieces to finish. GRRRRR Maybe I'll make a little firewood holder to use up the extra shingles.

For the very last ridge shingle, should I buy some roofing tar and stick it on? Or is it acceptable to have 2 nails showing?


Also, the wife decided she didn't want a window which is fine because it will save money, be cheaper, easier, and a window might look goofy since the walls are only about 6' tall on the sides. More wall space to store stuff too.

 

[vtx531]

So, I decided instead of building a complicated door - I'm going to put up a shower rod and curtain with some yellow duckies on it.

 

[bhclark]

So, I decided instead of building a complicated door - I'm going to put up a shower rod and curtain with some yellow duckies on it.

Trying to see if anyone is listening?

Corner details look great.

A little concerned about the lack of a floor. When you do finish it off, are you going to dig down? Seems it would be a bit tall after adding roughly 6" of floor?

 

[vtx531]

Trying to see if anyone is listening?

Corner details look great.

A little concerned about the lack of a floor. When you do finish it off, are you going to dig down? Seems it would be a bit tall after adding roughly 6" of floor?

Yes, ha. I haven't thought to much about the floor. What is the concern? I think this year I will leave it dirt and pack it down. Maybe next year I will dig out a couple inches, fill with gravel and then do concrete on top of that to bring it level with the door sill at 3.5" above grade.

I bought 2 72" continous hinges and some sheets of 3/8" smart panel with a rough saw finish to construct some doors.

 

[bhclark]

I've got a quality shed out back. 10 years and the doors haven't sagged a bit.
I can take some photos of the construction if you're interested?
They are 2x4 framed and screwed to T-111 siding.

If so, PM me an email address and I'll shoot some photos over.

 

[Crawfish]

Looks very nice. I made a micro pole barn a few years ago. 12x12 with posts every 6 feet. 2x8 headers topped by 2x6 rafters (simple shed roof). A little over built, but I wanted it to be versatile. When it was built it was to house some critters, but I figured (and I was right) that we wouldn't keep the animals forever.

The nice thing about a pole building style shed is you can do anything with the floor... Dirt, gravel, concrete, wood, patio pavers, etc.

 

[Lippyp]

I did similar as a woodshed over at my house in France although its not as posh as yours. Mine has a gravel over landscaping fabric floor, a recycled window from the house and a half open front, single pitched sloping roof made of corrugated cement sheet with roman terracotta tiles over for looks, the walls are covered with simple vertical timber planks with nothing underneath them as airflow is something to be encouraged in a woodshed. Its been up for a couple of years now with no problems. It now has zinc guttering and downspout on the rear and roses and a passionflower growing over it.

 

[vtx531]

After waiting a long time I finally put in the concrete. I used 29 60lb bags. I bought 42 bags but I guess I didn't make it as thick as I intended. It calculates out to about 2.5" thick. I was shooting for 3.5". I mixed each bag in a wheelbarrow and dumped it in, trowled it, then did the next bag. Turned out alright (for a shed). Some parts of the surface seem kinda sandy and other parts are great. Maybe I need to do more troweling. Should be fine for my purposes though and I hope I can sweep off the sandy parts. For prep, I put down about 2" of fill sand and tamped it. I decided to go simple and cheap so I didn't do any rebar or mesh or vapor barrier. No epoxy on this floor!

 

[BD1]

Looks good ! Now that you built the entrance, when you gonna build the
rest ????

 

[vtx531]

Looks good ! Now that you built the entrance, when you gonna build the
rest ????

Ha, yaaaaaa...

I'll try and get some pics up on the weekend. I am interested to see how the concrete will turn out once it's dried and cured (been soaking it since it hardened)

 

[streetisneat]

Cover the doors with white vinyl soffit material hung vertically put j channel around edges to give you a finished look all around the door. I sided my whole shed that way still looks great and no maint. issiues!

 

[vtx531]

I like your soffitt on the doors idea. My wife says the door looks too plain and too wide. Next is landscaping. I think my lawn mower will like this shed when it finally goes in it for the first time tomorrow.

Here are some new pics:

 

[NUTTSGT]

Neat little shed.

 

[Cougar67]

Nice shed. What is the cost break down?

 

[vtx531]

I had it all figured out to the dollar at one point but I lost the info. Everything for the shed was about $800 I believe and I just paid $70 for the concrete. I was able to get pretty much everything on sale at Menards. Skipping rental equipment (auger and cement mixer) saved approx. $100 which is a lot of money on a small project.

Definitely came in under $1000. Thanks for posting in my thread.

 

[cj7365]

Great little shed, nice attention to detail on the siding, now you should prefab them and sell them

 

[BD1]

Ok, I guess this means that's it. So, that wasn't the entrance. Anyway, very nice job. Why not spend another $1000.00 and add window with brown shutters
and a Glass oval door ?? Really matches the house nicely. Wife should be proud! Concrete looks good. I have a 4'x8' slab I need to do in my barn . How many bags were you able to mix in the mixer ? Just curious.

 

[vtx531]

Ok, I guess this means that's it. So, that wasn't the entrance. Anyway, very nice job. Why not spend another $1000.00 and add window with brown shutters
and a Glass oval door ?? Really matches the house nicely. Wife should be proud! Concrete looks good. I have a 4'x8' slab I need to do in my barn . How many bags were you able to mix in the mixer ? Just curious.

Yeah that's it, ha. Thanks for the good words. I'm surprised nobody said my concrete looks like garbage and I should rip it all out! I mixed 29 bags in a wheelbarrow- 1 bag at a time. You can do 2 bags at a time but I found it takes a lot more effort to do that. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think 40-50 bags would be doable. You should only need about 20 to do a 4x8 at 3.5" thick.

(I decided no window so there would be more space on the walls to hang stuff - therefore no shutters. A glass oval door would not be wide enough for the riding mower and I want more security. Additionally, I want my door to open outward and I think a regular door with regular hinges would need to open inward so the hinges are on the inside )

 

[BD1]

Nice response ! What does the wife think of it ?? No wife ? Oh, that's why you are concerned about concrete ! I thought I saw a finger in there.

 

[vtx531]

Nice response ! What does the wife think of it ?? No wife ? Oh, that's why you are concerned about concrete ! I thought I saw a finger in there.

Nope, nobody in there, ha.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Yeah that's it, ha. Thanks for the good words. I'm surprised nobody said my concrete looks like garbage and I should rip it all out! I mixed 29 bags in a wheelbarrow- 1 bag at a time. You can do 2 bags at a time but I found it takes a lot more effort to do that. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think 40-50 bags would be doable. You should only need about 20 to do a 4x8 at 3.5" thick.

Any more than a few bags, try to get yourself a mixer, either rent one or borrow one from an older person. The hoe/wheelbarrow is liable to wear your *** out bigtime.


If you have the means to go get sand and stone ( I used #8s) I'd mix my own starting with bags of Portland cement. it comes out alot nicer with a better product in the end.

If you scroll thorugh my build thread, you'll notice the sidewalk along the house garage and up to the front porch, that was all done in a mixer by me and me alone. . . . whipped puppy.

 

[vtx531]

I just got one blister. Not bad!

 

[hdonlybob]

Very nice job. And you did it right.
I spent ~45 years in the construction industry..mostly project management, and I like the way it's done.
Cheers.....

 

[vtx531]

Very nice job. And you did it right.
I spent ~45 years in the construction industry..mostly project management, and I like the way it's done.
Cheers.....

Wow-pretty generous comments and nicer than what I would say for it. I think I struck a nice balance between cost/effort/function but thanks for boosting my confidence!

 

[76cruiser]

Do you have a close-up picture of the trusses? I am curious about the brackets you used. Nice barn BTW!

 

[dare23]

Great job!