So, what do you do when you can't fit all of your tools in one shed? Well, you build
another! Here I'm going to finally share with you a lean-to shed that I built last year. So,
keep on watching. And yes, there'll be a free set of plans, and the whole video is time-stamped.
So, after building my workshop in our new bungalow's garden,
we had a little spot on the right where, as a team, a few of us dug up and removed the topsoil.
Tampered it down. And laid some weed control on top.
Next, for the base, I cut two structural pieces of timber down to the same depth of the existing
shed and laid them out to get an idea of how wide I needed the other running spars to be. And don't
worry about the measurements, I'll leave a free pan below if you want to make one yourself too.
And screwed them all together, evenly.
Now, it's only a little shed. So it was propped from underneath to get it level with some treated
timber. But you could use some sand and slabs. Bricks. Or, of course, a more expensive route,
a concrete foundation. It's completely your choice. Then I removed it to treat it. Again,
you could use pressure-treated structural timber and only treat the ends once you've cut them.
And after that quick job one Saturday afternoon, I then went to my dad's woodyard another day
to build the shed itself. But this time, with my husband as an assistant. First,
I started on building the frame for the only one long side that we'll need. And I held
two pieces of timber together - also known as CLS. And these have also been ripped in half
and I'd already marked where I needed to cut them down. Now I'm measuring every
15 inches from the start, and these are where the upright spar supports will be.
And instead of a clamp, my husband's holding them tight while I cut those down to size.
And because it's a lean-to where I wanted the rain to drip off
this side, it needed to be shorter than the end of the workshop that it will be attached to.
To work out the height of the upright spars though, we pushed a long upright piece against
the two and hooked a tape measure on the end and transferred our height mark
on the upright. And that new mark was the height that all of my spars needed to be for that side.
Now I'm temporarily toenailing the bottom stud to a square frame underneath.
But don't let whatever's underneath confuse you. The base underneath belonged to another shed that
was in the middle of being built. And finally, I'm screwing all of those uprights between the
top and bottom piece. For the next shed panel, it was the first sloping narrow frame. Because
we've already got a square frame underneath on the table, we'll be nailing the first frame onto that
so we don't have to keep checking everything for squareness all the time.
And it saves space while you continue to build the rest of the panels on top. Again,
I've got the top and bottom sections together so I can quickly mark where the spars will go.
Then it's taken away. And me and my husband, like teamwork, screw long
spars where the pencil lines are. But, because we're going to cut the spars to form a slope,
the upright ones here are longer than we need. And that top piece with the marks is
then temporarily lined up and screwed on the upright spars to stop them moving for now.
To get the slope, I needed to transfer the height of the shortest side of the shed.
Then measured and marked our desired height on the opposite side. And to get that continuous slope,
I positioned a straight edge in line with those two marks. Drew against it and cut with a handsaw.
And screwed it on, but with an overhang which was hand sawed off later.
With us having a sloping frame now, we were then able to remove the temporary timber
that kept the spars in place. And because it's got those upright spar measurement marks on it (that
we did earlier), this then becomes perfect to use as the last frame's bottom piece. And another top
piece is temporarily screwed onto the first one as we need to match it. Then goes on the final
uprights on top - currently longer so we could mark from underneath where the top piece is.
Cut them down and screw between the bottom and the top sloping piece.
Now I was able to hand saw the overhang off, so it's flush. However, this panel
that you see in front of me will have a door. So I positioned a spar eight inches from either side.
Time to cut them on the crosscut saw and screw them in,
above the door. We also needed a frame piece cut down and screwed in.
And another mini spar above it for support.
And
I unscrewed the top sloping frame to flip it over. You don't want to cut it the wrong way around.
And it's getting toenailed at the sides again to make sure it doesn't go out of square. Okay,
so we've got the three sides we needed. It's time to build the roof's framework.
And exactly the same process. Screwing spars evenly between the top and bottom piece.
And then another one just before the final end spars. And it's this inner one that will be
screwed to the shed. The outer one will be able to create an overhang, which the roof felt will
be nailed to. And then a bit more trim. Next, it's time to clad with tongue and groove. First, I nail
gunned smaller sections to either side of that door, but that first one starts with an overhang
and it'll act like a skirting around the base. And I was always advised to work in threes as I go,
making sure each one is in the groove properly. Otherwise, it might look odd
when you put the other side panels on, or it might not look even around doors and windows.
But,
I'd stop just before I got to the top of the door opening, then move on to the opposite side of the
door.
And once I had symmetry, I could then attach a continuous piece along the top,
followed by a small angled piece already cut. But sometimes you've seen me use a flush trim router
bit after it's nailed down. Whatever is easiest for you. We then removed the toenailed nails to
access the next frame and carry on cladding. I know! I should really wear some knee pads!
And at this point, I had the panels dropped off to the bungalow, so I could start giving them two
coats of preserver. And I almost forgot to say, I also nailed some trims on the end of the panels.
And while I was doing that, my dad had screwed the base to the workshop
and laid gravel around it. And I came along to line it with plying wood.
Then I started screwing all three side panels on top of the base.
But before I cladded the roof, we tested to see if it fit.
Good stuff.
For cladding, I trimmed down a sheet of plywood with a circular saw,
and again screwed down to the spars.
Next was to add the roof felt, which I rolled out and sliced two lengths leaving an overhang.
And clout nailed along one edge all the way around that's the lowest part of the slope.
For the corners, I tucked and folded them around and added more clout nails.
For the opposite side of the roof, which will be the tallest part,
this was also clout nailed, but just on the longest side to allow me to overlap it. And
I must have forgotten to hit record, so I'll flashback to my method where I mark
on the other sheet with a hammer to create an indicator for myself where the overlap falls.
That way, I could pull it back - make some more marks with a hammer, indicating where
the spars are - and this is where my clout nails will go. After i've applied the bitumen,
I then put the sheet back. Pressed down evenly with my feet.
Clout nailed it down where those spae references were.
Once complete, I moved on to the staining of the three roof trim pieces
and left them to dry before screwing on. Quick tip that I've learnt, though
is if you're in a rush - just throw some sawdust on it after and it'll dry instantly. Make sure you
don't add one to the side that's obviously going to be attached to the building. After screwing and
cutting the last roof trims on and placing it on top of the shed, I screwed it to my workshop shed
again where we could tell where the spars were. And screwed underneath the tops of the frames.
And here's a close-up - we'd also fitted another piece of felt and trim between the two
sheds to create another overlap, so rain wouldn't go back that way.
But before I talk you through how I built the shed door for this project, I'd like to thank Readly,
the magazine online subscription app for sponsoring this project. Now, a lot of you know
that I have SO many different hobbies, from woodworking, home renovations, narrowboating,
ancestry. Doing family research and keeping fit and healthy in the last year - which the girl in
this video has only JUST started that journey! Oh, and sewing. I have bought so many expensive
sewing magazines, but they have inspired me to do things like amazing patchwork quilts I've been
proud of! But the problem is, magazines can be so expensive. So for the price of £7.99 a month,
I can get over 5 5000 titles instead of just the one. And you can use the same account on up to
five different devices, including desktops. And also set different profiles and privacy settings
if you want to hide what you're reading. And you might have teenagers that want to
keep up with the latest "Shout" magazine as I used to as a teenager. Or Beano magazines in
my earlier years. Or should I say comics! And there's other benefits too. It's space-saving.
It cuts down waste. I can use it anywhere, anytime. At home, the bath, on the narrowboat.
I would have totally been the girl reading it on public transport, but luckily I've changed jobs.
But if you do miss tearing out physical recipes and things to save for later,
you can also screenshot or bookmark certain pages like I do when I want to cook something
in the kitchen. And I was very pleased to see lots of keto and low-carb recipes which I eat.
Although I do have to cook differently, like this meal for my husband. Ad one of my favorite things
about Readly, is that I'm able to search certain key phrases, looking for my favourite artists
and certain interviews, so I don't have to flick through hundreds or thousands of magazines.
Or even search for my own name to see if anybody's mentioned me, which has happened
and I've not known about it. So yeah - if you are interested in trying a two-month free trial,
then I'll leave a link below. Right - time to go back to the woodyard and build the door!
An easy way to do it is, push together the two trims of the door opening and two for the door's
trims. Measure the width of your shed's untrimmed door opening and line that measurement with a
tape measure on the gathered trims. Then pull it back by the amount of clearance. In this case,
that's 15mm clearance. And then you have the width of your door frame.
As for the height of the door's framework, I measured the height of the opening and reduced it
by about 1cm. I've noticed sometimes that my dad does 2cm. That bit won't require any trim. Plus,
the cladding at the bottom will overlap again, like it does with the rest of the shed.
So here's my framework. I pre-drilled and screwed them together to make a rectangle.
And started marking and screwing where the cross supports would go.
I check for square again.
Then the all-important z-brace to prevent any sagging. The downward part should be
angled towards the hinge side. And started nailing the cladding on. It definitely helped
with the frame and the cladding pushed against a flat edge on the workbench.
As for the trim, I hand sawed a notch out to match the door's cladding overhang. Otherwise,
the door won't close properly. And nailed a piece on either side.
Then it was time to fit hinges. And of course, in line with the cross supports before moving on to
a bolt. I'll later remove this though, because I wanted to stain the whole thing twice when I
got it home. I'll tell you what - I always love doing DIY under this carport when it's raining.
Another video on that below as well! I've also got two shed trims here to treat
as well as a top piece that'll be screwed to the cladding above the door. And now it was
time for the treated door opening's trim to go on. Another piece just behind that called a stop-lat,
which stops the door from being pushed inwards and putting pressure on the door's overhang cladding.
"Fingers crossed it fits!" And I've got a lucky leek in my back pocket from Wales.
Hey, it looks good! To help. my dad put a prop underneath for me to push up with
one foot while I could also screw the hinges on. Well, it would help if I could get to my tools!!
And while in situ, the other bolt bit could go on as well, and the above door trim.
To make the bolt and hinges secure, this is where I removed some of the screws and drilled holes,
and threaded coach bolts through. And I know I had a few comments before about how I didn't
do this on the workshop shed. I did do. But, this is where I did them all at the same time.
And popped a washer and nut on and cut the excess off with a multi-tool.
Or you could use an angle grinder or a hacksaw. And finally, came back later to hang gardening