Building a shed in Finland

[DennisCA]

Ehh, it's a slow burning project and I have so much else to do as well. I have rendered all the walls and I have gotten some impregnated 4x4s that will be attached to the foundation.

What I need to do next is get a truck load or two of gravel and fill the inside and outside. I also need to buy lumber, which I am loath to do with the current prices. And I heard the lumber price is falling in the US which is what's driven our prices up, so I am waiting to see if it drops soon.

 

[DennisCA]

Progress has been slow, been doing other things. And I fear buying lumber to start on the walls. I just need to fill up with gravel outside and inside and I could, theoretically, start framing the walls, once I buy the lumber....

Here's 12 cubic meters of gravel to help. I wanted him to tip it into the foundation but apparently he wasn't able to, he also buried the paved corridor we made for our robot mower. Fortunately the mower was not buried.

 

[Cabinetman]

Love the way you’re doing the hand hewn timber on this, just curious why you didn’t cast/pour the concrete for the foundations in situ ?

 

[DennisCA]

It would have been more expensive, and I really hate mixing concrete now.

 

[DennisCA]

Ah h**l that was A LOT OF WORK ! Thankfully my SO helped with the digging. Still not entirely done but we cleared the path for Elvis at least.

Took a break in the day for some well deserved ice cream.

 

[DennisCA]

I finished hewing another log, so now I have the two main load bearing beams done. I think I will do a minimum of work to the top beam, it can remain mostly round as long as I get the size relatively consistent, so mostly I need to hew down one end ti make it consistent.

Ordered a load of lumber, enough to frame the walls to start with.

Foundation is basically done I guess, I need to use the last of the gravel pile to even it up but eh, I'm so sick of shoveling gravel...

 

[DennisCA]

I've cut to length 39 pieces 2x4 (47x100mm sawn actual dimension) for the studs, they are 195 cm long or around 6'5", with the height of the foundation and the bottom and top plates factored in I should havbe a height of around 255cm (varies with the gravel floor) or around 8'4". This is the max length I could get out of a stud when cutting it into two.

I have a lot of stuff atm in my shop. And in general too much stuff. Will be so nice once the shed is done, I have so much i can move out there which does not required to be in a heated environment.

Really nice to have a sliding table saw with a lot of capacity for long stock, set once and keep cutting until the studs are all the same length.

Now I have to notch the tops of all the studs because the top plate will be an L shape like this, for increased strength:

Once the walls are up I might still nail on another layer of 2x4 on top.

 

[DennisCA]

Notching all the studs, first a cross cut on the table saw

Then a ripping operation on the band saw

And done, repeat 40 more times!

Then after all that I can start assembling the walls

Raising the 1st wall (by myself I might add)

And the 2nd wall, now it should be stable enough to let it be for a while.

And that's enough for tonight, I am really beat after working all day in this heat.

 

[Inspector]

I always enjoy seeing people's ways of building from other countries. I don't recall ever seeing that top plate/stud detail before.

Pete

 

[DennisCA]

And the last wall is up, it was the most complicated to build with the door construction. I ended up raising it the two parts separately, then putting up the long top plate to affix it into one piece. Then for the door I used two standing 2x8s for extra support, also extra studs under the 2x8s, this because the door will have two of the planned roof beams over it.

 

[DennisCA]

Last roof beam is done, this will be the top beam and it's 6x7 inches, it's the smallest, the others are 7x8". But it will have the smallest load on it.

Every log was faster to hew than the one before it. I was starting to get the proper swing and aiming accuracy more and more. Eventually I started getting the proper hewing pattern with a relatively sdmooth surface and diagonal cut lines running along the hewn face. Part of the trick was to, as I swung the axe downwards, to pull it towards me as well to create a slicing motion. And the axe needs to really sharp, like shave hair sharp.

Also I improvised a tool from some old squares to make a nice tool for checking I was maintaining the correct size on the log.

I managed to keep the final height on the top beam consistent to 1 - 2 16hs of an inch.

 

[DennisCA]

Haven't gotten that much done yet, stuck with price issues, I was planning to use massive standing beams like 5-6" square for the roof beams, but they are so damn expensive I am reconsidering. I looked at the shed my dad built 40 years ago, he used 2x4 studs instead and had a top plate the beams rest on. His beams are only like 4x4 too.

I made an alternative design in CAD from 2x4s entirely. The roof beams are also updated since I know their final dimensions now.

I designed a wooden I-beam to go under the roof beam.

Last night I cut all the parts to length and planed them on all 4 sides so I would get to work with straight lumber.

(yeah I know it's missing a guard, gonna make a pork chop one asap)

Gluing with polyurethane glue and using clamps and wood screws. I will try and glue everything with PU glue where I can on this design.

First one done, three to go.

 

[isaac3d]

Oh my! I'm jealous of all that space
I'm just about to set up my workshop in a small one car garage, once the roof has been replaced. I'll make a 2.4 x 2.4m shed on the back for some extra storage.
Maybe I should move to a country where land is cheaper... or just win the lottery! Hmmm, I'll try for the latter.

 

[pe2dave]

And the next update happened a few weeks ago, I got lucky and some people where clearing away trees on the lot across the road. I caught them before leaving and they agreed to take down some trees for me. I'm building this shed with roof beams, three of them, instead of rafters. It's illegal to build rafters here without testing them, so everyone buys rafter. But using this older style of construction is fine. So I am hoping to get three 8x8 inch beams at least out of the material taken down.

Tree felling by magic! Fantastic machines.

 

[clogs]

I admire ur work and being self reliant......amazing place and house......
nice to see there's another cat person out there.....
I think I would have made a Wood Mizer type log saw......I know money is always tight....
BUT
with all those trees there I would imagine it would be easy to make all ur own timber....off cuts are for the wood stove......
I did see a simple home made saw...it consisted of an Air cooled VW beetle engine with a huge blade prob 1.5m dia, bolted to the flywheel with 4 carbide teeth on it......sitting on a trolley mounted to an old truck chassis.....think it was Alaska/Washington....no worries of broken band saw blades...but it was in the boony's.....
that way you only pay for the tree....and the machine would last a life time.....just saying....

I had 2 winters living in Sweden, after that I'd had enough of the cold.....hate the snow plus the rain in the UK....
right now its gotta be over 36 deg's now in the shade.....had my Siesta and going back to work....
good luck with the project and keep the pictures comming......

My new shed will be framed using steel it's cheaper than wood and also insulated steel roof n wall panels but in my defence the shortest measurement of the roof will be 7.5m.....
we only get down to minus 1C heren not that often...... the rains are tropical but just for a few weeks Jan/Feb....it's the heat that gets u plus strong sunlight......
all wood has to be stored inside in the shadows otherwise it cracks n splits for fun.....luckily no Termites.....

I'll be reporting the progress n photos on the forum of my new shed quite soon I hope.......need to get my toy's outta storage....
this will be my view each morning from the workshop.....well in the winter....the snow is our water supply for the island, lasts untill Feb....
Just to say this is what a life times worth of double shift's for me n the wife can get you.....just need another 10 years or more to enjoy it.....LOL.....Our dream finally came true.....

.....

 

[Inspector]

I have been looking at your centre post to the ridge beam drawing for a bit and I can't say I like it. The centre 2x4 is taking most of the weight and the two beside it much less. The interruption for the horizontal members weakens them in part because the horizontal grain is compressible while the vertical grain is not. I would suggest you leave the three vertical pieces solid and add a short 2x4 beside them for the horizontal members to sit on. I'm not an engineer so you can toss my comments aside if you like.

Pete

 

[DennisCA]

That does sound like a good idea to be honest, perhaps I will do that. Annoyingly I already made and laminated one of them... I wonder if I could laminate in another short, standing grain piece... or just do it all over again.

 

[DennisCA]

I admire ur work and being self reliant......amazing place and house......
nice to see there's another cat person out there.....
I think I would have made a Wood Mizer type log saw......I know money is always tight....
BUT
with all those trees there I would imagine it would be easy to make all ur own timber....off cuts are for the wood stove......
I did see a simple home made saw...it consisted of an Air cooled VW beetle engine with a huge blade prob 1.5m dia, bolted to the flywheel with 4 carbide teeth on it......sitting on a trolley mounted to an old truck chassis.....think it was Alaska/Washington....no worries of broken band saw blades...but it was in the boony's.....
that way you only pay for the tree....and the machine would last a life time.....just saying....

I had 2 winters living in Sweden, after that I'd had enough of the cold.....hate the snow plus the rain in the UK....
right now its gotta be over 36 deg's now in the shade.....had my Siesta and going back to work....
good luck with the project and keep the pictures comming......

My new shed will be framed using steel it's cheaper than wood and also insulated steel roof n wall panels but in my defence the shortest measurement of the roof will be 7.5m.....
we only get down to minus 1C heren not that often...... the rains are tropical but just for a few weeks Jan/Feb....it's the heat that gets u plus strong sunlight......
all wood has to be stored inside in the shadows otherwise it cracks n splits for fun.....luckily no Termites.....

I'll be reporting the progress n photos on the forum of my new shed quite soon I hope.......need to get my toy's outta storage....
this will be my view each morning from the workshop.....well in the winter....the snow is our water supply for the island, lasts untill Feb....
Just to say this is what a life times worth of double shift's for me n the wife can get you.....just need another 10 years or more to enjoy it.....LOL.....Our dream finally came true.....
View attachment 114863.....

Unfortunately, despite all the trees I don't have access to any of it, and what little is on my land I want to keep and not cut down. So I would have little use of a log saw.

I like having both cold and hot seasons, though I prefer the warmer seasons for sure...

 

[DennisCA]

New design for the center post. I haven't drawn it in, but I am planning to add some more wide boards on the inside of the posts that go down into the studs to provide a little more racking resistance. Once the posts are up I'll also add some diagonal stiffeners to help with that.

 

[clogs]

Dennis, as your a cat person and your house is similar.....and it's a wood forum......
saw this and thought of you....yeah, yeah I know ur busy.....
but what a cat

entrance.....