Backyard Shed
(Page 3 of 12)
August/September 1993
By John Vivian
On paper, experiment with door and window locations. The shed is long and narrow, with a single door in one end wall and a double door on the front at the other end. This will give the most long-wall storage area. Put a big window beside the front door. Or you might want doors on the front and windows on the sides. Note: Detailed instructions for hanging the doors and windows of this shed will appear in the upcoming issue, No. 140.
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Design your shed's frame around the placement and "rough cutouts" for doors and windows. Openings should be a bit larger (all around) than the box frame of prehung units or the margins of freestanding, prebuilt windows or doors, plus twice the thickness of door-frame boards. The opening for a single door should be at least 33" wide to admit the tiller. Double doors can open 60" or so for the lawn tractor or to let you come and go with arm loads of tomato stakes. Live with the shed on paper for an imaginary season; you may even make scale cutouts of your wheeled equipment to make sure it will fit.
Properly anchored in a mortared-block foundation, your shed will be a permanent structure. So, take your plan to the regional building inspector and local zoning boards to find out restrictions of size, appearance, materials and structural design. Also find out if your shed must be a certain distance from shared property lines and public ways. Follow the rules or you may be forced to tear your work down. Now, pick up your materials and get to work. Take your time and enjoy. Every hour or so, relax with a cool drink and quit for the day before you get too tired.
Foundation
This shed will be a work of art you can be proud of. Don't ask for a lopsided eyesore in a few years by plunking it directly on sod, on a pair of 4 x 4 timbers, or on concrete blocks sunk a few inches into the ground. If you've got money to spare, have a contractor install a poured concrete floor with footings around the perimeter; attach the frame to the anchor bolts he'll put in. Or use cylindrical Sonotubes to form poured concrete piers with molded-in anchor bolts. Easiest for an amateur is to build foundation piers of concrete blocks.
Clear and mow a level piece of ground at least 25' long and 12' deep and lay out stakes and crisscrossed string to locate the foundation. Along what will be the shed's back line, sink a pair of flatboard stakes 20' apart, with their wide sides facing one another. Run taut cord between them, tying foot-long loops at both ends so the cord can be adjusted and removed. Measuring carefully, set stakes to hold another line 7'4" in front of and parallel to the back line.
To lay out the side lines, sink a stake 2' to the rear and 2' in from one of the back stakes. Run line from it and across both front/back lines to another stake out in front. Use the framing square to make it perpendicular to the lines in place. Put in the other end line 15 1/2' from the first. Where lines cross will be the approximate outside corners of the foundation.
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