So you want to build a shed...

Your closets are overflowing. The basement is a rec-room and office. You don't have an attic, and there's no room in the garage for your car. Sounds like you need a shed! Maybe you could build your own. Storage buildings aren't nearly as demanding as kitchen make-overs, and you won't have to suffer weeks of eating take-out if your project enounters unexpected delays. Let's take a look at your options.

PURPOSE: How would having a shed help you? What would you be able to store in there? Decide in advance what "stuff" can be safely moved to an outbuilding. You'll have different requirements for storing bikes and golf-clubs versus lawnmowers and garden tools. Most home-owners will limit themselves to just one shed, so size and access certainly matters.

SITE: Should you keep it close to the house, or off in a distant corner? Will your neighbors object? Give location some thought before you make this decision. A roomy flat spot in the yard is ideal, but don't forget to consider lawn-drenching spring rains or devastating blizzard winds, for instance. Will your new building be pretty enough to stand proudly near your property line? You might be better served if you can add storage closer to a back or side entrance. Check with your local planning & zoning office about setbacks and regulations before you commit to anything. You might need a permit, or even board approval.

SIZE AND BUDGET: Anything you build on land can be priced by the square foot. Sheds are no exception. Just like car tires, the bigger they are the more they cost. Eight-feet-square can be plenty when you don't need to park a big riding lawn mower inside. If you do need room for your new John Deere, though, then twelve-by-twelve isn't unreasonable. The smaller size might be built for less than a thousand dollars; the bigger one could easily cost twice that much.

MATERIALS: Want your new shed to look like your house? Maybe "keep it simple" is your motto. Or maybe this is your one chance to be creative. Metal walls and roof are usually economy options. Modern wafer-board (now called OSB), painted and trimmed in pine, is a popular choice. Most people prefer regular shingles on the roof: they're inexpensive and not too tough to install. With a little knowledge and a couple extra tools, you can wrap your building with vinyl siding. Lots of sheds feature a type of plywood called Texture 1-11: it's got grooves spaced eight inches apart with a showy woodgrain suitable for staining. Those are just a sample of popular choices.

FLOOR: For parking the garden tractor you might choose a bed of gravel. Purists insist upon a solid layer of concrete, but that's the most expensive option and usually requires a building permit. You might decide to compromise by assembling a wood-frame floor: use pressure-treated lumber and minimum 5/8" plywood. The advantage of wood floors (aside from lower cost and easier construction) is the ability to level the floor on an uneven site. Disadvantage: bugs and some rodents just love the open spaces hidden underneath. Wood floors usually need some sort of ramp for easy access, too.

DOORS: You can use a regular entrance door and lock-set. You can build your own double-doors using plywood and pine trim with some back-bracing. You could even install a miniature overhead door, especially if your garden tractor is a big one! (That might be a job for a professional, though - and a bit pricey.) Consider adding a window or two, as well, for ventilation, light, and decoration. All sheds need some sort of airflow, or they get hot and musty over time.

DESIGN: You don't need to re-invent the wheel, or hire an architect. Every home center offers books of plans and materials lists. The fancier plan-books may cost ten dollars or more, but you'll have nice color pictures and detailed instructions to help make your project go easier. Your toughest decision will probably center on the roof-line. Gable roofs look great but require some skill, while salt-box and "shed"-style roofs simplify construction. Gambrel designs (think "big red barn") have been popular, but cutting and fitting the rafters can be tricky.

CONSTRUCTION: It's only a shed. You'll need bottom plates or a floor (treated lumber). Then you'll need four walls with an opening or two. If you can cut a board to proper length and hammer a few dozen nails in straight, then you can frame-up walls. Almost all shed designs offer you the option to install your sidewall materials while the wall lays flat on the ground. You have to be very careful to square-up your walls when you build that way. Measure diagonally corner-to-corner: when both diagonals are equal, then your wall is square and ready for siding. Don't forget to account for overlapping where two walls form a corner. You'll probably add pine trim on the corners after you stand-up the walls.

Installing the roof calls for caution and finesse. Your rafters may need specific angles and precise dimensions. Plenty of perfectly-handy home-owners end up buying pre-cut shed kits just so the roof components will arrive ready to assemble. Unless you buy a completed building, however, you will have to climb up on ladders to install the roof sheeting. That's the time to recruit a helper; the job's much too annoying to handle alone. On the other hand, putting the shingles on top is easier than you might think. (They even come with the instructions printed on the wrapper!)

Once the roof is done, you can add your door(s) and window(s). You'll need a level and a few screws or nails, and some sort of lock-set or hardware. Nothing you can't handle. Once again, these items arrive with printed instructions attached, just to make your life easier! You may want to add some shelving inside, too - depends on what you're going to store in there.
PAINT: Or stain, unless you've decided on vinyl siding (or something similar). When the hammering's complete, be sure to go ahead and apply a weather-proof finish. Don't let rain or sun or insects ruin all your hard work. Even a couple of weeks' delay could be disastrous. Just do it now, so you can move your stuff in right away.

Building your own shed is a wonderful project, and the whole family can help you do it. When it's done, you can proudly point to it and say: "I built that!". You'll also have saved yourself at least a few hundred bucks on the labor. Then you can go out and buy some more stuff to put in the garage! Have fun, and don't forget to take pictures.

copyright 2007 - all rights reserved

Extreme Make-Over, Stairs Edition

I finally bought a digital camera, by accident: it came inside my new phone. Now I can post simple descriptions of interesting jobs we've done, and let the pictures do most of the talking. This job was a tricky one, a referral from a friend who specializes in new flooring. He was smart to hand it off, but he did miss out on all the fun! Here's my view from the driveway, approaching my new customer's house.

The new owner of this lovely home, Roman Jones (not his real name), made a dreadful discovery after he bought the place. When he removed the unwanted carpeting from his foyer staircase, he found the treads underneath were made of particle board. He thought they were hardwood, like all the rest of the floors downstairs. That's when Roman called my flooring friend and asked him to quote an extreme make-over, staircase edition. Mike, the floor-guy, considered replacing all the old particle board treads with new maple treads. That would have been a lot easier than what we ended up doing, but it also would have created some structural issues. This staircase was built in a factory, as a unit. In my opinion, tearing the treads out could have weakened the whole stair system. Since I have to offer a warranty on whatever work I perform, I decided to seek advice from people who build stairs for a living.

The solution, after a couple of consults, was to cover the old treads with new solid-maple treads and nosings. These specialty parts were created from maple planks by Steve, at Pittsford Lumber Co. in upstate NY. The rest was up to us, to assemble the pieces on site. That involved a great deal of careful measuring and sanding. (Notice the tarping in the next photo.) Here's a shot of the job, in progress, with spindles removed and ready for surgery on the existing stair-treads. My partner, another Mike, and I cut all the original particle board overhangs off. This part of the job created tons of dust and debris, and called for all sorts of violent tools. We used a power saw, jigsaw, handsaw, chisels, and both belt-sander and cordless router. Not to mention the mighty shop-vac, which probably ran more than any other single tool.

The carpentry work itself (the fun part) involved a fairly intricate mating of quarter-inch solid tread material with the front and side nosings. We devoured two bottles of wood glue and several dozen strategically-placed pin-nails (air-driven). At this stage of the project, my heavy Porter-Cable belt sander made everything come together. We added some maple-formula wood filler as needed. Sanding progressed from 120-grit belts to 220-grit detail pads. Once again, the shop-vac racked up the most hours! (But the tarps worked -- very little dust reached the adjoining rooms.)

All together, the work spanned ten days (about sixty man-hours). Making all that carpentry look pretty called for the services of my previously-unused cordless "mouse" sander, and quite a few sheets of 220-grit paper. Maple requires pre-treatment, but looks best without any color added. We used a fast-drying polyurethane finish: two coats, sanded between, applied with a bristle brush. I checked Minwax.com first, and noticed they advised against using the popular foam brushes for this product -- too many bubbles. I have to admit, the results were pretty spectacular. I'm not much of a finisher; I prefer cutting, gluing, and nailing to brushing. By the time I enlisted my oldest son's help to re-install the original spindles (final photo), this refurbished staircase looked like a million bucks. The home-owner will paint the risers and stringers white, to complete the new look. I'm proud to say, "I built that"!

Balcony deck: We add a pergola!

Had a day "off" with some help from my brother-in-law, so we zoomed over to Home Depot, bought some materials, and built a pergola for my backyard balcony deck. "This changes everything!"

Getting back on track

It's been months since I've posted here--over a year, in fact. Well, alright, I've been busy! Still working with T. McKenna Plumbing Inc. here in Fairport, still building kitchens and baths for a great group of new customers. And I'm still working with some truly fine people that I met in the now-extinct Chase-Pitkin organization. We bought a house, too! My wife and I have gone from blissful renters on the west side to delighted (but exhausted) home-owners on the east side. That's where all my free time went, believe me.

We bought a sweet little ranch built in the early 1960's. Since I know a fairly competant contractor--and my wife loves to upgrade and decorate--we've made a few (understatement) improvements. It's not that we've invested a ton of money (well, maybe a few pounds!), but we wanted to put our own stamp on the place. So we started with paint, which is always a smart and economical place to begin. We did a lot of sprucing-up in general, including some serious weeding and mulching in the beautiful gardens that the previous owner left behind for us. Last fall I took advantage of an Indian-summer day, climbed onto the roof, and hoed-out the gutters. Of course we upgraded the original kitchen, but nothing too drastic: we used cabinets that one of my customers didn't want to save (more paint). I haven't gotten to the bathroom yet (yes, that's singular: bathroom...), but we have plotted the location of our future powder room. The entry foyer desparately needed new tile, so we had to make a decision about where a couple of new walls were going to be. The actual half-bath will have to wait for a cash-infusion. Most of what we've done was eighty percent sweat and twenty percent money.

Anyway, I made a promise to myself to get up-to-date here, and I intend to follow-through. I have plenty of good pictures, and a couple good stories. In the days and weeks ahead I'll return here to get those posted properly. For now, it's good to be back. See you soon.

Three weeks later?!?

I'm looking here at my most recent post, and seeing a date now nearly THREE WEEKS old! How can that be? I simply cannot believe how time really does fly sometimes. The experts are absolutely right, too: changing jobs is stressfull! These are all great people to work with, and things are moving along just fine, but this is most assuredly mind-draining.

Mike and I finished our first big kitchen (see previous post), and it turned out very well. A picture would be worth 1,000 words here, but I haven't gotten that organized yet. Sorry. The customer is very happy: that's the most important result. Since then we've been racing around the county installing shower doors for Gary. Even better, we have a couple countertops for Pete to do these next few days. Plenty of other jobs on the horizon; but receiving special-order product and lining up the other assorted ducks takes time. I've even quoted a few jobs of our own, too. (Something I rarely had time to do with CP, so I'm a little rusty!)

All in all, the weather is improving, and the real remodelling season looms near. The bugs will be ironed out, the new names firmly remembered, and the newness of it all will fade. Then I'll be complaining about the lack of leisure time. Which is just fine. I'll have pic's in the future, so these posts will consist of more than words. Spring is in the air!

Thanks to all my great customers, for your kind words and encouragement. And here's to my as-yet-unmet future customers: can't wait to meet you! That's my update, for now.

Movin' On...

It's been a couple weeks since I posted here. They've been two weeks of new faces, new places, and a new "boss." Mike and I have been busy building a new kitchen for a very nice couple in Fairport, Doug and Jan B. The good part is that our work is still being done under the watchful eye of Pete S. That has certainly helped with the transition from Chase-Pitkin to T. McKenna Plumbing, Inc. This is a big job with a great deal of detail, plus the need to work in conjunction with a new electrical contractor and with an in-house plumber. Both of these have been a pleasure to work with. So has the customer, for that matter--even though he is almost always home. (Sometimes the "always-home" customer can be a royal...!)

We've now done three completely different shower doors, with another on the way. These are higher-end enclosures, compared to the typical CP sale. Two have been true-custom doors: measured and built specifically for one installation. Although I have plenty of experience with shower doors, they can present their own quirky challenges--and they don't pay so much that we can afford much lost time or error. So far, so good.

It's not all wine and roses, of course. Aside from Pete, we don't really know any of the "crew." (At CP, we knew dozens of long-timers from years of association.) There are new procedures and expectations, which we will simply have to get used to. Furthermore, there is still plenty of uncertainty for us regarding the future of this young relationship. We don't yet have a true feel for what volume of work we can expect, and of what general mix. Those things just take time. I've also had to shelve my lovely custom magnetic signs, and have nothing with which to replace them yet. I'd like to look a bit more "official," with something identifying us as authorized T-Mack contractors. A couple of presentable company shirts or hats would be a good move, too. Those are minor details, and just part of the move.

The hardest part of all this is leaving so many good people behind. The folks we knew are winding up their last weeks at CP, or are already long gone. Some have even contacted me via their new employers, sending out feelers regarding a continued work relationship. Others have moved on with no forwarding address; I may never hear from some of these people again. The stores will close soon, under liquidation rules. I have neither the time nor the ready cash to be too concerned with whatever bargains that might present. It's silly to say, but I'd feel like a human vulture if I were to scour the aisles for deals. I'll stick to the present, and make the adjustments that must be made. One of my very favorite songs from the group Boston is Don't Look Back: that sums things up quite well, I think. Until next time, then...