Shed Build

[BuilderML]

Well after looking at so many other posters and there projects on here i figured i would try to post my current "part time" project. I'll start with a little back round. This shed i am building is for a really good friend of mine who gives us a hand on other projects. As a Christmas bonus i offered him cash or to build him a shed of his choice. He buys the material and we build it. I think you guys can figure out which he selected. His old shed was finished. The total foot print will be 20'x20', of which 14'x20' will be the shed and 6'x20' will be his covered wood storage area.
I didn't get any pictures of the excavation sorry. We started by removing all the organic matter/ crappy material. (Thats the pile you can see in the back round) To bring the pad back up to grade we need 50 yards of process. Yes guys it was compacted in lifts.:laughing:
This is a couple pictures of the process in place ready for the forms.

Now a couple pictures of the forms set and the rebar.

Tomorrow morning we are pouring the slab so i will try to get some pictures of that.
This build may take so time as business is very busy and i am trying to do this for him between jobs. Hope you guys enjoy.:drink:

 

[Billrog]

Nice looking prep job.

 

[BuilderML]

Today was time for the pour, I wasn't happy when the driver showed up and he told me he had a 5 slump already on the truck i would have liked to been around 4-4 1/2.It made it a lot less work for us but not what i was looking for. Once we start pulling the concrete about 2' in i notice about a baseball clump of fiber so i pick it up and chucked it behind me. We pull about another 2' and again another baseball size clump of fiber so i pick it up and looked at the driver with it in my hand. . He knew i wasn't pleased at that point. We keep pulling and more and more clumps i would say about 6 in total that we saw. :muttering: I asked the driver what the **** is going on. He told me he was pulling out of the plant with the load and they forgot to put the fiber in so they called him back and added the fiber after the fact. So my thinking is in order to try to get the fiber to mix " well " with the load they added water which is why the mix was so wet. Guess its the last time i use them.unch:.
Ok now onto the pictures:
This is after the first time we hit it with the bull float

This is after the second time with bull float which we followed by adding the anchor bolts

Now after the first time we hit it with the trowels and added the broom finish for the covered wood storage

Final trowel finish and now complete

We finished up by covering the slab with plastic.
All is all it turned out well and very pleased with the results
It may take some time before the next update as i still need to order the trusses and find time to frame it.

 

[EddieWalker]

Very nice. Love seeing the rebar on chairs. In my opinion, that is the only acceptable way to do it!!!

I've gotten lazy on using the anchor bolts when pouring and just drill them after I stand my walls up.

You're quality of work is first class!!

Eddie

 

[ultrarunner]

Any worries about the cement quality will be a problem down the road?

 

[BuilderML]

Thanks Eddie, Your a well respected member of TBN so thank you for the nice comment.:drink:
As far as the quality of the mix i look at it this way the mix was to wet for my method of madness but shouldn't have much if any impact on the longevity of the slab. Will the slab be weaker due to the amount of water in the mix i think so. How much weaker i don't really know. After all it is for a shed and not a bridge someplace. Everyone has a way of doing things and that just wasn't my way thats all. I am sure many pour wet mixes just to make it easier to work with. In the end i was satisfied with the results and so was he "the homeowner".

 

[ultrarunner]

Just curious because I have been on jobs where the batch was flat out rejected... no one was happy about it.

Did the supplier make any concessions?

 

[s219]

That is some nice concrete work, but sorry to hear of the troubles -- I might be tempted to call the plant and ask for a discount due to the poor quality (and it takes a lot to make me want to complain, which says something here). They should know better than to do that. So maybe the person who decided to mix in the fiber too late and water it down didn't know better.

The concrete plant near me has a QA manager sign-off on mixes before they hit the road, and they will reject anything not up to par. They just dump it in a special area (same place trucks dump excess after deliveries) and later send the cured chunks through a gravel processor to bust up for road base. I am guessing they can cover the cost of the materials that way, so no big loss.

 

[BuilderML]

Just curious because I have been on jobs where the batch was flat out rejected... no one was happy about it.

Did the supplier make any concessions?

No discounts were given by the supplier.

 

[dave1949]

No discounts were given by the supplier.

That's a good way to lose future business. I wouldn't blame you for not using them again.

 

[BuilderML]

Ok time for an update, we had a few days free up so we have been able to get some work done on the shed. We should be finished with the siding and aluminum trim tomorrow. We are using hemlock rough sawn for the board and batten. I forgot what a pain in the butt it is to install you need alot of blocking to be able to attach it. The hemlock was just sawn about 2 weeks ago so it was nice and green. Now you can clearly see which area is for wood storage and which is the shed. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

 

[s219]

Love that hemlock siding!

 

[BuilderML]

Its finally done siding and aluminum trim wrapped up today. Just need to install garage door and gutters. I don't think it will be able to be stained this year with the wood being so green.

 

[joeyd]

Looks great!

 

[BoylermanCT]

Very nice! And the hemlock is naturally bug resistant so hopefully it will last a long time!

 

[EddieWalker]

Beautiful. I've never worked with hemlock, but I sure do like the way it looks!!!!

Do you get a lot of rain there? If I don't put a porch over a door to protect it from the rain, the bottom rots out in a couple of years. It's proven impossible for me to keep it painted and caulked, so now I make it a point to cover the doors with a porch.

 

[BuilderML]

Beautiful. I've never worked with hemlock, but I sure do like the way it looks!!!!

Do you get a lot of rain there? If I don't put a porch over a door to protect it from the rain, the bottom rots out in a couple of years. It's proven impossible for me to keep it painted and caulked, so now I make it a point to cover the doors with a porch.

I wouldn't call it alot of rain i would say average. It does have about a 14" overhang over the door, once the gutters go up that will provide another 4" or so. That will help with most rain but the rain driven rain will still be able to get at it. The biggest problems with the jambs wicking up water to me seems like the exterior casing and jambs both are not sealed well from the factory. One thing that we do often is wrap the jamb and exterior casing in aluminum. That helps a lot with keeping most of the water off it. The best way to solve the problem is order a door with PVC jambs and casing that solves all the problems with painting issues.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've never heard of PVC jams on a door. But 99 percent of the doors I install are what's sold off the shelf at Home Depot or Lowes, including my own doors. I'll have to look for that the next time I need doors.

 

[s219]

All of the doors we put in at my house had the lower 6" of the jambs made out of PVC, but the rest was still wood. I guess they just are trying to eliminate the common rot area at the bottom of the jamb/sill area. We used PVC trim around all doors and windows, and I really like that stuff.

 

[hcallaway]

Great looking shed.