Tote Shed

[Bigblue&Goldie]

My most ambitious carpentry project to date.....

My wife wanted a new shed for her Christmas totes and other misc ****. I decided to take this one on as I couldn't find anything I liked, and I sure wasn't impressed with the quality of the commercially available units. I built the thing on a 5'×12' steel skid and added some pick points so when we move I can throw wheels on it and pull it up on a roll back or crane pick it out of the yard.

I'm not a carpenter, and the closest thing I own to a wood working tool is a M12 jigsaw I use for aluminum sheet. I literally don't even have a claw hammer; this was roofed with a ball peen. My friends loaned me the rest of the tools to get it done.

Glad to have it done, as it reminded me why I'm not a carpenter or woodworker......damn dimensional lumber!

 

[Lumpy102]

From where I'm sitting it looks like you did a pretty good job of it!

 

[LXCam]

Nice job Ryan.

 

[moab11]

Looks really good!
What's the rough size of it? any in progress pics?

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Looks really good!
What's the rough size of it? any in progress pics?

Thanks Man! The floor is 5'x12', I think the roof was roughly 148" after trim/flashing. I didn't take too many pics, but here's one of the skid before paint and the framing mostly done before the rafters were put on. This pic shows the dirt patch where the old shed was. It was a poorly built piece of **** from the previous homeowner. It just sat unleveled in the dirt and was an overall eyesore. I'm going to add a concrete pad for my Jeep and re-landscape the area.

 

[moab11]

Thanks for the extra pics and info!
Love the steel skid idea, and how you used the studs to attach it to the wood frame, should last you a really long time.

I've been gathering ideas for a similar style shed for an unused notch in my yard, and keep bouncing between making or buying a cheap plastic shed, this definitely has me leaning to building now.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Every time I looked at Tuff Sheds or the ones at Lowe's and HD, I couldn't bring myself to buy one. Plastic sheds work well in some areas, but we had a big plastic storage bin for our pool stuff and the sun destroyed it in a couple of years. In hind sight, I spent way too much time on this thing, but that was largely due to me being grossly incompetent with carpentry work.

The steel skid only took me a few hours as I ordered the pieces pre cut from the steel yard. I had the wife help me square it all up and I buzzed it together with the glue gun. The studs are really long because my usual supplier didn't have proper weld studs so I ended up having to make due with a box of bolts. A quick coat of Rustoleum top and bottom and some interlocking sheeting made a nice surface to build the walls on.

 

[Jgaz]

I think your shed looks damn good in spite of your self professed lack of carpentry skills.
If I may, I’d like to suggest an additional detail you might want to consider

Not sure what the critter population is like where you live in Phoenix.
Im in the NW corner of Peoria and we have issues with kangaroo rats, snakes, and roof rats when my idiot neighbor had a half assed garden.
I knew I was going to have a shed and was not keen on creating a habitat for the little buggers.
I screened off the bottom below the framing as soon as the shed was built.
I‘ll try to explain what I did.

Here is my shed. Built on site on cement piers.

The only reason I’m showing it is to point out the hardware cloth (screen) that I added around the perimeter at the bottom. You’ll have to zoom in to see it in the above picture.

Heres a closeup showing the screen installation in detail.
The material is stapled to the floor framing and has a few inches bent at a right angle and spiked into the ground with landscape spikes I had on hand.
The trim boards will hold it securely when they are installed.

I trimmed it out using standard trim boards with a rabbet cut in the top edge. Not sure I’d do the trim the same way again. But it’s held up good for almost 10 years.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I think your shed looks damn good in spite of your self professed lack of carpentry skills.
If I may, I’d like to suggest an additional detail you might want to consider

Not sure what the critter population is like where you live in Phoenix.
Im in the NW corner of Peoria and we have issues with kangaroo rats, snakes, and roof rats when my idiot neighbor had a half assed garden.
I knew I was going to have a shed and was not keen on creating a habitat for the little buggers.
I screened off the bottom below the framing as soon as the shed was built.
I‘ll try to explain what I did.

Here is my shed. Built on site on cement piers.

The only reason I’m showing it is to point out the hardware cloth (screen) that I added around the perimeter at the bottom. You’ll have to zoom in to see it in the above picture.

Heres a closeup showing the screen installation in detail.
The material is stapled to the floor framing and has a few inches bent at a right angle and spiked into the ground with landscape spikes I had on hand.
The trim boards will hold it securely when they are installed.

I trimmed it out using standard trim boards with a rabbet cut in the top edge. Not sure I’d do the trim the same way again. But it’s held up good for almost 10 years.

We do have roof rats, but the others don't seem to be an issue. I think the hardware cloth is a good idea. I'll probably do something similar when I get the landscaping addressed. The trim was a real pain in the ***; we made the mistake of using cement board trim not knowing it's hell on saw blades. I would've preferred to trim the bottom like you did, but I was afraid with our dust storms that the white trim would just collect dirt.

 

[gahrajmahal]

The tote shed looks great! Solid and secure and so much better than the pre-fab units at the big box store.

 

[captain14]

Good looking shed.

I have to agree with Jagz. That’s an area for critters to move into, plus the hardware cloth will catch yard debris that’s blown around.