Tiger Shed Build

[mbartlett99]

A while ago there was some interest from a few guys on the subject of these kit log cabin affairs - Tiger Shed being one brand (I don't actually keep a tiger in there). I was in the middle of building one but never did get round to doing a wip - so I thought I'd do it now and try and point out some of the pitfalls to avoid.

They come in kits basically consisting of 2 x 4 heavily profiled on the edges that interlock and stack - available in a very wide variety of sizes and styles and generally look quite attractive. The major marketing point is the ease of construction - you can do it with no skills and it only takes 10 minutes kind of thing - all components are premachined and floor panels, windows and doors all just slot in. Well I knew it would be unlikely to be that easy but what the hell - I didn't have time to go from scratch and it needed to look good next to the house, be well lit and warm.

Fairly easy now I could see what I had to work with; fairly lucky with a solid concrete slab and well settled victorian brick patio to build on.

Going across different surfaces meant no chance of being level. I could have chosen to pour a slab but there was no upside to that at all, I had an autocad drawing so knew the dimensions of the shed and decided to build a dwarf wall to fit.

I'm not a great bricky and it had turned really properly cold but this gave a level playing field to work off. Having now looked at the parts list I realised that they intended this to be built on a level slab - the floor comes in lightly made panels which aren't strong enough to span any reals gaps - unless you want a trampoline. So ...

This isn't a great photo; it doesn't show the final foundations (closest to camera) but its basically 3 x 6 frame - pressure treated sitting on dpm and then covered with bitumen faced osb. By now it was snowing and that osb was like a skating rink.

 

[mbartlett99]

The kit arrived on the back of a low loader and they craned it onto the lawn.

Now I could finally see what I got for my money. Well it was ok but all white pine totally untreated; on their list of option you could buy some cans of treatment to coat it with once you built it but I thought it a rubbish and expensive solution. I never intend to have to touch this once I've built it so laid it all out (took quite a while) and gave every single piece two coats on all sides (rather than just the outside face which they suggested) so if water did penetrate the joins I still have a chance of being ok.

That took a while but it was worth it. Workshop has been up for 4 years without an inch of movement or any rot issues - long may that continue. Has to be said that all the extra work added substantially to the overall cost and time. That osb ain't cheap at all.

Now it was time to get cracking on the hopefully more rewarding and quicker part ...

 

[mbartlett99]

Well it didn't get warmer thats for sure but at least didn't involve digging or concrete. One big deal was that this thing had to be warm and dry - the existing garage affair was freezing and drafty as hell. None of the kits I saw had any option or consideration of this; the walls would be ok as wood is a good insulating itself and were 2" thick, the floor and roof however were just 18mm t&g which would be nigh on useless. Kingspan to the rescue - 100mm tightly fitted into the gaps in the floor panels and taped up. Here's they upside down - they all fit together quite well without any visible gaps.

It was important to get this bit all square and screwed down as it all follows on top so a cockup now would be hard to fix. Time to get the walls up.

Sadly I don't have any photos of the joints close up. In the incredibly dumb instructions they basically have you just stacking them all the way; you could try it I guess if you like gaps and your shed blowing away. I gunned in mastic to the outermost grooves to stop drafts/water and then fired 6" screws every few feet to bring it all in tight. The walls went up very quickly and easily - the parts are well machined but the mastic was slow going - wish I'd had an electric gun for that, my hands were killing me - there's a few hundred feet of it after all. Also a massive shout to Makita - those 10.8 drivers are absolutely the business, there's hundreds of 6" screws in that shed and that little driver smashed them in all day no worries.

Finally getting an idea of the finished article. The window frames/door frame are prefabbed and pretty heavy so I thought it best to drop the windows out and lift the frame in - still quite awkward as you have to build up quite high to hold them and then slot them down. TBH while the windows/doors them selves were quite good quality the frames were not and I had to take care to keep them square as I screwed them in.

The entire structure is a bit flimsy as it gets higher until you get the top course on which locks it all up and then the roof stucture which also ties it all together.

You can just see the first bit of roof going on and it very thin t & g. Sadly I have no photos of what I did next which was to build a 6" edge around the roof, fill that with 6" kingspan and then cover that with osb. It was a very very good investment.

 

[mbartlett99]

For some reason I don't have photos of the rest of the build but it was fairly humdrum in any case. 4 coats of sikkens walnut stain put on with a roller (ie heavy), guttering and running in the electrics. One point is that the felt supplied was terrible and I mean really bad. So that got binned and I got some heavy stuff from Travis Perkins.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Its been up for a while and haven't had an issue; certainly warm enough and no drafts at all, even in winter a small oil filled radiator keeps everything cosy, does get a bit hot in summer with all that glass and sun from morn til dusk but then there's lots of windows to open up too.

Finished the interior with Bona Mega - a water borne poly meant for floors. Goes off quick, hard as nails and no smell at all. Just got to get on with making it a proper workshop now. I'll be keeping the machines in the garage and making this the nice quiet one cw with phone, internet and maybe a tv. Workbench might help too I suppose.

 

[MattRoberts]

I've just bought a little 7x5 shed from tiger sheds, just waiting to go up - but it pales in comparison to that! Looks great!

 

[mbartlett99]

Thanks, I think they do look alright generally and with a bit of stain blend in well. Mines a 6.5m x 2.5 which is big enough for me (it was originally for my ex's picture framing business).