Rebuild old shack into tool shed.

[WoodChuckDad]

When we bought our land, there was an old shack on it, about 30 yds from the road and 75 yds from the pond. I spoke to the adult daughter of the man who had purchased the land, and had the pond built, more than 20 years before and she said it was built by one of her brothers to be a hunting cabin. It was built with dimensional lumber and reclaimed materials. A patio door had been installed and the windows were present but looked to have never been installed. Two of them were broken the third looked to be damaged from rot. When it was built, I imagine that it had a view of the pond, and since it was situated facing roughly south, it probably had decent solar gain with glass front, but over the years, pines and mountain laurel had basicluy covered it up and it got no sun at all any more and was barely visible from the road.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

My wife and I differ in that anything which she finds ugly, she wants torn down. I look at old things and want to preserve them if possible. When we
were planting our first group of trees for the orchard, we actually used the shed to store the trees from weekend, to weekend. But it was very quickly obvious that the shed was falling down. The roof was rotten thru and if you stepped on some spots of the floor they would break thru as well. One of the first things I did when I got my tractor was use the loader bucket to push back some of the mountain laurel between the road and shack, to create a spot to park the tractor. Even with that material removed, you could still hardly see the shack.



During the first year, a lot of the hand tools we bought were pretty badly beaten up by the sun and the rain.....some of them seemed to grow legs and walk away, as well. They even took some landscaping materials with them. So I wanted to have a shed and I thought I might be able to strip away the roof and floor and just rebuild those two pieces and put a locking door on the shack and some windows and be able to lock up my tools. I know that locking up tools in a remote area won't do much to deter a thief, but any increase in securing the items would be good, and getting things out of the elements wouild also be good. We didn't hit a point where we had time freed up to adress the shed till this year. So in the middle of summer, we started to clear the area up, removing stacks of rotting building materials, chasing away a few black snakes and beginning to remove the roof and floor.

 

[fried1765]

My wife and I differ in that anything which she finds ugly, she wants torn down. I look at old things and want to preserve them if possible. When we
were planting our first group of trees for the orchard, we actually used the shed to store the trees from weekend, to weekend. But it was very quickly obvious that the shed was falling down. The roof was rotten thru and if you stepped on some spots of the floor they would break thru as well. One of the first things I did when I got my tractor was use the loader bucket to push back some of the mountain laurel between the road and shack, to create a spot to park the tractor. Even with that material removed, you could still hardly see the shack.

View attachment 534110

During the first year, a lot of the hand tools we bought were pretty badly beaten up by the sun and the rain.....some of them seemed to grow legs and walk away, as well. They even took some landscaping materials with them. So I wanted to have a shed and I thought I might be able to strip away the roof and floor and just rebuild those two pieces and put a locking door on the shack and some windows and be able to lock up my tools. I know that locking up tools in a remote area won't do much to deter a thief, but any increase in securing the items would be good, and getting things out of the elements wouild also be good. We didn't hit a point where we had time freed up to adress the shed till this year. So in the middle of summer, we started to clear the area up, removing stacks of rotting building materials, chasing away a few black snakes and beginning to remove the roof and floor.

View attachment 534112

I am on YOUR side of this issue!
I would definitely SAVE the little shed for storage.
It is almost always far less costly to save an old structure like this, than to build new.
You don't need to make it fancy,...... although you could do so, with fake windows/shutters.
I would recommend against any windows.
The structure is for storage!
You want to "lock up" your tools,...... but, do you want to invite folks to look in the windows to see what tools you have?
Seems counterproductive to me.
I have two large storage barns with no windows.
I do not want to advertise what is in them.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

As we tore into the shed a little more it began to be apparant that the floor joists were still good, most of the roof joists were still good. But there was significant insect damage and rot to the cedar siding and the wall studs. The more we dug, the worse it seemed to get.








There was also evidence of an animal chewing it's way into the shed from underneath. Not sure if it was a squirrel or racoon, but something had chewed on the 4x4 supports to get into the structure. Part of the problem with the building is the materials that were used. The posts and joists were treated lumber, but studs were not so they were more suceptible to rot. Also the plywood that was used for both the floor and the roof was not exterior grade plywood. The roof was done with rolled asphalt paper and under the best conditions probably would have only lasted 15 years, if that.
So, instead of just new roof and floor, I now needed to rebuild the walls. But I still felt it was better to rebuild this instead of starting from scratch.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

While tearing out some of the old siding, I found a piece that looked like it had been used to do some of that math for building the structure in the first place. There is no significance to this, but it was cool to find.



So I went to the store and got some materials to put in a new floor and rebuild the wall studs.



The area behind the shed was logged in 2016 so it gets a lot more light. As I was sitting there looking over everthing I got the realization that if I cut down a couple smaller pine trees I could expand the foot print of the shed and make it much more useful. I was already going to be doing more work to it that I originally intended so I might as well make it something that will be useful for a long itme.

I decided to follow the same general lines of the existing structure, even though I didn't like the way it had been designed and built. without any written plans, I just flowed with it. "Be like water". That quote went thru my mind many times while moving forward with this build.

 

[fried1765]

While tearing out some of the old siding, I found a piece that looked like it had been used to do some of that math for building the structure in the first place. There is no significance to this, but it was cool to find.

View attachment 534122

So I went to the store and got some materials to put in a new floor and rebuild the wall studs.

View attachment 534125

The area behind the shed was logged in 2016 so it gets a lot more light. As I was sitting there looking over everthing I got the realization that if I cut down a couple smaller pine trees I could expand the foot print of the shed and make it much more useful. I was already going to be doing more work to it that I originally intended so I might as well make it something that will be useful for a long itme.

I decided to follow the same general lines of the existing structure, even though I didn't like the way it had been designed and built. without any written plans, I just flowed with it. "Be like water". That quote went thru my mind many times while moving forward with this build.

Expanding the "footprint" is an excellent idea!
There is no such thing as a storage building (or garage) too big!

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I am on YOUR side of this issue!
I would definitely SAVE the little shed for storage.
It is almost always far less costly to save an old structure like this, than to build new.
You don't need to make it fancy,...... although you could do so, with fake windows/shutters.
I would recommend against any windows.
The structure is for storage!
You want to "lock up" your tools,...... but, do you want to invite folks to look in the windows to see what tools you have?
Seems counterproductive to me.
I have two large storage barns with no windows.
I do not want to advertise what is in them.

Sometimes, she is right. It just makes more sense to scrape away the old mess and start over. This one, remains to be seen. I think it will serve me well. I would have definately chosen a different location for it, if I had built it originally, but I still feel it will be a great resource for us over the next 10-20 years. If it last that long without too much maintenance, I will be very pleased.

It was 7 degrees when I went out this morning to hunt....only stayed out an hour then came back to sit on the couch while it warmed up outside. it's 26 now and won't be getting any warmer, so I need to get out there and do some work.

 

[pmsmechanic]

So if you would like it to be in a different location.... Why don't you move it now while it doesn't weigh a whole lot. I like what you're doing with the shed.

 

[EddieWalker]

Looks like another fun project. You are quickly becoming one of my favorite people on here to follow with all your different projects!!!

 

[ultrarunner]

There were a couple of old sheds around the farm and my sister in law wanted them gone... but due to restrictions they most likely couldn't be replaced today... to close to the creek.

Cleared and cleaned with a pressure washer... put on a new tin roof and the biggest improvement was a concrete slab floor... they both are very usable and handy to have around... she's glad to have them.

Wired each with Costco LED lights and conduit for outlets and 3 way switches... but left a male plug end wired out of the J-Box... this way with the 100' extension cord they have light and power... to give them the "Hint" to put in underground conduit and I would complete the install...

During Christmas season they leave a cord to the shed as supplies are now kept there...

Not to get too far off... one of my friends bought a 1920 home with single detached garage and the garage was in sad shape as are most or them... I have one too.

He did a work party and demolished it on a Saturday... I rebuilt mine over the course of months.

Anyway... he got a fine for not having a permit to demolish and zoning will not allowed it to be rebuilt... needs to have a 4' side setback which means it would not work as a garage... it cost him dearly when it came time to sell... only home in the area with no garage...