Adventures in Carpentry, part 2
Yes, is the Return of the Idiot with Tools.
So, last year, having some time off and being stuck at home because of the Zombie Apocalypse, I began building a "shed" for the storage og my bicycle, moving the bicycles out of what was my "tools: shed. And I even thought about rebuilding such shed into something a bit more functional.
And this year, since it's kinda the same situation, is time to do it.
The old "shed" has been assembled from a "kit" bought by the local DIY shop, is not bad per-se, in fact, since my construction skills are almost zero, having all the parts already pre-cut and measured, putting it together has been a breeze. However, I failed to notice that in the original plan for the construction, the shed was supposed to be built on top of a brick or stone basement, and since I didn't noticed, I didn't do it. So the shed resulted lower than expected. A lot lower. Lower enough to bang my head in the door every time I have to get in or out of it.
Also, the general quality turned out to be not that grate. I suppose some of this is to be attributed to my imprecise assembly, but almost immediately the roof began to leak water. The fact that my cats have found the roofing shingles a perfect place to sharpen their claws hasn't helped a bit.
So, this year is time to put the old shed to pasture and build something brand new. And again, I decied to build it from scratch.
First of all I need some sort of a plan. Let's be real here: this shit has to be built by ME, and my carpentry or woodworking skill are near zero. So I decided to completely avoid any kind of "joinery" or fancy stuff. Keep it simple and maybe I'll be able to do it. Also, it has to be built by ME. Alone. So there is a limit to what kind of stuff I can put togethere and be able to move it around.
In particular, the walls that have to go against the fence that limit my "backyard", had to be finished BEFORE being put in position, otherwise I'll never be able to finish them. This means that I need to half-assemble them, put them up, figure out a way to KEEP them up, finish them, and then put them in place.
Another thing is that I want to reduce costs as much as possible, since I have a shed already and it's made of wood, I'll try to recylce as much of it as possible. But this means I need to recycle it, and not just "demolish" it.
Lastly, I don't have enough room to get all the material at once, so I can't order it and have it delivered. I'll have to figure out what I need moment by moment and go pick up the stuff myself. So there will be a lot of exercise involved.
After having an half-assed plan, is time to start the work.
Phase One, is to completely empty the old shed. This turned out to be quite a trip ("I have ... what??? HOW MUCH OF THAT??? Why did I bought this stuff?? And why it's still here?"), after several trip to the garbage disposal facility, I managed to store most of the stuff into the bicycle shed while the tools that I'll need for the construction were moved in my house.
the dismantling of the shed, unfortunately, had to be postponed one day because of rain.
The next day, early in the morning, I started swinging a big hammer and very quickly I got myself a convertible! And in a few hour the shed had been completely removed.
I took some time to clean up the old material and remove all the nails, tacks and the like, then I adjusted the "base" of the shed, it will have to be enlarged, slightly. The new shed will be a bit bigger but most important: TALLER.
The demolition of the shed also revealed the huge green mass that was behind it. So that need to be removed too.
The basement had been fixed using some of the old shed material. The next phase starts by going to the local DIY shop and getting half a ton of construction wood, that is then used to build the first of the 'walls'. After making 2 of them, and insulating them using platic foil for rain proteciton, I managed to put it up, prop it up using some studs and then cover the exterior with the old shed's wood slats.
Repeated the whole process for 2 more walls, at the end of day 2, I have a structure that can stand up on its own..
Another day, another half a ton of wood. This time the "front" of the structure and the roof are completed. At this point I decided to go pick up also the OSB panels for the roof. And here is where things goes wrong: while driving home with the panels on the roof, 5 of the 6 boungie cords I was using, broke. The result was I dropped the panels along the road. The windshield wiper tryied, heorically, to stop the load, but there was nothing to do about. Rip hero wiper. Well... I learned my lesson: NYLON STRAPS! Anyhow, the panels where recovered, brought home and put on the roof, and now the roof looks like a roof.
Another day, this time is the material to finish the roof, corrugated plastic. After driving about 100 screws in it, the roof has been declared "rain proof enough". The rest of the day is spent applying the plastic sheating and then I started building a door.
Once put up the door, the structure is rain proof enough, so I kept putting up slats on the walls until I run out of the old shed material. Time to go get new stuff (and you can see the difference) and finish it up.
What is left to do is the finishing touches, like lights (I decided to recycle a neon light I had in my solder) and then start to move the stuff from home to the shed.
And after a bit, the shed begins to look "tooly". And now I don' risk to smash my head on the door anymore.
A mention about the Heroes of this build:
From left to right, back to front: nailgun, impact driver, drill, jigsaw, circular saw, ear protection, square, meter, tackgun, spirit level.
Last things I need to do is to bring the rest of the old stuff to the garbage disposal facility and then I'm done for a few years.
And now, let's answer a few question you're probably asking yourself:
- Are you stupid or do you really have fucking nothing better to do? Yes
- Is it me or is it tilted? So is the tower of Pisa, and that tooks 300 years to be built.
- Wasn't better to get one already made? Define "better"
- How much did you spent?
Well, let's say that I had a calculation done last year and since then, the prices of all the material is increased a lot. For example, most of the construction wood is in studs 44x69x2700, when I made my calculation they were 5.5 euros each, when I bought them they were 8.6 each, an increase of 65%.Anyhow, the wood for the structure was 410 euro, for the roof, the OSB panels where 410 euro, the corrugated plastic about 320, the exterior is what I spent the less since I reused the whole old shed, the new material only costed about 180. Some small stuff (nails, screws, hinges, latches, cables and so on) came at 120.
Total spent: ~1000 euri
No, fixing the car isn't part of the calculation.
Davide Bianchi
29/06/2021 13:06
