Shed build

[Young Ed]

Call it what you want shed, mini barn, the city calls it an accessory building and you can go 200 sq ft with a basic permit. This is 12x16 with a loft for the kids to play in. Long term goal is to get all the random stuff out of the main garage, maybe put 1 car in here, and open the wall between my garage and shop. 

 

 

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

I like it......!

[Merle Coggins]

Nice... 

 

[Young Ed]

Got a lot more done this weekend. I feel like we can make it happen before winter fully hits us now.

 

 

[ggdad1951]

On 11/2/2025 at 6:49 PM, Young Ed said:

Got a lot more done this weekend. I feel like we can make it happen before winter fully hits us now.

  Where's the lift gonna go?

[John-T-53]

Nice to see a shed built from scratch instead of buying a cheap (but expensive) "Tuff" Shed.... this is the fun way to do it.

[Los_Control]

That shed just brings back bad memories to me   

About 35 years ago I helped build a oversized 2 car garage with the same barn roof style, upstairs was a full 1 bedroom apartment. (totally illegal) 

 

The owner was a general contractor that I worked for from time to time when I had free time .... he was to cheap to work for full time.

It was his own personal garage and the apartment was for his son to live in.

There were no permits for septic or water and not proper zoning for a apartment on the property .... it was a mess.

 

There was the 4" septic pipe protruding through the slab and the GC put a 5 gallon bucket over it and a lunch pail next to it to hide it during inspections.

I was told that when I saw a inspector show up, sit down and pretend I was eating lunch ... I never did.

 

When I set the trusses, they gave me a 18 year old kid with no experience and he was terrified of heights and would not get off the ladder ... lay out was hosed on his side and took me days to go back and fix it.

 

When I laid the plywood sheathing for the upstairs floor, he sent another carpenter over to help and he had the staple gun and glue locked up in his truck.

He gave me the glue and said to just screw the corners down to tack in place and he would bring me the staple gun in a minute ... fine, that works ... I asked for the gun 4 times in over 1 hours time and he never gave it to me. ... I quit asking.

Turns out the GC had screwed this carpenter over financially on a past job .... this was his way of getting back at the GC .... It took the GC hours to come back and add screws to remove the squeaks .... I nailed it down after the glue had already dried.

 

I was still friends with the GC, but I left the job at that point and never worked for him again ... I stopped by at a BBQ he gave to celebrate the finish of the building ... it looked great, but what a headache.

 

That is a awesome design, they look great and very efficient on use of space. ... I would love to have something like that myself.

When I see the skeleton of that building .... I want to throw my hands in the air and run away screaming like a little girl    

[Young Ed]

1 hour ago, John-T-53 said:

Nice to see a shed built from scratch instead of buying a cheap (but expensive) "Tuff" Shed.... this is the fun way to do it.

Not only that but the majority of it is dumpster bin lumber. I had to buy the ground contact stuff, the header boards, and some of the 2x6s. 

[Young Ed]

Got it really close before snow is supposed to come tonight. The upper roof is done( pic is slightly out of date). The front siding also got installed. I had to just tarp over the door opening. 

 

 

 

[Ulu]

I wanted to put up something like that, but just not enough room. I settled for two smaller sheds that would fit in the tapered side yard here.

[Veemoney]

Not far from buttoning it up but still good cover with the siding. Be nice to finish the roof before the high winds come in.

[Young Ed]

11 hours ago, Veemoney said:

Not far from buttoning it up but still good cover with the siding. Be nice to finish the roof before the high winds come in.

Yup all the materials are here. Just need a sunny day to dry off the paper and I can install more. It goes quick once you get the first one oriented correctly. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

yes, that first piece is the make or break for proper layup.  Your building shaping up nicely, hope you can get the building well protected before the really bad weather sets in.   Little insulation and heater in place...a good area to work small project and stay out of the elements and from under foot in the house...lol

[Young Ed]

2 hours ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

yes, that first piece is the make or break for proper layup.  Your building shaping up nicely, hope you can get the building well protected before the really bad weather sets in.   Little insulation and heater in place...a good area to work small project and stay out of the elements and from under foot in the house...lol

I already have that area - this is to get all the mowers and bikes out of it! My garage has a 20x22 heated workshop. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

NICE...!!!!

[Young Ed]

Snuck in another side this past Saturday. Still have the lower roof on the far side. It has some snow/ice on it still and I was running out of daylight. Still hoping to sneak in that last side so all I have come spring is the trim work and a door. Unscrewing the tarp door is getting old already! 

 

 

 

 

[Eneto-55]

There are lots of shed companies here in our area, and since my wife wanted a garden shed, but wouldn't let me build it myself (She has too many other projects for me to do....), we are getting a 10 x 16 ready made one. Kinda' crazy to me, but they lay the floor joists over on the side. I know why they do it - to keep the floor level lower, but I would never do that myself.

 

But what I was going to ask is about the base - what's under the runners? (Just the dirt? Gravel? cement blocks?) Back in north east Oklahoma we just built them right on the ground. Just find a level spot, and go for it. Here in our part of Ohio the subsoil was really disturbed by glaciers coming down through here way back. Right in the area where the house we're remodeling and repairing (for our "upper years") sits, there is a problem with what they call 'Coal Bloom' - a partially formed layer of coal.  It won't burn, and it's a crumbly black and nasty stuff that cannot even be used for fill.  (Those that know say that a person can use it for 'deep fill', like covered over with at least 3 to 5 feet of good fill.)

 

So when I started prepping the site for the ready-made shed, I made a costly choice on how to do that. It's on a slope - everything is on a slope here - and I thought I needed a flat spot to build up with gravel. So I had my brother-in-law cut in a level spot with his bob-cat. That's all fine & good, but it means I'm having to fill it back up with LOADS of gravel, like around a foot deep. (I was also told not to use dirt as fill under the gravel base.) And I still had to build a retaining wall on the downward side of the slope.  We put in the order for the shed during their Fall sale, and here I am trying to do this work out in the below freezing weather. The big stones I drug up out of the woods freeze to the ground, and it takes a good bit of force to get them free. (Using them for the retaining wall.)  What I hear now is that I should have just cut a tilted flat spot into the slope, build the retaining wall, and then fill  it in, just a lot deeper on the downward slope side, against the retaining wall. Lots of money going into the ground, in the form of stones and rocks, about a foot deep.....

Edited December 9, 2025 by Eneto-55

[Plymouthy Adams]

building in the wintery north....I seem to recall as story from my youth about the ant and the grasshopper....lol

[Young Ed]

It's on 12 concrete bases. They have a + in the top that the 2x6s sit in. 

[Eneto-55]

23 hours ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

building in the wintery north....I seem to recall as story from my youth about the ant and the grasshopper....lol

I had to look it up....

[Eneto-55]

22 hours ago, Young Ed said:

It's on 12 concrete bases. They have a + in the top that the 2x6s sit in. 

What size are these concrete bases, like 12" square, or larger? Is your soil firm enough to have them just sit on the surface? (Maybe like it was where I came from, in Oklahoma. My wife, who grew up here in Ohio, and whose family has been here for generations, sometimes says "Why do we live in this cold and dreary place!?" (At least I know enough not to answer.)

[Young Ed]

They are about that size. They were actually rectangular about 12x9. We tamped the ground and put leveling sand under them as needed to get them level to each other. 

[Young Ed]

Saturday was another warm(for MN in Dec) day and the roof was dry so the last of the roofing got installed. Calling it done until Spring when lots of trim work and a door will need to be installed. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

Thanks for the update...not even a hour earlier I thought of you and your build and how it was going as another person on another forum is also building a shed and has been hit with bad weather.....glad you got it protected till spring with the roof installed.  

 

PS your mailbox overfloweth

Edited December 29, 2025 by Plymouthy Adams