(Off topic) Plans for building a 8x12 shed - steps pictures included
Just completed today my shed building project for the backyard at our new house! This was an awesome project and I had a great time with my father and brother.
I thought I’d share some pictures and the rough plans for the project. I spent a great deal of time on the Web and into my local hardware store to find information related to the different steps of building the shed… Although I won’t go into much details in this post, I hope the picture attached will help others get cues on how to do this and that.
The project took my father, my brother and me about 6 full days to complete (we’re not experts!) but the end result is awesome. Some others facts:
- I made the plans with Google SketchUp
- Floor is held on 6 concrete blocks
- Floor is built with 2x6s, spaced at 12 inches on-center
- Plywood sheets were used to cover floor
- Walls and roof are made up of 2x4s lumber, spaced 16 inches on-center
- Aspenite sheets were used for covering walls (1⁄2 inch) and roof (5⁄8 inch)
- Tar paper and fiberglass BP shingles were used for roof finition, tacked with 1 inch roofing nails
- Window and door were pre-made (slide-ins)
- Vinyl siding and soffits were used, as well as aluminium fascias. Aluminium was tacked into place using white aluminium nails (non corrosive)
- An electric cable runs underground to the house and into the main panel to bring light and electricity into the shed
Some random tips and afterthoughts:
- Roof trusts can be made up-front (this is what we did), as long as dimensions are carefully thought out!
- Use a pressure nailing gun with glued nails for carpentry works, this is fantastic and extremely fast
- Use a pressure tacking gun for fixing aluminium and soffits
- Building the shed with dimensions (width, depth and height) that are a multiple of 4 is convenient since most sheets are 4’x8’
- Use aluminium trimming cisors to cut vinyl sheets. A handsaw works also but requires some help to hold the sheets while cutting.
- We should have rented an aluminium folding machine for fascias: folding the fascias for sliding under the roof shingles was a real big pain.
- We had to add some small pieces of lumber (3⁄4 x 3⁄4 inch) under the roof perimeter to allow for the aluminium fascia to be tacked. We should have used 1x4s on the extremities instead of 2x4s: this would have allowed the pre-shaped fascias fittings to correctly slide in and be tacked.
- Finition is extremely time consuming it took 3.5 days to fully complete the structure and the roofing, then almost another 3 days to fully complete the shed (vinyl siding, soffits and fascias)
Hope this helps! If any question, please ask in the comments below!