According to Harry Muscle said:
Thanks for the suggestions. This is going in my backyard, so the wife has to approve of the look. Anything overly tall will look a little out of place and overpower the whole backyard, so there goes the really high walls and 1:1 pitched roof ...
Chances are that it will already do that. Most people can't hide a 12x15 shed regardless of what the roof looks like.
[We can, but that's another story ;-)]
however, as long as this shed is
like a garage inside, I will be more than happy (the house has no garage, hence me building this shed)
I'm guessing you're suggesting windows to allow light to come in ... is this really important? It will contribute somewhat to heat loss, expense, and complicate the construction, so I was hoping to not have any windows, just double doors at one end of the shed.
Lighting is _really_ important in a workshop. Painting the inside white helps too.
My workshop (the garage) has commercially made thermopane units, which aren't _too_ bad. They're relatively small. 3 of them, only 16" wide, perhaps 40" tall, in an oversized double garage. I wish I had more of them. White painted walls and LOTS of lighting makes up for it.
The shed, which isn't heated, has home made windows (PT 1x6 frames (fence boards), "left over" single pane glass). It doesn't complicate the structure because I designed the lites to fit _between_ the studs (24 OC), and notched the horizontal frame components to fit over the studs. [Didn't even have to cut the glass.]
As it worked out, I was able to put in triple section windows, almost 6 feet wide, without having to cut any studs nor install headers. Frames are "foamed" in, and are air tight.
With full heating, you'd probably be best looking at a few strategically placed tall/narrow (stud space width) thermopane units. It'd be a lot cheaper to make the frames yourself around custom-made thermopanes than to buy pre-made.
As for the floor I was planning on using 2x6 PT lumber, supported on 12 or so concrete blocks ... I still have to finalize all of this and actually read up on how to do the foundation, etc ...
You'll probably find that sheds with more than 100 square feet of space require "real" poured footings, not cinder blocks by the OBC. [Each municipality gets to decide at which size the OBC kicks in.]
If you're going to put power in, they're probably going to _insist_ on you following the OBC.
When I reconstructed my shed, I was only able to "stay" with cinderblocks because it was an existing shed. Secondly, the idjit who originally built it used 2x6 24" OC, with a 12 foot span, and to stabilize the floor, placed blocks under the joist mid-points.
It _might_ have been relatively steady to begin with, but after all of these cinder blocks _rolled_, it became a trampoline.
DON'T repeat that goof. You'll regret it.
In order to fix it, I had to jack up the shed, put in 12x12 (I wish they were larger) concrete pads under the corners and ring joist midpoints, on top of a 4" bed of gravel[+]. Then, instead of the stupid cinder blocks under the joist midpoints, slung in a doubled up 2x8" beam underneath, end points supported by the ring joist midpoint blocks.
Once all that was done and releveled, was able to rebuild the upper part.
[Original single-pitch roof sheared off (2x4 12' span!!!!), replaced with trusses, metal roof, windows installed, stupid curve top door moved and replaced with a proper square one, painted white inside, offcut vinyl floor, vinyl siding, and a cute little deck ;-) It's a work of art ;-)]
[+] 24x24 Patio slabs would have been ideal, but the ones available aren't good enough (I'd have wanted 2" thick and/or rebar)
