Bunk Bed and Shed Office

[tomq04]

I'm not much of a builder but here are 2 projects sitting in front of me for the new year.  I will have help for both.

Bunk Bed: it looks like getting a solid wood bunk bed is significantly cheaper and doubly bad ass if built at home.  I've found some plans here https://woodgears.ca/bed/bunk_bed/plans.html that seem reasonable enough.  Any one wiser than I able to help with guess on materials from when they've built beds in the past?  Go ahead and assume I will have all the tools I need.

Shed Office:  I have a shed with electricity already run to it, lighting hung, and outlets in place, and a nice cement foundation.  All I need to do with this project is insulate and drywall it, and maybe put in some flooring.  I've searched far and wide on the great Google's but can't find much help on the matter.  Doing image searches has helped give me ideas, but not any practical advice.  I'm just hoping for a little bit of both out you guys.

I will also use this as a bit of an update as I go along over the next few months.

Thanks

tq

[waffle]

I've never built a bed, but drywall and flooring is super easy. for flooring in a shed I would recommend Traffic Master Allure vinyl planks from home depot. they are the easiest flooring ever to install, pretty much water proof, and fairly durable.

[CheapskateWife]

http://www.oploftbed.com/

I built one of these 11 years ago, and my 6'3" 200lb 16-yr old son is still using it (yes we had to replace the standard twin rails to extend to an XL twin.)   I also sprang for the hardware kit as purchasing the individual components was twice as costly. 

We have partially disassembled this thing and moved it 6 times and it has withstood all the abuse we could manage.  It has been a bed over bed, bed over desk, bed over fort, and many other configurations...the design also allows for adjustments to height as your top bunker gets braver about heights.  We simply made it out of cheap pine from Lowes and has been one of my favorite construction projects (call me a sucker for concise plans).

[zolotiyeruki]

I've both built and bought (second-hand, of course) bunk beds.   They're not that hard to make, if you have a good design and set of plans.  The worst part, from my point of view, is the finishing.  I hate staining/varnishing/painting.  I heartily endorse anything from woodgears.ca.  Matthias Wandel (the proprietor) is an absolute wizard.

As for insulating and sheetrock....insulation is super easy.  You'll want to include a vapor barrier somewhere.  The location of the vapor barrier depends on your climate.  If you use mostly A/C, put the vapor barrier to the outside.  Mostly heat, put it on the inside.  The cheapest/easiest way is to use kraft-faced batts.  Most efficient (and expensive) is spray foam.  A combination of styrofoam sheets and batt insulation (like I used in my basement) is somewhere in between.

Drywall is easy enough to hang.  For me, though, taping/mudding/sanding is a job best left to the pros.  It's not that you can't do it yourself.  But the pros will do it in a small fraction of the time, and will probably leave you with a much better result.

[Simplefunlife]

I have built the bunk bed plans from ana-white.com (formerly knockoffwood.com)

Rock solid a reasonably cheap to make at less than $300 including all finishing supplies.  Here is the exact link to the model I built:
http://ana-white.com/2012/03/plans/side-street-bunk-beds

Many plans at her site for pottery barn, restoration hardware or crate and barrel look furniture.

[tlars699]

Instructables for both projects (you may have to look up the shed stuff one step at a time), and Ana White( like another user commented).

Also, if you go for broke on a triplex bunk bed setup, use Ana's stuff, and don't pay for the pdf version of the plans.
Not worth the money (even if it is only 2$). Not free standing (aka not solidly built) and no actual drafted plans are included, just a poorly rendered drawing.

[rothnroll]

OPloftbed.
I have built a few. I buy the hardware from them also. Awesome. Can't approach the quality anywhere else.

[tomq04]

Thanks,

Looks like an off chance we may do the bed this weekend.  At this point it appears we will be just doing a single bed, which can turn into the top of the bunk bed in a 2 years when #2 hits ~3

[El Marinero]

for flooring in a shed I would recommend Traffic Master Allure vinyl planks

I definitely agree with this.  it's not a high-end floor covering, but it's about as easy and practical as they come.  Since it floats on top of the subfloor, it's also easy to remove if you want something else.

[tomq04]

Home depot had it for ~ $2.20/sq foot, is that about right?

[El Marinero]

Home depot had it for ~ $2.20/sq foot, is that about right?

Sounds right.  "Traffic Mastrer" is a Home Depot brand.  I would not  be surprised if you could find something similar elsewhere, but I've never looked.

[Venomus]

I got a loft bed for my now 16 yo ds when he was in grade 2. He LOVED that bed and used it up until about 2 years ago when we had money to get all 3 kids new beds and mattresses. It was (is) a wooden Ikea one. He utilized the space under it for his desk.

He did get too old for it at about 13 though. I think it was a case of the novelty having worn off by then, combined with him just being too tall to be that close to the ceiling. His friends all still thought it was cool.

We have the loft bed carefully stored in our basement awaiting the day we do up a bedroom for grandchildren who are sleeping over

[Syonyk]

Shed Office:  I have a shed with electricity already run to it, lighting hung, and outlets in place, and a nice cement foundation.  All I need to do with this project is insulate and drywall it, and maybe put in some flooring.  I've searched far and wide on the great Google's but can't find much help on the matter.  Doing image searches has helped give me ideas, but not any practical advice.  I'm just hoping for a little bit of both out you guys.

https://syonyk.blogspot.com/2016/07/solar-shed-summary-my-off-grid-office.html

I link off each section there to more detail on the insulation and interior work.

My advice?  Don't drywall it.  Plywood it.  I don't know how large the space is, but for me, being able to randomly bolt things to my wall and not worry about them pulling out is worth an awful lot.  I have quite a few monitors wall-mounted (well worth the cost of mounts to free up desk space), and I can mount them where I want, instead of where studs are.

How are you handling thermals?  I have a window AC unit through the wall, and in the winter, I wish I'd gone with a mini split.  At a minimum, get an inverter based unit - they will run at partial power instead of on/off, and for a small space like an office, that would be a lot nicer.  My unit bangs on and off a ton in the summer, though the heat pump is literally worthless in the winter - it won't heat pump below 40F, and if it's 40F outside, my office is typically 60F inside, or a bit warmer, so I don't need heat.

Grid power makes it an awful lot easier to heat and cool than solar, so you probably don't need to insulate nearly as well as I did.  But I'd still suggest rock wool instead of fiberglass.

[Fishindude]

I built some great bunk beds for our cabin.
Bottom is a full mattress and top is a single.   Made a box for each mattress to sit in using 2x6's on edge, the mattress is supported atop 2x4's (laid flat) attached to the 2x6 frame and 3/8" plywood as the surface for mattress to rest atop.   Support legs are vertical 2x6's.   Also "X" braced the back, screwed, glued, and bolted everything solid.

Just googled some pictures online and winged it, pretty simple project.

[rothnroll]

http://www.oploftbed.com/

I built one of these 11 years ago, and my 6'3" 200lb 16-yr old son is still using it (yes we had to replace the standard twin rails to extend to an XL twin.)   I also sprang for the hardware kit as purchasing the individual components was twice as costly. 

We have partially disassembled this thing and moved it 6 times and it has withstood all the abuse we could manage.  It has been a bed over bed, bed over desk, bed over fort, and many other configurations...the design also allows for adjustments to height as your top bunker gets braver about heights.  We simply made it out of cheap pine from Lowes and has been one of my favorite construction projects (call me a sucker for concise plans).

I build one of these years ago. It is still getting used daily. Love oploftbed