I made some more progress on the shed this week. I managed to get the roof decking on, first the easy side (the one facing the yard), then the hard one (the side next to the fence). On the “hard” side, I had to place the ladder on the outside of the fence and reach over to nail the decking in place. However, once I had it in place (but not nailed down yet), I noticed that things weren’t quite square…

I got my framer’s square and checked the door framing, and sure enough, I was a little crooked. But it seemed that I was off by the same amount in opposite corners, then the other way in the other two corners. This indicated to me that I was square when I framed the door, but that something had shifted. I took some measurements with my level and found out that the front left footing had settled a little, causing the entire building to slightly warp.

I got out my hydraulic car jack (rated to lift 4,000 lbs.) and raised the front left of the building up 2.25 inches. Checking my square again, this time the door was dead-on square. I took some scrap 2×6 and cut two lengths to 2.25 inches, cranked the jack up one more notch and placed them under on the footings and under the floor joist. Click here to see. After releasing pressure on the jack, the building settled right into place and was square as could be. I checked all the joints and everything was still solid. Phew. I went ahead and nailed the left roof decking into place.

The next step was to cut and mount the sheathing under the gables. This took some measuring but went up pretty easily. Next was the facia trim, a little finish-out work where the eaves met and installation of the drip edge.

The fun part was installing the sheathing on the back side of the shed, where the vines are completely out of control and the fence is in the way. After some serious hacking like I was in the amazon rain forest, I was able to get to the back side of the shed and mount the sheathing. Tomorrow I’ll trim the back out and finish off the drip edge, and hopefully move on to the felt and shingles. I’ll finish off the roof with a ridge vent so that the shed won’t be sweltering hot in the summer.

New pictures have been added to the shed page.