DIY Brewshed from Harbor Freight!?!

I was perusing the Harbor Freight website, like you do when you're avoiding doing work, and came across this:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=33707

Pretty sweet concept, I'm sure there are companies that have more expensive/not knock off versions, but hell thats not bad. Most would need two sets, as I'm sure 7x8 isn't quite big enough, but still $106 + lumber = brewshed. This is definitely going to be in the fore-front of my mind when it comes time to build my brew shed. It's way cheaper than buying other pre-fabbed kits from the big box stores, and you can even customise the height, since one of my issues with all the sheds I've looked at is that they are a little on the short side for my 6'4 frame.

Here is a site with a bill of materials, and based on that I calculated around $400 for the lumber and parts cost, so $500, BUT that's without roofing. Not too bad really... though obviously if you have the skills you can shave off $100 and just do the angled cuts yourself
http://www.backyardcity.com/storage-sheds/gtsales-material-list-FastFramer.htm

I have all the tools to make good angle cuts, and I'd still probably prefer to buy the kit. I love construction (building my brew-basement now) but I realized one important fact: I'm terrible at construction.

That's why I helped my neighbor all winter on his house, so now I only need to pay him with food and beer. I'm awesome at holding for chalk lines and I'm not too shabby with measuring and cutting straight lines. That's about it.

Nice! I'll be building something in a year or so (once the initial money I overspent for my equipment is a distant memory to SWMBO). But I live in a Townhouse with no real back yard. I do have an under the deck space that I'm planning on pouring a concrete putting down a paver pad. Here's something a bit smaller for anyone who's looking.

http://www.brookstone.com/outdoor-tool-storage-sheds.html?bkeid=compare%7Cmercent%7Cgooglebase%7Csearch&mr:trackingCode=3BA45775-E985-DE11-9973-0019B9C2BEFD&mr:referralID=NA

I figure it can hold everything and the setup can be pulled out and put back pretty compactly. I even thought about insulating and turning it into an outdoor cold-shed. But I don't know how prudent that would be.

Don't forget to use a 20% off Harbor Freight coupon. Go with a friend or relative and buy them separately so you get 20% off of each one. I get those coupons in the mail all the time and they are also in the back ad of many magazines.

If I only had room in my yard I'd be building them this weekend!

samc said:

Don't forget to use a 20% off Harbor Freight coupon. Go with a friend or relative and buy them separately so you get 20% off of each one. I get those coupons in the mail all the time and they are also in the back ad of many magazines.

If I only had room in my yard I'd be building them this weekend!

Click to expand...

Good call! Forgot about the plentiful coupons...

Subscribing to this very interesting thread.

Framing brackets are great! Much stronger than direct nailing and all square cuts. You can build each arch, stand them up and drop in the side boards. I'm building a sunroom/green house using them.

I'll have to keep them in mind for when the wife gets sick of me trashing the kitchen and gives me the go ahead to build this

Heres a website that has coupons for harbor freight.


http://www.retailmenot.com/view/harborfreight.com

They make a bracket kit like that for a workbench I was wanting to build, neat stuff.

Dont forget on important fact with these kits, there is no floor included in the pricing or materials. Before you can build this you need to have sturdy wooden floor or concrete slab to place it on. A wooden floor is all straight cuts and nailing and getting it level. A concrete slab, well that is what contractors are for.
So, dont forget that item if planning to build one. Other than that, if you are not good with a skil saw and framing square(or even if you are) it looks like a great idea.