Prefabricated plastic shed and components therefor

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention resides in providing a very economical prefabricated shed which overcomes the problems of the present small area sheds, the shed being formed of plastic components to be sold as a kit, the components being easily assembled into a permanent structurally sound maintenance free attractive structure.
In another aspect the present invention involves the packaging of the fabricated shed components in a packing case or crate that serves as the shed base and providing a very simple novel arrangement for anchoring the shed to the base.
More particularly, according to one aspect of the invention, the shed is a rectangular structure having side walls, gabled end walls which slope upwardly to a central ridge and a roof, all formed of connected hollow plastic panels with the roof sloping upwardly from the side walls towards a central ridge, the roof panels being supported at the lower ends on the side walls and at their upper ends by a ridge beam assembly.
This ridge beam assembly comprises a metal beam spanning between and supported by the end walls, the beam being encased in a longitudinal plastic sleeve extending between the end walls, the sleeve being formed with an integral longitudinally extending downwardly sloping braced shelve at each side thereof for supporting the upper ends of the roof panels and a ridge flashing overlying the ridge beam assembly and the upper ends of the roof panels.
According to the preferred embodiment of the invention, the ridge beam sleeve is formed with a upwardly facing channel presenting latch hooks at the upper edges thereof and the ridge flashing comprises a pair of wings sloping downwardly from an apex at an angle corresponding to the roof pitch and being provided with downwardly projecting legs adapted to telescopically engage with the sleeve channel, the legs having latch hooks at their lower ends to snap interlock with the sleeve channel latch hooks.
Again, according to the preferred form of the invention, the wall and roof panels are formed at each longitudinal edge thereof with a hollow locking T and the means connecting the panels comprises a rectangular hollow extrusion having hollow right angularly inturned locking fingers to tightly encompass and grasp the locking T's of adjoining panels