Even though I did my shed construction project myself and saved a lot of money by using salvaged material, I lost a lot of time in mistakes.  I am writing this to help you avoid my mistakes.

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

Tags: free storage shed plans, myshedplans, shed construction, shed door, shed plans, shed roof construction

After the decking was nailed down, I began to complete the walls for my shed construction project. Where the door was going to be and how tall they would be was important in my estimation.

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.

Tags: how to put up a shed, shed construction, shed plans

With the floor joist frame in the basic spot that I wanted it to be, I put some flat blocks under the corners and in the middle all the way around the outside of the frame. Blocks were placed every other joist under the ones that ran across the middle.

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!

Tags: buiding a shed, DIY shed, garden shed, shed construction

Ok, so I had a junkie awning and no shed. I had an idea in my mind of how I could use it.

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.

Tags: shed construction, shed plans, shed roof construction