How To Build A Propane Tank Enclosure

Today was a good day for building a propane tank enclosure. Despite projects on deck which range from writing about the thugs attacking Sarah Palin to the Milwaukee politician who didn't know Arizona shared a border with Mexico to completing my wife's bedroom in our new home...sorry. Back burner, y'all.

This enclosure would be right next to the house. That isn't done with the larger truck-supplied tanks, of course. If you're hosting a 500 gallon tank filled with potentially explosive LPG, a bit of distance is obviously required. But it may be years before we're ready for that. In the interim, a propane cookstove and a propane refrigerator will be supplied from smaller, portable tanks. You know, like they do with RVs. For now, we've got a couple of 40-pounders in place, the kitchen stove hooked up via rubber hose, and a fridge on the way.

Time to get a-building.

Step 1: Pick a spot. In this case, just outside the north wall and slightly west of center...yeah, that seemed about right. Nothing scientific except, of course, the hose would reach.

Step 2: Cut a floorboard. The shed (enclosure) will be cobbled together from 15/32" sheathing board and 2" x 4" framing lumber. The footprint will be 44 inches wide by 20 inches deep.

Step 3: Cut and attach skids, underboards, joists, whatever you want to call them. Only 3 inch sheetrock screws are used as fasteners--because they're cheapest at Home Depot when purchased in the 25-pound bucket size, and because nails just don't hold that well in desert heat and monsoon moisture.

Step 4: Drill 9 holes in the floorboard and pound foot-long 100d spikes through the holes to help the shed resist being moved by strong winds. Not every day is super-windy around here, but there are a number of 75 mph, near-hurricane episodes every year.

Step 5: Cut and attach floor-topping framing lumber around 3 sides. The front will remain wide open and does not get its own 2" x 4" in this case.

Step 6: Cut and attach the back wall board. The height in this case was set at 60 inches for a couple of reasons. It provides easy access and also stands tall enough to accept the bigger 100 pound beasties if we eventually go that route. For the propane-sucking fridge, we probably will.

Step 7. Cut and attach the appropriate framing plus the side boards, angling everything so that the shed roof angle will match the house roof angle--just to look cool. And to dump rain in the right direction, naturally.

Positioning notes: The shed is spaced exactly two feet away from the house wall in order to make changing propane bottles a simple matter. Then when the shed's roof was added, it was extended forward a bit so that rain runoff from the house roof will splash down off that back of the shed instead of falling in front of it.

Step 8. Cut and attach the shed roof board and then the final framing board (which goes up front, top center).

Step 9. Paint it before the rains come!

Step 10. Tuck the tanks out of sight.

Done!

 Some readers may wonder, quite logically, whether or not it might be dangerous to have the shed's open side facing the home's exterior wall from a distance of only two feet.  It the tanks blow up, aren't they likely to blow a hole in the wall and kill us all?

Good question.  In this case, no.  That would not happen.  Why?  Because the home is faced with (a) a layer of concrete stucco never less than an inch thick in any spot, (b) earthbags eleven inches thick and compressed as hard as rock, (c) fiberglass insulation, and finally (d) a layer of sheathing board.  Any explosion has to first cross the two feet of open space and then somehow manage to pierce all that "fortress wall"?  Not when there's only a single layer of sheathing board right behind it.  Perfectly safe.

My wife discovered something worth knowing, though--or at least she thought so.  Since childhood, she's been a "closet hider" when stressed.  Tough day?  Can't find my 95 pound, five-foot wife?  Go look in the closet!  The moment the roof was on the shed today, here she came, checking it out.  She stepped inside the enclosure, leaned on one wall, and her eyes lit up.

"I could live in this!"  She exclaimed. 

She wasn't really kidding, either.  When you've survived three years of homelessness in your forties, as she did, you never lose your appreciation for a snug, cozy little shelter.

Hope she doesn't evict the tanks....