Shed build

[KevB]

Hi guys

Some of you guys may or may not know that I was planning to build a shed to mainly do my weights in and to also have a small work bench in if there's enough space. Well I eventually got round to starting it. It's a 5x2.8m shed and all framework for floor, walls and roof is from reclaimed pallet wood.

I do realise that things haven't really been done exactly how they should be, so go easy on me Though I'm not looking to build a mansion or anything Just somewhere whereas I can spend an hour every other day doing my weights. Also, I'm building this within a tight budget and if I were to get 3 years out of it I'd see it as worthwhile.

We built the frame first and then concreted the base posts in afterwards. The frame as it sits isn't touching any ground below or on the outside edges. Though, it is running slightly below ground level as you reach the right hand side. I'm hoping water doesn't get below the frame and if it does, it soaks in rather than creating a massive puddle that will eventually touch the floor.

As you can see I haven't used any ground sheets..maybe I could find some gravel on the cheap and spread it over the soil?

The osb board you see is 9mm and is roughly half cut sheets. They are 2.4x1.5ft x 60 sheets and 1100x1200 x 30 sheets. All square cuts. They were advertised on gumtree and I managed to get the lot for £140. I will use these to board out all of the inside except for the floor. Maybe double them up for the outer roof as well.

With the long cuts of osb board I have, it means my studs for the walls will roughly be at 18" centres. Lots of joints but a lot cheaper than buying full boards.

Anyways that's where I'm at so far

 

[artie]

What kind of pallets did you use. The only ones I see around here have wood less than 1" thick and about 4' long.?

 

[KevB]

They are 4x2's in 2,2.5,3 and 4m lengths. I work in a sheet metal work factory and they come in regularly.

 

[KevB]

A little more progress made yesterday. In between daddy duties, the weather and getting hold of my dad on a day he isn't working, we managed to put together most of the front wall. That's my dad kindly holding the frame up btw, whilst I take a pic

There's a few extra pieces of wood in the frame that shouldn't really be there, two of them being where the top and bottom plates are pieced together. The other pieces were put in to get the twist out of two of the studs.

I still need to add cripples above the door opening and below/above the windows, as well as adding jack studs to the windows (if I have enough wood left over).

I was wondering about the double top plate.. Is this a critical part of the wall? Say I didn't have enough wood, could I notch the rafters straight onto the single top plate?

 

[Monkey Mark]

Oh that makes me think. A mate of mine works for a company that makes large aluminium sidings. Last time I was in there doing some re-wiring for them I commented on just how nice the wood was on their pallets saying it was better than some of the stuff Ive bought in the past. I may have to get onto him.

 

[KevB]

Hi guys.

Do you think a 100mm difference between the front and back wall will give me enough of an incline for a flat sloping roof?

 

[Wildman]

more would be better depends how you intend to clad it. Snow won't slide off that easy.

 

[KevB]

Thanks for the reply mate.

With regards to the incline of the roof, what do you mean when you say it depends on how I intend to clad it?

The front of my shed internal size is 2 meters. I've measured up from the ground (left side as you look at the picture, as this is the lowest point). Once I've added the thickness of the floor framing, floor boards, rafters and roof boards to the internal size, I just fall short of the 2.5m max height. This only allows me a 100mm incline of the roof, if I want to keep the back wall internal size no lower than 1.9m.

I could have measured up from the other side of my shed, which would have gave me and extra 250mm of height to play with. Though I wasn't sure which side a potential planning inspector would measure from (as the ground slopes), so I took the safe option here.

I'm pretty happy so far with how the floor and front wall has went together, considering it's all pallet wood and has cost me nothing at all. It all feels really solid and strong.

One regret so far is I wish I had of built the floor area closer to the 5x3m limit. I made it 5x2.8, though I've already lost 8 inches in the width of the floor because of the front and back walls which I forgot to take into account. Obviously same off of the length as well. Out of curiosity, when they say 5x3m max floor area, do they mean the walls as well or is this internal area?

 

[Paul200]

Nice job Kev and top marks for recycling. You did the right thing measuring up from the lowest point - had to do the same with my summer house which is built on a hillside. And I'm pretty sure the maximum floor area is the overall measurement.

 

[RobinBHM]

A felted roof needs a minimum 1:80 fall, which in practice means a 1:40 fall to allow for inaccuracies and movement of rafters, felt overlaps etc.

I bought epdm for my roof, more expensive than felt but easier to fit and less likely to leak.

I notice on ebay there are often epdm seconds that are creased or marked, you might find a piece the right size.

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

Maximum floor area is internal floor space.

 

[Paul200]

Maximum floor area is internal floor space.

Yep - happy to stand corrected 8) I was remembering Scottish guidelines, and for conservation areas, where they mention the footprint of a building.

 

[KevB]

Nice job Kev and top marks for recycling. You did the right thing measuring up from the lowest point - had to do the same with my summer house which is built on a hillside. And I'm pretty sure the maximum floor area is the overall measurement.

Cheers mate. I'm quite enjoying trying to build this shed on the cheap

So far I've spent a total of £61. That's £23.00 - 800 x deck/outdoor screws 4.5x75mm (used 400 so far), £30 - 6 x bags of postcrete and £8 - 56 x rubble bags to move the soil. The floor framing is complete as well as the front wall. I also have enough free wood to build the other walls and the rafters. Add in the 90 half cuts of 9mm osb I bought for £140, that's a fully framed, internally boarded and outer roof (doubled up) for £200. Not too bad

A felted roof needs a minimum 1:80 fall, which in practice means a 1:40 fall to allow for inaccuracies and movement of rafters, felt overlaps etc.

I bought epdm for my roof, more expensive than felt but easier to fit and less likely to leak.

I notice on ebay there are often epdm seconds that are creased or marked, you might find a piece the right size.

Ok thanks for that. Will have a look around for the epdm you mention. So does this mean I am within the minimum requirements? 1:40 at 100mm difference would take me as far as 4 meters and my shed is only 2.8 meters in width. Am I reading this correctly :roll:

Maximum floor area is internal floor space.

Cheers for that. Suppose I could have built it around 400mm wider, though on the Brightside at least it sits pretty much flush with the front of my smaller shed and doesn't butt out into the garden more. My fence is running off at the back, which allowed me to gain width when comparing to the smaller shed.

 

[Paul200]

Cheers mate. I'm quite enjoying trying to build this shed on the cheap

So far I've spent a total of £61. That's £23.00 - 800 x deck/outdoor screws 4.5x75mm (used 400 so far), £30 - 6 x bags of postcrete and £8 - 56 x rubble bags to move the soil. The floor framing is complete as well as the front wall. I also have enough free wood to build the other walls and the rafters. Add in the 90 half cuts of 9mm osb I bought for £140, that's a fully framed, internally boarded and outer roof (doubled up) for £200. Not too bad

Love your modesty Kev :lol: Really impressive =D>

 

[Noggsy]

Looking good mate. I don't want to throw a spanner in the works, but last time I put anything up, (a few years ago), wooden buildings had to be a minimum of a metre from the fence line. I mention it because you are obviously paying heed to regs by keeping to the max roof height. I hope that rule has changed or doesn't apply in your area. Good luck with your build.

Edited:

I've just had a look at the Gov. guidelines and the only reference I can see to boundaries now, is the max height of 2.5m within 2 metres, which you've already identified.

 

[tomf]

If it's over 15 square metres then it either needs to be over 1m from the boundary or made from non combustable materials.

You also measure from the highest point of natural unaltered land, so in your case as long as you've not built up a bank with soil, you can make is 250mm taller.

 

[Paul200]

You also measure from the highest point of natural unaltered land, so in your case as long as you've not built up a bank with soil, you can make is 250mm taller.

Yep - it's that Scottish/English thing again #-o

4.83 When measuring the height of the development on sloping or uneven ground, the height should be measured from the lowest point immediately adjacent to the extension. (taken from Guidance on Householder permitted development rights - Scottish version)

I'll get my coat ......

 

[tomf]

Whitburn is in England init? In the north?

 

[Paul200]

Whitburn is in England init? In the north?

Yes it is - but I'm in Scotland - hence my earlier post. There's a few quite bizarre alternative rules between Scotland and the rest of the UK it seems. And this is one of them. I had to measure from the lowest point of the adjacent land on the hillside that I built on - which I thought at the time was a bit unfair. Whereas, as you point out, in the rest of the UK you measure from the highest point.

 

[KevB]

Cheers mate. I'm quite enjoying trying to build this shed on the cheap

So far I've spent a total of £61. That's £23.00 - 800 x deck/outdoor screws 4.5x75mm (used 400 so far), £30 - 6 x bags of postcrete and £8 - 56 x rubble bags to move the soil. The floor framing is complete as well as the front wall. I also have enough free wood to build the other walls and the rafters. Add in the 90 half cuts of 9mm osb I bought for £140, that's a fully framed, internally boarded and outer roof (doubled up) for £200. Not too bad

Love your modesty Kev :lol: Really impressive =D>

Oops sorry, I think my excitement got the better of me (hammer)

If it's over 15 square metres then it either needs to be over 1m from the boundary or made from non combustable materials.

You also measure from the highest point of natural unaltered land, so in your case as long as you've not built up a bank with soil, you can make is 250mm taller.

Ah thanks, that's good to know. I'm sure I've got some thicker wood, I may use this for the double top plate..to give me that little extra height.

Guys, do you think the front wall being 12mm out of square is going to cause problems? I think the cause of this is down to my amateur woodworking skills (hammer) as well as the wood being pallet wood (slightly uneven thicknesses, etc).

I'm going to start the back wall on Sunday and hopefully keep a better check on the sqaureness.