How to Build a Woodshed
(Page 2 of 8)
August/September 1995
By John Vivian
All sizes are a little under 8 feet high at the roof peak and are wider than they are deep for easiest wood handling. The 2 1/2-cord model is four feet wider than the 4 foot by 8 foot basic 1 1/2-cord version. The 2-cord model is 2 feet wider than the basic 1 1/2-cord version. The 3-cord shed is 2 feet wider and deeper, at 12 feet wide and 6 feet deep. The 4-cord model adds another 2 feet of width for a shed that’s 14 feet wide and 6 feet deep.
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Your common stick-built structure is designed around standard 8-foot framing lumber and 4-foot-by-8-foot sheet goods. But, with timer framing and plank siding, dimensions can be adjusted to fit the materials on hand rather than vice versa. Decide the approximate size shed you need, price beams and siding, and adjust your finished dimensions to fit the materials you like best. Timbers are timbers. But your siding choices range from silky-surfaced cedar clapboards, milled tongue-and-groove barn board, fine cedar shingles, T-1-11 grooved plywood, rough-cut boards or even sawmill slabs. The chart gives the footage required and illustrations show how each is applied.
All building lumber is sold in true lengths of 8 feet, 10 feet, 12 feet and longer; increasing in 2-foot increments. Square-beam widths come in two-inch increments from 4 inch to 8 inch nominal measure. Actual dimensions will be up to 3/4 of an inch less than nominal. Siding boards come 1 inch nominal (3/4 inch actual) or 5/4 inch nominal (1 inch actual) thick in widths that vary anywhere from 4 inches to just under a foot depending on type and finish and whether the edges are left square or milled to mate in shiplap, tongue-and-groove, or other joints.
Shop around for the best deal on materials. Recycled lumber is fine. The cheapest new lumber will be rough-cut boards bought fresh-cut at the mill (but, air-dry wet lumber for six months, laid out flat in ricks with spacer-boards every 2 feet between each layer). If you can get a real deal on 10-foot beams, build a 10-foot-wide building. If the best siding turns out to be 6-inch nominal planks that measure an actual 5 1/2 feet, design your shed’s back and sides in 5.5-inch increments. But before you cut any lumber, lay out the siding along the foundation beams to see how it all fits. For example: Theoretically, the back of your 10-foot (120-inch)-wide building would carry 21.8 of the 5.5-inch-wide boards. You can’t stretch a timber to hold an even 22, and if you open up a few joints to fit in only 21, it could look bad. You could squeeze in 22 — and trim .4 inches off the edges of both end boards … or trim the frame by .8 inch to hold an even 21 … any way you like it is fine. But — again — before you do any cutting, lay out frame and siding edge-to-edge to see how it fits for real.
The detailed instructions that follow will build you a basic 4-foot-by-8-foot building from the most commonly available lumberyard materials. The frame takes 12 to 15 8-inch-, 6-inch-, and 4-inch-square timbers at about $5 apiece. Siding requires 16 nominal 1-inch-thick-by-6-inch-wide-by10-feet-long pine planks that will actually measure 3/4-inch thick and anywhere from 5-and-1/2-inches to 5-and-3/4-inches wide and cost about $5 per board. The roofing is one standard 25-sq.-ft-to-weather bale of random width #2 white cedar shingles costing some $10/package plus seven 8-inch-long lengths of 1-inch-by-3-inch strapping (wood furring strips) to fasten the shingles to. Siding and roofing nails plus hardwood dowels for pegged joints will cost a few dollars more. Total cost should be $200 to $250 for new materials from a lumberyard — half that for rough-cut lumber from a sawmill — still less if you scrounge from demolition sites and recycling centers. Pine shingles are half the price of cedar but last half as long unless treated annually with wood preservative.
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