Steps · Gym Shed

Before you dig

Week 00 of 8

VicPlan check, done 28 Oct: General Residential Zone (GRZ1), no overlays, not bushfire-prone. Save the free property report from VicPlan for your records.
Check the title plan for easements and any estate covenants about sheds. Look hard at the back boundary: lots backing onto a reserve often have a drainage easement there.
Get the property sewerage plan from Greater Western Water. Keep the slab 1 m clear of the sewer.
Lodge a free Before You Dig Australia request.
Pick the spot: slab edge 1,100+ from side and back boundaries (the reserve counts), 1,550+ on the gutter side, behind the front wall of the house, with room to walk between it and the house.
Hold point Electrician walks the site and agrees the cable route and where it enters the slab.
Buy the doors and windows, then check the rough openings in F02 and F03 against them.
Book the concrete (2.2 m³ N25/20/100, barrow access), 2 or 3 helpers and the plate compactor for a mild morning.

Weekend 10 of 6

Profiles 1 m outside the corners, strings on the slab edges (3,260 × 2,960). Diagonals 4,403.
Hold point Find the lowest natural ground along the back wall line. The slab top can be at most 125 above it; aim for 100. If it needs to sit higher, shorten the studs.
Strip about 100 of topsoil (down to firm soil) over the slab plus 300 around it.
Dig the edge-beam trenches: 300 wide, 300 below natural ground, outside face on the string line. Square sides, clean bottoms.
Crushed rock inside the beams in two layers, compacting each. Finish level with natural ground.
Formwork: 150 × 38 on edge, inside face on the strings, top at slab level, pegs at 900. Recheck level and diagonals.

Weekend 10 of 5

200 µm film over the rock and down into the trenches. Lap 200, tape every lap and hole.
Trench mesh on 50 mm chairs at about 1 m, lapped 500 at the corners.
Mesh pieces A and B on 50 mm chairs about 800 apart, lapped 225, kept 40 off the forms. Tie to the trench mesh.
Power conduit at the agreed spot, ends taped, poking up above slab level.
Hold point Final check before the truck comes: depths off the string, mesh 30 to 40 below slab level, film intact, forms braced.

One morning, then 7 days0 of 4

Pour on a mild, still morning. Fill the beams first and rod them, then the slab.
Screed off the forms, bull float, then wait for the bleed water to go.
Edge the perimeter, then steel trowel (or wood float for grip).
Cover and keep wet for 7 days. Strip the forms after 2 or 3 days. No framing for a week.

Weekends 2 and 30 of 7

Cut every frame member from the cut list. Seal the H3 cut ends.
Nail up all four frames flat on the slab: F01, F02 and two of F03. The front bottom plate runs through the doorway for now.
Roll DPC along the slab edges where the plates sit.
Stand the back wall and brace it, then the side walls, then the front. Plumb, square, nail the corners.
Drill and fix the 16 anchor screws at the positions in S01.
Nail plates across the top plate joints. Fit and tension the X brace on the back wall.
Cut the bottom plate out of the doorway.

Weekends 3 and 40 of 6

Mark the rafters on the top plates: 600 centres from the left end, plus one flush at each end.
Fit the 7 rafters, flush at the back and 400 past the front wall. Two framing anchors at every rafter-to-plate joint.
Blocking between the rafters over the back and front walls. Fascia on.
Five battens laid flat, 75 past each side. Check they're straight and square.
Roof blanket over the battens, foil down, then the Trimdek. Start at the end away from the weather and turn up the pans at the high end.
High-side capping, barge flashings, gutter and downpipe.

Weekends 5 and 60 of 5

Hold point Electrician's rough-in (cables and boxes) before any lining goes on.
Photograph every wall. Add 90 × 45 blocking wherever heavy gear will bolt on.
Ceiling batts and 9 mm ply ceiling: sheets run front to back, edges on rafters, joint on the nogging.
Wall batts and 12 mm ply: sheets vertical, edges on studs, glued and screwed.
Electrician's fit-off and Certificate of Electrical Safety.

Weekend 60 of 4

Seal or paint the ply, paint the fascia, seal the flashing laps.
Lay the stable mats, place the rack (bolt it down if you like), hang the storage.
Grade the soil away from the slab, at least 75 below the slab top. Keep mulch off the edge.
Later: the apron slab and the shade-cloth pergola.

Not engineered. The frame follows common practice for a small timber shed in an N2 wind area, and the slab follows common practice for small slabs on reactive clay. Before you buy, show the frame sheets to your timber yard or check them against the AS 1684 span tables. On an exposed site (N3), add a strap over every rafter and stud ties beside each opening.
Height. The high-side capping finishes 2,875 above the slab. The limit is 3,000 above natural ground, so the slab can sit at most 125 above the lowest natural ground along the back wall. On a flat site 100 works. If the ground falls toward the back, take the difference off every stud and plate height.
Clay. If the ground cracks open in summer (very reactive clay), take the edge beams to 450 deep and keep garden beds and sprinklers away from the slab edge.
Doors and windows. The openings suit a pair of 820 doors in a prehung frame and 1,210 × 600 sliders. Buy them first, then adjust the rough openings.
Lining. Studs and rafters sit at 600 so the edges of 1,200 wide ply sheets land on them. Trim the first sheet on each wall to make that work.
Colorbond. Cut it with snips or a nibbler, never a grinder. Sweep up the swarf every day or it rusts into the paint.
Treated pine. Wear a P2 mask when cutting, brush preservative on H3 cut ends, and never burn offcuts.
Concrete day. Have the formwork, film, mesh and helpers ready the day before. The truck only gives you a short unloading window.