I'm building a wood shed....I need some help

[General Lee]

Well got the double header up this afternoon. Only had a portion of the day to work on it. For the notches I started with my cordless circular followed by the cordless sawzall, but as you said Eddie it was eating my batteries up. So I dragged out 150' of extension cord used the power sawzall to finish everything up.

 

[FTG-05]

Last Sept., I built my woodshed on the side of my already existing pole barn. Specs are roughly 10'x22' wide with the posts 9' from the pole barn.

I used 2x8's doubled as my header and 2x6' on 24" centers for my joists. I centered the 2x8s on top of the posts. I did not notch the 2x6's, just set them on top, then used those galvanized joist hangers to keep them in place. My 4x4 posts were roughly 7'-8' apart, depending on what side I lined them up to the existing 6x6's of my pole barn.

Pics:

 

[General Lee]

Ahh, thanks for the visual FTG. I will definitely be using the joist brackets/hangers.

 

[tbrooks26]

Good call on the corded sawzall, I try not to use my cordless sawzall or circular saw much. It seems to me that they kill the long-term life of batteries as well. Of course I haven't had any of the lithium batteries yet. Looking good though, nice notch.

 

[clemsonfor]

litium batteries will burn your stuff down when they burst into flames!

After reading what many of yall have done to build your shed, my shed should not even be standing! with all the recycled wood i used and mave about eveery thing undersized!

 

[tbrooks26]

After reading what many of yall have done to build your shed, my shed should not even be standing! with all the recycled wood i used and mave about eveery thing undersized!

Don't feel bad, my pole barn has a lean-to on it. Where the rafters tie into the barn is on the gable end. Its a homemade king post truss with a single 2x6 bottom chord. They are attached to this 2x6, 20' span no supports other than 2x4 angle brace on each end comes out about 5'. The lower side it has a double 2x6 header, one center post, and they used a 16' and 4' piece of 2x6 so there is an unsupported break on each side. Its been that way for almost 50 years. The center post has sank a few inches, and consequently moved inward some as well, but its still standing. I've had thoughts of insulating it and putting a ceiling up, but I don't think it will hold it lol. Someday, I'll have to fix it, but it will be a pita

 

[KennyG]

Building to code means never having to say you're sorry, but there's lots of margin in the "right" way to do things. I've seen 50 to 100 year old buildings with brick foundations laid directly on leveled sand, 16 foot long 2x4 rafters and walls 2x4 on 24" centers. Somehow they survive. And when you build with salvage materials, all the rules become flexible.

 

[LD1]

For every 1 building built sub-standard that survives, how many fail?

 

[EddieWalker]

For every 1 building built sub-standard that survives, how many fail?

Good point. Just because somebody got away with it before doesn't mean it's the best way to build something. You also don't know how much money or effort went into keep it standing over the years.

As a contractor, I have to build everything to a level that I wont have to deal with complaints, call backs or legal action. There are dozens of ways that I could save some money and either get it done faster, use smaller lumber or less material. Most would never know for years. I might even get away with it over time and the client might even remain happy with what I built. I know it happens, I've seen too many poorly built barns and house posted on here with claims it was done right or the builder was the best one out there. But I also know that there are so many contractors out there who are competing for jobs that going cheaper isn't the answer. If I build it, it is going to be better then code and when the size of the lumber needed is questionable, I'm going to go up to the next size. Normally I have a 4 to 6 month waiting list for clients waiting on my to start their projects. Right now I'm booked up into June 2016. I've found that in every case, clients are more then willing to pay for better materials to make it stronger.

 

[ustmd]

For every 1 building built sub-standard that survives, how many fail?

Valid point, but I found a disturbing statistic when I was designing my in law's deck: 6000-8000 people per year are injured/killed because of structural failures in decks/porches.

http://www.buildingonline.com/news/pdfs/Outdoor-Deck-and-Porch-Injury-Study.pdf

"Based on the statistics from the CPSC, 224,000 people were injured nationally due to a deck or porch over the study's five-year period. Of those injuries, 33,000 were a result of a structural failure or collapse.

The estimate for serious injuries resulting from those failures exceeds 18,000. Serious injuries included head trauma, concussion, major fractures, such as those associated with the back, and paralysis."

I would hate for someone to get hurt because I didn't want to make a trip back to the lumber yard to get a 2x8.