This project was to replace a similar looking, but rather old and rotted building. I was first going to try to replace some rotted pieces, but once I began, I found the whole building was poorly built, appeared unsafe and it would probably be an even harder job to “fix” it; but due to it’s visibility, we left the remains standing so it didn’t bring attention of others on the lake.
For large projects, I have only shingled a roof as a helper many decades ago, and hung interior doors and door frames, also as a helper, but I have done very small woodwork projects.
I searched the Internet and came upon Henry’s 15 videos. My wife and I watched them and it seemed that with the videos, we could modify and build the replacement Tiki-Hut for our son-in-law.
First we figured out what we wanted and went to a local “box” store and with their help, roughly figured out what we would need in wood and material. After bringing it all to the building site, we first built the floor on the patio which was flat and large enough for us to work. We realized that this floor was really heavy, so we tore down the old Tiki-Hut. We got the bricks laid out for the foundation and moved the floor on them. With each new day, and different area to work, we would again watch Henry’s corresponding video. We even had the laptop nearby so when we had questions, we could revisit the video.
Building the trusses was probably the most time consuming. As with many other portions of this build, we needed to modify, and this time the pitch of the roof with the addition of a front gable ladder. Once we figured out the angles we needed, my miter saw couldn’t be adjusted to the angle, so the cuts were done by using a circular saw. Unfortunately, the cuts were not as precise, but when they were all put together, they ended up working, they just didn’t look as professional as in the video (but once installed, they look just fine). Also, since we were winging many of the measurements, we left the top cords long and cut them later in the project.
The sides went together pretty much as Henry instructed, however, we need to put in large headers in three of the four walls, with a door in the fourth. Once the walls were up, the trusses went up, the roof boards put on and then the shingles installed.
Trim, bar tops (which will be modified when we find exactly what were looking for), metal siding and paint finished the job off. Now we just need to figure out how we can close the windows during the winter when it being used for storage during the cold and snow.
The picture of my wife and I sitting on the stools, is of the old Tiki-hut, all the rest are of the new construction.
2 Comments
Hi Henry,
First, thanks for the compliment. Prior to seeing your videos, we had no idea how to proceed. They were very straight forward and gave us the confidence that we too could do it, especially since we could always review any video (which we did numerous times).
If you or any of your readers have a suggestion on closing up the windows during the winter, I’d love to hear them. The only idea that I can come up with in my head would be for the front window, to take a couple of 2×2 or 2×4’s and temporarily hang them vertically, so they can be removed again when the hut is opened, to divide the window into three sections. Then cut a piece of plywood to fit each of the divided section, to make them more manageable and then temporarily hang the sheets of cut plywood and then secure them closed on the bottom. I’m sure there are readers that would have great ideas.
Now that we are finished, unfortunately, Fall has arrived quickly, leaves are now falling and the cooler weather is blowing in. We will definitely be visiting the shed for a full year of fun, next year.
Bob
Very different use of our videos and makes for a great place to hang out in the summer. Very cool build!