The shed that is ;D
A wonderful day on Sunday, clear blue sky and only the slightest of breezes. My dad turned up just after 10 and after a quick cup of coffee and a hello to Mrs.N we loaded the car and scooted of to B&Q. Ten bags of gravel, roofing felt and adhesive, and a variety of screws and nails later we were back in the car and off to the lottie.
We flipped the old shed base onto the 'rubbish heap' and inspected what we had to work with. Thankfully there wasn't much laid down already, just a few fence posts and concrete blocks, the rest being bare earth with some ivy runners on the surface. We marked out our 6x8 footing and found that we only had about an eight foot strip to skim off the side and the rest would be fine as was.
It took us about half an hour to dig out, tidy up and give it a very rudimentary levelling off. any slight lumps & bumps would be straightened out by the gravel layer... which we then set about laying. I don't think Dad was too impressed by the mucky brown water that had dribbled out of the bags all over the boot of his nice new car :-[, but he didn't complain bless him ;D
So... gravel down, shovel it about with a rake and give it a bit of a level with a fence post. A quick check with the spirit level and we're almost spot on, a slight drop from back to front but I'm happy with that :) Bed the bearers down and check the levels again, then lunch.
The floor dropped straight onto the bearers and fitted like a dream, no wobbles and no bumpy bits :) Getting the sides up was no problem as they're fixed by two bolts at each corner and everything lined up exactly as it had when it came apart. Screw the sides to the floor and we had one (albeit open topped) shed.
The roof was a bit trickier as the two panels needed a bit of tidying up and repair from where we were a little over-enthusiastic in our dismantling. The ridge beams sit neatly in notches cut out of the apex so again, fitting it was pretty straight forward. The roofing felt is secured with clout nails and sealed with bitumen adhesive. I still need to tidy up the front & back edges and cut & nail the trim.
Not bad for a days work though!
A big thanks to all for their advice re the gravel quantities. I think the three tons that Jewsons quoted would've been a little excessive!