The C.H.O.I.C.E. House team recently had the opportunity to explore another kind of emergency shelter that we frequently see in the rural South: a shed. The goal of this quick project was to purchase a pre-manufactured shell to retrofit into a comfortable living space for a single occupant to inhabit for a one to two-year span. While the program and length of stay is different from the emergency shelters we will construct in partnership with C.H.O.I.C.E., it’s our hope that the knowledge and experience we gain from the retrofitting process will help inform design and construction decisions of the C.H.O.I.C.E. housing. All of this isn’t just for us and our experience though, we’re lucky enough to be working on this for a friend of the Studio who’s in need of a warm, dry place to live immediately before winter settles in.
To kick off the shed exploration, we did a deep dive on what’s available on the market for pre-manufactured structures from places like Lowe’s, Home Depot, and local shed dealers. The information was organized into a matrix to compare sheds based on materials, costs, delivery, amenities, and more. Prices ranged from $2,000-$15,000, and delivery timelines were 4-12 weeks.
Since we needed the shell delivered ASAP, we turned to local shed dealers who would sell us an off-the-lot shed that was available for immediate delivery. We found a 12’ x 24’ pre-owned shed with a partially finished interior from a dealer in Philadelphia, MS.
Once the shed was delivered, we began the process of designing a floor plan suitable for a single occupant. After multiple iterations, we landed on the “bathroom box” scheme. In this plan, the bathroom acts as a divider between the living space and the sleeping space on either end. We anticipate our client will occasionally have visitors, so we felt it would be nice for the sleeping space to have some level of privacy from the living space.
With the shed delivered and the plan decided, we hit the ground running on the retrofitting process. We started by stripping the interior down to the studs in order to finish insulating and rough-in for plumbing and electrical lines.
After that it was time to re-sheath the interior walls, frame the bathroom box, and sheath the bathroom walls.
Then came the gruesome activity of insulating the floor…
Once all the walls were in place, the next items on the checklist were to install the bathroom and kitchen fixtures, ceiling lights,get ready to plumb on site, caulk any gaps, and paint! The interior walls and ceiling got three fresh coats of white while the door, window trim, and bathroom walls were coated in a natural light green color. The final task was to paint the floors dark grey. Then, the shed was ready to be moved to site!
At 7:30 a.m. on the Friday before winter break, a wrecking truck arrived at Morrisette campus to load the retrofitted shed and drive it 12 miles down the road to the site. The process of lowering and leveling went very quickly and the shed was set in place in about 20 minutes. The whole delivery went very smoothly, and it was a very exciting morning for everyone involved!
As a team, we are very honored to have been given the opportunity to work on this extra project this semester. It was an amazing learning experience that will be a tremendous help as we move forward with the C.H.O.I.C.E. emergency shelters. Many thanks to everyone who helped us finish this project so quickly, especially our instructor Steve Long; we couldn’t have done this without your dedication and guidance!
Thanks for coming to our Shed Talk!
