Shed build – things I’m learning.

Hora, a log cabin style summer house is really quick and easy to build. Not logs but shaped planks that slot together. Not cheap, but as long as the base is level you don’t even need a saw as everything is perfectly cut to size. Can be put up in two days.
Is there a part 2 to this thread yet? Charred larch sounds good.

Part two coming soon.
I thought I’d get slightly ahead of the thread for a change!
This sunny weather has been a great time for progress – especially when a roof is involved.

Hora – that’s worth starting a thread of your own – you’ll probably get more help as old threads tend not have as much life.

We’re still following this one 🙂

I have never built ANYTHING before but I can visualise sawing wood, nailing it and levelling with a spirit level etc.

Just have a go, the whole thing will be a great learning experience and just accept that you’re first construction is unlikely to be perfect!

footflaps – Member
I have never built ANYTHING before but I can visualise sawing wood, nailing it and levelling with a spirit level etc.
Just have a go, the whole thing will be a great learning experience and just accept that you’re first construction is unlikely to be perfect!

I had not done much more and I built this…. It’s still standing quite a few years later 😀 …….A shed won’t kill yeah 😀

^^^want.

Don’t you go coming into my thread with your large, complete and sturdy-looking fancy-ass structures! 🙂

Well, if you would finish your shed there would be no reason for people to taunt you with their erections ……

ok – I’ll stick to this thread for now.

It took ages to choose a roof and save up for it, so while we were doing that, I started charring the larch for the window frames.

This was a really fun thing to do.
I used a hose to connect a torch to my patio gas bottle and everything went really smoothly.
Time will tell if it retains it’s lustre, and whether it protects, but I’m really happy with how it looks.

(apologies about the photos – I’ve only been using the iPhone as selling my other cameras)

Video of some of the stages (best seen on youtube):

A couple of images of the frame on the shed.

As you can see in the photo above, we eventually chose to keep as much natural light as possible by going for box-section polycarbonate.

It’s a proper faff to install – especially with our non-rectangular build. Lots of processes for each sheet and fitting has to allow for expansion. It was boiling hot as we fitted it, so we allowed only a little (normally 3mm/m – we did 1.5mm/m)

I much prefer working with wood – everything with this seemed so critical!

It’s a recycled product (from new offcuts) and a little cheaper than some.
http://www.cabp.co.uk/acatalog/16mm-Haze-Reform-Polycarbonate.html

Total cost for sheets, tape (to seal ends), glazing bars, sheet enclosure (goes around the perimeter), foam fillers to stick under the eaves between bars, etc was £360.
We bought the rest of the glazing and guttering at the same time to save a bit of money – whole lot was £440 (due to a £40 off £400 discount).

We worked from one end – calculated the overhang we wanted at the gutter end and worked our way across:

You have to tape the ends up – aluminium tape at the top end, vent tape at the gutter end. Sheets weren’t all the same width which threw us on the rafter spacing.

I’ll add noggings after.

This hot weather (after a wet spring) is warping all the timber so I had to buy a couple of replacements as these are fairly critical.

Rafters are the same 2×4 tanilised as the rest of the frame.

Just screwed up from under the top of the wall frame – 2 150mm screws per end.

Used a fine handsaw for cutting the polycarbonate – it’s actually quote nice stuff to machine – not as splintery as I would have thought.

Hmm, I was thinking about PC sheets for my proposed ‘indoor/outdoor extension’ but wasn’t sure if the quality/longevity would be up to the job.

What’s your opinion of them so far AlexSimon?

And what timbers are you using? If our house purchase completes then this is defo something we want to add, but no way are we going to budget for full on oak and double glazing. More likely half decent timbers and PC.

These are just bog standard 2×4 studs.
If I were doing it proper, I’d have used 2×8 planed softwood probably.

I keep having to remind myself it’s ‘just a shed’.
But I’m kind of just playing and learning. I’m enjoying it.

Re: PC – I’m worried like you about longevity – there are a lot of nasty-looking ones I can see around our village – yellow and containing ‘stuff’ in the cells. Having said that, most of the bad looking ones have been here as long as I’ve lived here – so that’s over 13 years.

Time will tell. I’m not sure I could bring myself to attach it permanently to a house. (on the other hand it’s cheap compared to the other options).

BTW – this is 16mm. I wouldn’t use less than 25mm for a house.

BTW2 – we’re currently at £1600 and counting. Still to buy are interior fittings (including a bench) and various Osmo products for exterior and floor.

Oh and a door 🙁
I think I might hang around the tip for that 🙁

Cheers AS.

What’s the light like in there? We’d like to let in as much as possible so any significant loss might make it a no go. We’re not overlooked on that side from the street or any other property so we’ve no need to create a tint effect from the outside.

It’s basically feels like all the light but none of the sun.
Hard to describe.
Obviously mine is an enclosed shed, so some drop-off in heat is welcome.
If your having an open side and not storing much in it, then perhaps clear will be better.

No idea if anyone’s following this thread still, but I’ll carry on regardless 🙂

Put the guttering on and a freecycled water butt. It’s a large one, but I have a feeling that 15sqm of roof is going to quickly overwhelm it.
What am I supposed to do with overflow?

Does my butt look big in this?

you need another pipe coming out the butt into a soakaway (hole in the ground filled with gravel).

I think it’s considered a ‘bad thing’ to discharge rain water from extensions/sheds into a standard sewage pipe via an existing drain.

We’re still following, so keep posting the updates.

Very impressed with your work. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

Nice build AlexSimon .

Waiting to see if I can get some recycled flooring ( old school classroom )to finish off my super shed .

On the Beeb site this morning.
I would really like a Woodland hut

Yeah great build, very inspiring. Will be setting off on a build next spring so will certainly be looking back here for ideas/tips. Keep posting!

wwaswas – Member

you need another pipe coming out the butt into a soakaway (hole in the ground filled with gravel).

I think it’s considered a ‘bad thing’ to discharge rain water from extensions/sheds into a standard sewage pipe via an existing drain.
ok – that sounds like a plan.
One worry is that the soakaway would be right next to my house foundation. Would I have to dig below this (probably 1.5m down)?

If I’d thought this through, I might have just put a full-height downpipe into a pre-dug soakaway at the corner then run the butt off a filter junction (there’s probably a proper name) half way up it. Ah well.
I keep having to remind myself that this is a learning process as much as a building one 🙂

fasthaggis – Member

Nice build AlexSimon .

Waiting to see if I can get some recycled flooring ( old school classroom )to finish off my super shed .

On the Beeb site this morning.
I would really like a Woodland hut
That does look nice – more on that Fife hut here.
http://boovake.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/building-huts.html

My next project will be more creative – a very small garden office up in the corner where that sheet is hanging in the above photo.

Possibly the dullest question on the thread but what pitch have you got on that roof?

you can run a pipe to elsewhere in the garden to take it away from the house.

I suspect there’s all sorts of regs on what’s allowed so I’d check or wait for someone who knows more than me to give you the details 🙂

muppetWrangler – Member

Possibly the dullest question on the thread but what pitch have you got on that roof?
It’s actually been a critical part of the build. Lots of roofing options weren’t possible because it’s only 6-degrees.

Even the buttons we’ve used around the edge of the roof say they are supposed to be used above 10-degrees. We’ve taken a chance on that one.

The reason is to a) get standing room for me at the back wall (gutter wall) and not exceeding 2.5m overall height (due to planning).

wwaswas – Member

you can run a pipe to elsewhere in the garden to take it away from the house.

I suspect there’s all sorts of regs on what’s allowed so I’d check or wait for someone who knows more than me to give you the details
After a quick google, I’ve just drowned in regs – hmmm

Can you not use some of the water from the butt for bike washing, garden watering etc? Probably still have an overflow issue but be nice to use a bit of it for free.

Soakaways need to be a minimum of 5m from Buildings AIUI.

Can you not use some of the water from the butt for bike washing, garden watering etc? Probably still have an overflow issue but be nice to use a bit of it for free.

Couple of things:
I’d have more than one water butt, ours is about the same size, collecting from roughly 140 sqft of roof and is permanently overflowing during rainy periods and permanently empty during dry spells.

Karcher (and maybe other brands of) pressure washers can work straight from the water butt, which makes it pretty handy for bike wash duties

Soakaways need to be a minimum of 5m from Buildings AIUI.

How about filtering some of it off to feed any trees/shrubs etc in the garden?

I HAve a 330L water butt fed from my shed Roof, and I use this hooked up to the Karcher for car washing duties 😉
Rain water doesn’t leave watermarks which is great.
I could do with another one hooked up too, and then overflow from that to leaky hose around the garden beds, if you T the overfolw into the outlet, it automatically overflows into the garden, and you can just turn the tap on to water when its drier.

If it were practical, I`d filter and store all of the water from the house roof and use a pump to supply this to all the toilet sisterns and possibly the washing machine.
That way we would save doubly on our water bill, reduced mains water usage, and huge reduction on the waste water / surface water run off charges too

It’s just a shed… sob… sniff.

I had not done much more and I built this…. It’s still standing quite a few years later …….A shed won’t kill yeah

Righog, is that close to Druridge bay? I think I’ve rented one of those. Very nice.

Righog, is that close to Druridge bay? I think I’ve rented one of those. Very nice.

Yes Crell, If you click my user name you can see more pics, I was just checking this thread to see how the Alex’s shed was coming on, and you have given a good reason for a Bump 🙂

So how does it look now Alex ? ( I will hopefully be building a shed soon and I am just stealing your ideas 😀 )

So how does it look now Alex ?

erm – very similar 🙂
Except the water butt is very very full 🙂

I missed the update earlier. It looks great with all the light.

Cheers mcmoonter. Can’t wait to organise all my stuff into it.
Just trying to get all my work invoice-able now so that I can afford windows and a door!

Noggins in the roof.
I’m thinking of painting the horizontals white, so that the visual effect is to see the long verticals, because I preferred the way it looked before I installed these (but thought it best to guard against the rafters twisting).

crikey, I wish I’d thought of a translucent roof. My shed (12×14) is always v dark…