How to Build a Shed - Step by Step

To make a storage shed you can get started by visiting any home builder type of store such as Home Depot or Lowes. Basically, you build a storage shed in the same way that you'd build a house. Here is an outline the concept so that you'll know what you'd need.

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You start with two-by-fours. Now-a-days that doesn't necessarily mean that you use wood. There are plastic extruded 2x4s that are the same size as 2x4s, only they're either made of plastic or another material. However, I would use wood, myself. You should only use pressure treated lumber, particularly for the floor and the bottom plates of the walls.

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You'll need lots of wood, lots of nails, hinges, and other kinds of hardware. Here is where you have to make the decision whether you're going to make a permanent platform on-which the shed will mount, or whether it will be built on skids so you can push it to a new location.

And, to connect the two-by-fours together, you use either right-angle brackets, or a T-bracket. These can easily be put together by either drilling a starter hole and then using self-tapping screws, or in other ways. Just ask your local store what is best to use when you're doing such a thing. You'll use the right-angle brackets on any corner which is not three-dimensional, T-brackets wherever you need to attach a 2x4 to another 2x4 at a right-angle, and a three-way bracket if you want to have three two-by-fours join into a three-sided corner.

You lay out the 2x4s on a flat surface so that they're the normal stud width (or wider if you'd like).

If you use a six-foot by four-foot plywood for the sides, then that's convenient and you can easily get them.

As for tools, you'll need a circular saw, a carpenter's square, a screwdriver, a plumb bob line and level, a hammer and measuring tape.

Realize that there might be restrictions in your area as to what you need to do before you begin. It might need to be a specific distance away from the property line, it might be needed that you satisfy certain criteria for your area. Sometimes you need you have your neighbors sign an approval.

If you're going to make a concrete platform, make sure you leave concrete padding around the posts so frost won't be a problem.

You start from the bottom, then build up. The floor rests on two 'members', which are pieces of wood called 'skids'. The joists are going to be a certain distance apart (2 feet). This matches up well with regular 4-foot cladding board. You place as many joists along the wall as you need, then you nail them to the top and bottom 2x4s to make a rectangle of the proper size.

Between them you put the horizontal 'noggings'. These would be perpendicular to the studs.

Next you can put on the wall siding. You'll need help to have the four wall sidings lifted into place, generally. It is particularly important at this point that all walls are straight up-and-down, flush with end of the foundation, and are all right-angles to each other. If you poured concrete, you should have installed a way of bolting the bottom 2x4s to the concrete.

There you have it: you are not ready to build a storage shed.

How to Build a Shed - Step by Step

See examples of finished storage sheds to get some inspiration. For more ideas about building your own shed, take a look around at http://www.OutdoorsStorageSheds.com/.

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