Building a new Garden Shed so I can work in the garage again.

Well, we are finally moved into our new place back in TN after our 3 years Florida stint. It feels good to be home. But one thing I feel bad about having to leave behind was the real nice 10x12 metal shed that I had built for down there. I was going to attempt to build my own, but hurricane codes and other city codes made it out to be a chore I didn't want to tackle down there, but being back in a lower wind zone area, I feel pretty confident to attempt to build my own for this property.

Now the property we bought had a 10x12 shed already here, but it was in very poor shape along with being very poorly built (imho). So that had to come down so I can build a new awesome 12x12 shed.

When we bought the house a few weeks ago you couldn't even see the window side of this thing, and the other side was grown up to the edge of the lean-to. I spent a few hours clearing out from around there, trying to avoid getting scratched to death with thorny vines and contacting the poison oak all around. I managed to not get too much on me but I'm still itching like crazy in some spots. So here's what it looked like after that was done.

The doors wouldn't even close all the way and the whole thing is not anyway level.

This lean-to will come down and not sure if it's going back up again. We'll see.

This thing probably had water up to the rafters during the big flood in 2010 and was never rinsed out so it stinks in here. Also it's a lot darker than these pictures make out, even int he middle of the day. This stuff will go int he garage till the new one is completed.

You can see it was leaking on the roof pretty bad here.

So first things first. Time to climb up and get all the shingles off.

I chopped the lean-to's post off with my sawzall and then pushed it over and flipped it upside down.

Removed the window to be reused in the new building, and started taking off the roof OSB.

Pretty soon I had it down to this. Then it was lunch time.

After lunch I came back out swinging and had the rest down to just the base in short order.

A couple hours later I had the floor gone and raked the ground free of leaves and vines.

Part of the stuff for the burn pile.

The good lumber that was worth saving and will go back into the new shed in places that need small pieces I don't want to go buy new lumber for.

Mongo's glad that It's all done for the day.

This was Friday last week, so over the weekend I got all the lumber I needed based off my google sketchup model.

Before I picked up the lumber on Saturday I made a 3D mockup of the shed in Google SketchUp. I love this program. I can play with so many different ways of building something without ever having to cut a single board. It's great. But I digress. I finally settled on a design, after getting some feedback form the guys over at garagejuornal fourms. And this is what it looked like.

It will be skinned with ribbed metal roofing all over.

But on to the work at hand. Getting this new shed started.

Yesterday was the start of work on the new shed, I started out by marking where the corners of the shed would end up at, then used those posts to measure out and place the skids and blocks.

This part was pretty time consuming with how uneven the ground was. The old shed was pretty unlevel so even if I didn't get it perfect, it would be tons better than what I had before.

More leveling

Stopped after the first row was done to put the beam down and see how close it was all the way across.

Pretty dang close. I'll take it.

More digging and hoeing later I had the middle row down.

It also turned out close enough for gubment work.

With the last row in I checked my full crosswise level.

Looking good there too.

The perimeter of the frame went together next. I used a Harbor Freight 21* nailgun with 3.5" framing nails.

Moved it into place and adjusted for square with a framing square in the corners.

I cut all the joists down to 11'9" for a nice tight fit and placed them all into position, after marking 16" increments on the outer rails. This way I could just nail them all at one time.

Went back to check my levels after putting it all together. Looking good..

I then started laying out the 3/4" plywood flooring and attached it at the edges with 3.5" outdoor wood screws.

When I laid the joists I made sure to adjust this one joist to account for holding the butt joint of floor.

It's starting to look like a floor now.

The final step was to run some chalk lines and then nail the floors down to the joists.

With that all done I have a nice sturdy and level floor to start building my walls on.

I should be able to get at least 3 of the walls up today, and possibly get the front wall up and ready to hang the door in.

Pictures in the second post aren't working for me.

EvanB wrote: Pictures in the second post aren't working for me.

Fixed. Didn't like the google URL shortener I guess.

This is cool. The shed part of the Grosh is one of the best things I did. Everything for yard work is organized and out of the way. I've become a huge proponent of the shed.

Awesome work so far.

One great thing about my new house is that it has a size able shed out back that's water tight and in great shape.

Without a shed, your garage is a shed.

I can see the pics, but not the Google sketch of the plan. This is very relevant to my interests

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I can see the pics, but not the Google sketch of the plan. This is very relevant to my interests

Ditto. I have a 10x10-ish metal shed but the floor has collapsed so the rest is caving in. I keep comparing building to buying, and though buying may be cheaper, I really want to build.

A shed is one of the few things that pretty much anyone can legally build as long as you follow the local size rules. We don't really build log cabins or wood boats any more, at least not by ourselves, but we can all build a shed.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Dude, you are so far beyond mere log cabins with the Grosh, the UP cottage and the general reworking of the Deuce compound so quit the modesty!

Would you mind sharing your approximate costs? And did you have to get a permit? I've been wanting to build a shed for quite a while, so this build is greatly appreciated!

There. SketchUp should be viewable now. Ever since they stopped Picasa getting my photos out of google is not as easy as it used to be.

cmcgregor said: Would you mind sharing your approximate costs? And did you have to get a permit? I've been wanting to build a shed for quite a while, so this build is greatly appreciated!

My trip to Lowes yesterday was right under $500 with tax. I had a 10% off coupon though so that knocked a good $50 off the price. And I also am reusing some pieces from the old shed, so maybe another $20 saved there also.

I found a place that has scratch and dent metal ribbed roofing for like $1.25 a linear foot. I need about 200ft so I expect with trim pieces that metal will run me around $300

If you need a more detailed breakdown I have that also.

Oh and add another $200 for the small compressor, nailgun and nails I got at Harbor Freight. So that will put me at $900 for the whole thing. Which is about $1700 less than the one I paid for in FL.

I love these kinds of threads. Does anyone know of a website that is like grassrootsdiysports? I would dig that

mazdeuce wrote: This is cool. The shed part of the Grosh is one of the best things I did. Everything for yard work is organized and out of the way. I've become a huge proponent of the shed.

QFT. I don't remember who said it here, but something like "the first step in finishing a garage (workspace) is building a shed." That is sooo true!!!

I love these kinds of threads. Does anyone know of a website that is like grassrootsdiysports? I would dig that

Not sure if it's what you're looking for but definitely check out GarageJournal.

In reply to t25torx:

Thanks! Ballpark is great, if you want to make this easy and share your plans and cutlist so others can straight up copy all your hard work - well, I won't try and discourage you

How did you anchor the cinderblocks to the ground??

Adrian_Thompson wrote: In reply to mazdeuce: Dude, you are so far beyond mere log cabins with the Grosh, the UP cottage and the general reworking of the Deuce compound so quit the modesty!

I appreciate the kind words. What I hear a lot when I talk to people about the Grosh is "I wish I could build something like that......" and I think that statement should be followed by "......but I CAN build a shed, so I'm going to!"

jfryjfry wrote: How did you anchor the cinderblocks to the ground??

Gravity?

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

jfryjfry wrote: How did you anchor the cinderblocks to the ground??

Gravity?

Don't forget friction.

Dusterbd13 wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

jfryjfry wrote: How did you anchor the cinderblocks to the ground??

Gravity?

Don't forget friction.

Plant some ivy, let it grow up the sides.

I've been considering doing this, myself. I'm eagerly awaiting more news.

Dusterbd13 wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

jfryjfry wrote: How did you anchor the cinderblocks to the ground??

Gravity?

Don't forget friction.

LoL Yeah the anchoring here is just the 1000's of pounds of the shed itself. With the sheds location being shielded from straight line winds on almost all sides I don't anticipate that I'll have to worry about it blowing away.

cmcgregor wrote: In reply to t25torx: Thanks! Ballpark is great, if you want to make this easy and share your plans and cutlist so others can straight up copy all your hard work - well, I won't try and discourage you

Sure dude, I need to clean up the SketchUp model a little before I can get a real cut list, but I can also upload the .skp file and share it out if you want to play with it in SketchUp yourself.

In reply to t25torx:

I didn't suspect typhoons causing problems but accidentally bumping that beautiful shed with a truck might be something I would do and having it knocked off of the cinderblocks could be an involved fix.

Plus I live where the ground can move so I try to overbuild for circumstances that are less likely in other parts :)