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Small Tool Shed

Bill Satko

Bill Satko

Member
Messages
3,457
Location
Methow Valley
Inspired by Darren Wright's post about his Sawmill Tool Storage Shed and desperate for a single place to put most of my construction tools, I also bought a metal shed kit. I have to rebuild two decks and also hope to build an outbuilding or two starting next spring. Currently I have tools spread around in different places and not in very accessible locations. Any project becomes an exercise in trying to find Waldo. I speed more time trying to find something I know I have, but not clear as to where I rabbit holed it away at. Also, I need a space to put the various tractor maintenance and spare items that I have just been dumping into a Knaack box.

I went with the Veikous 10'x6' metal shed which I got from Home Depot. Ideally larger would have been much better, but I was limited in the space I wanted to put it and it had to be a mono slope roof to fit the style of the house. It will do for now and later I have plans to move it and it will just be for tractor items.

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I roughly laid out where I wanted to over excavate the holes for the deck blocks I was going to use. I used the tractor's backhoe to dig this and compacted them with road base before placing the blocks.

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The actual floor that I am building for the shed is going to sit on 4"x6" pressure treated skids which will allow me to move it in the future.

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The floor was framed using 2"x6" pressure treated and was secured to the skids using Simpson A23 Angle Plates. Prior to framing out the floor I backfilled and leveled out the area with a top course (3/4 rock with fines) that I had delivered for some parking and road work I am also doing.

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I used 3/4" tongue and groove waferboard for the flooring.

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Before installing the metal shed's base plates I decided to lay a perimeter of 2"x4" for this base plate to sit on to gain me another 1 1/2" in height. Although I will need to build a slight "ramp" to wheel things over the threshold this added 1 1/2" will prove to be a godsend. I had some flashing so I sealed everything.

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Later, the assembly of the shed.
 
After having completed the floor I started the actual shed erection by assembling the metal mud sill which the walls are secured to. In building the floor, I made sure everything was square, level and to the correct size. It was something I did with great effort, double checking everything so that the actual erection of the shed would go easy. Because of packaging, the mud sills for each side comes in two pieces, one overlaps the other and is screwed together. The end result is something as crooked at a dog's hind leg. I needed to run string lines again to force fit the sill plates to ensure they were straight and the result was square.

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After that is was simply removing the protective sheeting on all the painted surfaces (a time consuming ordeal) and then screwing everything together with very tiny screws with the liberal use of a drill to allow for missing or poorly laid out holes.

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I managed to get the roof on working late and it was a good thing because that evening the winds picked up a little. I had just finished and while up on the ladder took a break to just enjoy the view.

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The next day was really windy and I moved the rest of the operation inside the shed. I spent all day with some outside trim details and the assemble of the doors. Eventually I had to stop everything and bunker down in the house. The winds that late afternoon would be in the 30's with a high of 35. I was worried how the shed would do without the doors on.

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Surprisingly the next morning the shed was still there and finished assembly of the doors and installed them.

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Here is the finished shed.

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I have a bunch of ideas on how to get this shed organized and functional. I don't want to just dump things in there. I will share what I work up in future posts here.
 
Darren Wright said:
Nice work! I still need to get some flashing under my edges. I only have a screw holding the shed down on each corner at the moment as I had planned to get the flashing and hadn't yet.
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Once I had the bottom plates secured in their final resting position I used some more flashing tape to overlap from the top edge of the plates to what I had already flashed. I sliced the roll so I only had a 3" wide strip to run and fold over to the side. I wanted to make sure that as rain ran down the shed siding it would slide over the metal edge and continue down the side of what I had already flashed and not seep back between the existing flashing and the metal edge of the plate to the inside. You can kind of see it here:

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It is getting a real test as we had a rain storm blow in last night and is suppose to continue for today. Anxious to see if there are any leaks. I don't like how the doors were designed as they don't seal well against the side. I some ideas that I will try to fix them to better seal against rain and also so they don't rattle in the wind. Actually I will be looking to better secure the shed and improve on it's ability to handle all the elements. I also bought some hold down ground screws with straps to hold down the entire floor, but that might be overkill but what the heck.
 
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Yeah, I still need to figure out a better lock and latching system for the double doors. The side door on mine shuts decently, but the lock leaves a bit to be desired.
 
Finished up a ramp for the shed yesterday, among other things. I settled on a 6' long ramp as a compromise as I didn't want it to extend too far into the path of the tractor running by. It really is not too steep and I will not have any problem wheeling items in and out of the shed.

Once settling on the length, I dug out a trench for a pressure treated 4x4 to be the base for one end of the ramp. I drilled holes in the 4x4 and drove rebar I cut to keep it to place. All the lumber used for the framing was also pressure treated. I secured a 2x4 to the shed as a ledger board.

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Ideally I wanted to use pressure treated 2x6's for decking but for $100 dollars cheaper I used 3/4" pressure treated CDX plywood. I may have to do something to keep slippage down when it is wet or icy. Reviewing my options. I backfilled under the framing with some top course before laying the plywood. I laid more top course, smoothing out the approach to the ramp. I think it turned out nice and it is very stout. I also moved the Knaack box over to its new location.

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Bill Satko said:
Finished up a ramp for the shed yesterday, I used 3/4" pressure treated CDX plywood. I may have to do something to keep slippage down when it is wet or icy. Reviewing my options. I backfilled under the framing with some top course before laying the plywood.
Click to expand...
I did pretty much the same thing for my storage shed/barn.
For the 'sealer & anti-skid' I used home Depot's deck coating and scattered sand on it before it dried. Two years later it's holding up very well.
 
Jim DeLaney said:
I did pretty much the same thing for my storage shed/barn.
For the 'sealer & anti-skid' I used home Depot's deck coating and scattered sand on it before it dried. Two years later it's holding up very well.
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Thanks Jim, I will take a look at that. I don't want to put cleats down, as it will just make wheeling something up or down a pain.
 
Tom Niemi said:
nice looking shed :thumb: But man, those views are just incredible :love:
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yeah, im looking and thinking wow, wow , wow, and then I had to chuckle.....bill posted hes pressed for space....for where to keep all his tools.. i live on a 43 by 105 foot plot, with a small cape and a 1.5 car garage and a shed. I could only wish my wife wouild be agreeable to move off of long island and Id move south and get myself a few acres.
 
I am way overdue with an update. I was able to install OSB sheeting in 3 areas that allowed me to hang some Milwaukee Packouts that I had and also provide a wall to install some tools above my bench. I had intended to build a bench but realized that a Husky rolling cart could fit into the same space. I had some left over 3/4 OSB from another project and installed that on top of the nice bench top that is an integral part of the rolling tool box. I consider this a sacrificial top. I then bolted a new vise (Yost ADI 4) through the top of the tops and the metal case of the tool box. The picture here is before I bolted it down, but it sits at the same location. Most of all the drawers are empty and I am still dragging tools from elsewhere to relocate here. I have plenty of room available for more tools. Always a good thing!

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Oh yeah, I have lighting also that is powered off one of my Milwaukee 18 volt batteries. I got 4 LED lights that is way too much light. I generally have only 2 on at a time, but the setup can handle all 4 going at once. Battery drain is minimal. I ran all the wiring in a wiring loom that you see used in automotive wiring harnesses to keep it nice and tidy.

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Bill Satko said:
Oh yeah, I have lighting also that is powered off one of my Milwaukee 18 volt batteries.
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Nice little setup on that.

Have you noticed any vampiric drain from the inverter with everything downstream of it off? I ended up adding a switch between the battery and inverter on the (not actually dewalt and much cheaper than dewalt and so probably not great) one because it seemed to drain batteries faster than I liked just being plugged in (a couple weeks of life but still mildly annoying).
 
Ryan Mooney said:
Nice little setup on that.

Have you noticed any vampiric drain from the inverter with everything downstream of it off? I ended up adding a switch between the battery and inverter on the (not actually dewalt and much cheaper than dewalt and so probably not great) one because it seemed to drain batteries faster than I liked just being plugged in (a couple weeks of life but still mildly annoying).
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I don't have a switch, as I just pull the battery out a bit until it is disconnected. It works really well that I decided on not installing a switch. Also solves any vampiric drain.
 
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