Encyclopedia

of Home Improvements

*Building a Storage Shed*

So you have finally come to a decision that you need a storage shed.
It seems that these days we all tend to accumulate more stuff that we really need.

Before deciding to build a shed, call your local building inspector to determine whether you need a building permit or whether you will be allowed to put up a storage shed on your property. Building codes vary by town. Most towns have specific requirements pertaining to size, setbacks, heights, foundations, etc. There may be restrictions on the type of use it may serve. For example; storage, living space, or housing of animals. So before you build make sure you are legal. You as the homeowner are responsible for what happens on your property. If you allow someone to build a shed and find out later that it is not legal, its your responsibility. Get out your survey, it will show you where your property lines are. If your not 100% sure where the property line is, give yourself some extra distance just to be safe.

Selecting and Preparing Your Site

Before assembly, you will want to decide on a location for your building. The best location is a level area with good drainage.

Allow enough working space for ease of moving parts into position during assembly. Be sure there will be enough space at entrance for doors to open fully and enough space around the building to be able to fasten the panel screws from the outside.

Installing the flooring system

Before you begin the first steps in assembling your shed, a foundation should be constructed and an anchoring system should be ready to use.

For our project shed the town required footings with concrete blocks to raise the floor off the ground and provide ventilation.





For the flooring system we used pressure treated 2x8 's @ 16" on center.






We nailed the framing members with 10 penny galvanized nails and provided additional support with joist hangers and ticos.

The decking was made of ¾" pressure treated plywood and screwed down with 2" galvanized screws.

The Shed

We opened up the shed kit that our customer chose and laid out all the parts.

As per the instructions we assembled the different shed sections. You will notice that this particular shed kit consists of 2x3 studs at 24" on center with 3/8" exterior siding. I don't know what my customer paid for the shed kit,but my feeling is that she could have bought the plans, used full framing members with 5/8" T-111 siding, and spent the same amount of money. Since the town had specific flooring and footing requirements it seems a shame to put up such a flimsy building. The flooring will probably last up to 50 years or more and see a few of these sheds in its lifetime.

After all the sections were together we started to put them together in an old barn raising fashion.






The siding was nailed off with 6 penny galvanized nails as was the roof sheathing.

Three tab roof shingles were installed over #15 roofing paper. (photo10)

The porch was made of 5/4 by 6 pressure treated lumber and nailed off with 3" maze nails. At the time of this article a decision had not been made whether to install steps or a ramp at the entrance.

This project was very straight forward. I have seen hundreds of sheds in all different shapes and sizes. Most of the time the most difficult part of this project is choosing the size and design of your shed. When deciding on the size shed you want or need you should always get a larger one than you think you will need. The odds are that you will some how find more stuff to store in it than you originally planned.

One popular design option for a shed is to side or paint it similar to your house. This makes it look like it is part of the "family".

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