Another shed building question. (or several)

[Pablo1508]

Hello all,

After some time lurking here are reading posts and responses I've decided to port.

I'm going to bite the bullet and am going to attempt to build a shed myself. I don't have much experience but how hard can it be? (famous last words).

I have the time but not unlimited resources and to have someone build it for me I believe would be fair bit more than the cost of materials.

The slab will be done by someone else, as I don't know where to start and have limited access to help so its not something I can do myself.
I'm planning a 4m by 6m shed with a skillion roof sloping along the long side with a drop of about 300mm to maximize the height inside the shed.
So the the height will be 3metres sloping down to around 2.7metres along the 6 metre side. (measurements are from ground to roof line.)

I was also thinking of a paved area in front of the doors with a bit of a covered pergola type structure to protect the doors from the weather

I was intending on a timber frame with some sort of cladding on the outside, probably some sort of treated pine and the inside will be clad probably with plywood.

The problem is I'm having difficulty finding information as to how thick the timber should be, etc. I even asked a company that does frames and they said 'Just supply the drawings and we will go from there. The funny thing is that we had an extention built a while ago and when I asked the architect about some specifics he would say "oh don't worry a good builder will sort that out' I used to say "Where do I find a listing for "only good builders" but he wasn't impressed.

So I'm thinking treated pine frame (90 mm by 35mm) with studs at 450mm centres. Now I imagine that the rafters for the roof will have to be bigger than this to span 6 metres without sag or will 90 by 35 be enough? ( Umm.. probably not) I figured if I just over engineer it it shouldn't fall down, may even wrap the whole lot in plywood (Joke) but then again I was surprised at how little bracing was put on the frame to the extension we put up a few years ago

Next is the roof itself, normal corrugated colourbond wont do because its a very low pitch ie less than 4 degs. So I've researched the clip lock stuff and that's OK as far as pitch is concerned but they have a bunch of information on their site about maximum spans depending on maximum rainfall. Groan

Does anybody have a similar roof with a small pitch? how do you prevent it leaking if it rains really hard? BTW I'm in Sydney

I didn't really want to go with a traditional gable roof simply because I think I can build a Skillion one but would have no idea where to start with a gable one.

Should I have someone do some drawings or is that overkill for basically a rectangular single shed with one set of double doors and two small windows?

Then there is power, and insulation, and lighting and tools and workbenches and and and and

I can draw up some very rough hand drawn sketches if what I've said above is confusing.

Any comments or assistance will be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Pablo

[garageman]

everything looks easy on a piece of paper but when it comes down to building it real life is a nother question

[Carry Pine]

Don't you need council approval? And won't they need a real drawing with measurements etc? That has to be a starting point.
There must be plans on the net somewhere but they need to comply with local standards.

Graham

[Pablo1508]

I asked the council, they said no permission required for 20 sq metres or less. Also less than 3m high, I Know I posted 6 x 4 instead of 5 x 4 that was a risk I was contemplating. Given some of the stuff you see around some back yards around here I didnt think it would be too much of a risk to push the boundary a little but then again I may stick to 20 sq metres

[BobL]

I asked the council, they said no permission required for 20 sq metres or less. Also less than 3m high, I Know I posted 6 x 4 instead of 5 x 4 that was a risk I was contemplating. Given some of the stuff you see around some back yards around here I didnt think it would be too much of a risk to push the boundary a little but then again I may stick to 20 sq metres

If there is one thing I wouldn't push with a city council it's the sq metre-age of a shed. Councils pay a lot of money for high resolution images of their rate payers land holdings. They have automated software that compares recent images with current ground cover and can pick up a change of 1 sqm very easily. Once a week they get a list of changes and they have inspectors following up any discrepancies.

I'm having an all steel 6 x 4 m shed built (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f245/shed-builders-recommendation-perth-127060/index2.html#post1275116) right alongside an existing 5.2 x 3.3 m shed that I built 31 years ago. I was also going to build the new one myself but I don't have the time (especially dealing with our council!). Any spare time I had went into the prelandscaping and earthworks, and I also want to spend some time doing the myriad of other things that need doing like insulating and lining both sheds and really setting up the internals to work for me. I an going to set up a ducted dust collection system that finally puts my actions where my mouth has been on the topic for the last few years. Being able to suspend heavy stuff from the ceiling is a real space saving tip but to do that you need a decent set of joists and beams - this you wont find in cheap sheds or shed designs.

When I looked into building myself last year, the cost of new materials really surprised me. Even second hand was over the top for what it was which is why in the end I then went looking for a shed builder. If I had had more time I probably would have bought my shed as a kit and built it myself. With a kit shed you do pay more than if you buy the materials but it comes with an engineer approved plan and it then becomes a basic lego assembly kit. A small but important benefit is that at the end of construction there is far less waste to store or cart away to the tip afterwards.

[issatree]

Hi Pablo1508,
I thought I was a bit smart when I built mine, & a 1st. time that I had built anything.1972.
I though a 20ft. x 20ft. was the same as 22 x 18. Wrong ?. That made it 4 sq. ft. less.
Found that out after I had built it, & again I made another mistake, the 22 x 18 was actually on the outside not the inside.
Anyway I have a 2 car Garage, that only 1 car can fit in, as the rest is for my gear.
I was thinking, that you might build it 1st. then put the Slab down.
I don't see the need for Treated Pine for the frame. Wouldn't that make it dearer, but the saving could be for some Colour Bond Walls, on the outside.
Just my thoughts.

[Pablo1508]

Hello,

Thanks for your replies. Taking some of the things you have said on board I've decided that the only way to get what I really want ( laugh ) is to go bigger. So I'm looking at a 7m x 5m pre-fab shed. That's the largest I can get on the site as sewer lines preven any larger without doing major work. So Ill have to deal with the council but hopefully that wont be too much of an issue. I still have all the plans and sewer peg outs from an extension I did 5 years ago so that should make the process easier.

I intend to line the inside with plywood, so any suggestions about going vertical or horizontal and how to screw it to the metal cross bits would be appreciated.

Thanks again

Pablo