I am building a shed and I need to build it in two halves so I can take it off the foundation if I need to. The problem is that due to the dimensions, I have to split it in such a way the split line goes across the roof perpendicular to the ridge. The fact that I will be using wooden shakes makes this even harder. What can I do to keep it from leaking?
Water – How to build a shed in two halves and join them without the roof leaking
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For my on grade shed, I first built a bed of crushed limestone for it to rest on. This will allow drainage and breathing room below the shed. I used some landscape timbers and made a "retaining wall" for the limestone just slightly larger than the footprint of the shed (like 2' around each side). I then filled this rectangle landscape timber area with the limestone.
Then i placed 3 treated 4x4's lengthwise on top of the stone, and build the floor of the shed on top of these 4x4's. This keeps the shed elevated 4" off the ground.
One problem we had though, was critters like raccoons and groundhogs living in that space. To prevent this, I recently added chicken wire attached to the shed, down to the ground, and then across the ground out to the landscape timber. I then covered this ground part with the limestone.
Personally, I would dig the topsoil out from under the blocks—preferably down to mineral soil so that almost all of the concrete is buried. This makes less of a step up for wheeled equipment and less space for critters and weeds to grow underneath. I put mine very close to the ground on concrete blocks with slots for 2 inch wide lumber and concrete screws through the joist into the block to keep the wind from lifting it up:
The kind of concrete block you are using is plenty strong, though I don't see anything to keep your shed from moving, for example from strong wind, heavy rain, or leaning livestock.
The strength of the joists is the next weakest link in this design. Some more support in the middle could be overkill, but it is unlikely to be so.
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Best Answer
If the two halves of the shed are built to be structurally sound while separate, then there is no reason that each roof can't be built slightly asymmetrically so that one overlaps a portion of the other to provide weatherproof protection, like this:
Some tweaking of the interface would be needed to make it practical and convenient, but the basic idea would be to build it so there is at least 6 inches of overlap where the higher one covers the lower one.