Beware - longish post. I have caught myself drooling over the shed pictures that have been posted on this site. Being in Florida we don't have snow (news flash) to provide protection from. However the idea of having a dedicated shed for wood along with the equipment needed to process wood has captivated my thoughts. Well it was something I wanted but I have no experience building a shed or building anything for that matter. But seeing some of the shed projects and ideas posted created the belief that I could do it someday. Well about 3 weeks ago that timeline got sped up drastically. I was at an farm and construction equipment auction and 2 packs of shed trusses caught my eye. For some reason even though the items weren't coming up for over 2 hours - I couldn't leave - I had to stay and see what they go for. Each pack had 20 trusses in them and they were just under 140" wide. Here is one of the packs at the auction Well needless to say I bought both packs for $160 total. Brought them home and told wifey I was building a shed . I figured the 2 packs was enough to build an 80' shed with each truss placed approximately 2' apart. After figuring and digesting the scope of an 80 foot shed I figured that was too big and maybe I should scale it back - to a 40 foot shed. That felt weak and so I settled on a 60 foot shed - fits well and I am big fan of capacity. I watched a lot Youtube videos and got started. Too lazy to move my existing stacks in the shed location so I decided to just build over them (did not make my life easy) since they are only 4 to 5' high. Here is a picture of the posts in the ground - fourteen posts cemented with quikrete. This was not fun and I was physically destroyed after this. Not completely straight.. Here is a picture of the top caps installed. I used a 2 x 8 butted with a 2 x 6. The next step was the trusses and I was really stressed about this because of the wood stacks but I figured out a system and although extremely hard work I began. I used the Simpson H1 ties. And finally completed... Two things I will add. I quickly realized my lack of skill/experience and decided that I was comfortable building a shed quality structure - poles and a roof. Also there is no nails used at all - all screws. Next the purlins for a steel roof - and they were no fun at all. The roof is a Forest Green 29 Gauge. I have installed most of it but somehow forgot to take pictures of what I have done. My plan is to complete it tomorrow and be able to share the finished product. I kept a spreadsheet on this project and so far including the roofing and fasteners I am up to just under $1900 total. I think thats pretty good considering its basically a 12' x 60' shed. Thanks guys for providing the motivation. Its been a challenging but fun project.
Wow, nice job Wanafree! That's going to be great! I'm assuming that those metal ties at the ridge are sufficient to hold everything together. I think I would be wanting to put a few cross joists in there to really tie the sides together though. Maybe an overkill for down in Florida, but with snow load to worry about up here I'd want a few "complete truss triangles" in there, maybe one over each post?
Very nice and looks to me like a job well done. It should keep your wood dry and that is the point after all. Thanks for the pics.
I don't think it's overkill for Florida, I know they have code I dont like roof anchors. I think a shed or like barn is a great idea, snow doesn't bother me or my wood as much as rain does.
Yeah at first glance I thought the same things about relying on just those gangnails at the peak to hold the roof angle together, but with no snow load it just might be strong enough. Although it sure wouldn't hurt to throw in some cross members to hold the roof from slowly spreading over time. As for the rest of the construction it looks pretty decent, and being Florida I'm sure those hurricane ties will come in handy sooner or later. The one thing I noticed is you actually have the beams sitting on top of the post where they should be, most shed I see on here attach their beams to the side of the posts where all the shear loads get transferred to the nails or screws that they use to secure the beam to the posts. I see you have a little jog in the roof trusses, with metal roofing you'd be best to line up the bottom edges of the metal roofing with a string line so the metal roofing is perfectly straight and ignore the jog in the trusses. A nice wide metal ridge cap will cover any uneven gap along the peak.
Well. Its Done - For now. Good comments. Boog - I am not too concerned with the trusses themselves. However I will be both adding some cross members on some of the trusses and also support ties. After climbing up on it - it needs additional support just to tighten it up a little. Lumber Jack - between the trusses and the post deviations - its no jog - its a full on run . But the posts are in good - there is a ton of screws in it and despite some obvious errors its going to be a good usable shed for years to come. Today I finished the roof. I tried to keep the bottom edges level but the ridge cap I got didn't allow HUGE deviations - ha. I actually tacked in the Ridge cap after one side to see how much I could cover on the other side. But its a shed not near the house and I am confident in the roof's integrity. Here are a few pictures.. Finishing up the roof Deviations... Complete - for now.. A view from my driveway.. So a couple of things. As I stated earlier at some point in this process I realized that I didn't the patience or skill to get everything perfect so I got comfortable with what I was doing so long as I didn't skimp on cement, fasteners etc. I know my limitations and don't plan on doing any house remodeling. Thanks again for all the encouragement and ideas. This green monster would not exist without you guys.
It looks great! My dad has a saying that I try to remember when I'm working on projects like this. "Think Timex not Rolex"
Looks good. as for any minor variations in the framing lines I was always told... "It'll be a whorehouse before it's a church"
One of my next trips down to Ocala, I'd like to see it in person. I travel down there about every 5 weeks.
