I feel your pain Craig, my wife & I built over on Kangaroo Island 8 years ago around this time of year and the trucks were constantly getting bogged in the driveway, the concrete guys had to wheel barrow 90mtrs down to our stables over wooden planks (12m3) of concrete because the pump broke down etc etc etc.. But we had no choice because we had sold our house on the mainland and had to move over by a given dead line - never again if I can help it though.. :LOL:

I can't imagine how awful it would be to have to move that much concrete in wheelbarrows!!!

To give you some idea of the rain on the Gold Coast this afternoon, have a look at the Titans/Sharks game played at Carrara, about twenty minutes from Craig's place. The commentators said that half an hour before kick-off the surface was completely dry. By twenty minutes into the game, the place was a lake -- no wind, just incredibly heavy rain which persisted for most of the game. It came from nowhere and caught all the weather forecasting services by surprise. Here in Brisbane we were on the edge of this system and my rain gauge showed 22 mm after forty minutes.

I never live it down Craig, it is a soar point every time I see those guys but they came over to the Island to do this job at a cost of $3000 return ferry trip plus accommodation +++ so they were getting the job done come hell or high water.
They ended up working until midnight to finish my shed and the stables - luckily the boss is a very good friend of mine and he was on site with them that day so he pushed through and made it happen for me, for which I was very grateful..

When a 13T excavator arrives, suddenly earth banks that are crowding the edge of the shed become a non-issue. From having very tight margins around 3 of the sides, I can now drive a car all the way around. Words can't describe how much earth was moved in the space of 1 day!

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Big water diversion bank to keep rainwater from flowing onto the pad. When it rains here, it pours!
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The first half of the slab was poured this weekend. Things went reasonably smoothly after the first concrete truck finally arrived. The company called it a miscommunication; I call it a stuff-up but whatever the case it meant the pour didn't start until 9am. The day was beautiful but it was a cool winters day with no breeze and very little sunshine hitting the pad due it nestling amongst tall trees. All that combined with the late pour meant the final machine trowel didn't happen until 9:30pm. I wasn't expecting it to be a 12+ hour day, but after the concrete was poured, screeded and bull floated, the rest of the slab work was mainly a waiting game.

I'm so happy with the excavation work. Before this week, I wouldn't have imagined that I would have been able fit a concrete truck along the far end of the shed. Thankfully the driver was prepared to squeeze the truck up there which made the pour much easier for everyone on the shovels.

Speaking of which, what on earth would you do without family and mates? Mick (who has been driving this shed build from the start), Dad, my brother in law Jeff, Leroy17 and his mate all got stuck in to not only get the slab done but also to build a retaining wall, pour a water diversion drain and fix the driveway with the spare concrete. Bloody legends!

Around the corner.

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No time for a break between deliveries.

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Way too wet for the machine trowel, so we started boxing up the second half of the slab for next weekend.

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Finishing the slab with the moonlight making a soft silhouette against the mountain, and with an LED light strapped to the machine...

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...and then the headlights from the truck!

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First half done. Second half boxed, wrapped and meshed, ready to go again next weekend. Bring it on!

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Looks great Craig, and I am glad I'm not the only guy making contractors burn the midnight oil.. :LOL:

I see in the top right corner of the slab, carved in with a stick 'Craig wuz ere 2017'.

Good to see it coming together, see you sat morning for slab pour 2.0

I came, I saw I concreted. Julius Ceaser.:rolleyes:

It's very handy to have a sink in the shed. I would consider putting in a drain pipe and copper half inch water pipe. It'll much harder later.
JD

The second half of the slab went down last weekend. The same group of champions pitched in, with the addition of my little nephew as the foreman to keep things running smoothly.

I had originally run the plastic on the ground and up the side of the boxing, but with the first slab taking until well into the night to harden up I decided to remove the vertical plastic in the hopes that any excess water could bleed off easier. It probably made little difference, but it definitely made for a neater side to the slab without the risk of the plastic folding and getting stuck in the slab edging.

The first truck arrived at 6:30am (2.5hrs earlier than the weekend before), and the slab was finished at 4:00pm (5.5hrs earlier than the weekend before). I'd call that a win!

Bushfire over the hill from me in the background. Dad being a smartie said the first shed burnout is supposed to be from a car...

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It's at this point that I realised how much concrete we would need for this slab. The pad had been levelled with a bobcat, but there was still a slight fall towards the downhill side. I decided to fill that with concrete partly because it would make the slab thicker at what I'd call the most exposed corner, and also because that's where the hoist will go. The little section here used 3 cubic metres...

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If an 8 wheeler concrete truck isn't too tall for the shed, I think I'll be able to fit any height vehicle in here just fine.

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Site foreman showing the oldies how it's done.

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Resurrecting this thread from 9 months ago...!!!

One thing I’ve come to realise is that I was kidding myself to think I would be able to do 70hrs per week at work and also get the shed done. I am also too tight to pay a company to finish the shed. As such, it had to wait until my work with the Commonwealth Games came to an end. With the work finished, now I have time to start playing with the shed again.

As a reminder, the slab was down and the roof battens are in place.

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As the frame had been sitting in the elements for almost a year by now, I decided to sand back the paint and give it another coat. I chose a different colour, so it was necessary to paint the entire thing again regardless of whether the existing paint looked weathered or perfect. Dad and I painted the lot with a 100mm roller and a 75mm brush :eek: In the photo above you can see the old darker colour along with new lighter colour as we worked our way through it.

It was necessary to weld in some 100x100 box section into the beams for the battens to attach to. Some people are less worried about heights than others. (That’s not me standing up there like that...)

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With the frame painted, the next step was to have the doors fitted. I went with B&D Firmadoor Series 2 Industrial doors, 4200mm high. Another smaller door - 2900H x 2400H - went in to the back wall for a bit of air flow.

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Colorbond Terrain colour.

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...and then the roof and wall sheeting was delivered! Next update should show the frame looking a bit more like a shed. I can’t wait!

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Very happy with the progress in getting this amount of sheeting and sarking in place in one day.

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There will be one translucent strip per bay:

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The back wall:

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Glad to see this thread active again !! Thought you had bailed because of the outages of this site. You Aussies have the best "shed" builds, bar none , and considering the site location and machinery required so-far, your build is the most interesting yet !
Best of luck on the remainder of your project !

Ted

I really like how you've managed to remove all the Comm Games logo's mate!

Thanks Ted. Like you, I’ve been on this site for nearly a hundred years, so it’s hard to stay away. :)

I can think of lots of other cool shed builds that include specs and fittings that I could only dream of, but it’s been fun to get involved in my own build.

Good point! I’m pretty sure it’s all clear **)

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I like the look of how your painted framework matches the inside of the colorbond paneling.

And the skylight panels.

Gary