Lifetime Plastic 8x 18 Shed

Our last project update included the first three quarters of the shed build. I was wrong about the roof panels all being present. I was also wrong about donning the roof being easy. The 11 roof panels were all present, but the ridgeline parts were not all there.

What it should Look like

As you can see above, the roof is made up of about 3 foot square sections and then a series of ridgeline sections. Below I have outlined the bottom square sections in red, one ridgeline piece with a skylight blue, and the triangle sections for the roof above the side door in yellow. The first issue we had is that we did not set the bottom panels correctly...

They were supposed to be flush with the rim of the walls. We put them up with a four inch overhang. We had all 11 panels in place and secured before we noticed the error. As we collected all the ridgeline pieces and mentally prepared to redo the bottom panels, we realized that not all the Ridgeline panels were present. Luckily we have clear corrugated barn roof panels. Given that I did not want to redo the roof, Sarah and I moved the corrugated panel in place and found it covered the ridgeline gap perfectly. At that point we decided to keep the panels as they were and have more light come through. We used a full sheet for the Ridgeline and a few scraps for the missing pieces around the side door. In the end it does not look perfect, but it is complete and functional. The full length of clear Ridgeline lets in a lot more light than the little skylights would have. We probably should have taken a few extra minutes to clean off the debris from the panel. Lets hope the next heavy rain will clean it off.

The other topic I had mentioned on the last project update was the gable on the far end. The gable end in the above picture is a solid piece. The opposite gable was two pieces that had to be screwed together. Well we only had one half so I used that as a template to make a new gable out of wood as pictured below.

You can see that the rim of the back wall has about 8 inches of flat and then the center section with the 8 screw holes is beveled on the outside at about a 30 degree angle. My first plan was to hold the gable flat against the bevel, screw it on, then push it up to bend that plastic down . Unfortunately, attempting that proved folly. The wall began to buckle about a foot below the rim. We had to take it off and cut it to match the angle of the plastic. The end sections are on the inside of the plastic wall rim and the center section is on the outside.

In the end, it is a cob job...we did not want to spend any more time than absolutely necessary on this. I could not be happier with the skylight however. The only concern still hanging is whether or not the roof will leak at the trusses I made out of wood. The way the roof is designed, the metal trusses are gutters as well. The edges of the roof panels fit into the channel on the trusses. Any rain that flows down the side of the roof section drips into the channel and flows out the end of it like a gutter. I was not willing to take the time to router a channel into the wooden trusses so they are seated flush on the truss. I am assuming that rain will leak through. We did not have a tube of caulk or I would have just sealed it while I was already up on a ladder. Now we are gonna wait and see what happens and seal whatever needs sealing after the next rain.

As far as a review of quality and whatnot: I would consider buying one of these sheds. It is really important to have a good foundation to put it on. Of course we do not. I had described our base in the last post but to recap, it is pallets with 1 inch thick live edge mill scraps over the pallets. We "eyed' the level and went with it.

The floor panels that come with the kit are maybe 8mm thick and cannot support anything without a solid base. Building the shed becomes much more difficult when it is not on a perfectly flat and level surface. I actually needed Sarah to push the side door assembly in with the tractor and we secured it with wood deckmate screws and washers. There is still a gap to the right of the side door. The only instruction manual we can find is for their new model. Our shed is old...maybe more than a decade. One of the biggest changes is their attachment method for the side door assembly. We had to find something that worked and did. Once the shed has the roof on, it does become quite rigid. Even without the instruction and without a flat and level base, the shed goes up in a few hours. at 144 square feet and a 7 foot side wall, there is tons of space for stuff and things. We will see how it holds up through the winter.