Once my eyesight had returned back to normal I was itching to get back to business. I had taken delivery of some pressure treated feather-edged board that my local timber mill had made for me, and I soon got to work cladding the shed.
It went up surprisingly easily and pretty soon I was ready to treat it with some decking oil to preserve the golden color against the elements. Continue reading “Cladding”
Once the concrete had cured for a week or two I began the task of constructing the timber frame. I used Canadian Lumber Standard (CLS) for everything. I believe it is usually used for stud-work, but it is a fantastic material for building a shed. It is supplied planed and with rounded edges and is 38mm by 89mm. I got my local timber mill to deliver it in 4.8m lengths.
Using a chop saw for speed, I made my frame one wall at a time and constructed them flat before raising them and staking them in place. This way I could do the whole thing on my own. I used a circular saw and mallet and chisel to notch out the recesses for the studs and noggins and I made my stud centres just the right width so that when I started skinning with 6mm ply, I didn’t have to make too many cuts. Once the walls were up, the whole frame was bolted down to the concrete base, and it was time to start the roof. Continue reading “Shed construction”
It took me quite a while to mark out exactly where I wanted my new shed to be. Eventually I decided on about a metre away from the house and, as per plan, the dimensions of the shed just under 4 metres by just over 5 metres (12′ x 17′). That gives me a floor area of 20m² (200ft²). I would have like to have more, but alas, I am no only restricted by the authorities in this case – the old shed was in the way, and I didn’t want to knock it down without the new one being built.
I’ve always enjoyed woodworking. When I was a kid I’d be out in my dad’s shed, fiddling about with bits of wood, whittling at sticks, breaking his tools. Recently though, I’ve taken up ‘proper’ woodworking as a hobby. I’ve also, for various reasons, decided to go down the hand tool route as much as possible. There is a bit of a back story to this, so before I start posting about woodworking, I thought I’d spend a bit of time talking about how I got to the stage I’m at now.
About 15 years ago, my wife and I bought our house, which came with an old asbestos clad packing shed. It was the ugliest thing going, but it was useful to store the bikes and lawnmower, and the ever increasing stash of tools that accumulated as we renovated the house.
As you can see, it became quite the pigsty. It always took an age to find anything. Continue reading “Beginnings”
