Let the shed extensions commmence!

[FenceFurniture]

Well, it's been a long time in the planning, thinking and discussion, but I have now started the preparations for a shed extension.

I've gone through numerous plans, most of which include extending the current shed walls out as well as an add-on extension, but my current thinking is to leave the current shed exactly as it is footprint wise, and build a new separate box on the back. This will be MUCH less work on the current shed. Just an internal doorway required through to the new shed which will be the dusty room - all dust making machines will be in there and the current shed will become just handtools and assembly area.

Put a skillion roof on the current shed angled up at 30° facing north, ready for adding solar panels. Skillion roof on the new shed would be angled the opposite way and with a lower pitch (so it doesn't shadow next door too much at all. The roof on the current shed has to be replaced anyway. By going skillion it will be significantly higher than current but this will only shade the shed of next door, and it's not really used for anything but occasional storage anyway.

Continue the roof of the current shed out the front for about 3m and this will provide an outdoor undercover area. I have a cube of creosoted floor joists from the Bowling Club reno down the back. They will make a very solid deck to work on.

I've done very well indeed out of the Bowling Club - we have an excellent symbiotic relationship! They've saved about $5000 or more in tipping fees, and I've saved probably the same in materials acquisition. I have somewhere around 5m³ of mainly hardwood and Douglas Fir, including some very long sticks of 8x3", plenty of 6x2, 4x3, 4x2 etc.

The latest score a few weeks ago was 144m² of roofing in excellent condition. These are 12m lengths, 750mm wide, and there will surplus leftover. It would make a very quick fence if necessary. I'll use this for roofing and external walls.

Surplus to requirements was a score from across the road last week of 10 sheets of 6x3' corrugated iron from a roof replacement. Couldn't bear to see it just go to the tip.....

In the attachment layout the blue shed is the current one.

Comments and suggestions most welcome!

SHED DESIGN.pdf

[FenceFurniture]

....I may as well do some landscaping of the yard.

The area behind the current shed was just a mess of shrubs and different levels. That's all been cleared and levelled. There were many cubic metres of soil and rocks (and heaps of bottles ), so I had to come up with a plan as to where to put it all. That morphed into levelling the whole middle section of the yard (very long and skinny block).

So, a retaining wall needs to be built and this will become the basis for a vege garden (at last - haven't had one for 5 years). It will have to be enclosed with chicken wire because of possums, birds and cat scats. I may even get a few chookies going in the triangular area to the left of the vege garden (see attached).

I've got just a couple of pics of the progress so far, but i need to buy a card reader to upload them (summink wrong with the camera software). You'll have to be patient for some progress pics.

YARD PLAN.pdf

[cava]

I wouldn't worry too much about the 30 degree angle of the shed roof for solar panels, as the latest line of thinking is that a lesser angle may be more efficient.

http://www.ata.org.au/forums/topic/32599

[FenceFurniture]

Thanks for the link George. Yes it was always going to be properly researched - logic tells me that the optimum angle would be so that the panels are perpendicular to the sunrays at the winter solstice (and that angle would vary with latitude and altitude) but there are no doubt other factors at play to find out about.

The other reason why 30° is appealing is that it would make the roof quite high on the southern side and therefore allow for some decent sized overhead cupboards.

[Pat]

Brett, will the extension be ready for the next meeting of the Katoomba and surrounds Wood Bulldust society????

[FenceFurniture]

Unlikely Pat, but there should be some pretty good progress by then I hope.

George, interesting point that Keef makes in that link - panels set closer to horizontal pick up more energy on a overcast day - we have quite a few of those up here....

Maybe there's a case for having a mixture of panel angles? Research to be done.

[Damienol]

Nice.

Why the need for 2 bandsaws?

[FenceFurniture]

Why the need for 2 bandsaws?

I only have one atm, a 14", and I need a big one. May as well not sell the small one and save changing blades.

In fact, of the machinery shown in the new shed I only have the thicky, Kapex, dust extractor and smaller router table, at this stage. There'll be plenty of real estate for a while....

[cava]

Unlikely Pat, but there should be some pretty good progress by then I hope.

George, interesting point that Keef makes in that link - panels set closer to horizontal pick up more energy on a overcast day - we have quite a few of those up here....

Maybe there's a case for having a mixture of panel angles? Research to be done.

Brett, also on that particular site, is a scientist(?) who is located somewhere from Dubbo to Tamworth from memory.

He has been collecting climate observations for the last 10-20 years(?) and has noted a significant increase in cloud coverage throughout the day - which appears to be increasing where he is located. The nub of it is, that perhaps a lower solar panel angle may be the way to go.

Personally, on our future build, we have designed in a 15 degree roof slope.

[FenceFurniture]

Yes, I would think that what he says about horizontal collecting more on a cloudy day is only true up to a point. The sun is still in the same relative position so the clouds between it and the panels are still going to do more work on the panels than those at the edges of the sky (thinking about extremes). So there is probably a sweet spot, or as I mentioned earlier, scope for a mix of angles.

[NCArcher]

Brett, will the extension be ready for the next meeting of the Katoomba and surrounds Wood Bulldust society????

That's not how it works Pat.

"FORUM GTG"
Brett's house as usual
Please wear work clothes and bring a * insert appropriate tool name here *


I reckon we could get that shed extension built in 2 or 3 GTGs

[FenceFurniture]

..... and bring a * insert appropriate tool name here *

But I already do that with the blue masking tape....

[FenceFurniture]

I reckon we could get that shed extension built in 2 or 3 GTGs

Now it's so funny that you should mention that.....

Actually, a mate up here is a handyman/builder type and he's doing the overseeing and help when necessary. I did a stonkering amount of research for him a couple of months ago as the trade off. I may need some help doing the foundations because that has to happen pretty efficiently. They'll be a concrete pad about 30-40cm cube with a piece of plastic water pipe set into it, shove some reo or a star spike down the middle. All done as one pour (rather than have a cold join between the pad and the pipe contents, although it would be a helluva lot easier to execute as a cold joint). Pipe will vary in size according to location, and what's going above it (6" pipe for the corners and heavy load areas, and 4" for the rest).

[Sawdust Maker]

Free board and lodgings for helpers?

[FenceFurniture]

Free board and lodgings for helpers?

Yeah I reckon. Skew's got stacks of room I hear....