I'm gonna erect one of those backyard sheds I bought at HD. I want to use deck screws instead of the nails suggested. I think I shall buy one of the lithium-ion drill/drivers for the job. What is the general consensus of the group as to quality and capability of a couple of brands? I don't care about price. Thanks.
i bought the 2 drill set from home depot. i use it with a drill bit in one, and a screw bit in the other. they last pretty well, and have a quick recharge. i think it was around $120 or so for the set. they also have a lifetime warrantee on both the drills and batteries if you register at the rigid web site.
the downside is that they don't have a very high speed motor, but they're pretty torque-y.
regards, charlie cave creek, az
If you have an extension cord, a variable speed plug-in drill will do the job better for way less $.
*I liked my Bosch I-Driver until I bought their impact driver. Now it just sits in the closet.
Get a tool made for the job. Pros these days are using impact drivers, not drill drivers, for driving screws. Makita is king there and early in the market. Others have played catch-up quite well, so pick what you like if you prefer yellow, green, red, or whatever over blue. Mike Holmes on the HGTV fix it right show uses a DeWalt for framing, maybe some sponsorship there. The star drive (Torx) screws are best for impact drivers. No cam out, and less likely to damage the screw head. Most box stores have them and for those in the boonies, there's always McFeeleys. Regular Torx construction screws are preferred over deck screws as they don't tend to chew too far into the wood. Be gentle with stainless steel deck screws as they are much softer and prone to stripping out or breaking off than steel made for the job. Hope this helps.
Joe
Impact drivers are fastest, HDs Ridgid have lifetime warranty even batteries if registered by mail. I had makita for years till it was stolen now rigid for warranty and HDs policies. I have had quite a few of their tools for years and they work well. I dont use them as a pro would everyday. You can get better, a real commercial grade, but you will pay for what you get. Often online HD has Ridgid at lower prices, HD honors it. I just got 2 Ridgid jigsaws a 18v battery unit and 120v, about 280 retail for 120. I haggled on a display unit. A combo pack of tools is the cheapest way to purchase tools. I know of no other company offering lifetime on batteries, since a Ridgid 18v Lithium battery is 100$ what happens in 4-5 years is important. You go in and spend 130 for a 18v lithium drill, charger and battery, but they screw you on replacement batteries at 100$ and from what ive read 4-5 years may be their lifespan even unused. Just stay away from B&D and skill if you want years of tool life.
MUCH better. More torque, longer (actually infinite) life.
Already bought it? The ones at Lowes are half the price of the equivalent HD models.
I might be building or buying a shed this spring so I tried to check this area to see if that is true here, too. HD has a 12x16 'Sequoia' kit that looks pretty good on paper- with floor for $3000.
That's about what I can buy a slide off 12x16 'Amish' shed for in my area.
I wasted 1/2 hour on the Lowes site and couldn't find anything close to the sequoia in looks or size. might be my area-- might be their lousy site. The only one available within 100 miles is an 8x10kit for $2000. [Homestyles]
I haven't gotten to the point of making up a materials list to build from scratch.
Has anyone gone through all that agony recently? Materials from a lumberyard, kit from the borg, or pre-built by Amish? [or some other regional gimmick].
Jim
Jim Elbrecht wrote the following:
I built two 12'x16' sheds (standard 16" OC joists, studs and rafters) with vinyl siding and roof shingles. Cost about $1000 - $1200 in materials for each
-snip-
Thanks--
That would certainly put me in the 'build it from scratch' camp. Probably time to start sketching and coming up with a materials list.
Jim
Jim
When you get up to 12x16 that is almost one car garage size, and I am almost positive DIY is the way to go.
The biggest hidden expense is the floor or slab. A slab isn't DIY for most people.
Doing a take off for a materials list should not be all that hard. This time of year most any store that sells building supplies should be happy to price out your materials list for free.
Do note that most will give some discount for a bulk buy all at one time even if you don't haul it all home at the same time.
Colbyt
Be careful with the BORG kits...see if you can download the manual before you buy. Find out what you get and how the plans say to construct it. What you see set up in the parking lot may not be what you get in the kit.
Last summer I bought one of these for 1/2 price at HD. I stumbled upon a hand written sign by the front door:
"Open-box shed kits. See manager."
I know 8 x 8 is much smaller than you need, but the same cautions remain.
Here's how they keep the price down, at least with the Handy Home products. YMMV
- No floor. They supply enough PT for 16" OC joists, but no actual flooring material. - No roofing material other than the sheathing. You have to buy your own felt, drip edge, shingles, nails, etc.. - 2 x 3 studs, rafters, etc. Studs spaced at 24" OC - They don't supply enough wood for full-framed walls. For example, they do not supply sill plates for any of the walls. The back wall is "studded" with just a cross, like a big plus-sign. The side walls have a top plate but no sill.
The theory is that once you get the sheathing on, it'll hold itself together.
Even after buying the extra wood to build it properly, along with the floor and roofing (open package materials, 4 bundles for $10 ea) I still spent way less then the $499 regular price, so I didn't really mind.
You can see the manual for my shed here. Check out the construction methods to see what I mean. Mine is built *much* better than how they suggest.
I'll second (or third?) that remark. I love my B&D 24v cordless, and used it a lot shooting panel screws into my tin shed, when I blacksmithed it after the tree fell on it. It was great for that, and the batteries lasted most of the day. But for putting deck screws into lumber, not so much. When I replaced the rotted steps on my deck with a prefab kit from the borg, I tried the cordless, because I had smoked my ancient el cheapo B&D 3/8" corded drill (one of the greenish-yellow ones- remember those?), running wire through rock-hard old framing in the house. Halfway through the second screw, the cordless ran out of oomph, and wouldn't even drive it home. I had to run out and by a Makita corded, which whipped the rest of the deck screws (around 30?) lickety-split. No comparison on torque. (Picked the Makita because it was the only one that looked like a drill. Everything else on the display rack had 3-tone paint jobs, fins, stripes, and looked like Buck Rodgers ray guns. What 12 year old designs these things? Form follows function, nitwits.)
Sure do love that cordless, though, for screwing 'temporary' patches over the woodpecker holes 15 feet up the wood chimney, in the middle of winter. Don't wanna be out there any longer than I have to, in that. Unless I am doing production work, like that shed, I hardly ever have to charge the battery (knock on plastic). It can sit for months, and still have plenty of juice for the odd 4-5 screws to mount something. Hope that battery lasts a good long time- I don't think B&D sells the 24v packs any more. But since I only paid 25 bucks for the drill off the remainder table at Lowes 2-3 years ago, it has already paid for itself.
Both good tools, but they both have their place. And IMHO, framing is no place for a cordless.
-- aem sends...
At this point, I'll throw in my usual remark that it is better to NOT put a wood shed directly on a slab, unless maybe the slab sticks up out of the ground several inches. Wood, even treated, is much happier several inches off the dirt. If your slab is flush, set J-bolts in it, and run a course of hollow 4" block for a token foundation under the sill plates. And depending on your local dirt and water table, you probably want the edge of the slab extra-thick, for a token foundation, to keep down frost heaving. Don't forget a sloped apron outside the door openings, to avoid the mud hole that always develops there if you don't have one. Your local flatwork company will know what is common practice for your area. Just for giggles, in case there is any chance you (or the next owner) may ever want power in the shed, run a big piece of conduit under the slab, from the side nearest the house, to a swept elbow that comes up in the wall. Cheap to do now, expensive to retrofit later. Place that sells the conduit will have the poly caps to put on both ends, to keep bugs from moving in.
Second usual remark I almost forgot- call your tax office, and your insurance agent, and ask if slab versus blocks holding it up, is the criteria they use for deciding if a shed is a permanent or temporary structure. A permanent structure may lead to an unexpected spike in your property tax bill, not to mention your household insurance. Temporary structures usually get a pass.
-- aem sends...
Excellent advice as usual from aem.
Colbyt wrote the following:
My sheds are sitting on a bed of gravel. The floor joists and flooring is PT lumber as well as the floor plates for the walls. We don't get tornadoes around here so they are safe. They've been there for 20 something years and haven't moved.
If you are calling people downtown it is worth calling the building department too to see if there are building code requirements you have to follow, assuming you are not just sneaking this in and hoping your neighbors don't rat you out. In Florida the building code does not differentiate a shed from a house. They both need to comply with the wind code. I have never seen a box store kit or boxed shed that meets Fla wind code. The same thing may be true in other places. If nothing else, you might get sued if your non-compliant shed damages your neighbors house when it blows to pieces.
I have to agree here. Last spring I looked into a fairly large shed from the BORG. After checking with my local building inspector, he mentioned that with the size I wanted, I had to have a slab to tie it down. Since I had to pour a slab anyway, I went even a little bigger (18'x22') and built it myself from scratch. I did special order the trusses from Lowes due to the fact that I was going to build this by myself, and trusses were easier to hang by myself. My one surprise was the amount of cement and road-base needed in the slab. The desired location had a foot of slope along the 22' length, so this made getting ready for the pour alot more work, as well as more cost than expected. Overall, working with the city building inspector was uneventful. He provided helpful advice and I was able to pass each inspection the first time, except for the final. I failed the first final inspection, due to not having a hard surface in front of the door going into the shed. The concrete was 6 inches above grade, but the city wouldn't allow a step-down onto the grass. They wanted a hard durface to step down onto, so I went to the BORG and got some interlocking pavers and gcreated a 3x5' stoop to step down on to. This appeased the inspector and I was good to go.
So building my own allowed me to go bigger and I know the quaility is there,
Robin
Did you look for a local truss company before you ordered from the BORG? When I put on my addition I found out these guys are hungry enough these days to deal with anyone. I got them straight from the truss plant (CCA
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