Questions about building a shed, to do with wood, types of screws and membrane

[lozcozard]

Hi. I’m building my own shed but the experience has left me with some questions I wondered if anyone can help with...

1) I used treated timber for the whole frame, thinking if there was a leak or just because it’s outside in winter it would withstand it all better. Is that common or normal to use untreated timber on the basis it’s inside so dry?

2) due to using treated timber I am faced with hardly any screws. Either stainless steel which is expensive and very soft so wears down, or hot dipped galvanised but no where describes their galvanised screws as hot dipped so I have no idea if it is or not so go with stainless. Is this normal? How to find hot dipped galvanised?

3) I’d like to insulate it in the future so I put a breathable membrane on under the tongue and groove cladding. I accidentally put one strip in backwards. Will this cause issues, like condensation in the inside on that strip?

4) what’s the purpose of a Brad nailer? I bought one for the cladding but it’s useless. Reviews said they used it for cladding a shed but can’t see how that would work. It’s like little pins not nails. The cladding pulls off. So I’ve wasted my money and gone back to hammering.

thanks!

 

[Deleted member 174758]

It is common to use treated timbers on external structures. They give a life of 10 to 20 years without treatment. That said you should treat from time to time

Go with ordinary BZP (bright zinc plated) screws, using 5.0 or 6.0mm (#10 or #12) screws. Nobody ever uses stainless screws on a shed. Same goes for hot dip galvanisation, which is normslly reserved for steel framework, brackets, etc because small components cannot be easily dealt with by that process (items need to be wired to a carrier before immersion meaning that small components are a pain to handle and can fall off into the bath)

Membranes work by allowing moisture to pass through it in only one direction only (from inside to outside), therefore it must always be installed right way round

Brad nailers (18 gauge pinners) are designed to fire the 18 gauge brad nails or pins used to assemble small components (which are generally also glued) as well as to attach skirting boards to walls whilst the grip adhesive goes off and architraves to door casings and linings (16 gauge is more commonly used for the latter two tasks). It is most definitely NOT a structural nailer. You might get away with using a 15 gauge nailer for the task, as they fire pins about the same size as panel pins with bigger heads, but TBH you are better off hand nailing using bright steel oval nails. There are gas and pneumatic coil nailers out there used for cladding which fire large enough nails, but they are pro tools and not cheap

 

[JohnD]

. Nobody ever uses stainless screws on a shed.

Wrong.

I will see if I can get a photo of some BZP steel that was used in a coastal area.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Congratulations, John. But in that case timber may not be the right material in any case. Traditional structures weren't screwed, however, they were nailed - with wrought or bright drawn steel nails. Any yet they survive decades. Steel corrodes in salt - the solution is often to go to a larger size than needed, e.g 6.0mm screws (see previous post)

 

[JohnD]

Any yet they survive decades.

Survivor bias. You are excluding the ones that have already fallen down.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

So how long do you think a shed will last without maintenance? Chances it will be abandoned before it disintegrates...... Then there are sheds like my grandad's which was reclad several times over its' 70+ year existence. Each time it was reclad the frame was beefed up with braces and renailed. it's called maintenance (look the word up if you aren't sure)

 

[JohnD]

Congratulations, John. But in that case timber may not be the right material in any case. Traditional structures weren't screwed, however, they were nailed - with wrought or bright drawn steel nails. Any yet they survive decades. Steel corrodes in salt - the solution is often to go to a larger size than needed, e.g 6.0mm screws (see previous post)

If I still have the pieces, 8mm bzp studding.

eaten through.

Also hinge-pins on the doors, before I went to stainless.

I also paint a lot.

And this is 5 miles from the beach/1 mile from an inlet.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

So explain the many beach huts and fisherman's huts which have survived decades by the sea when only nailed together with bright steel nails? The clue is that the fixings weren't left exposed and were overpainted or creosoted, etc. In other words they were maintained - not neglected

If you have any positive recommendations to the OP, ideally based on practical experience, I'd be happy if you could share them. Or is this going to turn into another fairly pointless niggle fest?

 

[JohnD]

based on practical experience

like mine?

 

[lozcozard]

Thanks JobAndKnock for your answers.

gutted I bought a “nailer” although it was only £30 and £8 useless Brad nails. Handy to attach the membrane. Sometimes I use it to hold the cladding so I can add a few of them before nailing.

I will have to pull the membrane out from the inside and replace it in there, between the frame. Although won’t be able to get it in behind the frame uprights hope that’s ok. Can’t face pulling the cladding off to do it again.

 

[Ryler]

Most small sheds I see ( 15 feet x 10 feet) are a steel box frame.
Cladded in corrugated sheet. Anti-drip roof sheet.
Some use Kngspan for the roof and single skin for the sides. Then sheet insulated and ply lined.

Have made one wooden small shed. Which was a few sq meters.
Our standard size is between 1500 - 1800 sq/m.

We use a lot of galvanized nails.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Handy to attach the membrane. Sometimes I use it to hold the cladding so I can added a few of them before nailing.

Well, it might come in handy in the future, you never know. BTW if you do any membrane work in future you might find a hammer nailer to be more useful.

 

[foxhole]

Is the OP building on the beach ?

 

[lozcozard]

No not near beach at all

 

[foxhole]

No not near beach at all

Then standard screws are fine , or decking screws. Dismantled my shed after twenty years and all frame fixing were as shiny as installed.