California Mountain Wood Shed - Think I'll call it Done! (Maybe)

[Beowulf]

Well, last spring I got inspired to start on a wood shed by PapaDave's thread on his shed project. Thanks again for the great photos, they were very helpful!: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/54742/

My shed is more of a hovering hard tarp; in our little mountain place we are very sheltered from wind, so I am going to test the option of no sidewalls this winter and see how it goes. We get almost no rain (ever), most of our precipitation comes in the form of snow that does not seem to get blown around much. This ain't the midwest

Here are a few photos of the build sequence and the "finished" project.

Overall dimensions on the roof are "about" 32' x 16'.

Out of some desire to get some wood seasoning, the wood cutting and stacking preceded the shed building, then kind of continued in parallel with the project...

 

[Beowulf]

The next few photos...

 

[Beowulf]

Last photo... at the point that I'm calling it done, if I don't get too much snow blown up on the wood this winter.

Corrugated steel roof, 6"x6" posts bolted to 12" dia concrete anchors. Concrete forms go about 24" below the surface (frost line is usually less than about 6 inches here.) There is a trim piece/drip molding across the leading edge to keep water from running down the underside of the roof. Construction wood is mostly Douglas Fir with some green copper sulfate treatment stuff slopped on it to slow the bugs down a little.

Roof is attached with hex bolts with rubber washers under the head; there are about a zillion or so stainless screws holding all of the "Strong-Tie" hurricane ties to the rafters and corner braces about everywhere you can put them.

Total cost with having to buy almost everything was about $1,800.

Shed is about 50' from the house and 20' feet from a driveway that gets snow blowed. The tall side faces south and gets some sun through the trees. The wood stack is a feeder to the primary unit that we feed the house from, a little 8' x 8' former artists studio by the house that holds about a cord. I think we have about 8 cords stacked on the platform under the roof now, which should get us by for maybe 3 winters. We access it from the three "uphill" sides, and have the ability to back the truck up to it to throw wood directly onto it, when loading it.

Had a lot of fun building it; the DW, FIL and DS helped considerably. Those 12' long 6"x6" posts were a little bit of a challenge to stand on end and get bolted down to the concrete posts, but it was possible with two people. We bolted a 16' 2x6 to one end, and one guy steadied the top end while the other guy ran the air wrench.

 

[maplewood]

Wow - super pictures. What a project. I like your large roof - and agree that you might not need walls.
Why did you make it so tall? Are you planning to store lumber or other things in the "loft"?
I didn't have adequate bracing on my shed (16'x26') and the wind took it. I'm re-building next year.
Happy burning!

 

[SolarAndWood]

Nice shed, does 6" really count as frost?

 

[PapaDave]

Beowulf, That came out great!
It's interesting to hear the differences in building technique because of locale and climate.
Thanks for all the detailed info, and you deserve a cold beverage of your choosing for all that work.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Cool! I laughed when I saw that you had wood in it before the roof was even on it

 

[oldspark]

" This ain’t the midwest " I have learned my lesson, nice shed. :lol:

 

[Beowulf]

Thanks for the feedback, folks!

Wow - super pictures. What a project. I like your large roof - and agree that you might not need walls.
Why did you make it so tall? Are you planning to store lumber or other things in the "loft"?
I didn't have adequate bracing on my shed (16'x26') and the wind took it. I'm re-building next year.
Happy burning!

Maplewood, sorry to hear about your roof departing! I hope mine is anchored ok; lots of hurricane ties. We will see.

It ended up kind of tall for two reasons:

1. You guessed right, I want to store lumber, ladders, maybe a canoe, etc. in the top.

2. The lot is a steep slope (drops about 60 ft in 100 ft of lot depth) towards the south. I wanted the open end to face south, if I ended up putting walls on the other three sides. I also wanted the short wall to face north to minimize snow coming in if I don't put walls on. To get the north wall tall enough to walk around under easily, and have some slope to the roof to shed snow, the south wall ended up pretty tall.

Oldspark... I grew up in the flatlands of Nebraska; we only saw horizontal snow. It is amazing to watch snow actually fall straight down here because of the orientation with the mountains and trees. ;-)

 

[cptoneleg]

Nice looking shed Aman never has enough storage, How long and wide ? Love the pictures of the sheds .

Cpt

 

[Ratman]

Best open style shed I've seen on this site so far.
Lots of concrete and wood.

I'm such a homeboy so don't piss on me too bad for the next question.
You get snow in Southern Cal?

 

[Beowulf]

Best open style shed I've seen on this site so far.
Lots of concrete and wood.

I'm such a homeboy so don't piss on me too bad for the next question.
You get snow in Southern Cal?

Thanks Ratman,

Yep, at about 6,000 ft elevation we see a couple of feet (or more) a year. I think the record here was 12 ft in a particularly wet winter. Couple of hours to the beach

 

[leaddog]

Best open style shed I've seen on this site so far.
Lots of concrete and wood.

I'm such a homeboy so don't piss on me too bad for the next question.
You get snow in Southern Cal?

Couple of hours to the beach

That statement will really hurt here in about 4months when we are neck deep in the white stuff and have to slip and slide to get to the airport to find a beach. But thinking about it I'm less than 30 minutes from one of the nicest beaches in the world. Just not in the winter. And our water doesn't taste salty but it is solid in Jan.
leaddog

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Nice shed. Sure beats covering your piles with tarps and what-not, huh?
Not to be picky, and it's hard to tell from the pictures, but did you put felt paper under the metal roofing?

 

[Beowulf]

Nice shed. Sure beats covering your piles with tarps and what-not, huh?
Not to be picky, and it's hard to tell from the pictures, but did you put felt paper under the metal roofing?

Nope, probably should have, but cheaped out on it.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Nice shed. Sure beats covering your piles with tarps and what-not, huh?
Not to be picky, and it's hard to tell from the pictures, but did you put felt paper under the metal roofing?

Nope, probably should have, but cheaped out on it.

Yeah, well I didn't put any under my metal woodshed roof either, but my roof section is less then 4 ft long.
On my old house though, I built a larger roof section over a deck (about 16x12 ft) and neglected to put felt paper under the metal and about 3 or 4 times a year with very specific weather conditions (humid air and frost) it would literally rain under that metal roof. The moisture in the air would condense underneath the metal and it would start dripping everywhere under the roof. It was very frustrating as the roof was suppose to keep the deck dry and here it was dry everywhere else outside, but raining under my deck and getting everything on the deck wet that was suppose to stay dry. It was almost comical if not for all the stuff getting so wet.

 

[cptoneleg]

Nice shed. Sure beats covering your piles with tarps and what-not, huh?
Not to be picky, and it's hard to tell from the pictures, but did you put felt paper under the metal roofing?

Nope, probably should have, but cheaped out on it.

Yeah, well I didn't put any under my metal woodshed roof either, but my roof section is less then 4 ft long.
On my old house though, I built a larger roof section over a deck (about 16x12 ft) and neglected to put felt paper under the metal and about 3 or 4 times a year with very specific weather conditions (humid air and frost) it would literally rain under that metal roof. The moisture in the air would condense underneath the metal and it would start dripping everywhere under the roof. It was very frustrating as the roof was suppose to keep the deck dry and here it was dry everywhere else outside, but raining under my deck and getting everything on the deck wet that was suppose to stay dry. It was almost comical if not for all the stuff getting so wet.

That shed in this post will not sweat, felt would have been a waste of time money and looked like crap.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Nice shed. Sure beats covering your piles with tarps and what-not, huh?
Not to be picky, and it's hard to tell from the pictures, but did you put felt paper under the metal roofing?

Nope, probably should have, but cheaped out on it.

Yeah, well I didn't put any under my metal woodshed roof either, but my roof section is less then 4 ft long.
On my old house though, I built a larger roof section over a deck (about 16x12 ft) and neglected to put felt paper under the metal and about 3 or 4 times a year with very specific weather conditions (humid air and frost) it would literally rain under that metal roof. The moisture in the air would condense underneath the metal and it would start dripping everywhere under the roof. It was very frustrating as the roof was suppose to keep the deck dry and here it was dry everywhere else outside, but raining under my deck and getting everything on the deck wet that was suppose to stay dry. It was almost comical if not for all the stuff getting so wet.

That shed in this post will not sweat, felt would have been a waste of time money and looked like crap.

My post was not meant to be derogatory towards Beowulf's fine woodshed at all, and I hope it was taken that way, it was more one of curiosity of experience. Certainly the small showers I was getting off my deck roof would never be enough to hurt firewood in any way, and as I already stated, I didn't bother to put any felt paper on my metal woodshed either, still I can't see why it wouldn't happen in Beowulf's shed since his metal roof is constructed in basically the same way mine was? Cptoneleg you seem to be pretty sure of yourself, perhaps you could elaborate on this a bit?

As for it looking like crap, I built another metal roof covering an outside patio area on our new home, and this time I did put felt paper and it looks fine to me, I mean compared to galvanized metal anyway. However I can see some slight water marks which tell me the metal on this one was sweating as well, but this time no rain showers. ;-P

 

[cptoneleg]

No harm intended, just have been an ironworker for 30 yrs , one time I startrd a little business built plenty of barns sheds with plenty of circulation never saw one sweat enough to amount to anything, If it would have the hay farmers woul have rased hell with me. BC where is that Canada? That is alot of moisture on that felt. Had a galv. metal roof on the back deck of my house for several yrs till I finally had it shingled to match my house never did that. But the felt isn't stopping it it appers to be catching it. Is it doing this in summer winter or both. And I have seen metal buildings enlosed that would frost on the inside then melt if ther was not ventilation. and or insulation.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Yes BC is in Canada, just above the state of Washington, I live about 20 miles from the border.
I noticed the sweating occurring on damp mornings (fall mainly), but the drips (rain) only happen, or at least I only noticed it happening, when the sun hit the roof first thing in the morning. I only ever caught it happening twice, but a few other times I noticed everything was wet under the deck, probably happen a lot more times, but I just wasn't around or didn't notice it before it had a chance to dry up.
And yeah, the felt paper just seems to be catching the drips rather preventing the sweating.
One other observation, is I live in a pretty dry climate (semi arid), so I would have expected that condensation problem to be worse in other climates where it's more humid.

Maybe Beowulf will let us know if he ever notices it happening under his shed.???