I built a shed.
Discussion
It's not big or special, but I built it and my wife has made very appreciative noises while not really caring a jot beyond not having to look at the bins anymore, so I thought I'd post it up to bathe in the adoration/scorn (delete as applicable, once you've seen the pics) of my peers 
Backstory:
Old little storage shed (bought cheap by wife without asking me...) that lived next to the gate was falling apart. We removed a (rotting apart) planter last year from the patio - we'd always assumed it covered something 'orrid, but turns out it was just sat on the slabs (you'll see the row of lighter ones). The bins used to live behind a bit of fence between the planter and the gate (where the little old shed is in the photos) and were now homeless, a situation not appreciated by SWMBO who considers them an eyesore.
The gap between the gate post and patio wall is about 2m, but the main wall runs somewhat diagonally from the post.
Picking a line that isn't too far out, by the gate I had 50cm depth available, but by the little wall, one metre. Also, the fence on the main wall stands nearly 2m high, so lots of room available there.
A long internet search turned up nothing commercially that would go anywhere near fitting that space fully (they seem to like them plain rectangular for some reason?
), or looking well made at a reasonable price, so I decided to have a crack myself.
This may also have been an excuse to buy a sliding compound mitre saw... I used one last year helping out a relative and wondered where this tool had been all my life?
As it happens, it was money well spent for this project, as I ended up actually using the compound part, and it made building the thing up much easier when all the wood was not fighting the next bit
Anyhow, I priced up the build, winced a bit (nearly £300 of wood, screws etc), then went back to the internet and looked again at the tat £300 buys in commercial sheds... my plan's a whole other level of size and solid... crack on and order it
Measure twice, cut once... hopefully. I built the frame up in the garage, and also cut and painted a lot of the rest ready: floor, roof, rear panels, ship lap sides and doors.
Roof has a 10% slope, so the whole thing looks wonky as hell as one side is deeper and higher than the other. Yes, it did fit out the door (and in through the gate!). A few more bits went into the frame, as you'll see - noggins across the floor and roof, struts for the divider, and shelf supports.
I seem to have forgotten to take any pictures for the next bit, but after lugging it to the patio, I screwed the back on (it's painted on the outside) like a big Ikea wardrobe and added the ship lap sides. This went fairly quickly and smoothly. I must have got the angle slightly wrong when cutting as the sides ended up a little sawtoothed, but no big deal. Then I took a deep breath and crossed my fingers as I wobbled/walked it backwards onto its supporting blocks in its final home... did I measure right? Seems like it (but close!)
I cut and felted the roof in the garage, adding blocks underneath to drop into the corners of the frame. Felt is the long-life stuff, glued and nailed, then tucked right under so it's held by the frame as well. You can see the state of the felt on the old shed in this pic; determined to avoid a similar fate for mine. Having said that, it's easy to take my roof back off for maintenance, just a screw or 2 through each corner block.
Dividing wall and shelf in.
I didn't pre-cut the front, I thought I'd wait to measure what was actually there once the main body was up. I cut ship lap for the verticals and a finisher across the top (I wanted the doors to be a little shorter to clear the roof overhang) and notched them together for a neat fit. Old shed and bin in this pic...
Then I could measure the space left and make the doors.
I had a little think and ended up with masking tape across my workbench to line the horizontal braces up to (they had to be slightly different lengths for each door), then I could measure the length and angle for the diagonals to cut them, then screwed on plates to hold them all together whilst building the fronts, flipped them, and screwed the ship lap to the non-plated side. Removed plates when finished.
I don't know if this is anywhere near the official "right" way, but it seems to have worked ok
I also added strips to the body of the shed around/behind the frames for the doors to sit against.... and soI wouldn't have to be quite so accurate for it to look nice it would allow for some expansion/contraction in the wood.
And that was pretty much it. A thumb turn for the bin side, internal top and bottom bolts to keep the middle door in line, and a padbolt for the last (not that we ever lock it! And the delivery drivers love having somewhere easy and dry to leave parcels).... fill it up a bit with bins and junk...
...and close the doors
I'd have liked to have found a padbolt with a black bolt...
Old shed now flatpacked and gone to M-in-L who wants to use the "good" bits to help build a log store... good luck to her, saved me a tip run
Total cost about £350 with the roofing felt, glue, and ironmongery. I have a lot of screws left for the collection, too [Cost not including £90-odd for the mitre saw which I'm still in love with.]
Still not sure what we're going to do with the light patio slabs.
So there we are... if you're still reading this, you've shown more interest than SWMBO, whose highest compliment was "it fits the gap so well it practically disappears". Thanks, darling... I think...
Backstory:
Old little storage shed (bought cheap by wife without asking me...) that lived next to the gate was falling apart. We removed a (rotting apart) planter last year from the patio - we'd always assumed it covered something 'orrid, but turns out it was just sat on the slabs (you'll see the row of lighter ones). The bins used to live behind a bit of fence between the planter and the gate (where the little old shed is in the photos) and were now homeless, a situation not appreciated by SWMBO who considers them an eyesore.
The gap between the gate post and patio wall is about 2m, but the main wall runs somewhat diagonally from the post.
Picking a line that isn't too far out, by the gate I had 50cm depth available, but by the little wall, one metre. Also, the fence on the main wall stands nearly 2m high, so lots of room available there.
A long internet search turned up nothing commercially that would go anywhere near fitting that space fully (they seem to like them plain rectangular for some reason?
), or looking well made at a reasonable price, so I decided to have a crack myself.This may also have been an excuse to buy a sliding compound mitre saw... I used one last year helping out a relative and wondered where this tool had been all my life?
As it happens, it was money well spent for this project, as I ended up actually using the compound part, and it made building the thing up much easier when all the wood was not fighting the next bit
Anyhow, I priced up the build, winced a bit (nearly £300 of wood, screws etc), then went back to the internet and looked again at the tat £300 buys in commercial sheds... my plan's a whole other level of size and solid... crack on and order it
Measure twice, cut once... hopefully. I built the frame up in the garage, and also cut and painted a lot of the rest ready: floor, roof, rear panels, ship lap sides and doors.
Roof has a 10% slope, so the whole thing looks wonky as hell as one side is deeper and higher than the other. Yes, it did fit out the door (and in through the gate!). A few more bits went into the frame, as you'll see - noggins across the floor and roof, struts for the divider, and shelf supports.
I seem to have forgotten to take any pictures for the next bit, but after lugging it to the patio, I screwed the back on (it's painted on the outside) like a big Ikea wardrobe and added the ship lap sides. This went fairly quickly and smoothly. I must have got the angle slightly wrong when cutting as the sides ended up a little sawtoothed, but no big deal. Then I took a deep breath and crossed my fingers as I wobbled/walked it backwards onto its supporting blocks in its final home... did I measure right? Seems like it (but close!)
I cut and felted the roof in the garage, adding blocks underneath to drop into the corners of the frame. Felt is the long-life stuff, glued and nailed, then tucked right under so it's held by the frame as well. You can see the state of the felt on the old shed in this pic; determined to avoid a similar fate for mine. Having said that, it's easy to take my roof back off for maintenance, just a screw or 2 through each corner block.
Dividing wall and shelf in.
I didn't pre-cut the front, I thought I'd wait to measure what was actually there once the main body was up. I cut ship lap for the verticals and a finisher across the top (I wanted the doors to be a little shorter to clear the roof overhang) and notched them together for a neat fit. Old shed and bin in this pic...
Then I could measure the space left and make the doors.
I had a little think and ended up with masking tape across my workbench to line the horizontal braces up to (they had to be slightly different lengths for each door), then I could measure the length and angle for the diagonals to cut them, then screwed on plates to hold them all together whilst building the fronts, flipped them, and screwed the ship lap to the non-plated side. Removed plates when finished.
I don't know if this is anywhere near the official "right" way, but it seems to have worked ok
I also added strips to the body of the shed around/behind the frames for the doors to sit against.... and so
And that was pretty much it. A thumb turn for the bin side, internal top and bottom bolts to keep the middle door in line, and a padbolt for the last (not that we ever lock it! And the delivery drivers love having somewhere easy and dry to leave parcels).... fill it up a bit with bins and junk...
...and close the doors
I'd have liked to have found a padbolt with a black bolt...
Old shed now flatpacked and gone to M-in-L who wants to use the "good" bits to help build a log store... good luck to her, saved me a tip run
Total cost about £350 with the roofing felt, glue, and ironmongery. I have a lot of screws left for the collection, too
[Cost not including £90-odd for the mitre saw which I'm still in love with.]Still not sure what we're going to do with the light patio slabs.
So there we are... if you're still reading this, you've shown more interest than SWMBO, whose highest compliment was "it fits the gap so well it practically disappears". Thanks, darling... I think...
Looks great! I keep meaning to build something very similar, I have a load of wood, boards and spare corrugated roof panels from re-roofing my old garage I keep thinking I should build into a shed. The materials take up room in my garage, and a she's could store stuff that's also taking up room in my garage!
What saw did you get?
What saw did you get?
AlexC1981 said:
227bhp said:
7/10. Roof looks a bit cockeyed and the diagonals on the R/H door are the wrong way round, but a good start.
It isn't though, the shed is deeper on the left than the right.
And damn! I hadn't noticed the diagonals.... that's nearly annoying enough for my OCD to make me re-do it (but not quite). I'll try and forget you mentioned it
cml24 said:
Looks great! I keep meaning to build something very similar, I have a load of wood, boards and spare corrugated roof panels from re-roofing my old garage I keep thinking I should build into a shed. The materials take up room in my garage, and a she's could store stuff that's also taking up room in my garage!
What saw did you get?
The cheapest I could find!What saw did you get?
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-210mm-Sliding-Comp...
Being able to lock in the angle then just put the laser against my cutting mark and go is what makes it fast and easy. Many other similar saws available.
defblade said:
There's something about the way it fights against the line of the fence top, too... it annoys me in the photos, but it doesn't in real life, so that's OK
And damn! I hadn't noticed the diagonals.... that's nearly annoying enough for my OCD to make me re-do it (but not quite). I'll try and forget you mentioned it
Don’t beat yourself up over it, I’m a joiner (30 years on site) and think you’ve done a great job, the roof looks fine as it’s not as deep on the right hand side as the left it will look off but if you stood one end about 10 feet back and eyed in both roof pitch lines on the top it would most probably line in. And damn! I hadn't noticed the diagonals.... that's nearly annoying enough for my OCD to make me re-do it (but not quite). I'll try and forget you mentioned it
The diagonal bracing on the right door is something a lot get wrong, even fencers on site quite a bit so what they do now is go one way top and reverse it for the bottom one creating an arrow shape, which is also wrong.
Good on you for having a go at something instead of just buying a pre made one.
ETA. Just to piss on your chips it’s 10 degrees pitch not 10%.
Cheers for the nice comments folks (and the technical info ) 
I might put some extra screws in the door that's the wrong way around to encourage it all to stay straight. The door on my proper big (bought/flat packed) shed has definitely slipped over the last decade or so... I've noticed recently the hasp doesn't want to line up any more, and there's an obvious slope to the top. So straightening that out is another job on the DIY list (after the Aygo's flashing airbag light (almost certainly the under seat connectors again) and the Legacy's slightly sticky rear brake!)
) I might put some extra screws in the door that's the wrong way around to encourage it all to stay straight. The door on my proper big (bought/flat packed) shed has definitely slipped over the last decade or so... I've noticed recently the hasp doesn't want to line up any more, and there's an obvious slope to the top. So straightening that out is another job on the DIY list (after the Aygo's flashing airbag light (almost certainly the under seat connectors again) and the Legacy's slightly sticky rear brake!)
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