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 | 6/8/2016 9:41:46 AM Progress on the "Barn". |
Um… ouch. Very ouch. I have been working on putting an extension on the "barn" to put our firewood under so that we can free up space to move a lot of boards out of the shed and hopefully get some of my larger tools (like table saws) out of the house.   The first step was digging holes for some posts. My post-hole-digger is a real piece of scat, so I used one of my favorite antique shovels. (I think it might be around a hundred years old and still going strong.) Still not as easy as I hoped, since I was able to dig down about 16 inches on the far hole before hitting something solid... then 12 in the next hole, about 6 in the next, and less than 3 inches in the closest hole.   Even a strong metal post and the post thumper wasn't helping much, so I resorted to chiseling out of the closest thing to solid-stone with a 10 lb sledge hammer and giant steel spike… about five minutes at a time for most of a day and my back is threatening to seize up for the next month. So... ouch.   But of course, what to do about the less than 3 inch hole? The sidewalls are way too short to hold up the steel spike and holding a spike by myself and hitting it with a sledge hammer at the same time just doesn't work very well. So I looked around and found the next best thing to a second person... an old car rim. It nicely held up the spike but was loose enough not to grip the spike as I sledged it over around and around to break up the concrete-like stone.   While taking a break from chiseling out the compacted stone, I trimmed off the overhanging metal sheeting on the edges so I will be able to attach panels to the piping underneath. I was good and wore my best safety glasses (an absolute must especially when cutting anything metal), but I was foolish and though my hands were far enough away to not bother with gloves. Thankfully when the piece of metal swung around and smacked my hand it was just a minor impact and swung away again before resuming its jerky motion that could have caused some serious cuts. Yikes! Gloves woman!   I set the posts with the help of some bracing 2x4s (thank you hubby for suggesting two screws instead of one so that they would not slide out of place once I got them level both ways).   Concrete mixed and poured (and I think that is the end of that hammer drill and will need to get another replacement at Harbor Freight… yay for extended warranty on things you know you will break five times in two years!)   NOTE: Normally it is a much better idea to dig your posts down several feet (to get past the frost line), and many people recommend a hole quite a bit bigger around for more concrete... however, since I was chiseling through the equivalent of concrete to set these posts, I have no fear of them tipping over even at the most shallow of 12-ish inches deep. Also, they will be holding up light weight paneling over firewood, so I am not concerned that they will put anything at risk even if they did get knocked over somehow. If you are ever setting posts, be sure the depth and method matches what you need them for. And… ta da…. Once the concrete is good and set, I can put the side braces from post to post, roof brace from post to "barn" under that roof edging, then cut off the excess from the posts with my baby chainsaw. Then add the roof panels and cut some panels for each end and each post to post section. But I will have to wait at least a day to be sure the concrete is set enough to be messing with the posts that much. And of course, if you are wondering why the "Barn" gets quotation marks most of the time if I mention it... well it is because it isn't so much a barn as it is one of those pipe-piece-together portable garages made slightly more permanent by bolting the legs to fence posts driven into the ground and covered by a mixture of green-house panels and steel roofing that was from our old roof.   Um, yeah... so what if I am red-neck? You probably haven't seen the neighbors down the street that have a suit of armor tied to a tree at their driveway and more than one refrigerator in their yard. Yes... my "barn" is relatively high-class around here.
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POST LINKS FORWARD TO: 6/11/2016 10:03:42 PM - Done with the "barn" extension. | |
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POST LINKS BACK TO: 12/1/2014 3:30:42 PM - Thanksgiving Weekend and Covering a Barn Shelter | |
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