The shed at Crackenback NSW just after tree vs shed and ute incident.
The faithful old shed suffered severe damage to the cladding and frame in 180 km/h winds last year when a tree fell onto the top corner. The manager’s ute was completely flattened by the same tree. The Crackenback valley is renown for winds stronger than 180km/h due to a funneling effect generated by the alpine topography. The best picture we have of the damaged shed is the one below which was taken just after the tree had been cut up.
www.ecocrackenback.com.au, is a NSW Community Titled Development where the shed is situated. Ecocrackenback is a 40 acre eco-resort with 18 freestanding 2-bedroom chalets (or habitats) providing all seasons accommodation for owners and tourists with an on-site resident manager. We have national accreditation as an eco-certified resort and 4-star AAA rating as an accommodation provider. It is a sensational little place in the NSW high country at Crackenback (just outside the Kosciuszko National Park border).
Removing damaged cladding and flashings to replace with new Colorbond supplied by ShedBlog
The development is about 4-5 years old and you will find the habitats interesting as they are constructed completely of Colorbond steel with double glazing and suspended polished concrete floors. The site has a matching management residence and did have a non-matching rural farm shed for the care-taking functions.
Whilst the original manager wanted to demolish the storm damaged shed, the Ecocrackenback community of owners decided to repair and upgrade the shed. We have owner’s work weekends in Spring, Summer and Autumn and made the shed rebuild the main focus of the Spring effort. 7-8 of the owners dragged their tools, ladders and a mobile scaffold to Crackenback and dismantled the damaged cladding and the bent and twisted 150mm C-section purloins. The attached picture ‘Shed-Frame’ illustrates the demolition phase and the extent of the shed walls and roof that had to be completely rebuilt. The before and after pictures you already have tell the rest of the story.
Damaged materials removed and ready to install new eave purlin and cladding.
The repairs were also an opportunity to upgrade the ugly green shed to the Woodland Gray Colorbond which matches the 18 habitats in the resort. The Ecocrackenback owners were greatly appreciative of the expert advice provided by David from ShedBlog. After getting generally unhelpful guidance from local steel suppliers, David talked us through the pros and cons of material selection and flashing designs. For example, barge capping for the roof needed to be 30mm deeper to allow for the ridges on the Trimdek zinculume roofing. We also decided to use Colorbond Trimdek roof sheeting on the walls, as we felt its stronger profile might be better suited to the extreme wind environment of the Crackenback valley. David’s communication was excellent and his efforts in rushing an order through to meet our ‘volunteer’s’ schedule was greatly appreciated.
Completed refurbished shed with new Woodland Grey wall cladding, barge cap awaiting a corner flashing.
The shed repair and upgrade has been an efficient and satisfying project and the newly clad Woodland Grey structure now fits in perfectly with the recessive color-scheme of the Ecocrackenback resort. We will use ShedBlog again to source materials for all our requirements at Ecocrackenback.
Article contributed by
Phil Langworthy
Chairman
Ecocrackenback Eco-Resort Community Association
Edited by David Masefield
Images supplied by Phil Langworthy
If you have a story about your shed repair, rebuild, renovation and you’d like to feature on ShedBlog then send it in to admin@shedblog.com.au
