Building a shed from scratch

Thanks for all the comments.

Now, Andy / John, how did you finish off the eaves edge of the roof. You've got rafters topped by ply, did you just let the felt form a drip edge? Into a gutter? Did you doing anything to the ends of the rafters, seems they'd be vulnerable to getting splashed from the gutter.

I think John mentioned in a post (or his excellent) site that a 30deg roof looked wrong. That's what I was planning, but having looked e.g. next door's summer house shed (off the peg style one) with a shallower roof angle, I think you may be right. I'm now working on 22.5deg (next stop on the mitre saw), lowers the ridge ~200mm and means I get 3 rafters out of a 4.2m length of timber.

The current material list includes 210m of 3x2, 285m of cladding and

285m of T&G floor / roof. Eeek. Over £1500 at list prices for all the materials so far, so next its shopping round for a job lot price.
Reply to
Steven Briggs
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On an earlier shed where I really minimised the overhang of the roof, I ended the rafters inside the wall. I then screwed a length of timber to the edge of the roof boarding to create a shape over which to fold the felt. With the felt, I formed a folded drip edge with the edge of it over the gutter. It doesn't splash up from the gutter.

On the recent cabin, the rafters go out beyond the wall and form a feature that can be seen from underneath.

However, the roof covering is done differently to what you probably have in mind.

The rafters were first covered with ply cut exactly to match the ends of the rafters. Roofing felt was laid on that and dressed down vertically. I attached a vertical piece of timber to the ends of the rafters to form a fascia and trapped the felt behind the fascia also adding a sealer. This is not the final roof, and this area is not subject to any significant amount of water.

I then laid pressure treated 38mmx18mm roofing battens up the slope of the roof on 500mm centres, and then the same orthogonally to them, horizontally up the roof with 150mm between centres.

The final covering is cedar shakes which are nailed into place using the recommended procedure.

This is more or less like the procedure at

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that there is a single layer of felt on the roof boards and the vertically running battens are smaller - the same as the horizontal ones. The reason for the method is so that if water does get past the gaps in the shakes (fairly unlikely), it can run down on the felt and escape at the bottom.

If you are using felt only, then I would arrange for it to be folded under to form a drip piece.

My most recent cabin has a roof slope of around 18 degrees. This looks fine, especially if you have the roof overhanging some way.

One other advantage is that you can have a larger floor area and wall height while keeping under the 4m ridge height issue for planning purposes.

Considering your idea of part potting shed, part summerhouse, part covered patio, I think that an overhanging roof design would look pretty good.

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Reply to
Andy Hall

and if you wrap it round the under side of the joist and then staple it to the sides of the joist the DPC won't keep slipping out of position. (you can guess how I worked that one out ;-)

Reply to
John Rumm

I did something similar to Andy - but slightly different

The eves were designed with a few inches of overhang, and the ends of the rafters were sawn so as to leave a vertical edge at the end of the roof. The ply on the roof was cut so as to be about an inch wider than the overhang of the rafters. I then fixed a 2"x1" batten to the ends of the rafters on both sides (a bit like a facia board). I also made up short noggins and fixed those in place on the gable ends against the underside of the ply overhang so as to create a "standoff" similar to that provided by the eves, and then fixed more batten to that.

The effect was that the vertical serface of this facia was flush with the edge of the roofing ply. The felt then draped over this facia.

I then screwed a second batten to the outside of the first *through* the

3 layers of felt overhanging the edge of the roof:

felt-> / / ##|## outer ##|## ##|## | |

This created a sandwich effect - with the felt clamped between the two layers of wood. Finishing off was then just a matter of running a knife along the underside of the batten to trim off the remaining felt (in fact it could be torn off pretty neatly). You can see the result most clearly here:-

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outside batten got a good soaking in cuprinol since it is the only wood part that will get very wet every time it rains!

I found the 30 degree roof looked wrong for two reasons - the main one was that my workshop is right beside the shed in the next door garden. Having the roof angles match made it look much better. The other reason was I deliberately built my workshop so as to be quite a bit taller than most ready made sheds since I wanted to be able to stand close to the eves when inside (and I am 6'3") and still move bits of timber round, so the lower angle reduced the overall height (and hence timber use and cost).

(one thing I did note - when the shed is still in its "skeletal" form without cladding it looked HUGE - dwarfing the surrounding buildings - but once the cladding and roof was on it looked much more in proportion. So don't be put off if you think you have over done it half way through!)

A couple of things jump out at me there... I had 135m of framing (plus a further 37m of 2x4"), and 281m of cladding. So unless you are planning lots of studs very close together you are going to need either less framing, or more cladding (and you always need more cladding than you think!)

You may want to compare dimensions with:-

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T&G for the floor will push the price up as well. 19mm WBP ply works very well at about 18 quid a sheet (I needed 3 IIRC)

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think I paid about 700 all in for the timber - it does pay in the end to go to a builder merchant with a big list though, since I probably got a couple of hundred off list price due to the size of the order. The whole project cost was probably only 1500 - 1600 ish. Note also that included a well over engineered base, and 200 odd quids work of electrics that you can probably do without.

Reply to
John Rumm

In message , John Rumm writes

Well there's a number of windows, French doors on the summer house, which reduce the cladding requirement, and extra framing for the sticky-out roof over the deck area.

Strangely the T&G works out considerably cheaper at £13.40 (+vat) for a

8'x4' equivalent area.

Oh I don't know. I can see LV spots being used inside & outside on the summerhouse / deck area, the effect looks so good on the CAD renders.

Point of no return tomorrow hopefully, the old garage goes, leaving a yawning great space to be filled.

Reply to
Steven Briggs

In message , Andy Hall writes

Yes I agree, I just need to get the proportions of the various elements to look "right".

I think this is going to be project for some photos and subsequent website. So it better look good if its open to scrutiny by the uk.d-i-y panel ;-)

Thanks all.

Reply to
Steven Briggs

Good point.... (I stick to my comment about always needing more cladding though ;-)

Is that for proper flooring grade T&G? If so then that is handy to know... (was thinking about using T&G in place of chipboard in my loft conversion - but was assuming it was going to cost lots more)

Good luck!

Reply to
John Rumm

I thinks so. Its whitewood, 22mm nominal. Probably better to use 25mm in the house, but its OK for the shed.

Reply to
Steven Briggs

There is certainly a production volume factor in a number of materials where, if you buy them from a suitable merchant are unexpectedly less than you would think they might be.

Among them are

-18mm WBP ply and OSB

-Flooring T&G

-CLS timber

I used T&G boarding for sheds and boarding the house and garage. It might be a bit more expensive than chipboard but is a lot more pleasant to work in terms of lightness, cutting and manoevrability in a small space.

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

I shall see what some of the local timber merchants can offer then - I think I would much rather have T&B than resin bonded wetabix.

Is it just my imagination, or do floors made with sheet chipboard seem to creak more than those with floorboards?

Reply to
John Rumm

I found Jewsons pretty good if you go to them with a project list when they are not too busy.

I think so. I suspect it has to do with being nailed through the sheet....

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

Might be worth a visit to a shed centre to get some ideas and see what size timber is used in normal sheds. 3x1.25 might be alright for the uprights, with 3x2 in the corners.

cheers, Pete.

Reply to
Pete C

Generally it's like matchwood, unfortunately, which is one of the reasons to make your own. I did take a look at some even quite decent products and they are still not that great unfortunately.

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

There were a number I looked at that were no better than four fence pannels nailed together at the corners. Even the "top end" ready built ones often went for 1 1/2" framing, with studs at 1 or even 1.5m centres. No internal cladding and most shiplap on offer was only 12mm or so. As for the roofs - one layer of thin felt (with mineral finish) nailed round the edges.

Building your own won't be cheaper - but the end result will be so much better.

Reply to
John Rumm

In message , Andy Hall writes

Indeed. There's a local saw mill that makes sheds on site. Frames from

28x44 actual (i.e. the old 1.5x2"). Even when there some nice features (one had a mini bay window) the "joinery" is a bit rough and ready. The only exception to that size frame I noted is the Site Huts in the Screwfix Big Stuff catalogue, using a 70x45 frame. The 8'x18' is £1089, probably more than my basic 8'x18' shell will work out.

The other local woodyard/BM (where I shall most likely buy the timber from), stocks sheds (more like cabins) made out of interlocking (at the corners) timer sections. Much better, but getting even more expensive.

is a good site, has a comprehensive on-line price list, which is very competitive. Its a pity they're over the hills in darkest Lancashire.

Reply to
Steven Briggs

Another thing, its also rare for off-the-peg sheds to me more than ~1.8m to the eaves, with the door always on the gable ends because of this.

Reply to
Steven Briggs

True, there's no point building it the same as a budget shed but you might pick up some ideas worth using. There are a few free shed plans on the web too that are worth checking out.

cheers, Pete.

Reply to
Pete C

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