Pete W's Tin Shed Project.

[Pete W.]

Hi there, all,

                                                       

Today has been the long-awaited 'Big Lift' day.

The weather has been sunny and dry and the essential preparation work had been completed.  I demounted the appropriate joints in the roof frame and rigged a section of ladder from the 'flower bed' to the edge of the existing roof.  Then, my lovely but shy assistant and I hauled the two main parts of the frame up the ladder onto the roof.

Here are a couple of photos:



In that photo you can see the section of ladder we used to guide the frame sections during their upward journey.





By that time, man's best friend was demanding her morning promenade, following which I fortified myself with a light lunch and then donned my posh new memory foam kneelers!  (No photo of the kneelers!  I had a choice of colours, fuschia or gooseberry - I figured fuschia would be a bit too girly so opted for gooseberry but that's not exactly macho either!)

I secured the down-hill section of the frame to the existing shed roof using 100 mm repair plates at intervals along the lower edge and the back end so that the frame was pulled square.  Then I reunited the two sections of the frame and fitted and secured the centre row of noggins.  That brought it to this stage:





The polythene sheet beneath the frame is not the vapour barrier - it is to protect the vapour barrier.  The vapour barrier is quite light gauge polythene so I sandwiched it between two layers of heavier gauge polythene to protect it from the roughness of the existing roof boards beneath and my hob-nailed boots above.

When we'd got the frame fixed, there was still plenty of daylight left so we fitted the Kingspan - I'd previously cut it into pieces sized to fit the frame cells.  I also had some aluminized bubble-wrap so I cut that into suitable size rectangles and put them into each frame cell before squeezing in the Kingspan.  Unfortunately, the daylight had almost gone by the time the Kingspan was in position so no photo of that today - maybe tomorrow.

[awemawson]

Excellent Pete 



It must be a great relief to have it in place at last, but no slacking now, as you must get those roofing sheets on forthwith before the weather undoes all your good work.

Andrew

[Pete W.]

Hi there, Andrew,

Thank you for your encouragement.

I've just found another photo that, for some reason, didn't upload before.  It should have been the first one in my previous post as it shows the ladder section in-situ.  Here it is:



My father made that wooden step-ladder for me, back in 1960!

Getting the frame sections onto the ladder required us to negotiate the obstacle course you see in the photo!  I have to say I'm not proud of that corner of our garden - it'll have to be tidied up soon.

I've got a few more repair plate fixings to fit to the up-hill edge of the roof frame to secure it to the original roof and I have a board to fit to the underside of the overhanging end of the frame (over the shed door as you advised, all 90 mm of it!!).

Then I have to fit the sheet metal flashings along the back end and the two long sides of the frame.  The thing about those is that they and the roof sheets will cover up the purlins so I have to put some reference marks somewhere to ensure that the self-drilling fixing screws go into the purlins as near their centre-lines as possible and NOT into the Kingspan.

Our local weather forecast remains dry and calm for the next few days - I'm almost feeling guilty for that, after seeing the scenes of inundation and storm damage up-country on the TV News!

[RossJarvis]

Good progress so far my friend.  Looking at the last photo of "access paraphernalia" brings to mind those HSE pamphlets of how not to do things, what do they know

[Pete W.]

Hi there, all,

At last, I've got some illustrated progress to share.

I've been held back by wet weather, short days, walking man's best friend, writing Christmas cards and waiting in for a gas cooker repair man.

The gas cooker fault was electrical and serious - no oven = no Christmas turkey!                
Happily, the second repair visit took place today (ETA between 10:31 and 12:31, where does their computer get these times?) and seems to have fixed the problem.

Here is a photo of the roof when work started this morning:



You can see the frame with the nearest cells loaded with Kingspan.  (The light reflected from the Kingspan foil covering seems to have given the camera a problem - I had a go at the pictures with MicroSoft Photo Editor but couldn't achieve any improvement.)  At the far end, you can just see the corners of the tarpaulin, I left the ropes on that end attached in case sudden rain required me to replace the tarpaulin.  You can also see the length of flashing along the lower edge of the roof and the two roof sheets that I managed to fit last Saturday; the second sheet only had a minimum number of fixings at this stage.  The far sheet is concealing the length of flashing fitted to the far end.  On the near end of the roof you can see the crawler boards I used once I decided to work from the top rather than over each side off the top of a ladder.

On the high edge of the roof, you can see a board temporarily nailed to the edge of the frame.  The function of that board is to provide a stop against which each roof sheet is to be pushed to keep them in line.  That didn't work out quite as I'd hoped.  Where the sheets overlap, I've applied a bead of butyl sealing strip to the upper surface of the underneath box - once the upper sheet touches that sealing strip it's grabbed and further movement is impossible.  You need to have it in position before they touch!

So, both before and after today's cooker repair call, I was able to get some work done.  Today's activity comprised completing the fixing of sheet #2 and fitting sheets #3 and #4.  I've been fitting the fixing screws along the inner purlins first.  Then I fitted the foam polythene eaves filler between the roof sheets and the flashing along the lower edge followed by the lowest row of fixing screws.  I was able to do those working off the step-ladder - didn't need the gooseberry kneelers!

The fixing screws are described as 'self drilling' but I've found it necessary to centre pop and drill a small pilot hole, especially where the screw has to go through both roof sheet AND flashing.  They come with a pre-fitted metal washer and synthetic rubber sealing washer.

The light was going and it started to rain just as I was fixing the last few screws this afternoon (sunset at 15:57) so I wasn't able to get a photo of all the roof sheets in position.  Still, I packed up feeling quite chuffed at our progress and left the tarpaulin where you see it in the photo.                    I'll try for a photo at the start of the next session.

My lovely but shy assistant played a key role in today's (and every day's) activities, helping carry the roof sheets and passing up to me various tools that I'd left at ground level but discovered I needed once I'd climbed up onto the roof.

The next work package is to drill the fixing holes along the top edge of the roof sheets, remove the board, fit the eaves filler and then fit the screws.  Then the flashing along the top edge fits on top of the roof sheets with its own gap filler and is screwed to the edge of the frame and the top of the roof sheet boxes.

The flashing along the lower edge need some more screws to attach it to the frame and the older roof fascia and I'll need to check that the rain does get from the edge of the roof sheets safely into the gutter - it now has 4" further to fall and might need some guidance!

I also need to contrive some form of flashing for the near end of the roof.  I didn't buy enough from the roof sheet supplier but I think carriage on just one 3 metre length of flashing might make it unaffordable.  We'll press on with the other jobs and see what the old grey cells throw up.

[awemawson]

Hoo blooming ray - at last a roof 

You're supposed to fix the roof in the fine weather, not Christmas Eve 

Andrew

[Pete W.]

Yes, hoo blooming ray!!                   

Thanks to a sunny interval this morning, here's the photo it was too dark to take at close of play yesterday:



As I listed in yesterday's post, there are still a few minor tasks to complete but I can even do some of those in the rain!          

One challenge that's puzzling me, though, is how do I dry and fold a 4 metre by 5 metre tarpaulin?             

[PeterE]

To dry the tarpaulin I would have done as follows.

Found an indoors space like a garage which is long enough for the long edge of the tarp.

Hang the tarp over a pipe or a wooden "beam" (something like 2x2) and suspend the "beam" from the cieling using ropes.

This way it would not get anymore wet than it is, and may take as long as needed to dry out without being in the way too much.

BR

/Peter

[Stilldrillin]

That looks good from here, Pete! 

Well done. 

David D

[SwarfnStuff]

Well Mr Pete, if you just bung your tarp in a reply paid envelope (about the cost of three new tarps)  and send it down here to OZ it would dry in about 30-45minutes. 40deg C here today (and that's in the southern states). So guess who did not venture into the shed today.
I really enjoyed following your adventures with the shed build.
Thanks for posting.
John B

[awemawson]

Pete,

Realistically as you don't have the inside space, with that tarp, just roll it up and hide it somewhere outside, and in the spring spread it on the lawn, and hose and brush it down when it has a chance of drying.

Andrew

[Stilldrillin]

Tarps?

I usually commandeer the washing line, during a dry day. 

Incidentally...... Is all ok, after yesterday's storm?

David D

[Pete W.]

Hi there, all,

Thank you all for your posts.

To dry the tarpaulin I would have done as follows.

Found an indoors space like a garage which is long enough for the long edge of the tarp.

Hang the tarp over a pipe or a wooden "beam" (something like 2x2) and suspend the "beam" from the cieling using ropes.

This way it would not get anymore wet than it is, and may take as long as needed to dry out without being in the way too much.

BR

/Peter

Wow, Peter, that would be a space 5 metres long and a bit more than 2 metres high - that's the stuff of dreams!  Only Andrew has that sort of space!          

Well Mr Pete, if you just bung your tarp in a reply paid envelope (about the cost of three new tarps)  and send it down here to OZ it would dry in about 30-45minutes. 40deg C here today (and that's in the southern states). So guess who did not venture into the shed today.
I really enjoyed following your adventures with the shed build.
Thanks for posting.
John B

Thanks for the offer, John, 40°C would have me looking for an air-conditioned space somewhere.  Actually, if my experience with the smaller leaky tarpaulins even in the UK climate is anything to go by, the UV that probably goes with 40°C would have the tarp in shreds in about 20 minutes flat!           With my old felted roof, my workshop was too cold in most of the winter and too hot for a lot of the summer, that's why I've gone for the complication of the roof frame and incorporated the 75 mm (that's nominal - it's actually nearer 82 mm) Kingspan.  The walls are already insulated with fibreglass bats between the studs, they have T&G boards on the outside and 6" x 1" planed boards on the inside.  Unfortunately, when I committed to that construction for the walls, I didn't know about vapour barriers - it'd be too much of a disruption to fit a vapour barrier in there now.

Pete,

Realistically as you don't have the inside space, with that tarp, just roll it up and hide it somewhere outside, and in the spring spread it on the lawn, and hose and brush it down when it has a chance of drying.

Andrew

Yes, Andrew, that's probably what it'll come down to.

Tarps?

I usually commandeer the washing line, during a dry day. 

Incidentally...... Is all ok, after yesterday's storm?

David D

Well, David, it certainly blew some last night, though probably not as fiercely as they got further up-country.  Most of the 6' by 6' fence panels between us and the neighbour at the bottom of the garden (on the right in my last two photos) had already come down in the previous blow.  Fortunately for me, they are his side of the wire netting fence that defines the boundary (dating from when the houses were built, about 1935) but I've lent him my 9" post hole borer and I'll probably be able to help him a bit now my roof sheets are on.  It's the old, old problem - folks go for wooden posts for cheapness but they soon go carrotty at ground level.  Not the neighbour's fault, the posts and panels were put in by the previous house-holder.  Most of the top 5' of the posts are probably still usable if he bought some concrete spurs and long bolts.

I'm writing this while I recover my breath after a bit of excavation along the front wall of the shed, I should now have a level surface to put a board on to support the foot of the ladder.  Then the next job is to fit the fastenings along the high edge of the shed roof.

I visited the local branch of ScrewFix yesterday to buy a roll of 150 mm damp course - I planned to fit it under the flashing on the low edge of the roof to help the rainwater into the gutter.  Would you believe it, they were out of stock of all widths of damp course from 100 mm to 232 mm!!           Never mind, it was only 20 miles drive each way!!

[Pete W.]

Hi there, all,

          

I have completed some of the tasks listed in my earlier post.  I regret that because I've been working to get the most done in each spell of dry weather and/or daylight, I don't have photos yet.  If any of the following is a bit difficult to visualise, please be patient until I get a photo opportunity!          

I marked out for the fixing screws for the upper edge of the roof sheets, taking the temporary wooden board as my reference to ensure that the screws go into the wooden frame rather than into the Kingspan.  I also marked lines in the roof sheet valleys where I would later fit the filler strips for the flashing.  Then I removed the board, fitted the eaves filler and drilled and fitted the fixing screws.

After that, I fitted a few repair plates (they'd be more accurately termed 'repair strips' than 'repair plates' as they're 100 mm by 12 mm) between the new frame and the old fascia along the upper edge of the roof.  Then I applied double-sided tape to the foam polythene filler strips and positioned them against the previously marked lines on the sheets.  Then I fitted a full 3 metre length and a 1 metre length of flashing along the upper edge, over the filler strips, and drilled and screwed the flashing to the tops of the roof sheet boxes.  To complete that session, I drilled and screwed the vertical face of the flashing to the edge of the roof frame.  The repair plates sit proud of the surface of the frame and fascia, life's too short to have recessed them, and they're not very well countersunk. 
The fixing screws pull the flashing in fairly tight where they can so the finished job is wavy, rather reminiscent of the hull plating of a modern welded frigate!                   

I've found a part-roll of wide plastic damp-proof course - I plan to cut it down to 150 mm and fit it under the flashing on the lower edge of the roof to help the rain water into the existing gutter.  I hope the offcut will serve to be attached under the flashing on the upper edge of the roof so as to cover the join between the new roof frame and the old fascia.  (The flashing, 150 mm by 150 mm, sits higher on that edge of the roof by the height of the box profiles of the roof sheets.) 

[Pete W.]

Hi there, all,

                 

Just taking a break from the annual ritual 'tidy the living room ready for Christmas'.  Working hard at it this year in return for my lovely but shy assistant's support in putting up with several of the tote box refugees from the leaky shed roof tarpaulins lodging in the living room for the last few weeks!          

They are all clear from the living room now and mostly returned to the big shed.  There's still a lot of cleaning up, sorting out and tidy stowing to do in the shed.

The sun showed itself for a few brief spells this morning and I was able to get a few more photos.

Here's one of the flashing along the lower edge of the roof:



And here's a close-up showing the details including the eaves filler:



Here's the corresponding view of the upper edge of the roof:



You can see the holes in the original fascias left after removing the roofing felt nails and you can also see the waviness I referred to in my previous post.

and here's a closer shot:



Here is a view of the flashing on the upper edge looking up the slope of the roof:



and here's a closer shot showing the filler between the roof sheets and the flashing:



The weather forecast for Thursday looks good but as it's Boxing Day I expect we'll be visiting family sometime during the day.  Then Saturday doesn't look too bad.   

[awemawson]

Glad to see that you got there at last Pete. Proof is moving stuff back !

Have a good Christmas

Andrew

[chipenter]

had to buy a tarp today to cover my roof I would have dried one of yours for you .

[awemawson]

I have a large, old, 'resaw' band saw with 24" wheels sitting on my barn loading dock waiting to be rebuilt, and last nights storm ripped the tarpaulin right off  it. Amazingly the tarp itself was only slightly torn, and in this mornings calm the wife and I wrapped it all up again. Only needs the prezzy label now and we can put it under the Christmas tree 

Andrew

[Pete W.]

Hi there, Andrew,

Have your floods gone down yet?

I don't have a loading dock but I do have an old machine behind my big shed - an aged Myford capstan lathe, I think it's a cousin of the Myford ML2.  It's something of an embarrassment!                   

I bought some other machinery from an eBay seller and he pressed this lathe on me, saying that he'd sold it to someone else, 'buyer collects', but the buyer had defaulted and would I take it off his hands.

The friend I thought might have a use for it didn't and I don't have any under-cover storage for it so it has sat outside under a fast-disintegrating tarpaulin for several years.                     It's sitting on a couple of big concrete blocks so it's off the ground but, even so, I guess it's kind of rusty by now.

I can't decide whether to weigh it in at the local scrappie's or list it on eBay 'for spares or repair'!                   

I've seen lathes listed on eBay that look worse!!!!!

[Pete W.]

Hi there, all,

Well, I reached the stage of tidying up the front and rear edges of the roof.  The basic plan was to slide and fix some plastic damp-course under the metal flashing.  Along the rear edge that would help the rain water into the gutter while along the upper edge it would cover the repair plates and shield the old fascia board with it's legacy of felt nail holes.

A friend had given me a length of damp course (thanks, Tom) that proved to be a couple of inches longer than the shed roof but was 12" wide so I decided to cut it in two down the middle.  I could have cut it down the middle with scissors but it's black and my trusty Sharpies wouldn't show up too well.  I'd just received some new blades for the bandsaw and wanted to try them out so I decided to combine the two tasks.

Here's a picture of the tightly rolled damp course and the band saw:



Here's another:



Here's the result:



I hadn't set up the band saw blade as well as I ought so one cut edge was a bit fringy so I had to use the scissors on it after all.

The next stage was to feed the lengths of damp course up behind the lower edges of the steel flashing and secure them with some more of the 'self-drilling' screws and caps.  That was accomplished with a bit of help from my lovely but shy assistant.  Here's the result:

Lower edge:



and the upper edge:



I still have to trim the ends of the damp course.  I've deliberately left the lower edges of the damp course unsecured so I can fold them up and get at the wooden fascias with a paint brush and wood preservative when needed.

Now to decide how to finish off the end of the roof over the door.                   

[awemawson]

Hi Pete,

About time you moved your capitial equipment back in I reckon, it's looking good  Have you chosen the wallpaper yet 

Yes our floods have receded - just a few puddles left. Since I had the stream and ditches dug out about three years ago the floods rarely stay longer than a day these days. Amazing the sheer volume of water that comes our way, then eventually exits to the sea at Rye Harbour. Mind you they are threatening another downpour in a few days, maybe that'll wash the remaining dirty sheep. Some came out quite clean after the last downpour 

... the Myford - put it on ebay rather than scrap it - it may help someone out with spares at least.

Andrew

[Pete W.]

Hi there, Andrew,

Thank you for your continuing interest.

I hope that you have had or are still having an enjoyable Christmas.  I've put on almost six pounds (that's avoirdupois) since last Sunday!!  Who'd have thought a couple of mince pies and an individual Christmas pud would contain so many calories?          

I'm glad your floods have subsided.  I think a lot of the trouble is hard-paved car standings and driveways - they just shoot the water down the drain and result in flash floods. 
When I built our 'parking pad' on part of our front garden, I opted for a concrete-less construction with a rammed earth base and load-bearing plastic grids so the rain can still soak in to our sandy subsoil.          

No wallpaper in the shed - there's not enough clear wall area for wallpaper.  J&L/MSC sent me a nice wall-chart of drill sizes, drilling & tapping info etc. but I don't even have room for that!  A couple of years ago, one of my neighbours was boasting that his shed had carpet - I said 'that's nice, mine's only got double glazing.'.

Our closest neighbours both sides are golf enthusiasts - I do get a few twitchy moments when they practice in the back garden!          

[Pete W.]

Hi there, all,

I see from the viewing figures that this thread is still getting visits - thank you all for your interest.

I've been a bit held up by the weather - the outstanding finishing touches require that I rip down a couple of bits of wood and they're too long to do under cover.  After all the recent rain the lawn is too soft and boggy to support the table saw.  Still, the weather forecast hints at a few dry days ahead.

The good news is that I've been doing some work INSIDE the big shed.  I hope to launch a new thread describing that soon.

I have to report that when it rains the new tin roof is much noisier than the old felted roof!

[Rob.Wilson]

Now thats a cracking  shed Pete  ,


Well done 



Rob

[Pete W.]

Hi there, all,

Here's a bit of an  

I've been able to do occasional odd jobs in the tin shed, though its roof is letting in a bit of water when we get heavy rain.  I need to apply a bit more silicone sealant to the joints between the roof sheets.

I still have a minor job to do on the outside of the big shed (if you'll let me call an 8' x 12' shed 'big'!!).  I need to fit a trim strip along one end of the roof to support the overhang of the steel roof sheets, here's the best photo I have of the overhang:



I have a piece of wood cut to length ready for this job but I need to machine a drip groove along its underside.  Also, as it's thicker than the overhang, I want to bevel the upper outer edge to throw off the rain.  Both these operations need me to set up the table saw on the lawn and that hasn't yet reached the top of the priority list.  Then it'll need a coat of wood preservative and some sealing strip along its upper edge before fixing in position.

Oh, and I need to straighten out a couple of dents in the edge of the roof sheet.  I think in an earlier post, I mentioned that the shed was overhung by a large willow tree at one end.  Well, I was scared that one or more of those overhanging branches might fall casualty to the fierce winds we had a few weeks ago.  So my forestry-trained step-son came along with his chain-saw and took the branches down.  There was one branch that he couldn't do in easy stages, we just had to cut the whole thing.  It landed twiggy end first which we knew would be risky - such a branch will bounce and then fall over and it's difficult, if not impossible, to predict the direction it will take.  In this case, the butt end of the branch, some 8" in diameter, just kissed the end of the shed roof as it passed.  Luckily, the steel sheet is only ½ mm thick so I expect it will be easy to straighten out the dents with my duck-bill pliers.

Other than those tasks, I have been doing a few chores inside the shed.  The shed is lined with 6" x 1" boards and there were a few pieces that I hadn't fitted properly back in 2004/2005 when the shed was re-assembled on its present site.  There was a pressing need back then to get the shed's contents moved in.  I also have had a few ideas to improve that lining.  So I've been cutting (I can cross-cut under cover - it's ripping that needs the saw out in the open air) and painting bits of 6" x 1" and screwing them into position. 
That needed lots of stuff moving out of the way to give me access!          
I also need to tidy up the electrics a bit.