The biggest mistake I made was in not getting some shed plans to go by.  I had a good idea of where it was all going, but a few details I messed up on wouldn’t have been a problem if I had plans.  Time is as important as money.

So as I researched the internet preparing for anticipated shed project this summer I came across MyShedPlans.com.  I thought I would give you a first hand review of their site.  If you want to go straight to their site to see what they offer click here.

I noticed while searching the internet that you can find a lot of information out there, but it’s all bits and pieces.  A video here might show you the basics, while some free storage shed plans will give you some other aspects.  I wanted the whole story.  I found that at MyShedPlans.com.

Ryan, the author is like a neighbor standing next to you giving you advice step by step.  There are several pictured manuals for different parts of the shed building process.  In fact, there are a multitude of building plans for a variety of shed-type needs.  As someone who always wanted to do some woodworking projects, I was glad to find that there are thousands of other woodworking plans included like furniture, toys, decorations, etc.  They must have collected every project on the planet here.

Click here to visit My Shed Plans site

Each project plan has a list of materials that you could easily just hand to the guy at the hardware store.  Having this list alone will save you from extra visits to the hardware store for not having enough materials or having the extras stacked up in your yard.  The diagrams are clean and easy to figure out even for one like me with little experience.  The guides for framing shed roof construction, wall framing and how to make shed doors are all there.  All the steps from start to finish are laid out plainly.

I was not to impressed that I would have to print out each plan that I wanted instead of buying a printed book, and that I saw a couple of duplicate plans in the huge volume of shed construction plans.

I wish I had found this site when I built my shed.  It would have saved me lots of time doing a couple things over and the anxiety of trying to figure out what to do next as I built it.

So my next shed construction project is coming up.  You can guess where I’m looking already- MyShedPlans.com.  I couldn’t be happier knowing that I have the questions answered before I even start.

Click here to visit My Shed Plans site

Don’t count out the free stuff just yet.  As I have scoured the net for free storage shed plans, I’ve seen a great variety of ways to do things with a shed.  There are different roof lines, siding options, floor structures and designs.  Seeing such a variety might give you a better picture of what you want in a shed.

So, below are some links to sites where you kind find the free storage shed plans.  The quality will be different, but remember you’re looking for ideas and tips not an all-inclusive plan.

myshedplans.com -  They have thousands of plans for all kinds of wood working projects, and a free shed plan you can sign up for.  I got the free plan from there.

Build Eazy - I like their tutorials.  There are several pages to show you step by step, with graphics, how to build a shed, but it is just general procedures that they show you.

Popular Mechanics - Who doesn’t like Popular Mechanics?  They have a several page guide with great pictures and tips, but they don’t give a materials list which kind of leaves a lot out.

There’s a little bit of a list anyway.  Don’t forget you can check out your library as well.  You remember libraries don’t you.  It’s a place where there are lots of books to look through.  Most towns and counties still have them.  You can probably find some free shed plans there as well.

A few months later, that same handyman was putting up plywood window coverings on rental houses because of a hurricane threat.  He called me when it was over to ask if I had put sheathing on the outside of my shed yet, and if I wanted all this plywood.  More free stuff.  This was getting too good to be true.  There are many ways to sheath your shed, but plywood is great for strength and for being able to nail siding in any location.

After installing the sheathing by putting it up horizontally, I started with trimming the corners and along the underside of the roofing with 1 X 4 inch boards. The cedar boards were lap siding, and they were warped outward from sun exposure.  I turned them to put the warp inside.  It actually made my shed look like a log cabin.

Most of them were 8 to 12 feet in length, so I did not have very many seams.  I think there were only three, and I put those on the back, so they wouldn’t be seen.  The cedar siding was cut to length fitting inside the rim boards, and the top pieces were angle cut on the top to fit along the angled roof line.  Lap siding gets nailed where the siding overlaps.  It commonly overlaps by about 1 1/4 inches.  There it was; my cedar, log cabin looking shed made with nearly all salvaged materials.  I was happy.

The lintel or header was built when I built the front wall.  Headers are made by cutting two 2 X 4s the same length as the width of your door opening plus 3 inches for the header supports (Don’t forget to make the opening about 5/8 inch bigger than your door).  When nailing the 2 X 4s together you put a 1/2 inch piece of plywood, cut the same size as the 2 X 4s, in between the 2 X 4s.  Doing this makes the lintel the same width as the 2 X 4 studs in the wall.

The header supports are 2 X 4s that are nailed to the wall studs in the door opening to hold up the header.  I ended up putting some 1/2 trim onto the header supports for a jamb against the door.  I even used the threshold from the front door as well.  You need to add that into the door opening as you build it.

When my friend came over to help me lift it and place it on the walls, he said, “This is interesting material.” He proceeded to inform me that it was material used to cover semi-trailers, and that if I turned it over it would actually catch water which would then flood my shed. that was helpful information. but he would help.

As it turned out he had enough aluminum pans (not cookware, but pans that are connected to make aluminum awnings) to cover my shed. He wanted the material that we were discussing and I wanted the pans, so we traded.

The pans turned out to be 18 inches short, but had put up a few awnings of this style. With a little overlapping and lots of caulking, we screwed the pans around the walls. I added two cross beams for support in the middle. One of them is where I put the overlap for the extension pieces.

So without too much work my shed roof was on. It had a 10 inch drop from front to back for the water to run off. I even made it fancy by adding some fascia and a gutter on the back (that was free too from another friend). Sometime I’d like to build trusses for a shed roof, but I think I’ll read up on that before I try it. That’s another reason to get a shed plan. It has the dimensions for roof construction too.

I worked for a contractor for awhile, but I wasn’t experienced myself. Whenever we built sheds on the job I would see them do something that I had never seen before, so I would ask questions as to why they were doing things the way they were.

There were two important things for me to learn:

1) Building headers and corners- When building the header for the door I put a 5/8 inch plywood strip between the 2 X 4s to make it the same width as the stud uprights. The corners are done the same way. The corner studs have the plywood between them so that you can nail things to either side of the corner. ( I know pictures would really help here.)

2) The 16 inch on center rule- The studs need to start from one side or the other and be 16 inches on center from each other. The last one might be less than that depending on the length of the wall. If this rule isn’t followed, it becomes very difficult when putting up the sheathing on the outside. I know this from experience (the hard way)!

I got all the walls to my shed project up over an afternoon and the next morning. The first wall I did twice.
My creative roof was next on the list.

Thinking back I would have done two things different here.
1) I would have checked the county codes for proper distance from the fence to the shed. While most people’s sheds were against their fence, I found out later that it had to be so many feet from the property line.
2) I would have put some gravel under the blocks because we lived in Florida where the ground is sandy and sinks alot.

After the whole frame was leveled with wooden shims between the blocks and joists the plywood was nailed to them. Being careful to stagger the pieces, I nailed the 3/4 inch plywood pieces every 12 inches onto the floor joists. Liquid nails was used on every board.

There, the floor looked pretty good. Oh, and I bought the plywood, nails and 2 X 4s at Home Depot. That was about all the cash that I put into it.

Next, the walls go up!

One day we tore the old awning that I was going to use for the shed roof construction down. It was a weird structure that was built upside down. The framework was on top. Later a friend revealed to me that it looked like the old metal stripping that used they used to make trailers for semis.

A week later, we pulled the decking boards off of the deck. It was about ten by ten, and the floor joists were made from 2 X 12 lumber.

My wife and I dragged the deck joists in one piece about 30 feet across the yard. Actually, now that I remember, we rolled it to the shed site end over end.

I had in my possession free floor joists, a roof and old cedar siding from a commercial building. As I began to piece it together, I wished I had a plan. In my mind I saw plywood decking on the joists, 2 X 4 studs for walls and my old used awning laying frame down on top. I learned that there was more to it than I figured on.

A plan with all the elements laid out and the order of progress would have been nice. My advice is that if you are going to build anything, get a plan even for a shed.

A few years ago, I bought a house and there were two problems that I wanted to take on that were also interrelated. 1) I had no shed in the backyard, and 2) there was a horrible looking throw-together awning and deck on the back.

Being a fairly thrifty person, or maybe I should say “cheap,” I decided to dismantle the awning and deck to use the materials for my new shed. On other job sites that I helped a contractor on, I acquired some old cedar siding. When I replaced my front door I saved the old one for the shed, too. After a hurricane I inherited the window plywood from three houses. It seemed I had almost everything that I needed to begin.

The supplies were piling up, but I still needed the studs for the walls. With some “encouragement” from my wife, who was sick of the piles stacking up in the yard we finally brought out the saws and hammers and began the building. What plan would we follow?