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I am a typical Yankee Packrat. If I wanted to be able to walk in my garage, I needed somewhere else to put a bunch of my "archives" (junk to the rest of you). This is what I came up with. Dimensions were largely determined by what my town government will allow without a permit. The discussion went something like this:
"If it's under 120 square feet, you don't need any. If you run electric to it, you'll need an electric permit regardless. I strongly recommend that it be under 120 square feet."
"Does that include eave overhangs?" (Note: some towns do)
"No."
"Is there a limit on loft area?" (some towns limit you to 1/3 or 1/2 the area of the shed)
"No."
"Is there a height restriction?" (some towns limit you to 10 feet or so)
"Yes, the limit for all buildings in your zone is 35 feet."
First, I figured out where I wanted the shed. This involved coordinating with my wife's gardening plans and avoiding a 20' AT&T transcontinental cable right-of-way. Then, mark the location on the ground (pegs work well). Set up "batter boards" around your proposed foundation so that you can dig without losing all the reference points you just determined. A batter board has a nail set along each leg for each important reference point. I used one each for my final dimensions (10x12') and then offset that 1-1/2" in for my foundation on all sides. You determine where the nails go by lining up string between nails so that the line from a plumb bob held over your initial mark or peg just hits the string. It takes a little trial and error. Once you have your basic shape, any offsets can just be measured out. Once you're comfortable you know where everything needs to go, you can dig. I've dug down about 9" here, the length of a shovel blade.
Next, I had 3/4"minus crushed gravel trucked in. I shoveled it out as even as I could, then hosed it down and ran over it with a pickup a bunch of times. This compacted it from about 18" down to about 12". I had to move some of the batter boards out of the way so I could reach all the area with the tires. You could avoid this by renting a compactor, if you wanted. I then spent more time adjusting the gravel with a long board, a level, and a shovel. This was actually rather difficult, as the compacted gravel was quite hard. Where I had to shift a fair amount of gravel, I made sure I ran over it with the truck again.
Next, I used the batter boards to set up my forms. Being a strong believer in the concept of overkill, I'm using 2x6's instead of 2x4's, which would most likely be more than adequate. You can see two rebar stakes along one side, this was an attempt to brace the forms, but it didn't work very well. I tried the rebar since pounding wooden stakes into the compacted gravel was impossible. They didn't hold very well. So after thinking about it for a bit, and with input from family and friends, this is what I came up with:
Knee braces. I pounded my stakes in outside the gravel, and connected them with short sections of 2x to the main form. I then backfilled some of my excavated dirt against the bottom of the forms to keep the concrete from leaking out. The concrete bricks are to hold the rebar.
Next came the rebar. I bent the ends over for a foot to give me plenty of area to tie all the pieces together, but this made my 10' rebar 9' long. What to do for the other end? The welder to the rescue. Weld on another 2' piece (or 4' for the long sides), and bend the last foot again. Then lay everything in position.
And tie it together, both at the overlaps and at every intersection. All the little arrows you see on the forms are to mark where my J-bolts will go. The marks extend over the sides, since the top will get covered in concrete during the pour.
Then call the concrete company. If you call for Saturday delivery, like I did, you'll pay for the privilege, but that's when my brother was available to lend me a hand. It went very well for my first time, no doubt due to my brothers experience and the advice of the truck operator. You can see I also formed up an apron and a few blocks to use up any extra concrete, I had ordered 3 yards, and I think there was still another yard on the truck when he left. Better too much than not enough, though. And a lot less time consuming than renting a mixer, though we had seriously considered it. Make sure you set your J-bolts before the concrete sets (though there are other options if you do).
Then strip the forms once it's cured. The channel you see was formed by a strip nailed to the form on that side, and is so that the filler section of apron will have something to tie into. The filler section was made necessary by the knee braces on that side getting in the way.
Then form and pour the filler strip, and finish backfilling. I mixed this batch up in a wheelbarrow. I even used the proper expansion strip where the apron meets the main slab, since it was cheap. It's basically tar-impregnated chipboard. About half the dirt I removed was used to slope the ground away from the foundation. The rest was used in the garden.
This is the point where my big crowd of volunteers came into play. Most of this went up in a weekend. We had originally figured on it taking just the Saturday, but as many of you know, any given project will expand to use up all the time allotted.
First floor is normal stud walls, studs cut to 7', ends saved for boxing in the soffits and eaves. Platform joist framing is also typical, except for the header over the door, which is a triple 2x beam with the joists hangered on, since it carries both the roof and the floor loads. Also, the door trim/jack studs are 2x6 to fully support the triple beam. 2nd floor has two kneewalls with 2' studs, also framed normally. Sheathing was cut so that the joints would fall on the rim joists to tie everything together.
That's Terri in the grey shirt, Joe in blue, Stew in white, Dad in the plaid, and I'm the nutcaase in black. Mom's behind the viewfinder, and this is the 2nd day, so you don't get to see Rodri. I highly recommend a 10" miter saw like the one in the foreground, it made life a lot easier.
My friend Bob at work does roofing on the side, so he helped me get set up to do the roof, showed me how to set up the staging, run the flashing, and ran the first few courses for me, and showed me how to use the jacks he lent me. I wish I'd known he did this stuff two years earlier when we had the house roof done. Oh well.
I rented a nailer for two days to get the rest of the roof on before the remnants of a tropical storm blew through, since Bob was busy on another project.
Joe helped me get the cupola up. It was actually the first piece constructed over the course of last winter. Can you tell how I cheated to make it? Plastic vent louvers!
Here's what a few 1x4's (pressure treated to delay rot) and some white cedar shingles will do for the appearance:
I scratchbuilt the window out of pressure treated 2x4's and lexan, using an old sash we had as a reference.
I made a miscalculation on the loft door: I calculated that it wouldn't hit the peak when it openned, but I forgot to account for the 1' eave overhang too, so it hit. Here's how I compensated for my error:
I hinged the top section, so that the hinge line is hidden by the horizontal trim. If you look at the outside, the left corner still had to be trimmed back so it wouldn't hit the jamb when it folds.
That's a 16' barn door track (to be shortened by about 18") under the ridgepole to help get stuff in and out of the loft. I plan on taking the center 2' section of loft floor and putting it on hinges, too, but that hasn't happened yet.
Oh, and the height? Not including the cupola or the yet-to-be created weathervane, between 15 and 16'. Both included will bring us pretty close to 20'.
My current goals are to have the mowers, hoses, and other summer lawn and garden stuff stashed out there by the time snow flies. With any luck, Terri may even be able to park in the garage!
(but don't hold your breath, go back and read that about me being a packrat again).
I also need to think about someplace to store this:
I'm thinking something in the way of another shed. But smaller this time. I figure only big enough to store 2 cords or so should be fine. :^)
I'd like to acknowledge the assistance of Terri, John, Dad, Joe, Stew, Rodri, and Bob, without whom this would have taken a terribly long time. With enough coldcuts, pizza, beer, soda, Gatorade, bottled water, and Chinese food, you could have this crew work for you, too. Except Rodri, who won't work on sheds for just anyone. I'd really like to thank Dad, Joe, and Stew for being crazy enough to come back for the 2nd day...
Special thanks to the denizens of the rec.crafts.metalworking newsgroup for the junk-collector-as-archivist concept. The insanely curious can do a google groups search for the relevant discussion and its logical extremes. We're not there. Yet.
Last updated 10/3/03
© 2003 Glenn S. Lyford, all trademarks etcetera property of their respective owners.
