My sister-in-law Nicola (a draughts“man”) drew the plans to my vague ideas of what constituted my perfect shed. The Lower Hutt council were very helpful, accepting most of it and telling us where we had to make alterations. Brilliant. Let the building commence.
I paid my mate Carl to do the site prep work, excavate, put in hard-fill and level it. Then I paid another chap I know, a builder Stan, to lay out and pour the floor slab, the concrete strengthening beams and bolt-down points for the trusses. I figured a sound and accurate concrete base was imperative if I was going to tackle the building myself.
My mate Phil, a self-employed engineer, came and welded/flitch-plated the trusses back together. I erected the trusses with the help of many hands then Phil returned to weld the “skirt” to the trusses, the crane beam to the uprights and the steel beam frame for the mezzanine.
My neighbour Tim had some building experience, so we tackled the framing and cladding together. Tim also scored the commercial steel stairs that go up to the mezzanine “They have been sitting at work for five years and the boss wants them out,” he said. Done deal. It came together pretty well.