Lean to Shed
- Thread starter kjg26
- Start date
KennyG
Elite Member
If the exterior walls and rafters are in good shape, I think I would cut the wall and floor out AND build the lean to.
Egon
Epic Contributor
Forget the house lean-to and matching up. All the house adds is one wall. Move back and start building to dimensions you like. Do more for you than another revision when the house is torn down.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Refining my thoughts and looking at your picture again, and seeing that you are not comfortable with modifying the existing house, I would suggest doing two openings where each window is. I'm guessing that there is a load bearing wall down the middle of the house with each window being a different room. Leave that wall between the rooms alone for now and just make the window openings bigger. Then you wont have to worry about any structural issues. I would still install a header over the openings, but that's super easy to do.
Remind me what you want to put in the lean to. If it's a tractor, how will you fit it under the lean to with such limited clearance? A lawn mower will fit under the lean to, and some other things, but with that roof being so low, you are very limited in what will fit under it. Figure the size of your lumber and measure down from the low side of what you want to go in there. If it's a tractor, measure down from the under side of the joists at least 6 feet away from the building, with 8 feet being more realistic so you can get around all four sides of the tractor.
Also do a drawing to scale on some graph paper that includes the thickness of the joists with the roof finished. If you are installing metal R panels, add an inch and a half for purlins if you space your joists every 4 feet and two inches for the metal. Hopefully you will still have room left for flashing. Or if you are going with shingles, add another inch at least for OSB and shingles on top of the joists, which now have to be a lot closer together to deal with how heavy shingles are and your span. Shingles are where the span table really matters.
Remind me what you want to put in the lean to. If it's a tractor, how will you fit it under the lean to with such limited clearance? A lawn mower will fit under the lean to, and some other things, but with that roof being so low, you are very limited in what will fit under it. Figure the size of your lumber and measure down from the low side of what you want to go in there. If it's a tractor, measure down from the under side of the joists at least 6 feet away from the building, with 8 feet being more realistic so you can get around all four sides of the tractor.
Also do a drawing to scale on some graph paper that includes the thickness of the joists with the roof finished. If you are installing metal R panels, add an inch and a half for purlins if you space your joists every 4 feet and two inches for the metal. Hopefully you will still have room left for flashing. Or if you are going with shingles, add another inch at least for OSB and shingles on top of the joists, which now have to be a lot closer together to deal with how heavy shingles are and your span. Shingles are where the span table really matters.
I am far from an architect or engineer. One of my two designs allows for 11ft 4 in roofline at the house, minus the joist/rafter thickness of lets say 10 in for a 12 ft span would leave me a working clearance of 10ft 4in at the house. With a 2/12 pitch if i were to move out 12 ft i would then have a working clearance of 8ft 4in at the midway post. This is plenty of clearance for the tractor. the next "bay" further from the house would have a max working clearance of 8ft 4 in and minimum working clearance of 6ft 4in. This would cover my truck as well as mower, tiller, and ATV.
The idea of cutting into the house has me held up. This is my first large scale carpentry project and that idea is a bit intimidating.
KennyG
Elite Member
Think through the potential of using the existing structure. Are the exterior walls OK? It appears the roof rafters should be only supported by the side walls. The interior walls should be non-loading bearing. The end wall only serves to keep the side walls from spreading. As long as you have rafter ties, you can cut any size hole in the end wall.
The asbestos siding is "non-friable". Don't cut or grind it, just pull it all off and send it to the landfill. Wear a mask if you want. Gut the building, put in a gravel floor, put on metal siding and it will look like a new building.
Don't be intimidated, this looks like a really good project.
The asbestos siding is "non-friable". Don't cut or grind it, just pull it all off and send it to the landfill. Wear a mask if you want. Gut the building, put in a gravel floor, put on metal siding and it will look like a new building.
Don't be intimidated, this looks like a really good project.
KennyG
Elite Member
Rafter ties are just horizontal boards fastened to rafters on both sides to keep the bottom edge of the rafters from spreading apart. They might look like ceiling joists. You may already have them in this building.
sodamo
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Appears we have something of a community project. Lots of pictures and you’ll have all the advice you need 
No need to be intimidated, just think things thru before doing. With good advice here, chances of failure are slim.
Reminds me of an incident from when I lived in Atlanta. A friend really wanted to remove an existing wall between dining room and adjoining room. Her husband was a GTech architect by schooling, but very little hands on, in fact, she was always teasing him about not having big boy tools like me. Got a call on Friday afternoon to please call husband and casually ask what he was up to, but don’t let on that I knew she had taken a hammer to the sheetrock on that wall. LOL being as he and I knew it was a load bearing wall, we had a dedicated weekend figuring it out. By the next weekend we had a new beam with support columns and he was on his own to finish. Heard that years later it was considered the selling point.
You’ll do well.
No need to be intimidated, just think things thru before doing. With good advice here, chances of failure are slim.
Reminds me of an incident from when I lived in Atlanta. A friend really wanted to remove an existing wall between dining room and adjoining room. Her husband was a GTech architect by schooling, but very little hands on, in fact, she was always teasing him about not having big boy tools like me. Got a call on Friday afternoon to please call husband and casually ask what he was up to, but don’t let on that I knew she had taken a hammer to the sheetrock on that wall. LOL being as he and I knew it was a load bearing wall, we had a dedicated weekend figuring it out. By the next weekend we had a new beam with support columns and he was on his own to finish. Heard that years later it was considered the selling point.
You’ll do well.