Small Building Construction, Part Five

Dear Preppers and Survivalists,

So far, the foundation has been laid, the floor was built, the walls have been roughed in, and the roof is kind'a on. Now, we are going to talk about siding.

There are many different kinds of siding, vinyl, cedar shingle, and ... to name a few. We decided on an engineered wood. It has a kind'a bead board look, on the front, and OSB on the back.

Now, I'm going crazy. We are putting up tyvek house wrap on this shed.

House wrap helps to weather-proof the walls by allowing water vapor to flow through the wall but keeps rain and wind out of the building.

Why did we do it?

Because we live in earthquake country. I wanted a small, well-built alternative shelter, just in case we lost the house to an earthquake.

Now, you will notice that I didn't use the tape DuPont recommends when overlapping the tyvek because I overlapped, a lot. Each corner is overlapped by about 16 inches. The top, that's uncovered in this picture, will have a 24 inch overlap.

If you're wondering why, I had to buy a 100 foot roll. I only needed about 50 feet.

A short 2X4, about two feet long,
for attaching sheathing and siding

Next, I finished the rest of the walls, by filling in the top of the walls with two triangles.

But,

Before I did that, I had to add a small piece of 2X4 to act as an attachment point for the sheathing.

Now, you will notice I attached the 2X4 at the top by screwing through the plywood at the top of the trusses and the OSB wall sheathing.

You will also notice the seam for the two sheets of OSB wall sheathing meet at the small piece of plywood.

So, how did I mark the wood to fill in these two triangle? I used a little geometry.

First, I measured the bottom of the triangle opening, from the edge of the OSB to under the roof. Next, I measured from the bottom to the top of the roof kind'a along an imaginary line that follows the seam of the OSB.

Next, I cut the piece of wood into the triangle then measured (really a guesstimate) the part that I needed to cut off the triangle to allow it to fit.

Needless to say, I made a mistake. OSB is designed to have an inside and an outside side. One side is marked: "This Side Down" that side faces the inside of the building. The other side, unmarked, is the outside side.

As you can see from the above photo, one triangle is marked the other unmarked. I didn't realize I made a mistake until I took the photo.

Oh, well. Another part that is "less than perfect."

Once that was finished, I 'wrapped' that part of the building with tyvek. I cut a piece of about six feet wide, turned it on it's side, stapled the top, stapling as I moved along the roof, and cut the excess house wrap, once I finished stapling.

Once, the house wrap was finished; I cut the openings for the windows. I folded the cut pieces, so the top, sides, and bottom of the window's rough opening would be protected.

I didn't cut a small piece of tyvek to completely cover the bottom of the rough opening. I wasn't going that crazy.

Next, I started attaching the siding.

The siding, we choose, come in a four feet by eight feet sheet. Since our walls are seven feet high, and I wanted a 2 inch overhang to cover the outer part of the floor. I cut the siding down to 7 feet 2 inches.

My wife had to work late, so she couldn't help with the siding, so I had to hang it by myself.

I was able to do that by rigging some wood to hold the siding panel as I wrestled it into position. Once the siding was in position, I nailed it to the walls.

About that being 'in position.'

Because there are these long vertical lines in the siding, I had to insure the siding panel was hanging straight up and down (plumb). To do that, I held the siding up as I held a four-foot long level to the side of the panel then nailed it in place. Needless to say, it was a lot harder doing it then writing it.

At first, I only used four nails, one on each corner. Plus, I only hammered the nails in halfway. Doing this allowed my to remove the siding panel, if I screwed up. (The siding panel was crocked, didn't overlap properly, gap too small/large, additionally; it allowed me to correct any other problems)

Again, I checked, using a four-foot level, to make sure the siding was plumb.

The 'almost' Finished Siding

Starting from one corner, I want around the building nailing the siding in place, with four nails.

Once I checked the siding, again, to make sure it was straight, I went around the building nailing two nails in each siding 'slat' (It's the thin narrow strips; you see in the siding). One set of nails about 18 inches from the top and another set of nails 18 inches from the bottom of the siding.

Next, I cut the siding pieces for the very top just like I did for the sheathing, almost.

Notched Siding

This time, for the siding, I notched it so the siding fitted around the purlins. To attach these pieces of siding, I only nailed two nails at the top of each triangle.

Why?

I will be adding small metal strips called flashing between the top and bottom panels. The flashing should stop water from running down behind the siding, hopefully.

To add the flashing, I will place the metal flashing behind the top piece of siding and on the outside of the lower piece of siding. Next, I will finish nailing the top part of siding. This should allow the water to flow freely down the side of the siding panels without allowing water to run behind the siding.