I’ve mentioned this in a couple of blog comments over the last couple of months but thought why not let Oppo live vicariously through our experience. To that end...we are getting a shed.
Now, in Australia, we do sheds primarily in metal - rolled steel portal frame with corrugated steel sheet cladding on both roof and walls. This one is no exception. In this case, the roof will be off white while the walls will be grey-brown (or brown-grey).
They are designed and engineered as a series of ‘bays’. So, in our case, each bay is 4 metres wide and 9 metres deep and there are six bays, giving a total length of 24 metres. The height at the gutters is 3.8 metres and, due to the 22 degree roof pitch (we plan to install solar panels), 5.6 metres at the ridge. Four of the bays will have a 3 metre wide skillion roof extending out over their frontage. So it is quite a big shed. In old school measurements it’ll be nearly 79 feet long and 30 feet deep...
The four bays with the skillion will be enclosed and accessed via a full height double sliding door which will give a total opening (if required) approximately 3.2 metres high and 7.5 metres wide. There will also be a personnel access door. This entire area including the skillion will sit on a concrete slab. The remaining two bays will remain open fronted (with a beam over to give a full width opening and no support column) and with just a gravel floor.
The area on slab will be divided up into a ‘clean’ space and a ‘dirty’ space with the former for storage and artistic endeavours while the latter will be for the breaking, making and repairing of all sorts of mechanical, practical and sculptural endeavours. We don’t intend to have a vehicle hoist at this stage as we have a mobile trolley gantry to lift stuff (and not the time/budget for a project car) though I may consider something like a Quick Lift down the track. The open fronted bays are where the tractor and other farm equipment will reside.
The shed will also be a part of our water factory as the roof will collect rainwater that will be our drinking water and whole house supply. Currently we don’t have enough roof area over our house and current sheds to supply sufficient whole of house water for a typical year...so we have to supplement it with potable town water delivered by truck. It will also be where our solar power system will be installed in an effort to minimise our reliance on the occasionally spotty electricity grid around here.
We have local council approval for the development and are awaiting the construction certificate for the building itself. Hopefully the site will be prepared in the next couple of weeks and then construction can begin. Realistically though...I don’t expect completion until June. The wait will be interminable.