Shed build - help

MrSkinny wrote: »

I must say I am dismayed by the realisation of the amount of effort actually involved

Nooooo! That's the wrong thing to take from it.

This build is taking me a long time due to four totally avoidable factors:

- The decision to make the whole thing float in space off a 10% slope, rather than the conventional option of sitting it on a poured concrete slab on a flat piece of ground.

- The decision to make a vaulted ceiling which forced a structural ridge beam rather than a more conventional ridge board and ceiling joists/ties.

- The decision to make the framing and beam structure part of the internal design and put the insulation on the outside, rather than the conventional approach of insulating between the studs and covering it all with boards.

- Unnecessary attention to detail partly driven by lack of experience in knowing which details matter, and partly from the fact that I'm photographing everything - a 1mm gap looks like an inch gap in a close up photo.

I'm going to do a proper write up at the end with "how to do this thing faster" and "how to do a similar thing much faster".

It's been brilliant fun and I would honestly recommend it to anyone who fancies giving it a go and can spare a few weekends over a summer.

Thanks for the concern

My wife's patience finally expired so I'm busy ripping up floors in the house.

Houses are so boring!

The shed has two and a half walls insulated and membraned and a tarp over the roof.

Hopefully we'll get a massive storm forecast so I can get back to the more important work.

GreeBo wrote: »

I see lots of lovely joinery and engineering and smile...and then I remember the lumps of sawdusty gunk holding it all up and shed a little tear.

As I said before, that epoxy mortar is going to outlive human life on earth.

GreeBo wrote: »

Have you tackled the exposed insulation ends yet? I'd really worry about them in this weather, from a damp point of view but more likely them becoming a home for crawly things.

Not really. There's a flap of windproofing membrane lightly covering them but that's probably just acting as a nice cosy door to keep those creatures warm at night.

Thanks for the motivation.

A few weeks break doing mostly boring house stuff, back to the shed today.

Took the tarp off, and there's a couple of damp spots from holes in the tarp, but they haven't stained the underside and will dry out soon enough.

Got it wired last week. Not going to post pictures of that cos it's not my own work and I'm still slightly traumatised by someone punching holes through my studs, but I have a fuseboard thing connected to four double+USB sockets.

In hindsight I should have routed slots in the back of the studs before I sheeted it, but I didn't have a router at that point, wasn't thinking about electrics, and it's difficult to do afterwards. So the cables are neatly clipped down the side of studs nearest the corners where they can't be seen unless you're standing right in the corner.

Stupidly forgot to put the airtight grommets over the armoured cable, so had to cut and tape a couple of them afterwards.

Anyway, windproof membrane over walls is finished now, and the membrane is securely taped under the bottom of the walls to join up with the membrane holding the floor insulation in place. There are a few nooks and crannies for creatures, but I want to get the roof weatherproof before putting the mesh on.

Time for the roof insulation, and then have to make a door so I can get it heated! That's going to be tricky, because if I make it too strong and secure some idiot is going to try and break in and wreck the frame. So I reckon I'll try and make it so the door frame gives way before the queen posts are damaged. Either that or wire the door handle to an electric fence energiser. Joking!

my3cents wrote: »

Maybe a stupid question but are there no windows?

Correct! I'll get to those after the roof.

Yes, half round gutters with downpipes at the back.

In theory I can position them partly inside the ventilation gap so that they peep out under the roofline to catch the runoff.

Right then. Having spent the spring getting the garden back into shape/avoiding the shed, I finally got back to it today.

Brushed off all the winter debris.
Finished carving the ridge insulation (this was hard).
Laid membrane over the ridge to help it shed water in the event of a shingles failure.
Cut the first set of roof battens, connected and positioned loosely with tape.

Next job: try and throw some 220mm screws through the battens, insulation, and OSB to hit the 44mm wide rafters. My inside out design, accumulated measurement errors and obsession with air tightness makes this rather like playing darts blindfolded....

I also need to revisit sketches of gutters and roof shingles, so I can work out correct batten length for a flush eaves detail.

And get a new phone, cos after smashing the lens cover on my current ones the pics are splodgy.

Oh, and no, it still doesn't have a door. Or windows. :pac:

Anyway, the motivation is back!

hesker wrote: »

Why no pvc?

Have you thought of a soakaway. You can buy modular crate systems that are very easy to build.

I've made quite a bit of effort to avoid plastic in this build and since I only need about 14m of guttering (and a downspout) it seemed reasonable to push the boat out.

Don't think I need a soakaway as it's sitting above about 30m of a 10% slope with trees and hedging.

BarryD2 wrote: »

Likely not very helpful, but you'd have made life a whole lot simpler by just pouring a 6 inch reinforced concrete slab to build off..

Not that simple on a 10% slope with tree roots all over the place. I'd have either had to cut down the tree and level the whole area, or use concrete pile foundations, neither of which appealed.

At the beginning of the project the faffing with misaligned ground screws seemed like a big time suck, but that was back when I thought I could finish the whole thing in three weeks.