“Temporary” sugar house

[Corey_d]

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Last year was our first season trying our hand in the syrup hobby and we got hooked. A year of procrastination on building a wood shed/ sugar shack followed. While having a few beverages after a good pallet haul last weekend, we figured we could build a temporary, low budget shelter out of pallets to keep us out of the weather this year. 10 hours of labour with 4 guys, 250$ in materials that I didn’t have laying around,a few beverages, and this is where we stand. There is still quite a bit of closing in to do yet but having a roof is amazing. It is 13’x13’ inside. I am impressed enough with the structure to share with you folks and try to re-negotiate the temporary status of the building with my wife after syrup season haha.
Has anyone built anything along these lines? Any suggestions going forward would be welcomed and appreciated as well

Thanks

[Russell Lampron]

That looks pretty sweet for something made out of pallets. Wrap it with some tarps to cut down on the wind flow and it should be pretty comfortable. I'd go with the brown or green tarps, they look less redneck than the blue ones.

[Maple Lady]

I have done that this year, only smaller. Mine is only 8X9. The floor is an old deck that was still structurally sound and walls are pallets and got the trusses free from Kijiji. A few needed repair, but wasn't a big deal. Mine looks very redneck as I used scrap anything to wrap it, but it eventually will have siding, just likely won't be complete this year. The local hardware store sells remnant vinyl siding for $2 per 12' piece. My goal was to build it with very little cost. 194521945319454

[BAP]

Whatever keeps the weather off is a bonus. Looks good.

[maple flats]

My first year I just put up a 10x10 vendor style tent, no walls, just roof and to keep the stack away from the tent it sloped about 30 degrees out the back. I then made braces to support the stack out of emt and that worked to keep snow and rain out of the pan and off my neck.
Both of you with pallet structures have gone far beyond my tent structure, good work!

[KV Sappers]

Kudos to both structures. I love people who think outside the box, take what is readily available, and create works of art.

[Michael Greer]

I helped my uncle years ago and we did our work in a temporary tarp structure. The biggest downside was the steam freezing into a thick layer of frost on the inside of the tarps. Whenever the wind blew, the tarps would rattle and it would rain ice flakes down on us.

[Russell Lampron]

I built a shelter over my woods tank and releaser and used all repurposed materials. Part of the framing is an old clothesline that was made out of pt 4x4's. Some of the framing is the sides and ends from an old water bed. The roofing is made from cut off pieces of the tin roofing that I put on the sugar house woodshed. It isn't pretty but it does the job.

[Maple Lady]

I built a shelter over my woods tank and releaser and used all repurposed materials. Part of the framing is an old clothesline that was made out of pt 4x4's. Some of the framing is the sides and ends from an old water bed. The roofing is made from cut off pieces of the tin roofing that I put on the sugar house woodshed. It isn't pretty but it does the job.

That's the main thing, gets the job done. Syrup doesn't care what the structure looks like that it's made in or no structure for that matter.

[Corey_d]

I have done that this year, only smaller. Mine is only 8X9. The floor is an old deck that was still structurally sound and walls are pallets and got the trusses free from Kijiji. A few needed repair, but wasn't a big deal. Mine looks very redneck as I used scrap anything to wrap it, but it eventually will have siding, just likely won't be complete this year. The local hardware store sells remnant vinyl siding for $2 per 12' piece. My goal was to build it with very little cost. 194521945319454

Looks great to me...it’s considered a work in progress rather than redneck haha. @maple flats, I used a 10x10 pop up last year for a day. Turns out they are not rated for much of a snow load. Now most of the frame’s tubing will pulled from the scrap pile and reincarnated as chimney supports hah.its Good to see other setups for sure.

[Maple Lady]

Corey, will you keep that structure and just cover the pallets? Just wondering if you plan on venting out the gable ends if you enclose it? I'm hoping that will work for me where I don't have a cupola. Your roof has a nice high pitch so I'm thinking that will be better. Have you done a practice run in it? I did a very small one with just water, but it looks hopeful to get the steam out. Hoping to tap in 2-3 weeks. Last year was much earlier here.

[Corey_d]

I will have a decision to make. because this was built as a temporary shelter, i built it in the most convenient spot for me to build it and boil now rather than the ideal spot i would like a wood shed and sugar house on our property in the long run. I am close enough to our house right now to run extension cords for power. It will definitely be used in this spot for a couple years (probably longer than I think) so I will price out exterior finishes for it. Board and batten would be my preferred finish. My plan for this season was to put some sort of covering on the inside of the walls like a tarp or maybe sheets of cardboard to keep the wind off of me but leave gables As just pallet wood for steam to ventilate. When/if I finish the exterior I will finish the gables as well, and either frame a cupola on the roof or make a hood and steam stack. It shouldn’t rain too much on me with the amount of venting the open gables give me. As for tapping, we were boiling this weekend last year, and I hope that we can push tapping off for at least 2-3 weeks so I can get the evap all set up inside properly. I haven’t even looked at any of my buckets or spiles yet to clean them either...god forbid I actually be prepared for anything haha

[Maple Lady]

I like board and batten as well. You did well to get what you have done I'd say. We've been only getting down to work on mine a day here and there. The weather usually holds us back. I'm ok with the season not being ready as early as well. Still little things to get done. In my test run, found a few leaks at the fittings from the head tank to the float box that need fixing. It's my first time using a real evaporator. It's quite small, but it's all I need. I actually have my buckets ready to go. I was lazy the season before and had to scrub quite a bit so I made a point to get them cleaned properly and stored away nicely. Good luck this season.