California builidng code exceptions for storage sheds?
radius11
14 years ago
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birdwidow
14 years agoRelated Discussions
Garden sheds for california?
Comments (10)Hi, Kim. What I will share with you at the link below is a shed I designed. The guy who built it was a compulsive packrat and made it all from recycled, scavenged redwood. The left side has a counter w/sink; a large plastic garbage can on wheels underneath for soil; shelves above to right & behind sink for books and other stuff. The right side is storage place for everything from tools to bags of soil & compost to all manner of foods and watering system supplies. It has a ramp to roll heavy bags up to it in wheelbarrow. Outside on one end is a wooden counter I use to keep plants not yet planted and/or do stuff on. It's mostly covered by the roof overhang above. AND, it has a front porch for settin' a spell. I love to sit there in the rocker and watch the rain. It was made to fit local regulations of size-without-permit-required, and was placed the correct amount of distance from fences. While I love it, I can't say it's all 'necessary'. But having alfalfa and other tasties away from rats in storage is a good thing, gives me more room in my garage, and keeps the ugly mess all to one side, with a pleasant space on the other. He used an old 10-pane glass door on the left side over the sink for a window & gerryrigged it with pull rope so I can open it & view the garden from there. If you click above on 'Recycled Rustic Garden Shed', you can see more vantage points as it was built. Each pic can be enlarged by clicking it. Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Shed...See MoreBuilding my Irish Shed
Comments (33)Wow, I didn't expect this thread to still be alive. We no longer own the acreage or the lovely little shed, but I still see it when I drive by, and it looks to be holding up well. Chuck, the beams were just rough milled pine 6x6 from a local mill, untreated except for stain application after. The skids that the floor of the shed were built on were the only treated wood used as they were contacting the ground. The insulation quality in this particular shed is slim to none, as the walls are just 6" thick firewood chunks and mortar. Some of the wood shrank a bit as it should have been stacked once chopped to size and let dry for a bout a year. So this shed definitely is not insulated. A lot of cordwood builds use longer lengths of firewood and only apply mortar on the inside and outside edge of the walls like chinking, they infill the middle with sawdust. These style of builds have great insulating properties. Thanks for the questions. I had a lot of fun building the shed and am happy to see so much interest in it. freezengril, thanks for the awesome link!...See MoreOur architect's draft for a home in California
Comments (30)Traditionally, stone has been used to build the foundation of houses, because it's a substantial building material. Even though today most stone is just a thin veneer "glued" onto a substrate and house foundations made of reinforced concrete, it looks best when it's used in a manner reminiscent of its historic purpose. Often in a historic house, there would be a core of the home built from stone, and added onto more economically later with wood siding giving the classic version of siding variation. Today's custom homes typically start large and aren't added onto, but we try to add such interest by choosing a few exterior cladding materials to give that effect. There's been a trend over the past couple of decades in making a more complex building footprint with many bumpouts, so you can better achieve that historically accurate look by choosing some section of the house, perhaps the core, and taking the stone all the way up to some logical termination point. For some homes that could be all the way up to the roof, for some, the top of the first floor, and for others, below the first floor. The "water line" treatment looks wrong because I don't think there is a historical style that builds a foundation halfway up a single storey. But there are plenty of houses imagined by designers and builders that feature this detail. I recognize the house you posted a picture of, it looks like one built by infill spec house builder Kansky/Nash and marketed last year. IMO the waterline stone doesn't look good there either. Also I'm not sure it's real stone, could be a "cultured stone" product. Nothing wrong with that, just you might notice some repetition in the pattern eventually as they are man-made out of concrete. I think they are cheaper than natural stone, but if you're budget sensitive you could go for a more careful/limited application of the product and save even more money. Here's a snap of the front of our house with our stone treatment. We took it up as far as the top of the lower storey because it looked like a "ledge" that the upper floor was built on: Of course this is all subjective and I'm conveying my opinion, which is worth as much as anyone else's here who's not paying for your project. You could ask your architect though, and he/she should be able to describe the options....See MoreHow do I run a water line to my shed conversion?
Comments (23)I think what every one is saying, that from your question you are working under the assumption that this is simple and can be done cheaply for a couple of thousand. A couple of thousand that will just get you into the game. I don't know what it is like in your area, but in our area you need a permit for everything and once you have the building permits, you have to get an occupancy permit. Examples of permits you probably will need, Permit to tap into the house water system, sewer permit, Electrical permit. Construction permit. Each permit will have to have a city approved inspection. You may have to get some sort of permit from the power company to increase the amps provided to the house. One of the question that will have to be answer is the current fuse panel in the house large enough for the increase demand made by adding the shed. If this is an older house, the whole thing will have to be resized. This is especially important if you are planning on heat / AC with electricity. If you are going to heat the shed with gas, you will need a permit to tap into the line and extend the line to the shed. None of the items mentioned above even considers that actual cost of labor and materials to do the item. Some items like electrical work, water plumbing, and others must be done by a city authorized and licensed person. Some times it takes different people with different licenses to get the job done. As an example; It you have an AC/Heating unit installed you will need a licensed AC/Heating person, and some on with an Electrical license to get the job done; It there is a gas heater that is another licensed person. We are not trying to be difficult, just trying to help you see the size of the project you want to undertake. In an effort to produce an absolutely safe environment simple jobs become quite complex....See Moreepmorrill
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