Bow roof shed

[Steve W]

I have been trying to buy the plans from David Stimpson which he sells for the bow roof shed but after many attempted phone calls over months, leaving messages on his answering machine several times and printing out his order form and sending it along with a check as requested on his website a few weeks ago which, so far has not been cashed im wondering if he is out of business or worse, anyone have any insight? im about ready to give up.
Steve.

 

[rasorinc]

Maybe there has been a health problem. If you do not hear back soon send me a PM
and I will get a print of the plans (1 page ) and copy the instructions and send them to you for the cost of a print and postage. Stan

 

[Steve W]

Thanks Stan, thats a mighty fine looking shed you built btw, yeah, i hope hes ok, its been about 3 weeks since i sent the check and ive been checking my bank account online and it hasnt been cashed, ill give it a while longer and try calling a few more times and if nothing,ill take you up on your kind offer.
Steve.

 

[PAR]

There's not a lot of thought that goes into a bow roof plan, do you really need them? Some 1x2's, some spacer blocks and presto a frame to toss a tarp over.

 

[Steve W]

Of course i could reinvent the wheel Par but why would i bother if someone is selling the plans with the bugs ironed out for $20?, it makes no sense imho.
Steve.

 

[PAR]

There's no reinventing anything Steve, the bow roof concept has been around for decades and is well documented in may books and magazines. WoodenBoat did a write up on this technique a few years ago, might be worth looking it up.

Here's one with polycarbonate panels (costly, but really tough)

I've made fairly small ones with just PVC tubing and skipped all the bother of the spaced apart double arches thing. The last was about 15' wide, by nearly 8' tall by about 20' long. This one is very similar:

Or you could just download this PDF for plans on a 20x40 using the system you're trying to get from Stimson. http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Sunspace/UTEGothicArchGH6298.pdf

Having built several types of temporary shelters over the years, I'd use 3/4" PVC up to a 15x25' rig and 1" up to 40', of course using couplers and furring strips to reinforce the sides and triangulate the structure. The double arched thing is fine, but it cost more and takes more effort.

 

[Steve W]

Thanks for the pictures Par, ive built a number of temp structures up to 50x20x16ft but ive also always admired the elegance of the bow roof, it just seemed that if i could buy his plans and notes for 20 bucks i wouldnt need to think about it much. I have just erected a 32x14x8 hoop building beside my garage which i plan to cover today if its calm enough, its one of those that you buy from the big box and is meant to be 12ft high but we are leaving out the straight sidewall sections of tube to keep it lower as we are just using it for storage and they are pretty ricketty.Were using white shrinkwrap and osb endwalls so that will help. My son used to have it set up full height in his yard for a couple of years and the original cover is shot.
Steve.

 

[PAR]

Placing diagonal straps on those things will firm them up quite a bit. The same is true of the bow roof style. I see the need for the double arch hoop roof up north, where snow loads can be daunting, but mostly, just about anything bowed into position, with some lateral and diagonal bracing, covered will do for a few years.

 

[skyking1]

Great thread! I am building an arch cover for our 5th wheel now, gotta have it.
I need a 32 x 18, and on my way across the state I passed a custom tarp place that will build a 32 x 36 tarp for $450. It is a hay tarp, 17 mil and good for 4~5 years or more. I can get a cheap tarp for $108 plus shipping, but I doubt it would go half as long. I have to put some value on the folks' time that will have to help me tarp it, so I'd probably go longer lasting vs cheaper.

 

[KnottyBuoyz]

I built mine from the Stimson plans. 32x20x16.5' at the peak. Covered it with shrink wrap plastic, same stuff used to cover boats. Bought the whole roll. Have enough to do the shed twice. Soon heading into second winter and so far so good. The shrink wrap tape sucks though. Use Gorilla tape and heat seal all the seams.

 

[skyking1]

Looks great in that pic. Do you have a link for that heat shrink? You put it on in the summer and ran heat inside to tighten it up? What kind of gorilla tape, I have only seen masking and duct tapes by them.

 

[KnottyBuoyz]

Looks great in that pic. Do you have a link for that heat shrink? You put it on in the summer and ran heat inside to tighten it up? What kind of gorilla tape, I have only seen masking and duct tapes by them.

The shrink wrap came from e-Bay but Dr.Shrink is about the same price. Just be careful with shipping charges. The stuff is heavy. I bought 17' wide and did the shed in 4 sections.

You have to use a flame thrower to shrink it. Summer time sun won't do it. You can get flame thrower things cheap at Harbor Freight. It takes a little practice to get used to it. Natural tendency is to pour on the heat to make it shrink but that doesn't work. You just pass the flame over it and move on. It'll shrink up.

It's much easier to shrink it from the inside but you have to be careful of the heat that rises up in the shed. If I were to do it again I'd leave the ends open and do them last.

http://gorillaglue.com/tapes.aspx

 

[skyking1]

Rick, thanks a bunch for the pictures and info. That is a really nice looking boat shed.

 

[Steve W]

Hey Rick, i finally heard back from David on friday, after i sent one final email, hes fine,just busy and kinda dropped the ball on the plans thing, he dropped the plans in the mail so all is good.
Steve.

 

[thudpucker]

Maybe he sent a bunch of that White Stuff with your plans. Rick got a bunch of it too.

I believe you could heat that all winter long with a 5 Gal Gas or electric water heater, and 3/4" CPVC piping and a 'Hot water Pump' or even a bronze Sea water pump.

My garage was bigger (52'X22') with a high tin roof. I heated it with a 40 Gal Gas heater. It drove us out.....almost. Kept the floor warm at -20.
We had to put ceiling fans in.
From that experience, I believe the little 5 Gal would be enough.
You only want it to be 40 degrees in there. And I believe you'd still need a fan to keep the condensation from 'Raining' inside the Tent.