Pete's Place of Projects & Ponderings: The New Shed

Before the load of crushed stone could be spread, the gravel had to be compacted. All the rain and walking over it has helped a lot, but it needed to be packed down as evenly as possible. Enter the "tapper"! An 8" x 8" metal weight attached to a stick, that is also a great workout for the arms.


September 5

While moving the pile of crushed stone, another expense came up. The handle of the wheelbarrow, which I had repaired last year, started to give way. The wood just could not stand up to the many heavy loads. The new wheelbarrow has metal handles, and came in a pretty yellow colour.

September 5

The stone had to be distributed more evenly and level than the gravel, since this was the last layer before the styrofoam. This was to ensure that the final thickness of concrete was correct at a minimum of 4".

September 12


September 12

The form was rechecked and the string tied across again to measure down from. It advanced as the stone was spread. The depth of the stone was also checked at regular intervals to make sure it was around 3".

September 19

It takes many trips with a wheelbarrow to move a big pile of rock, and since it could only be done on evenings and weekends when the weather cooperated, it seemed to take forever. Occasionally, however, I did have a helper to speed things up.

September 19

Keeping at something, eventually it will get done. Preparing for concrete was the most time consuming part of the entire shed project, and took over a year to get to this point.

September 28

Another session of tapping the top, followed sloping and tapping the footing area, meant that this job was finally done. But, before I could completely move on from the gravel and rock work, I had to make sure that the cement mixer could get back to the form. That meant another day of moving class A to a new location, and spreading out the stone at the back of the driveway.