The Seige Cabin Mega post edition.

Well, I was going to call it "The Cabin Fever Edition" but that seemed bad taste given the number of folks who have died and those who are still suffering from the effects of Covid-19.  All of us here at "The Big Shed Build" are thinking of you and wishing you all the best.

 I have been out in the back garden working this last week as I've been on pre-planned annual leave and the weather (until today) has been pretty good.  I've also been in the lane at the side of the house but I have been practicing social distancing and washing my hands regularly.  To echo the messages in the media / Social media:

• stay at home, 
• wash your hands thoroughly.
• act as though you have the virus and do everything that you can to not pass it on.

So what have I been up to?

I cleared my site and tested out the layout of some of my pallets:

This included the temporary relocation of our current shed:

Next, I laid out some weed suppression plastic, I got this for free from a guy at work who had just laid a concrete base for his shed and wanted to clear out his shed, Thanks Alan! I also laid out 18  piers made from 300x300mm ( 1x1 feet) concrete slabs.

The piers allowed me to create a level base on which to set my base pallets without having to remove tonnes of earth!.

A concrete foundation.

In order to get lots of uniform concrete slabs I had two options:

1. Buy them at 300x300mm (unlikely for this project).
2. Get loads of free but random sized slabs from local freecycle ads and c0t them down to a standard size.

So option 2 it was, next issue was I don't have a large stone cutting saw and getting one (buy or rent) is a bit pricey.  Solution: I have a 125 mm angle grinder and some diamond cutting discs! 

The process

• Add slab to the workbench

• Mark out the 300x300 mm sections on the slab ( I'm using a chalk line but an old marker and a straight edge would do)..  

• Cut along the lines, the disc only allows a partial cut - just slightly less than halfway through the slabs.

• The solution: turn over the slab and tap with a large hammer to crack the slab along the cut lines - sort like a heavy-duty glass cut.

• Rinse and repeat until all the slabs are cut into the standard sections. 

The 18 piers mean I can have 10 pallets as the piers are placed at the meeting points of the pallets.

which sort of  looks like this:

I've stitched the base pallets together with 150 mm ( 6 inches) wood screws at the junctions.  You can also see I've started to build the walls using the same process: screwing the pallets together at the corner and edge blocks.  So as time went on this week it was just a case of adding more pallets and screwing them together.

And my glamorous assistant Jamie!

( yes I can be a messy worker!)

I also started to think about roofing the shed.  Ahead of the shutdown I could get any free 2 x 4 beams to act as my rafters.  I did, however, manage to get a load of 10 sheets of used OSB (Orientated Strand Board) 3, Ideal for roofing from the lovely folks at Move on recycling at Granton (https://www.moveon.org.uk/what-we-do/move-on-wood-recycling).  Seriously folks if you need anything wood give them a go, they are a social enterprise, they do loads of training for local people and they help the environment what's not to like! 

I saw this video on youtube and thought this is the solution:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4twLuGRTxms

Big thanks to Stuart, this has really helped inspire me and get me out of a hole.  I went for 100mm cuts in the OSB rather than 200mm as I'm trying to preserve head height as much as possible.

I recycled the remaining good fence boards into the thin sections (30 mm high) for the top and bottom of the joists, trying these out on the roof of the shed they don't look too bad.

The real stress test is that they can each support my 18 stone (252 pounds or 114 kilos) plus weight so they should hold up fairly well supporting some roof boarding and felt.

After a conversation with a concerned neighbour I also decided to clad the outside wall to show what the finished shed will look like.  After 2 hours work before the weather closed in this morning this was what the outside wall looked like:

and from the inside

Anyways the weather is supposed to improve over the next couple of so I might get out again and finish the roof.  The aim ( and it is ambitious) is to get the shed wind and watertight by the end of Sunday!

This has been a real stress buster for me with everything going on around us just now, and I am lucky that I have the land to do this and a supportive wife.  If you are doing something similar please look after yourself and others and keep safe.

All the best wishes from Rob and everyone else at the Big Shed Build