How To Build A Shed
Building a DIY shed allows you to customize it to your own requirements. If you buy a ready-made unit or kit you will be stuck with the design and materials, and you will almost cetainly have to assemble it yourself in any case.
We will show you how to build a shed for yourself, and we guarantee that you will find the process both easy and immensely satisfying.
First, you need to decide on the site and the shed’s part in it. For instance, if it will store your ride-on mower, there should be easy access between the shed and the lawn.
The outdoor shed will be a prominent feature in the garden – do you want to make it blend into the background or do you want to make it an attractive building in its own right?
Will you want an electricity or water supply to the shed and, if so, how easy will this be to arrange?
The size of the backyard shed is very important, and it is better to err on the generous side – you will inevitably find things that have to go in the shed after it has been built, and that you had previously overlooked in your shed plan! Try to itemize the large or bulky things that will take up space – draw them on a floorplan perhaps – and work out how you will gain access to them.
Remember that you will not be restricted to a door only on a gable end – it is quite easy to arrange doors of practically any size on any side of the shed provided you have suitable access. We recommend that, if you decide that a 10 x 18 shed might be large enough, you choose to make a shed that is 12 x 20 instead. You will be glad later.
Next, think about the shape and materials you want to use. Do you want the diy shed building to reflect some features of your house, such as the pitch of your roof? Will aesthetics take second place to practicality or finances? The eventual appearance of the shed will be determined by two main features – the type of roof and the materials used for the side panels.
You might want to look at some shed designs for backyard sheds to get ideas here.
The shed roof can be apex-shaped (having a longitudinal ridge with roofing panels pitched down on each side), pent-shaped (a single roof panel higher at one side) or even shaped like a Dutch barn (two roof panels on each side of the ridge, the upper pair with a shallow pitch and the lower ones with a more pronounced pitch).
The apex design often gives greater headroom inside the shed but tends to cost more than the pent roof. The pent roof design usually puts the higher end of the roof at the window side of the shed, allowing you to stand or walk around in that part of the shed and put shelves or storage units under the lower part. The Dutch barn design costs the most but also gives the most headroom space. And it has the strongest visual impact.
Remember that, if you want to use roofing tiles or slates, you will need extra roofing trusses to support the added weight. Your shed blueprints will show you how to build a shed with these things in mind.
We will cover the choice of materials, and the type of floor or plinth, in Build Your Own Shed.
