Wood Storage Shed Plans

1. How To Pick the Best Location for Your Shed Take careful consideration about the placement of your wooden sheds. Give yourself enough room around the shed so you have the space you need to build it. Your shed should blend in with its surroundings and not look like it was just plopped in its place. Locate your wooden shed according to its intended purpose. For example, next to the pool if it’s to be a used as a pool cabana or near the garden if you are going to use it to store garden supplies and equipment. If you build your shed directly under a tree, it can get messy with falling debris and bird droppings.

2. How To Choose The Best Plans
The best set of plans will have everything you need. It will be really helpful to have exploded diagrams as well as several photos of the wooden shed in the progress of being built. Also, a detailed list of materials makes the trip to the store much quicker and easier.

3. How To Determine Whether or Not You Should Purchase a Shed Kit
There are three main factors that will help you determine whether or not to buy a wooden shed kit – cost, time and skill level. A shed kit will usually take about one weekend to complete (once it has been delivered). You should feel comfortable with your skill level of using tools. Another big consideration is the cost. You will save more time buying a wooden shed kit which is a big payoff since they can be more expensive than building from scratch. When you go to the building supply store, take along the materials list that comes with your set of plans (if you’ve already purchased them). You can get a fairly accurate estimate of how much this will cost and compare to how much a kit costs.

4. How To Choose The Best Shed
The roof determines the style of shed. There are four basic types of wooden sheds. A lean-to shares or leans against an existing wall and is good for storing smaller items. Saltboxes have an uneven roof with more headroom towards the front end of the shed. Gambrels look similar to a barn with their two pitched roofs. The advantage of this is that they allow for more room overhead. The most popular style is the gable roof shed. The roof has two equal sides and is very simple to build.

5. How To Choose The Right Building Materials for Your Shed
The best material for wooden sheds is cedar. It contains oil that resists rot and repels insects. It also has an unmistakable natural beauty and aroma.

6. How To Prepare The Site Properly
The first thing you’ll want to do is remove any large rocks, debris and plants. Make the ground flat by using a rake and shovel. If you slope the site slightly down from front to back, this will produce the best runoff for water.

7. How To Stake Out The Site for Your Shed
Hammer a temporary stake into the ground where you want the first corner to go. In line with where you want the wall to go, take a second stake and drive it just past the stake where the actual corner will be. Do the same thing on the other end of where the wall will go. Run a piece of string between the two stakes. Mark out the next wall in the same fashion. To get the walls perpendicular, you’ll need to measure from where the strings cross. On one side, measure out three units (feet). One the other, measure four units (feet). Then make a new measurement from these two points – it should equal five units (feet). If it doesn’t measure exactly, adjust one of the stakes until it does. Now it will be perfectly square. Finish by continuing around in this manner for the rest of the walls.

8. How To Make Square Walls
Once your wall or floor is framed, the easiest way to make it square is to measure the opposing corners diagonally. So, you would measure the bottom right and top left corners. Then measure the bottom left and top right. If both measurements are the same, the wall is square.

9. How To Make The Most of All The Small Spaces
The spaces between the studs are one of the most overlooked spaces in wooden sheds. Add 1×4 or 2×4 boards as shelves as these spaces are perfect for them. To make the shelves adjustable, use slotted tracks that accept shelving clips up the sides of the studs. You can find them at most hardware supply stores.

10. How To Make Your Shed Last A Lifetime
The key to making your shed last is proper care and using the right materials. It makes all the difference if your shed is built from hardwood such as redwood or cedar. Use a good quality water sealer on all exposed wood. You’ll also want to keep the roof free from debris.

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