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

Free storage shed plans can be found all over.  They don’t call this the information age for nothing.  However, you have to remember what the older generation has told us for years, “You get what you pay for.”

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.

Tags: free storage shed plans, shed plans, storage shed plan

Honestly, roof construction has always intimidated me. Trusses, angles and spans seemed to be very complicated. In this case, however, I had a flat roof already put together on a frame. It was a strange set up. When it was a patio awning connected to my house it had the frame on top. My thought was to just flip it over and screw it to the top plate of my walls. The I learned differently.

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.

Tags: 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

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