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To: bearcub who wrote (24)	5/22/1999 12:46:00 PM
From: bearcub	Respond to of 52

shed bldg but no thots on security from raids by desparate neighbors/military confiscation: from the local library on building sheds to find out how a good foundation is done for a shed. I looked at all the books in the library and the two best ones were "Great Garages: Sheds and Outdoor Buildings" by Connie Brown, Tucson: Home Planners, Inc., 1996, ISBN 1-881955-33-8 and "Building BackYard Structures: Sheds, Barns, Bins, Gazebos and Other Outdoor Construction" by Paul Levine, Tom Begnal and Dan Thornton, New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 1997, ISBN: 0-8069-4216-9. The foundation took up 75 percent of the building time. I secured help with doing the foundation but once it was laid, I did the rest of the shed by myself. I decided to go with a modified wood foundation recommended by Royal Outdoor for my shed. Instead of using 2"x4" wood, I used Thompson-pressure-treated 2"x6" wood and for the plywood, 40-year pressure-treated exterior plywood. I put the shed on top of patio blocks (laid out along the perimeter of the frame and down the center, lengthwise) which cost 58 cents apiece (2"x8"x16" in dimension) which were put down upon an already existing gravel rock bed which had black plastic beneath the gravel. I also made the foundation extra rugged by using Simpson Strong Tie metal connectors with the corresponding-sized Simpson nails and screws to connect the wood pieces to each other at perpendicular angles. To secure the foundation against movement during storms, I bought four 30 inch building anchor rods (looks like an eye bolt with the long rod with a spiral digging blade at the bottom) which I anchored down on the corners. Be sure and call ahead of time the free local service that will mark where underground utility/telephone pipes/wires are located so that you do not do damage digging. If you have an underground water sprinkling system, call them up separately -- they use plastic pipes that won't be detected by the marking service. If you are told you are near a sprinkler pipe, look a few inches away for electrical wiring that often accompanies the pipe--my sprinkler company forgot to mention that and although I missed the water pipe I did cut through the accompanying wiring and had to have them come out and splice the wire back together. I secured these anchor rods to the foundation through "U" bolts bolted to the wood and connected tightly to the anchor rods through the largest togglebolts I could buy at the hardware store. (They have an "eye" on one end and a hook on the other end and one can tighten them by twisting the center of the bolt with your hand -- the "eye" end of the togglebolt was connected to the "U" bolt bolted to the wood). If you build a lean-to storage shed, do not rest the shed against the house -- the exterior walls of your house, believe it or not, "breathe" -- and the insulated wall needs more air circulation. Without the air circulation, the outside wall can rot. I provided a foot clearance on one side and 9 inch clearance to the back of my garage wall which is not insulated. (Thanks to Skip Baumhoefner for advice on the anchor rods and air circulation clearance.) Be sure to take all measurements two-to-three times before cutting. The shed will look horrible and the doors might not shut properly if the measurements are off. A display model at the local lumber store demonstrated a horribly installed shed. I was scrupulous with my measurements and the shed looks great -- even so, I needed to buy and use one "shim" behind the top left door hinge to have the left door shut properly. The most important measurement is before you screw down to the wood foundation the aluminum channel that the shed's panels will "sit" in. They recommend lengths down to the 1/16th inch precision. To abide by this, I used Duct Tape (cut into thin pieces about one inch wide) to tape together all sections of the channel, so that I could situate the full length channel on the wood before screwing it down into the wood. I measured the corner-to-corner dimensions three times to ensure full precision. I am most glad I did this. The shed is quite clumsy to put together if there is not open sky above the sides of the shed. I had two sides situated a couple of feet beneath overhanging eaves of my house. I was able to still put the shed together, but it was clumsy. You might want to save yourself the hassle by providing more clearance than I did. The final shed will not be waterproof because of gaps around the door or because of inadequate caulking done during installation of the aluminum channel. Go overboard with silicone caulk tailored to caulk to metal before putting down the channel. Put down 2 parallel strips of caulk beneath the channel bottom. You might also want to caulk the seams where the channel meets the panels too but do not cover up the water drainage holes on the exterior side of the channel. Also buy a door threshold, such as a 1/4" high aluminum threshold, and a rubber flap to put behind the left door so that no rain can get through the seam between the two doors. You might also want to get Frost King self-stick, EPDM grey-ribbed rubber weatherstrips for the door's edges. Also, do install the provided, optional second vent even though you have to make the cutout yourself -- it is important that there is an input and output air flow inside the shed. Finally, consider painting the foundation and the door -- the shed itself is pre-painted and is not supposed to be painted. Last, get a heavy duty Kryptonite padlock (for doors not for bikes). Doing all of this will provide you with a secure, waterproof shed that will last for years if not decades. The shed has a 10 year warranty. Ideally for extreme fire safety, my shed should have been placed 10-to-20 yards away from the house. I wanted to build a 10'x12' shed that far away from the house but my wife vetoed that idea -- the lean-to shed I built is invisible from all sides of the house except a hidden corner of the yard which is what she wanted. This is great summer project for those who are taking Y2K seriously. The shed I bought looks very nice with our house. I am putting three 18" deep shelves, 4 feet wide and 5 shelves high in the shed to use as storage space for basement stuff, to use the freed up space to store long-term food items in the cool basement. The extra floor space in the shed will store Kerosene which I am using as fallback to my standby power generator which uses natural gas or propane. I've bought the heater and containers already but will wait until Fall to buy the Kerosene. I'll cover power generators in more depth in a future article.