Me: I need 8 16' 4x4s, pressure treated.
Clerk: okay, what else
Me: 20 2x4s, 10' long.
Clerk: okay, what else
Me: 16 2x4s, 16' long.
Clerk: Got it, what's next.
Me: 20 2x4s, 8' long.
Clerk: Sorry, we don't carry those.
Me: Huh? You don't carry 8' 2x4s?
Clerk: Nope sorry, what else do you need?
Me: But they're right over there! I'll show you.
Long story short, I showed them to him, he got the item number and all was well. Just odd that he didn't know what I was talking about.
Back to the shed. The lumber was there, the weather was nice, Tim and I spent all day working on it.
The final dimensions were to be 16' wide, 40' long, 16' at the peak, 12' at the walls. The day before I laid out the area with batter boards and layout string. We dung post holes 2' deep at 8' centers down each side. First we assembled the north end wall with bracing, stood it up and dropped it in.
![Image](http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i299029_IMG1212.jpg)
Then there was a lot of dropping posts in holes, bracing to more or less level, some more bracing, and then usually some more bracing. Once the posts were in place I measure the distance I wanted from the ground to the top of the wall, 12' off the ground for the north east corner post. I cut that post off with a circular saw and then used that as a reference for the other heights of the posts and cut them off too. Those last few sentences were very, very difficult. First off, those posts are really up there! My little 6' ladder wasn't going to get even close, let along allow me to wield a circular saw at the top. So I knocked together the ladder you can see in this picture:
![Image](http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i299032_IMG1223.jpg)
It looks shakey, it feels shakey but I've been up and down it a hundred times now. The ladder is difficult to move around.
Also after a lot of hoisting up 2x4s and trying to level from one cut-off post to the next to be marked I am dreaming of a laser level, it would have saved hours of work and dozens of trips up and down that ladder!
Here's a view of much of framework up:
![Image](http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i299030_IMG1216.jpg)
And here is a deck view of some of the cross bracing:
![Image](http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i299031_IMG1219.jpg)
We had more time to work on the shed today and finished cutting the tops of the posts, attaching the top plates to tie the tops of the posts together and got the first four rafter trusses up along with the ridge beam. I'll get some pictures of that ASAP.
The strucutre is still pretty wobbly, filling and packing the post holes and putting up the rest of the trusses will help that. I think some additional diagonal bracing will be needed toward the top of the struture to further tie the posts together.
I've looked at a lot of boat shed designs, the ones that really stand out in my mind are George Buehler's from his boatbuilding book, the Stimson shed, and Reuel Parker's from his boatbuilding book. The Stimson shed was too enclosed, I really needed something open as I live in Florida and any kind of enclosure is going to be an oven. The major departure I took from George and Reuel's designs is using 4x4s at 8' oc because I wanted the bottom to be as open as possible rather than having 2x4s every few feet; and I used post holes rather than a sill. The reason for that was worrying about high winds, having the posts pinned in the ground really makes the structure more durable.
We'll put up the rest of the trusses (4' oc), and then bring the heavy-duty silver tarp over top with the ends bungeed to the longitudinal connecting members on the ends of the trusses (not sure what the name for them is.) The walls and ends will be open in the interest of trying to keep cool. There is room underneath for some work-benches, boat parts strewn about and the usual detritus. I have been collecting ceramic bulb holders people have been getting rid of so I'll string those up for lighting and run power over form the garage.
There are basically three criteria I am using to evaluate the design and execution: price, constructability, and design. Can't beat the price, about $400-$450 when all is said and done, including the $80 tarp, fasteners, and lumber. I will add it up again when I'm finished but that should be about right, even after I pick up some more 10 footers for bracing. That doesn't include the staging that hasn't been designed yet. Design wise I'm very happy with it. There is lots of room on deck to get around under the rafters, in fact I could have made things 6-12" shorter and still had lots of room. I really like the open bottom, makes it look more like a pavillion and less like an unfinished building; plus it is a lot easier getting materials through an 8' opening than a 2' opening. There is about 4' of over hang of the roof from the extreamity of beam, this should keep all but the most driving rain out. I've been dreaming of a proper backyard boat shed for years, this one forfills those dreams nicely.
Constructability is the ultimate problem with this shed. All the overhead work and top of 16' ladder work has been very difficult and time consuming. I figure we'll have about 5 man-days in it by the time we're done. If I had it to do over I would still do roughly the same design but would assemble each post/truss set together on the ground, stand them up and walk them over to their holes and not worry about how even everything is just relying on getting the holes as even in depth as possible. It would save a lot of work and would probably function just as well. Of course with a scissor lift and a crane this would have been easy. Having the boat in place and building the shed around it has also been difficult, it prevents cross bracing from one side to another. Of course we can also stand on the deck for many of the rafters, so I guess that's a wash.
I did end up making at least one silly mistake. I had two 16' 4x4s already from the engine gantry project so I only needed to order additional ones for the shed. Despite drawing this thing a dozen times, thinking it through a hundred and making countless parts lists I still ended up ordering two too few posts. It's going to work out though, I can just go and pick some up but I think I'm going to cantilever the back 8' section. The south west corner is very close to the base of my big pine tree (a lovely second growth slash pine) so there would be only a few inches of embedment of the post. There is very little weight on the posts so that isn't an issue. With the 8' top plates running out and diagonally braced back to the posts it should be fine. Its going to look a little odd, and if it falls down I'll post pictures, but it should be fine.
After all the work going into the shed and subsequent staging, working on the boat is going to be a relief! More pictures to follow.
David