Years ago, probably at least 20, we were in need of a woodshed. The one we had been using was just a pole shed with a roof and not super sturdy built. It was hit by snow sliding off the shop building and then tipped over when it was almost empty in the spring. I guess the wood inside had been holding the whole thing up.

When we built this new shed, it was bigger and more solidly built. It was a post and beam building, but with enclosed walls on three sides and just a more solid structure. But we didn’t have a ton of money, so we used some rough-cut timbers for the posts and beams, wrapping the bottom of the posts in a foundation waterproofing so that they’d hopefully last quite a while.

Over the years my husband had to replace the in-ground portion of a couple of posts, but nothing drastic. But, last winter he noticed a dip in the fascia board along the back. Upon further investigation, he discovered almost all the posts on the back side of the shed were completely rotting out. Not only did it not last his lifetime, but it was going to have to be fixed way sooner than he had ever anticipated.

First things first though, to clear out 20 years of accumulation from the inside. Our greenhouse windows had taken up a chunk on one end, so that was one chunk already gone. My husband is a jack of all trades though, so there is quite a bit of stuff that I don’t even know what it is other than it’s tools. He did get rid of some stuff, most had to find homes outside, some stuff under tarps to protect it.

Then it was onto the building and getting it jacked up and put on piers so that he could safely dig out the posts and prepare the ground for concrete. He decided to not only pour concrete under the walls, but put a concrete slab inside. We’d talked about doing that a few times over the years, but time, money, and other interests took precedence.

Jacking it up was a bit scary because none of the building was sitting on anything solid, so as we’d lift one section, the other posts would shift and crumble. He finally called in a friend to come help, and between the two of them they got the building up on brick piers that the cross beams rested on.

Then, working on just one half at a time, he was able to get the posts dug out, a footing dug around the first half about 12 inches deep and 16 inches wide, rebar installed, and the floor (4 inches thick) leveled off. He put down plastic under where the slab went and got prepped for concrete.

We poured the first half on Monday. It took a little over 8 yards of concrete. We had several people helping us place the concrete, and then my husband spent several hours throughout the day power troweling to make it smooth. He then prepped the second side throughout the week and we poured that on Friday. That side was just a touch less concrete because the thickened footing that went down the center had already been poured.

While he prepped the second side, he also installed treated sill plates around the finished side under the walls and let the building down onto the sill. It was a relief to have it sitting on the ground and secured. He still needs to do that under the second half, but what a relief to have this shed sitting on solid ground again!

This shed serves us in a number of ways. One of the driving factor for putting the slab in was we needed a place to store coal. We burn coal in our boiler to heat our house, shop and enclosed boiler shed. We can also burn wood, but often don’t have time to get wood in the summer as we’ve been so busy working. So we need one section for coal that he would like to put plywood on the interior walls so the coal doesn’t get into the walls.

He is also planning on building a couple more walls to section off an area for wood storage again, and then to get everything else that was in there before back in there. He has an old truck that needs to fit, tools, yard care stuff, all the things that go in sheds and then some. But, I think starting fresh and stacking more strategically, he will actually have more room than before, fingers crossed anyway.

This project couldn’t wait another year. I am grateful he had a few weeks between jobs to get it all done. Now, onto the next jobs to pay for this very expensive but much needed and appreciated fix!

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