Temporary Tin Shed

[500 MJ]

Those of you who have read my past posts know how I have been planning to build a nice shop someday. Well, someday isn’t here YET, but last summer I needed to do SOMETHING to fill the need for additional storage. 

 

This is the story of the Tin Shed.
 

We’ll pick up this story with clearing of the building site. This is something that I had been working on previously for a few years. There were lots of trees to take down and stumps to grub out. The building site is west of the house, the log cabin home you see in the photos is my neighbor. 

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After clearing was complete I staked the Tin Shed’s footprint out within the stakes that I placed for the future shop. The idea is that the future shop can be built around this temporary building and then the temporary building dismantled from within. The site would need some fill anyway for the future shop so I stripped the dirt and ordered up about 5 trucks of fill. The longer that it sits here and settles out naturally, the less cracks I’ll have in my future concrete slab and foundation of the shop. 
 

 

[500 MJ]

Over the last few years I’ve been buying and reselling items through a local auction website to help boost the “savings fund” for the future shop. I used my resources from this auction to buy a “garage in a box” that rode the slow boat over from China. Here is a link to the company that sells it. 
 

https://www.tmgindustrial.com/collections/storage/products/21ft-x-19ft-double-garage-metal-shed-with-side-door-fully-galvanized-steel
 

I wanted something to get the Tin Shed off the ground so I laid out concrete blocks on the newly placed fill. There is no mortar between these blocks as I expected the fill to settle out anyway and I wanted them to be easily removed when the building is dismantled in the future.

 

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The shipping crate was cracked open and all pieces were strewn about the yard. LOTS of pieces! My helpers and I assembled the steel frame, this was not too difficult but I wish I had not tried to measure everything out and drill the holes like the instructions had said during this step. Later in the paneling and roofing portions I needed to realign some of the steel framing to fasten the panels correctly. Also, borrowed scaffolding was a MUST at this point. 

 

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Paneling and roofing followed next. At this point I began to develop a few changes to the plans for the building as well. I opted for a secondhand proper walk-in access door rather than the cheap assembled tin one that was supplied. I made my own jamb with treated lumber and framed it in. I also decided to put in some eave lights on the north side to allow some natural light in. 
 

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The driveway work came next and I followed up with smoothing out the topsoil against the fill as well. The building is sold with no front garage doors so I opted to build some doors of my own from some lesser quality rough sawn oak I had. They work, but boy they are HEAVY! 
 

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The eave lights were one of the last items to finish off after the doors were completed. Next I added some indoor LED lighting and outlets. I also built a few heavy duty shelves. 

 

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The Tin Shed was mostly done at this point, but Mother Nature had other plans. 

 

I had initially planned to anchor the shed to the ground with earth augers at each corner and vertical tie down straps to hold tight to them. If you look at some of the photos you’ll see them in the corners. These were tested late in the fall of 2022 and they did their job. We had a large rain/wind storm prior to winter setting in and they held the building down, but allowed it to slide laterally about 2’ on the concrete blocks. It took me a day of tugging with tow straps at each corner of the building to pull it back in line on the blocks but I eventually got it. I kept the earth augers in place and added in some external chains and binders to better handle the lateral loads. Now it can’t go anywhere. 

 

 

In 2023 I have a few more things to wrap up with the building, but it is essentially complete. Time will tell how long I actually need it to fill the stop-gap until I build the shop I want, but it serves the purpose for now. 

[Manche757]

Another quality project by the man from Belleville!   I see you have two capable young helpers but is someone else helping with putting the larger pieces in place?

[500 MJ]

9 hours ago, Manche757 said:

Another quality project by the man from Belleville!   I see you have two capable young helpers but is someone else helping with putting the larger pieces in place?

 

I did need help to get the truss arches up on their columns. Aside from that my helpers were ever present for their encouragement while I did the rest of the work myself with scaffolding, ladders and plenty of clamps. 

[Pete M]

excellent job.   I need one of these in my life     right now a lot of my stuff is outside under a tarp canopy.