Garden Shed #12 - Loft Storage and Roof

I installed the loft, as shown in my last post. Here is a picture of the 4' deep end - sorry it's a bit dark.

I decided to only put a 4' loft at one end and 2' at the other. In reality, 4' at both ends made the shed feel too closed in. I used doubled-up and glued 12' 2x4's with blocking in between. Both my son and I stood on it while we were putting roof on, and there was no flex.

I decided to make the sides decks 15" deep. All the studs in the shed are 7' tall, cut from standard 8' boards. We had a big pile of 12" pieces, so I used those for the blocking. The OSB is glued and nailed every 6" along these, creating wall stiffeners, as well as storage.

Here is another dark picture (on purpose) showing the vent holes in the soffit blocking. I used left over pieces of the OSB siding, drilled 5 holes in each, and stapled window screen to the backs. This cost $6 for the screen instead of about $50 for the pre-made vents.


My son and I got the OSB sheeting on the roof and nailed down. I will cut the excess off with a skill-saw tomorrow. Once done, I need to screw the OSB to the rake and fascia boards - I don't like to nail these, since they can easily come loose.


Hopefully tomorrow I will get most of the siding details done...

Garden Shed #11 - Loft Storage Plan

After putting some thought into it, I decided on the loft storage design for the shed. It might be a lot of mental energy for something as simple as a shed, but I might as well do it right. The cost and time are pretty well fixed, so it's mainly the design that makes the difference.

As shown above, the loft will span the perimeter of the walls. It will be four feet deep on the ends and about two on the sides (roof removed for clarity). I looked at a few lofts online that were 6' to 8' deep, but think that the access to the back would be poor - and it would just become a junk spot.


Also, this design helps strengthen the tops of the sidewalls. The 2x4's and OSB surface will act as a stiffener across each wall. I wasn't planning on putting extra rafter ties in, because they get in the way of hanging larger things from the ceiling. Over time, the weight of the roof can push the walls outward if not supported.


The bottom of the loft sits at the same height as the windows and doors - 6' 6" - so there is plenty of head room under it without feeling cramped.

My cost estimate to add this is $70.
- 4 sheets of 1/2" OSB - $8 each
- 2 12' 2x4 - $5 each
- 10 8' 2x4 - $2 each
- 2x4 joist hangers - $10

I want to get this put in before I put the sheeting on the roof, so I don't bump my head (as often).

Garden Shed #10 - Rafters and Siding

We got quite a bit of the shed completed today. The Oregon weather was perfect for working outside. Here are photos of the current progress...

I finished off the rafters, including the collar ties as shown below. I made these from the last bit of usable wood from the old shed. These serve both to strengthen the roof structure, and provide a good location for hanging bikes, etc. They are 9' above the floor, so there will still be plenty of head room with stuff hanging down.


I used the rafter ties from the old shed on the new rafters - they worked very well. They are easy to locate and drop the rafters into.


Here is a photo of the outside. The lower OSB part will be covered with the lap siding, and the top will end up looking like board and batten. This is 8" on-center T-1-11. I will cover over the groves with battens. This cost about 2/3 of a sheet with no groves in it (not sure why).

The corner pieces are 1" cedar and all other trim, including the cross-piece shown here are 3/4" pine.


Here is the end of the shed with a window. The cross trim also serves as the base trim of the window.


Finally, here is the side with the small door and window - nothing is trimmed out yet.


The next steps are to trim out the rest of the doors, windows and horizontals. After that I will start to apply the battens, then the lower lap siding.

Garden Shed #9 - Ridge Board and Rafters

I spent last evening putting the ridge board together, getting it place and making sure it was plumb & level.

I need a 17' long 2x4, which I could not find at Home Depot. I am sure if I went to a lumber yard - wait one day and "what are you doing here?" service - I could have bought a 20' one. Instead, I decided to glue an screw 10' 1x4's together. HD sells these for under $3 apiece, which is a very good price.


I simply overlapped them by 5', used wood glue and put in screws about every 6".


After trimming the thing to 17', I put the hardware on while it was still on the ground. To make mounting easy, I put the connector plates shown on first. After that, I attaced the hardware for the rafters. I am just using fence rail hardware here, which will be fine - the rafter push up against the ridge board. Once in place, I will nail through the ridge board into each one with two 16d nails.


I put the connectors every two feet on both sides of the board.


Once assembled, putting the ridge board in place was fairly easy. I just lifted it up and set it on the support studs.


Here is a close-up picture of the connection. I could have toe-nailed it, but I think it would have split out. Once fixed, I put the end rafters on. I plumbed the support stud and screwed the rafters in place.


Here is a picture of the end rafters in place. You can finally get the feel for the size and shape of the shed.

Garden Shed #8 - Wall Framing

I finished the wall framing this morning.

This photo shows the first wall up, which I did last night after work. Summer evenings in Oregon are great to be outside in until about 10 pm.


I framed up the walls on the deck, squared them up, put on the bottom sheeting, then tipped them up into place.

Here is a picture of the wall framed with the small door and two windows. I put a small header over the door, but not over the windows. The rafters are going to be placed directly above the studs, so you don't need the extra support. Also, the header over the door is only 2x4 - I am going to glue and nail a piece of OSB to the back side of it and the top plate, effectively making a box-beam. This will carry the rafter load with no problems.


The walls are tipped up in place and temporarily secured with diagonal 2x4's. Don't skip this step and just nail the plate. If you do, the wall can come down on top of you.


Finally, the end walls were put in. This photo shows the large door for the lawn tractor. I am going to use sliding barn door hardware for this one.


Next up is to put in the ridge-board and frame the rafters. I am leaving the top siding off until this is done to allow for better access.

Garden Shed #7 - Resources

Here are some of the free / online resources I found for building the garden shed. I will continue to update this post as I collect and review them. These are resources that I truly found helpful, and I have no commercial connection to them.

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Ideas and Photo Sets

At the top of the list: Here is a blog dedicated to garden sheds. It's very nicely done with a number of inspirational photos. My favorite is the water wheel shed.



There are over 10K pictures on flickr.com - search for garden shed. It takes a while, but you can see just about any kind you would imagine. There are also a lot of good photos of storage and interior setups.

Gardensheds.com is a commercial site, but the photos are really nice. These are definately high-end and classy buildings.

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How-to:

Here are a few articles from Fine Homebuilding (my favorite magazine):

A Firm Foundation for a Backyard Shed - showing some good methods for building the shed foundation

Shortcuts to a Shed - this article shows some good cost-savings techniques

Greenhouses and Potting Sheds - this is not a "how to" article, but has good photos

Popular Mechanics has a good on-line article with lots of detail on contructions techniques. I really like the cut-away diagram showing all the main points of shed construction:


Click on the image below for a good set of detailed shed plans by Southern Pine in their DIY section.


For you hardcore green builders, here is a site that shows in fine detail show to build a large shed out of pallets. I am not quite to the point of using pallets to build things, but I admire the design and technique shown here.

Garden Shed #6 - Finishing off the Deck

I was able to get the shed deck complete this evening. The photo shows the joists before putting the plywood down.


These joists are made from the materials of the old shed: foundation 4x4's, some of the 6' studs, and all of the 2x4 rafters. Based on the span requirements (see previous posts), I decided to double up all the joists.

Most of the joists are on 2' centers, except as shown in the lower corner. This is where the lawn tractor will be parked, so I put them on 16" centers for extra support.


The photo above shows the joists being shimmed with pieces of asphalt shingle. I have noticed that pressure treated wood tends to be a bit larger that KD studs. I did this to bring everything up to the same height for the plywood.

Here is the deck with the floor installed. One of the nice things about a 12x16 shed is that the materials fit nicely with a minimum of cutting and waste.



The next step is to frame and raise the walls.

Garden Shed #5 - New Building Starts

I was able to get the new shed foundation in place this weekend. Below is a set of photos showing the process.

I have never used pier blocks before, but everything worked out OK. In the past, I have always nailed the metal supports to the posts & beams and then poured concrete. The method here is very similar, you just need to make sure the bottom of the holes are level and the right height. After doing it, I think I still would have preferred the old way, but these are the materials I harvested from the old shed.

Here is the first beam - 16' feet long - set into place with four pier blocks. This is the highest ground area, so I made the holes as deep as the blocks.


A tip: I over-dug the holes by 1" to 2", then I poured dry concrete mix into the hole to get the bottom to the right height. This makes it easy to get it flat and level. Also, the powdery texture of the dry mix allowed me to move the block around a bit by tapping them gently with a small sledge hammer. Once in place, I tamped dirt around them. Once everything is set, I just spray the block with a hose and they are set solid.

Here is the second beam, which was leveled and squared to the first. I needed to buy new 16' long beams, but I will also be able to use the 6' ones from the old shed. They form the joist on the outer edge as shown, plus those that will be under where the lawn tractor will sit. I figure 4x4's on 16" centers are not going to sag with a 6 ft' span, even with a couple hundred pound mower sitting on them most of the time.


As I moved down the slope, I needed to add small post pieces under the beams. I toe-nailed them in, then completed attaching them with a 7" gutter screw and polyurethane glue. I spread the glue all over the surface of the post ends to seal them from water. I don't expect water to get in there, but its a very simple and cheap precaution.


The picture below shows the third (and last) beam in place, along with joists on the ends and in the center. This set-up allowed me to do the final squaring and leveling of the foundation. I used the asphalt shingles shown to make final adjustments up to level. When in doubt, I set posts & piers about 1/8" short, so I can shim them to get right on to level. The shingle never compresses, and it's used to level full size houses.


I like to take my time with this step and ideally come back the following day to verify everything is correct. The more level and square it is, the easier the rest of the construction will go, and the better it will look.

Here I have added the rim joist so I can easily add the rest of the cross-joists. This will get covered up by the cedar siding and a drip-edge. The cross-joists are cut from the studs and rafters of the old shed.



Once the joist are down, I will put 3/4 plywood down as the deck and start framing the walls.

Garden Shed #4 - Deconstruction Almost Complete

My son and I pretty much took the rest of the shed down today. As you can see in the picture, we are down to the piers and joists. The wood that is piled around still has the nails in it that we need to pull.


Here are all the materials that we have been able to clean up and reclaim so far. The shed looks like it came from a kit, where almost all the 2x4's are 6' long. I won't be able to use these for the studs, as they are going to be longer, but they can be used for joists and plates.


Now that I have access to the foundation parts, I can start building the new shed while my son continues to salvage materials.

Chess Tables

Here is a picture of a chess table I built. The design is very simple - made of pine, heavier mass, and slightly tapered legs.


The chess board on top is flat black paint, which was applied before finishing the piece with Polycrylic. The drawer holds the chess pieces.

This table has more of an arts-and-crafts feel, being it is made of cherry and has a simple design. I built this for a school auction.


The chessboard top is made of tiles that kids from the school created (my DW owned this part of the project).

Bookshelves with Inlaid Slate

I built a set of two bookshelves a while ago, and I am getting around to posting the pictures. They are what I would call "Northwest Rustic" style, with wood and slate combined.


Here is one of the sets put in place...


These pictures are from our previous house. Right now the bookshelves are in our living room, but will eventually move out - we are doing that area in French Country / Cottage style. These look a bit too "mountain lodge" for the room. They will likely end up in the theater room.

Home Theater #20 - Follow-up on the Sheetrock Screen

We have had the sheetrock theater screen in place for about and 3 weeks, and we are very happy with the results.


You get good contrast, but the picture is not too dark. Overall, the Behr Silver Screen paint (flat) seems to be just about the right color. If I were going to change anything, I may make it just a bit lighter - but at this point I am not changing anything.

I would take a picture of a movie playing, but I can seem to get a good image with my camera in the dark room.

Garden Shed #3 - Span Table Calculator

I found a great online tool for calculating deck spans on the American Wood Council website. As you can see from the image below, you can enter all the relevent specs and get the maximum span. Click on the image to go to the tool.



This tool is great in the case of deconstructing and reusing lumber: You are in the position of having materials that drive the design process, instead of the normal situation where design leads to material selection.

In my case, I want to use the 2x4 studs in the current shed walls and rafters as the floor joists. They are too short to be used as those on the new shed. Also, I want to keep the shed as close to the ground as possible, since its already on a slope. The 2x4's will go across a series of beams (see last shed post).

The wood I have is stamped stud-grade Douglas fir, and the calculator gives a 6 ft max span for 12-inch centers. I am going 24 inches and doubling up, but it's the same structure (this is a shed, so I am not getting too precise).


Based on this, I am going to need to put a center beam in the floor, giving a 5 ft span - well within limits.



To get rid of the center beam (and posts and cost), I would need to go to 2x6 #2 lumber on 16 inch spacing. This may end up being a better option if I make the shed 11x18 or 10x20 instead of 12x16. I would prefer 12x16, but I have to fit it in between the required property set-back and a plum tree I want to keep in place. If I go that route, I will likely reuse the lumber for rafters. That will be this week's challenge.

Home Theater #19 - Speaker Mounts

I wanted to buy inexpensive speaker mounts that would attach to a single-gang electrical box. It seems natural to me that you would want to run a speaker wire out of a low voltage box and mount the speaker right there - no deal.

Since I couldn't find anything, I fabricated my own...

I started out with some high-impact plastic speaker mounts. I bought these from AV Axis through Amazon. Four of these cost $20, including shipping - or $5 apiece.




The interesting thing is that I found a very wide array of pricing on these. For the same thing, I found prices ranging from $5 to $35.

The next step was to mount these on to a single-gang wall plate. The plate shown here is an exterior stainless steel cover, costing about $1. I spray painted it black to match the mount.


I drilled two 1/4" holes in the plate and attached the speaker mount with the supplied bolts. I also drilled a 3/16" hole for the speaker wire to come out.

Here is a picture of the speaker mounted and attached to the wall. These are the side speakers for a Dolby 5.1 or 7.1 set up.



Here are the rear mounts, which are in the back corners of the room for Dolby 7.1. They will point inward at about 40 degrees. I have left the speakers off to show the assembly and where the wire comes out of the plate.


At the end of it all: Nice looking, sturdy mounts for $6 a piece.