Getting Better

... more cryptic blog post titles. Here's the seventh update on the shed.

A slight bit of scope creep!

Yep, a kind of extension!  So, what's it for? Well, there's an addition that hasn't made its debut on these pages (a tractor mower) and a couple of other mowers that are taking up space in outbuildings (one is jammed in the doorway of one such that you can't actually get in!). The tractor mower is under a tarp, and the other small rotary is again in a storeroom that really isn't for mowers. So it's a mower shed extension, and will get weatherboarded in roughly the same way as the shed wall you can see there. For the mower shed, it's just 4x2 (again!) and single skin OSB and felt roof - no need to insulate this so much. It will have a concrete floor with a damp proof membrane though - no point in it getting damper than it needs to.

As you can see, it's filthy muddy at the moment. It's really nasty working up at the shed at the moment.

The shed was built purposely large. Although it's useful to have a decent sized workshop, There's some inevitability about it being used as a store, so I've made it big enough such that if I shelve down 3 of the walls, the actual usable space will still be a decent amount. The aim though is that it stores kind of house/project related stuff, not just any old rubbish, and that it does free up space from the other outbuilding such that we can convert some of that into a utility room / space. In any case, the OSB walls, although they look suitably 'industrial', I did want them to be white. This is for twin purposes - firstly it will make the inside look more spacious and brighter, and secondly, it will contribute to the insulation by reflecting heat back into the room.

First coat only.  It's not my finest hour in terms of painting and decorating, but it's a shed, and I don't want to spend hours on it. It's not as if I'm inviting Ideal Homes in on a photo shoot.

More next time....

[Cryptic title - Seventh update on the shed, Getting Better - a song by Shed 7]

When we pretend that we're shed....

You can tell I'm bored with the shed as I'm getting creative with the blog post titles. Hope the L7 reference isn't wasted on you.

Anyway, as per the last post, the lack of a workbench was meaning that the shed was more cluttered than it really had to be, and a by-product of the workbench is also the underbench storage opportunities...

Framework:

Goes to show that I don't stage the photos - bin takes the foreground!

More framework:

I think I realised the bin going for the photo-bomb and sorted it. Anyway the 4x2 on the floor is to spread the load across more floor than separate legs, same with the cross pieces, and again the uprights on the wall are to transfer the load to the floor rather than just hang the load off the wall (which the frame is secured to too).

Pretty well finished:

It's 2 board lengths long, so 16 feet. The top is made of 18mm OSB covered in 25mm ply. The shelf is just the 18mm OSB. As shelving material it's a bit rough and ready, but as it's not for anything too delicate, we'll see how we go.

Feed me til I want no more....

Yep, more shed stuff.

A few photos missing as I left the phone in the house, but here's the door on:

...and starting to get the outer wall skin complete.

Outer skin on!

Door on. The window in the door is made from the glass from an old Hi-Fi stand.  It's lightly smoked so it looks a little darker, and when the inside of the shed is not lit (it is in the photos, so that I can see inside to work with the rubbish weather we're having) it's quite hard to see through.

Still looks like a bit of a muddy pikey encampment, but a bit of a clear up, especially that tarp and we'll be in business. Jeep gives some idea of scale, noting that it's a fair bit closer to the camera than the shed itself.

The temporary workbench that I'm using inside, which is made of a couple of 8x4 sheets on top of a workmate and a trestle, is now kind of in the way - I'm moving the materials for the workbench that will be in the shed around because they're in the way and they're in the way because I've not built the bench yet. Cutting the waffle - workbench up next. Need it to be drier to start the outside weatherboarding...

Shed of heaven Pt.4

Done with the  windows. Incidentally, these are made of perspex that was left over from a project in the previous house. They're made by routing a groove in 4x2 and then making the angles for the frame on a chopsaw.

So, bit more inside work. Again, loft insulation held at the top by a batten, and then more OSB on top.

And repeat...

... until bored and start on the door. Actually the door is important. Given the shed is waterproof, and getting on the way to being secure, we can start to store stuff in it. I started by making a frame from 4x2 (what else?) and routed a groove in that. That's going to take a piece of exterior ply for the outside, the inside will be OSB, as before.

Be stuffed without power tools though.

Shed of Heaven pt.3

More progress. Windows this time:

I didn't want the windows low down so that it would be some sort of security - at least any 'erberts would have to make an effort to climb up to look in, However, at the front, the roof overhang precludes them being any higher than this.

Shed of heaven pt.2

On with the shed. The felting of the roof has to be one of the most boring parts of it. Bar the trimming, it's done now though. Boring because you basically have to hammer in 1 zillion clout nails to keep the felt on, and you need to make sure you get even overlaps, at least on the roof itself. And the most exciting tool you can use is a claw hammer. Yawn.

I'd just left that little bit on the right, and the extra strip to double up the coverage on the ridge of the roof. So I polished it off:

So, as above, done bar the trimming. Will also make some barge boards and put some guttering on too at some point, but I have to admit to being sick to death of the roof. And the other shed you can see in the pics needs a re-felt too, so more boring nailing for me.

Having done the roof, I thought I'd have a go at completing the wall structure. In the top pic above, you can see some loft insulation - but the shed doesn't have a loft. I got this because it's cheaper than proper wall batts, but I did want to insulate the walls too. Wooden sheds have a habit of being too hot in summer and bloody freezing in winter, and sudden temperature changes leads to condensation, and rusty tools. So I made a sort of batten with some OSB and celotex to hold the loft insulation up and this is what I came up with:

I had some bubble foil insulation left over from another project in the old house, so I added that too to see if it's worth carrying on with it. :

Don't know if it is, so I'll carry on without, I reckon. Given I'll be covering the outside in builder's paper, I'll already have a vapour barrier, so although it would add extra insulation, 'm not sure I need to go to those lengths. I guess I'll be doing more of this, and windows next...

Shed of heaven

In the new house, there's a small problem in that there's a lack of space. Not in the house itself, or in the outbuildings, but overall, what space there is is allocated for 'other stuff'. So, I need a workshop, or I should say, a second workshop. I have a small workshop with my lathe in it, and I want to keep this clear of timber work and general mucky stuff. I don't want to get crap in/on the lathe, or in/on anything I'm working on in it.

I drew up a load of plans (mostly on the train on the way to and from work), and got to it. The design works out to be 6m x 4.3m. It sits on a wooden floor with numerous little 'legs' that sit on concrete slabs.

You can see the floor framework here in the foreground (I've only just started in this shot):

The brace you can see is a neat trick. By measuring 3 feet up one side (nearest the jeep in this case), and 4 feet up the other, if the brace is 5 feet long, you know the corner is a right angle. The frame is 6x2 treated, I used treated 4x4 for the legs. For the outside legs (visible in the above shot) I made 2" concrete feet for the legs, to stave off any rotting from the legs sitting on water. In the end there were about 20 such little legs placed regularly around and underneath the floor.

This is mid-December, so I needed somewhere to work, so I rigged up the pikey workshop:

I roped in a friend for a day's work, we wanted to get the walls going. They're made by basically framing a 12mm OSB sheet with 4x2 treated, with 4x4 posts at each corner:

The floor can also be seen here - there's a polythene membrane between the framework of joists and noggins and the floor itself, which is 18mm OSB.

We got a fair way around between us, but then a storm blew up, and like the big bad wolf, it blew the shed down.:

Where we'd put the odd brace in to keep the walls square, it was fine. Otherwise, the walls didn't start out at that angle.

I got stuck in again, and fixed the walls, and with help from the same friend (Scott), we got the remaining wall panels up, and made the roof trusses:

A view from the house:

Then it was the case of completing the roof structure:

With attention to the overlaps at each side:

Then cladding it with OSB (thjs bit is tricky because you have to be careful to pick up the rafters and purlins:

Note the ever diminishing pile of OSB next to the shed.

Eventually the roof was skinned:

And then again in 50mm PUR board (think celotex):

And then again in more OSB:

And complete:

And then with shed felt (the expensive stuff  - not yer B&Q special):

Got more felting, windows, door, weather boarding,  insulate and skin inside, workbench to build, and then get some power in it for lights and plugs. Big job this.