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Shed Build

Ted Calver

Ted Calver

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Yorktown, Virginia
Taking advantage of visiting family to get a start on the shed I've been wanting for several years. My "stuff" has been living in a 10' x 10' HF tent for a long time, blocking the driveway. It's time for it to go. Shed will be 12' x 20', near the max allowable square footage here without a permit. It will rest on 6" x 6" PT beams sitting on concrete piers rough;y 4.5' OC. Floor will be PT 2" x10"'s @16" OC covered by PT 3/4" plywood, over a six inch deep #57 gravel pad that extends 1.5' beyond the perimeter. Looking at that last picture, I should have titled this "Festus Builds a Shed" :rofl:

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Darren Wright said:
Nice looking yard, do your banana trees produce.

Looking forward to the build. wrap:lurk:
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No fruit. My Vietnamese neighbors planted some because they use the leaves as a cooking wrapper for various foods. They form colonies with lots of small plants popping up. Mrs. Li gave me some of them and now we have our own colony. They die back over winter and come back strong in the spring. Nice tropical feeling plant.
 
Finished getting the forms ready today and picked up the MudMixer from Sunbelt rentals. Regretted not putting up the batter boards I bought stakes and wood for. Somehow managed to drill two holes way out of line and had to re-dig. Finally got things lined up and reasonably square, but batter boards would have saved us a lot of time. We used two laser levels for the job, the first was this little green beam job in a lovely pink color that we used to square things up with, and the second was a Pacific Laser Systems red beam laser level I had acquired many years ago when funds were pre-retirement abundant. IIRC it's good to a tenth over 100 feet and has a reactive target...used it to set the height of the forms. Surprised it still worked.

Sunbelt apparently is pretty lax about the cleanliness of returned equipment, as the MudMixer was filthy. Said I could bring it back in the same shape as found.
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Ted Calver said:
No fruit. My Vietnamese neighbors planted some because they use the leaves as a cooking wrapper for various foods. They form colonies with lots of small plants popping up. Mrs. Li gave me some of them and now we have our own colony. They die back over winter and come back strong in the spring. Nice tropical feeling plant.
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We have a small colony as well, that’s started popping up about April 1st or so. By fall they will be over 8’ or so tall.
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We did get a bloom on one a few years ago, but didn’t get any fruit. Quite a sight to see though.

We also have Indian Shot on the other side, but some popping up with the bananas now. I’ve been trying to keep the shoots cut back this year.
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Will be interested to see how the Mud mixer works out. I've seen them used before, but not sure they are faster than a tub mixer or not. Just be sure to get air out of your water hose before connecting up to the mixer.
 
Back when I was doing the construction inspector thing, I was always impressed with how much construction work relies on a piece of string.

I've only seen videos of the Mud Mixer before, but I'm impressed with what I've seen. :thumb:
 
Well..it took almost a day to put together the little rebar cages and get them centered in the forms. 4 @ #4's held in place by MacGyver'd welded wire mesh frames (from surplus tomato cages), sitting on plastic chairs.
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Spent yesterday using the MudMixer to fill the forms. A bit frustrating to start, but after we got the problem sorted things went well. I was impressed with the ability of the machine to deliver a pretty constant flow of concrete at just the right volume for one or two people to handle. Would have been done sooner, but had to haul the bags off a pallet in the driveway to the build site 100' away. I used my flatbed Gorilla cart for the job and was able to move 5-6 bags at a time with no problem.

The issue with the mixer was my own fault. After we (me, son-in-law Tim and grandson Ethan) plugged the mixer in it wouldn't start. Finally started if we used some pliers to turn the feed screw. Ethan, the electrical engineering major, suggested the amp draw down in my 100' 14 gauge extension cord was too much, so we dug out the generator. Dang jenny wouldn't start and needed a carb overhaul before it finally did it's thing...a couple hours worth of tinkering. It needed to be done anyway 'cause hurricane season is upon us. Meanwhile, I was impatient to get the concrete going and went to the local Ace for a better extension cord and $189 poorer, we plugged in the Monster 100' #10 gauge and the MudMixer started right up.

Fifty nine #80 lb bags in three hours, including travel time. We were pooped!
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This morning, way too early, the 8 tons of #57 gravel (for under the shed) got delivered. We need a take it easy day.
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Ted Calver said:
The issue with the mixer was my own fault. After we (me, son-in-law Tim and grandson Ethan) plugged the mixer in it wouldn't start. Finally started if we used some pliers to turn the feed screw. Ethan, the electrical engineering major, suggested the amp draw down in my 100' 14 gauge extension cord was too much, so we dug out the generator. Dang jenny wouldn't start and needed a carb overhaul before it finally did it's thing...a couple hours worth of tinkering. It needed to be done anyway 'cause hurricane season is upon us. Meanwhile, I was impatient to get the concrete going and went to the local Ace for a better extension cord and $189 poorer, we plugged in the Monster 100' #10 gauge and the MudMixer started right up.
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Looks like quite the concrete job!

Yeah, probably about 13 years ago I bought some 2 nice 100' #10 gauge cords. I was using them for running a breaker hammer to dig holes here before I got my skid steer.

They have come in really handy around here many times. I did build a nice cord reel for them as they are quite heavy on their own and were expensive enough I wanted to take good care of them. They are still doing very well today and almost look brand new.

Cord Reel
 
Darren Wright said:
That looks like a lot of work, I'm having sympathy pains just looking at all of it. ;)

So to calculate that up using 80lb bags, you basically poured a 10' x 10' x 4.25" slab, around 1.3 cubic yards of concrete. Enjoy the rest today. :wave:
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A lot of work indeed. :thumb: On the plus side, at least there wasn't much finish troweling needed.
 
Darren Wright said:
That looks like a lot of work, I'm having sympathy pains just looking at all of it. ;)

So to calculate that up using 80lb bags, you basically poured a 10' x 10' x 4.25" slab, around 1.3 cubic yards of concrete. Enjoy the rest today. :wave:
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I thought long and hard about pouring a slab but thought it would require too much earthwork to prep the site. It's at the back of the lot with limited access. Putting it on piers is half the cost of the concrete (DIY) for a 12' x 20', and a lot more than that if I'd hired it done. Also, I'm not sure the MudMixer would be my weapon of choice for pouring a slab this big. I think I'd use my old HF barrel mixer, or rent a bigger one if it was DIY.
 
A little progress after a break for a trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Spent the day grading for drainage and laid down some 6mil greenhouse plastic sheeting as a moisture barrier. Boxed in the site with ground contact rated 2 x 10's to contain the gravel. Schlepping gravel tomorrow. Had to supplement the umbrellas with a fan today, which made the heat and humidity a bit more tolerable. Sweated off 4 lbs despite drinking tons of water.
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A little more progress, despite the heat and humidity. Moved nearly eight tons of #57 gravel from the driveway back to the pad. Took us a little over three hours, using a wheelbarrow and Gorilla cart.
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Picked some beautiful 'Sweetie Pie' blackberries for a cobbler. Dragged the beams into place to make sure they lined up on the concrete columns and marked their outline on the columns. Snapped a chalkline and marked centers, then drilled 7" deep 5/8" holes with the HF SDS Max rotary hammer I bought on sale five years ago and never used. The Bosch carbide bit cut through the concrete like butter. All the columns lined up and were level except one , which was a bit too high. Ground it back down to spec with a diamond wheel. Used Simpson ABU66Z adjustable post bases in beam configuration to connect the beams to the concrete. We set the bases on pieces of roofing shingle to try and isolate them from any moisture coming out of the concrete and covered the portion of the bases that might contact the PT beams with Zip Flashing tape to help avoid contact corrosion from the PT chemicals. We loosely tightened the post base anchors, set the beam on them for final alignment, raised the beam up a few inches on blocks so we could get a ratchet in for final tightening of the anchor bolt, then dropped the beam back down.
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