Turn Your Bedroom into a Shredroom

How to turn your bedroom into a shredroom:

Step 1.  Determine the useable square footage for the ramp.  In this case, our ramp foot print is 10′ x 12′ 10”(I don’t like things that are 13′s) with a 98” tall ceiling. 

Step 2.  Develop your wood count/ cut list.  I chose to make this ramp 21” tall so that a 6’1” dude can skate it without hitting his head on the roof(unless he’s getting super gnarly).

If you space your 2×4′s every 8” than you will need approximately 10 2×4′s per quarter.  For this ramp, I chose to make (2) 5′ wide quarters per side giving a total of (4).  By making (2) per side it was easier to maneuver them into place and all I had to do was screw them together with a few 3” screws.  Another reason to do (2) quarters per side is because running 10′ 2x4s on the tranny’s can cause a flex in the middle of the ramp at the coping and could make the coping stick out too far or not enough. 

A deck should have at least 21” on it so you can do disasters and boardslides, but given this space, I could only afford to do one of my decks at that size, the other was 14”.  I chose to do this because on a ramp like this, compromises have to be made and while the decks are very important, so is the flatbottom.  The flatbottom on this ramp came out to just over 54” and every little bit helps.  With a flatbottom that small the walls come up quick. 

Photo of typical Shredroom

Cut list—(8) 3×4 plywood 21” tall transitions with a 4′ radius

                (50) 2x4x58 1/2”-ribs

                (2)2x4x54”-flatbottom

                (5)2x4x117”-flatbottom

      (2) 3/8” plywood x 36”x96”-sheeting

                (1)3/8” plywood x 48×96-sheeting

                (2)3/8” plywood x 36×24-sheeting

                (1)21”x 96×3/4 plywood-deck

                (1)21”x24”x3/4 plywood-deck

                (1)14”x96”x3/4 plywood-deck

                (1)14”x24”x3/4 plywood-deck

      (2)1/4” x48x96 masonite or other ramp surface-final layer

                (2)1/4”x30x48 masonite-final layer

                (1)1/4”x24x96 masonite-final layer

                (1)1/4”x30x24 masonite-final layer

                (2) 2”id schedule 40 black pipe-coping

Step 3.  Cutting.  I recommend cutting the transitions first.  There are many methods to drawing a nice radius, I chose to use two 2×4′s.  if you stack one on top of the other and flush the ends, you can measure up to the size circle you want to make.  This ramp has a 4′ radius and so I measured up to 4′ and put a 3” screw into both of them.  Now I can pivit the top 2×4 off the bottom one and it will give it a proper arc, making sure that the bottom 2×4 doesn’t move.  Now I place the radius maker on the short end of a full sheet of ¾ plywood and make my arc.  I make sure to measure up 3 ½ inches from the bottom of the plywood to make the proper space for the flatbottom, and while holding a pencil firmly in the center of the bottom of the top 2×4, I extend my arc to the height that I want.  For this ramp I chose a final height of 21”, and with my deck measurements, I connect the lines.  When notching the transition for the coping cut a 1 5/8” inch square where the transition meets the deck.