My "Pinterest" Project Shed Build

[CliffB]

Backing up just a bit, here is what my husband, son and I accomplished on Sunday, when the builder wasn't here:

I am huge, huge, HUGELY grateful that they cleaned up that terrible pile of cedar siding that the house contractor left behind! And they were able to salvage me quite a lot of good pieces.



Meanwhile I worked on re-treating my steel roof panels. When I first did it, I diluted the vinegar half and half with water. And leaned them up against the fence so the solution could run down the grooves. My idea was to start some rust stripes. But I realized that the vinegar just beaded right off the metal. It had no effect. When I looked up how to do a better job of it, I learned that even straight vinegar is pretty weak, so diluting it was just a big waste of time and vinegar. I guess people put salt in the vinegar to make it work better. And someone suggested making a salt and vinegar paste and scrubbing it in, to rough up the coating on the metal.

So for my second treatment I laid the boards down flat, sprinkled vinegar and then salt all over them (1 at a time), and brushed the resulting sludge lengthwise with a push broom. Then I left them laying flat to maximize how long the vinegar and salt could be in contact with the metal.


I let that sit overnight, and then I poured small amounts of straight vinegar in each channel, and tilted each piece until the vinegar reached the other end. Then left them laying flat over night again.

After two days of the revised treatment, this is how the metal looks now.







It's beginning to have the striped effect I wanted. And hopefully that will reduce the glare, once they are installed on the shed.

I'll have to ask the man if he cares whether I rinse the salt off or not. I'd like to let it stay on as long as possible, until the rain washes it off.

Not sure if it really matters to you much but if the salt runs off the roof panels and onto the ground when it rains then the grass around the base of your shed will be killed and depending on the concentration of the salt you may not be seeing grass there for many months to come.

 

[Finnie]

Backing up just a bit, here is what my husband, son and I accomplished on Sunday, when the builder wasn't here: I am huge, huge, HUGELY grateful that they cleaned up that terrible pile of cedar siding that the house contractor left behind! And they were able to salvage me quite a lot of good pieces. Meanwhile I worked on re-treating my steel roof panels. When I first did it, I diluted the vinegar half and half with water. And leaned them up against the fence so the solution could run down the grooves. My idea was to start some rust stripes. But I realized that the vinegar just beaded right off the metal. It had no effect. When I looked up how to do a better job of it, I learned that even straight vinegar is pretty weak, so diluting it was just a big waste of time and vinegar. I guess people put salt in the vinegar to make it work better. And someone suggested making a salt and vinegar paste and scrubbing it in, to rough up the coating on the metal. So for my second treatment I laid the boards down flat, sprinkled vinegar and then salt all over them (1 at a time), and brushed the resulting sludge lengthwise with a push broom. Then I left them laying flat to maximize how long the vinegar and salt could be in contact with the metal. I let that sit overnight, and then I poured small amounts of straight vinegar in each channel, and tilted each piece until the vinegar reached the other end. Then left them laying flat over night again. After two days of the revised treatment, this is how the metal looks now. It's beginning to have the striped effect I wanted. And hopefully that will reduce the glare, once they are installed on the shed. I'll have to ask the man if he cares whether I rinse the salt off or not. I'd like to let it stay on as long as possible, until the rain washes it off.

Not sure if it really matters to you much but if the salt runs off the roof panels and onto the ground when it rains then the grass around the base of your shed will be killed and depending on the concentration of the salt you may not be seeing grass there for many months to come.

Thank you. That's ok. I'll probably be digging in a hardware cloth apron around the foundation to prevent my hens from laying underneath the shed, among other reasons. And then the chickens will probably prevent much from growing too, for a while until I get their run finished. Once I get them properly confined, then I'll see about fixing the landscaping all over the rest of my back yard. I was just starting to make good headway with that when I decided to get chickens in the first place. Now it's all back to square one with the gardening. But I don't mind- I like the chickens better than the old plants! Oh, and up above, I mistakenly said the man was spacing the studs at 16". But I remember now he said 24", when I was asking if there would be room for the pop door between two studs.

 

[Finnie]

Yesterday he got the wrap put on all around the shed.





And then when I walked around the back, I was surprised to see the progress on the doors!


He didn't come today due to the rain, and probably not tomorrow, either. But the next thing I think he said he was going to do after the wrap is putting in the windows and the trim around them.

 

[Nef003]

Wow, its looking real swell. Amazing! Spectacular comeback specially after the wind incident.

 

[TerryH]

It's looking great, Finnie!!!

 

[romien]

WOW, I am so jealous!!!!

Those doors are beautiful and I just know the coop is going to be gorgeous as well. Lucky chickens!!!

 

[kkapotsy]

This is amazing! Following for updates! New flock owner myself, but the cottage shed type coop is pretty much my long-term goal haha!

 

[Nef003]

If you don't mind me asking, what is the ball park on the cost of this build?

did you keep track of the building material list? cost of labor?

I want to make one now almost finish with my 12 capacity coup, just need to put on the roof and the nesting box mounted,.

 

[Finnie]

If you don't mind me asking, what is the ball park on the cost of this build?

did you keep track of the building material list? cost of labor?

I want to make one now almost finish with my 12 capacity coup,  just need to put on the roof and the nesting box mounted,.

It's sort of going to be a joint project, with the mini-barn company building the basic structure, and supplying the lumber for that, but also using roof metal, doors and windows that I bought myself before hand. And then after they are done with their part, I will take over and put the exterior siding on myself and finish out the interior myself.

So their estimate for their part of materials and labor is supposed to be around $5,000. And then I have been keeping track of all my other costs. So far I have spent just over $1100 on the doors, windows, roof metal, vinegar, etc... I just remembered I need to add $25 to the list that I gave to a friend of mine for driving me to Lowe's in her pickup truck to bring home the corrugated roof sheets.

So I imagine the costs will keep piling up as I build things like nest boxes, poop boards and roosts. I hope it will stay under 7k when all is said and done.

When I first started out with chickens, about a year and a half ago, I built what I was calling my "practice coop". I built that almost all by myself, kind of in a hurry. (Still took me 8 weeks.) But I knew that I would be wanting to do a more long term project that would be fancier, better designed, and hold more chickens. I'm excited that it's finally under way.

Here is a photo of my Practice Coop. I discovered from it that I can learn how to use power tools and build things that I didn't know I could do before. It was very empowering.

 

[Finnie]

Yesterday's addition was the doors and windows.

Close ups:




(The front windows, which are on the human side are not hinged, just fixed in place.)




The west side interior. Poop boards will be built beneath the windows, and the nest boxes beneath the poop boards. On the right of the partition wall is the human side.


The east side of the interior. Poop boards on this side too, with the chicken pop door somewhere underneath them.



Some shots of the human side:




The view out the west side window:


And then stepping back to see the whole thing so far:






He said he only has a couple more days to work.

Then it's my turn.