When I built my shed I made it perfectly level. Then after it rained, the water wouldn't run down the gutters. It was to level.
JD
If it's up to me to get things square and level, there's every chance that there will be a little bit of "character" built into it. Perfection is over-rated
I asked my mate about building a bit of fall into the slab so I could hose it out and not have to sweep it. He didn't want to play that game.
Actually, related to that... what sort of gap have you guys built in between the slab and the wall sheeting? I want enough gap to be able to hose/sweep stuff to hit the wall and drop down beside the slab, but I don't want such a gap that it will blow the wind up and into the shed from there.
Spook - the owner of the steel processing business who is helping to build the shed never does things by halves. He's the guy who bought the 800 cubic inch motor for his street car. He's now building a 1500hp tubbed Chevy Nova for the street. He processes steel that's infinitely larger than what I'm playing with, so it must feeling like assembling a match stick house for him. I've let him run with it and I know that where I'm paying extra for the over-engineering, I'm not paying too much because he's a really good mate.
We were about 7m in the air on the scissor lift on the weekend, looking out to Mt Tamborine and we started talking about building a cantilevered balcony off the mezzanine floor. Seems like a nice spot to wind down on a Sunday arvo.
For now the, the focus is on prepping the pad for the slab. Hopefully all boxed up this weekend and it's a concrete party the following weekend.
Craig, Leaving a gap will invite snakes, mice, geckos etc. I would not be leaving a gap at all. Best practice is to lap the cladding down the side of the slab min 50mm. Between slab edge and the cladding, I normally specify a "Z" type flashing that runs the perimeter of the slab. This flashing closes off the corrugated ribs in the wall cladding to make it pretty much vermin proof.
Sloping slab will be a pain the arse in every way, other than when you are hosing ! ( hosing is for cowsheds !! IMHO ) Can't imagine you will get that much crap on the floor !?. Wash down bay with catch drains outside entry doors would be my idea. Interesting that you have embedded steel portal frames directly into bored concrete piers. Normally we would set bolts into reinforced pier to enable adjustments / levelling.
Trust that a good bitumen based paint was used on steelwork in contact with concrete. Muz
There are 2 thought about pouring the slab after the walls are fitted or before.
As I have moved house I need to build a new shed as well. My old shed had the concrete poured after which filled all the corrugation and keeps out all the bugs and spiders etc. The concrete was screened to a waterproof smooth finish and sprinkled with black oxide and neat concrete. It won't soak in water or oil etc. It's easier to sweep and hose out. Even though it's level, with a high pressure cleaner, you can just keep spraying towards the door and it won't leave much water on the floor. Any small puddles can be swept away, and it will dry overnight.
The disadvantages they tell me is that the sheets will rust. My old shed was 30 years old and didn't rust. Maybe the steel these days isn't as good as they won't guarantee against rust if you pour the slab after the sides are put up. So they suggest the lip that muzza was talking about. The z flashing sounds interesting, I haven't been told about that, as they told me to rest the sheets onto the concrete. But as the concrete won't be perfect, you'll still get gaps. So I might consider the z flashing. Also interesting about bolting the frame after. Great thread. I wish I could get a shed that big. I need 4 meters high for my hoist. How tall is yours?
JD
Muz, thanks for your comments. I'm keen to pick your brain on a couple of things if you don't mind me giving you a call?
JD - the shed is 5m to the eave. I figured the additional height wouldn't add much extra cost in the scheme of things, and I love the feeling of space as I wander aimlessly around the frame, dreaming of it being finished and stocked full of cars and tools.
There has been a range of red machinery during the build so far, so I thought I'd move one more piece on site to give me a bit of a feel for the space - and what might go where.
On my old shed I had the concrete purred up the the colorbond wall and even and a narrow strip around the outside so effectively sealing the shed as the bottom edge of the wall sheet was buried in the concrete.
That was good and bad. After 15 years or so there was a bit of rust appearing on the bottom of the wall sheeting from where the moisture collected. This got me to thinking what If I needed to replace a sheet?
On the new shed I had the slab poured inside again but the shed supplier had this neat plastic strip that attached to the bottom of the cladding. The concrete flowed under the strip sealing it in place but the cladding can be unscrewed and replaced if needed as it attaches to the plastic strip not the concrete. Makes for a neat bottom edge to the wall.
I've got to replace two sheets of wall cladding as I tagged them with the bucket on the tractor as I was driving along side it.
Cheers
__________________
Mike Murphy
Melbourne Australia
Thanks Mike, sounds like there's more than one way to skin a cat (or even a shed).
By the way, did it take some explaining when you went inside to say you'd run into the shed with the tractor. Did you get this TV advert down there..?
by the time you make racks and shelves throw in a few benches and tools the room disappears pretty quickly
Dean, I know that too big will never be big enough, but I'm hopeful that the ground floor will be only for cars, the hoist and some decent bench space. Everything else will be stored in the 10m x 8m mezzanine meaning I won't be tripping over things near the cars.
To accomplish this, I need to make sure I don't hoard things anymore. For example, in my current garage I'm fairly sure I don't need to hold on to the Powerglide (suit BBF), Powerglide and convertor to suit supercharged SBF, Turbo 400 and convertor for a supercharged BBC, or the rebuilt toploader. This kind of "I might use it for the next project" stuff really should be turned into free space and money in the bank...
Yep - planning to have an electric gantry hoist. A mate bought one but he prefers to lift and move things with his forklift so he never installed the gantry hoist.
Plumbing - no. I'll have a moderate sized water tank for a tap and car wash bay, but that's it.
Cobra Make, Engine: AC Cobra - ICCARS 001, 4.2LTwin Turbo, AWD, 5 speed tiptronic under construction
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Hey Craig, you know I thought that I would never fill my shed up when I built it 8yrs ago and then this happened... lol and that's just the back half - the front is for my Cobra's and I have a lean to (6mx6m) on the side that is full also.. need a bigger shed.. Ahrggg
Although the bigger the shed the more you put in it..
Wil, you have the height for a mezzanine, so you can double the amount of "stuff" in that shed. You have my permission! Out of interest, what is the width of your shed?
Cobra Make, Engine: RMC . 393 Dart alloy block Stroked 351 alloy heads ..all the goodies plus a pre oiler. al
Posts: 1,495
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DAMN .. you've got some nice toys. All you need is some organisation. you'll have heaps of room. I've got the same problem ... totally unorganised . Thats a project in itself.
I haven't had a chance to do much to the shed lately, so it was nice to get the formwork in place for the slab. Because there won't be a swarm of people here when the concrete is poured, and because only one person knows what they're doing, we are taking the careful option and doing the slab in two pours. For the slab size, I was glad to hear the concrete rep agree with our idea. He said he actually preferred to do two pours. It certainly reduces the risk of the concrete getting away from us, so that's the plan.
Spent some time checking and double checking levels, so hopefully we will end up with something that appears semi professional at a glance...
For no other reason than sparks look cool.
...and then the rain came down again...!
It is pouring down as I type this, so I'm fully expecting the moisture barrier to have become a pool by the morning. Fun times...
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