Got my wood shed built!

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sly22guy

New Member
Oct 28, 2008
42
Lancaster,PA
Got my wood shed built this past weekend! Well 90% at least. Thanks for all the input on here and the pics.
Its 10' wide 12' deep and 8' high. I built it on a stone (3/4" bout 6" deep) base beside my driveway so it should drain well. The Bottom is out of pressure treated 2x6's and the decking is 3/4" tongue and groove decking. I put 3 doors in it. the front corner is open (2 doors about 36" wide) and then a 40" door on the back side so i can load/unload. the walls are 2x4's with 7/16 OSB on them. the roof is also 2x4's with osb and tar paper. hopefully ill get the shingles on this coming weekend. Im gona wait till spring to put the vinyl sidding on. If its not to late when i get home ill snap some pics and post them up.
 
Lookin' forward to a pic, sly. Drainage sounds good. Ahother thing to consider as you finish the sides is good airflow/ventilation. You don't want a wood shed sealed up tight...just the opposite, really. Keep the rain & snow off, but by all means let the air through. Rick
 
Yeah the wood has seasoned for a year out side so i think it wouldnt need to dry out too much more. I made the roof a peaked roof with bout 6" over hang on the sides and 10" over hang in the front and back. and between each rafter it is open space. (2x4's on 2 foot center) so basically @ each end there is a opening @ the top about 4" high and 2' long. so it should vent good. also the doors i made in the front swing open the whole way. (going to build) so they will remain open most of the time i will only shut them when we have extreme weather. I think im just gona get some screen in the spring and go around the peak so hopefully i can keep the birds out.
 
Why do you want to keep the birds out? Birds need a home too! We feel very fortunate whenever Flycatchers choose to nest in our woodshed. A family of Flycatchers do a good number on the insect population.

My woodshed is a 10' by 20' pole shed with metal roof. Six 6x6 poles sunk 4 feet and a concrete slab floor. I have 9 feet to the collar ties. No walls but a common wall with another shed and wood lattice on two other sides.

I regret using poles as the frost is jacking them and I regret no walls as I have to cross-pile all the row ends. It's a little too tall and I cannot leave empty space, stacking the wood to the 9 foot height.

If I had to do it over, I would build shorter walls I can lean the wood against and build it as wide as long. I would put in a front door and a back door so that I could alternate which end to draw the wood from.
 
LLigetfa said:
Why do you want to keep the birds out? Birds need a home too! We feel very fortunate whenever Flycatchers choose to nest in our woodshed. A family of Flycatchers do a good number on the insect population.

My woodshed is a 10' by 20' pole shed with metal roof. Six 6x6 poles sunk 4 feet and a concrete slab floor. I have 9 feet to the collar ties. No walls but a common wall with another shed and wood lattice on two other sides.

I regret using poles as the frost is jacking them and I regret no walls as I have to cross-pile all the row ends. It's a little too tall and I cannot leave empty space, stacking the wood to the 9 foot height.

If I had to do it over, I would build shorter walls I can lean the wood against and build it as wide as long. I would put in a front door and a back door so that I could alternate which end to draw the wood from.
Click to expand...

Are there pallets available to you up there?? Walls made of pallets should be an easy fix for that.
 
My woodshed is 16 x 8 w/ dimensions more or less set by what I could get at Home Despot... It's open on the two long sides except that I've hung tarps ("Heavy Duty" Silver ones from HF) on the rafters that I roll down in the winter time to keep the snow out. I figure it holds about 6 full cords. (10 8' long rows of 18" nominal length, 6-7' high)

Roof is the clear corrugated plastic - I found it was far less expensive than any sort of plywood and roofing alternative.

The walls on the ends I made from the pre-fab stockade fence panels that HD sells - mounted with the cross members on the outside so the wood doesn't push the slats off. At about $40 for a 6' H x 8' L section, much less than plywood, and doesn't need any extra reinforcing (though it does bulge a bit when I get the shed stuffed....

It looks a bit rustic, but I built the whole thing for about $500, so no complaints...

Gooserider
 
Gooserider said:
My woodshed is 16 x 8 w/ dimensions more or less set by what I could get at Home Despot... It's open on the two long sides except that I've hung tarps ("Heavy Duty" Silver ones from HF) on the rafters that I roll down in the winter time to keep the snow out. I figure it holds about 6 full cords. (10 8' long rows of 18" nominal length, 6-7' high)

Roof is the clear corrugated plastic - I found it was far less expensive than any sort of plywood and roofing alternative.

The walls on the ends I made from the pre-fab stockade fence panels that HD sells - mounted with the cross members on the outside so the wood doesn't push the slats off. At about $40 for a 6' H x 8' L section, much less than plywood, and doesn't need any extra reinforcing (though it does bulge a bit when I get the shed stuffed....

It looks a bit rustic, but I built the whole thing for about $500, so no complaints...

Gooserider
Click to expand...

Sounds interesting.. Could you post some pics? I noticed the premade fence panels the other day and entertained the thought of using them for my walls..

Ray
 
sly22guy said:
Yeah the wood has seasoned for a year out side so i think it wouldnt need to dry out too much more. I made the roof a peaked roof with bout 6" over hang on the sides and 10" over hang in the front and back. and between each rafter it is open space. (2x4's on 2 foot center) so basically @ each end there is a opening @ the top about 4" high and 2' long. so it should vent good. also the doors i made in the front swing open the whole way. (going to build) so they will remain open most of the time i will only shut them when we have extreme weather. I think im just gona get some screen in the spring and go around the peak so hopefully i can keep the birds out.
Click to expand...

Your shed sounds really good and I was wondering about 2x4's placed 2' on center for the roof though.. Can it handle snowloading? Looking forward to some pics!

Ray
 
Hopefully you can see the pics there attachments
 

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Thanks i just wish it wasnt so dark when i get home! Im just gona tar paper the roof and put shingles on it and then wrap the exterior walls with tar paper (just to keep the rain off it till i put siding on it in the spring. I think that the roof has enough pitch to it that it will shed the snow (if we get any). Guess ill find out. Worst case senario i do have some 2x6's that i could redo the roof in the spring if it dosnt hold up. I think it will though, ill just have to keep an eye on it. I was up on the roof and im 200lbs and it felt pretty strong.
 
raybonz said:
Gooserider said:
My woodshed is 16 x 8 w/ dimensions more or less set by what I could get at Home Despot... It's open on the two long sides except that I've hung tarps ("Heavy Duty" Silver ones from HF) on the rafters that I roll down in the winter time to keep the snow out. I figure it holds about 6 full cords. (10 8' long rows of 18" nominal length, 6-7' high)

Roof is the clear corrugated plastic - I found it was far less expensive than any sort of plywood and roofing alternative.

The walls on the ends I made from the pre-fab stockade fence panels that HD sells - mounted with the cross members on the outside so the wood doesn't push the slats off. At about $40 for a 6' H x 8' L section, much less than plywood, and doesn't need any extra reinforcing (though it does bulge a bit when I get the shed stuffed....

It looks a bit rustic, but I built the whole thing for about $500, so no complaints...

Gooserider
Click to expand...

Sounds interesting.. Could you post some pics? I noticed the premade fence panels the other day and entertained the thought of using them for my walls..

Ray
Click to expand...

Here's a few shots - it was at a point were I was working on refilling, but hadn't gotten enough stuff split to fill it, so I still had other things under the roof - not a lot of detail, but the best I've got at the moment.

I'm pushing on the roof strength, but I figure that I'm not living under it, so I'm not in a total panic about snow load issues. (If it collapses, I don't think the wood will be hurt...) Essentially there are three 2x4's running the length of the shed supported at the center and each end. The center supports were deliberately cut long to bow the roof up a couple inches, rather than allowing it to sag. I had a bunch of really ratty 1x deck planks that I'd picked up on a dumpster dive, I ran those across on a diagonal to get as much coverage out of them as I could, then put the PALroof plastic down on top of them. It's made it through two winters so far...

I've also put in a shot of my original shed, built before I realized how much wood one actually burned in heating for a season... That one was roofed w/ a bunch of old road signs left by the house's previous owner - I figure it gives me the worlds highest visibility woodshed... :coolgrin:

Gooserider
 

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Gooserider nice simple way to do the saw buck! (Ijust may have enough scrap to pull that off)
 
smokinj said:
Gooserider nice simple way to do the saw buck! (Ijust may have enough scrap to pull that off)
Click to expand...

Yes, the sawbuck was a very simple item - all scrap wood - though I'd probably do it a bit differently if I had it to do over.

The cross beam was a partly rotted 4x4 from an old mailbox post, the uprights are some assorted chunks of 2x4 I had laying around.

One thing that changed on me is that I'd built it for the old smoke dragon, which took a longer log length than the current stove, so the leg spacing is a bit wrong for this one. The other big change I'd probably make is to have it longer with more sections so that it is a bit less awkward to cut long branches and the like.

(IMHO the optimum is probably more on the order of having 3-4 sections, w/ each section being a little less than one stove length, possibly with doubled supports in the center sections so that you could cut to either side w/o having the cut chunks fall off...)

I don't actually use it that much though, perhaps because it is so awkward.

Gooserider
 
My saw buck is a six legger with a wheelbarrow wheel in front and handles in back. The legs are spaced 20 inches for my stove. I hang the logs 22 inches over the front and with the leg spacing and the length of the handles on the other end, I have all my cuts for an 8 foot log.
 
Gooserider said:
raybonz said:
Gooserider said:
My woodshed is 16 x 8 w/ dimensions more or less set by what I could get at Home Despot... It's open on the two long sides except that I've hung tarps ("Heavy Duty" Silver ones from HF) on the rafters that I roll down in the winter time to keep the snow out. I figure it holds about 6 full cords. (10 8' long rows of 18" nominal length, 6-7' high)

Roof is the clear corrugated plastic - I found it was far less expensive than any sort of plywood and roofing alternative.

The walls on the ends I made from the pre-fab stockade fence panels that HD sells - mounted with the cross members on the outside so the wood doesn't push the slats off. At about $40 for a 6' H x 8' L section, much less than plywood, and doesn't need any extra reinforcing (though it does bulge a bit when I get the shed stuffed....

It looks a bit rustic, but I built the whole thing for about $500, so no complaints...

Gooserider
Click to expand...

Sounds interesting.. Could you post some pics? I noticed the premade fence panels the other day and entertained the thought of using them for my walls..

Ray
Click to expand...

Here's a few shots - it was at a point were I was working on refilling, but hadn't gotten enough stuff split to fill it, so I still had other things under the roof - not a lot of detail, but the best I've got at the moment.

I'm pushing on the roof strength, but I figure that I'm not living under it, so I'm not in a total panic about snow load issues. (If it collapses, I don't think the wood will be hurt...) Essentially there are three 2x4's running the length of the shed supported at the center and each end. The center supports were deliberately cut long to bow the roof up a couple inches, rather than allowing it to sag. I had a bunch of really ratty 1x deck planks that I'd picked up on a dumpster dive, I ran those across on a diagonal to get as much coverage out of them as I could, then put the PALroof plastic down on top of them. It's made it through two winters so far...

I've also put in a shot of my original shed, built before I realized how much wood one actually burned in heating for a season... That one was roofed w/ a bunch of old road signs left by the house's previous owner - I figure it gives me the worlds highest visibility woodshed... :coolgrin:

Gooserider
Click to expand...

That's quite the firewood collection! Is that a recycled awning you use to cover the front? I could use something like that myself.. How much wood do you burn a year? I use about 3 cords here and that's 24/7 pretty much.. My wood shelter is highly visible as you drive into my yard so it was more expensive than I wanted it to be otherwise I would have gone a cheaper route... Now to figure out how to seal in the sides for winter...

Ray
 
raybonz said:
That's quite the firewood collection! Is that a recycled awning you use to cover the front? I could use something like that myself.. How much wood do you burn a year? I use about 3 cords here and that's 24/7 pretty much.. My wood shelter is highly visible as you drive into my yard so it was more expensive than I wanted it to be otherwise I would have gone a cheaper route... Now to figure out how to seal in the sides for winter...
Ray
Click to expand...

The rollup covers are all tarps. The blue one was given to me by a friend who was moving from her house to an apartment - the rest are all the high grade silver tarps from Harbor Freight (purchased back when they had free shipping...) I like the silvers better - they are about twice as heavy, and are much better made, plus they aren't as much of an eyesore, as the blue poly ones. HF sells the silvers for about the same price as the local shops sell the blue poly's so it works well. I fasten them up with recycled "Lettuce velcro" - great stuff, I use it for all sorts of things.

My wood consumption is much higher than yours. I went through about 4-5 cords last year, Carver is that much further south and closer to Cape Crud, so you tend to get rain when we get snow... The new shed holds about 6 cords, the old one holds about 1.5, so I have a good reserve. Except for the section I'm working out of right now, I've got the sheds filled, and have been working on my reserve pile - which will eventually get top covered for the winter, then move into the wood sheds in the spring. I've probably got 1-1.5 cords split and stacked so far, and another half cord split but needing to be stacked. (Hard to tell - pile size is dependent on my pallets, right now I have one row 11' long by 5-7' high, and a good start on the next row...) I think I'm about 1/2 way through my piles of rounds, so I'll end up with about 3-4 cords in the reserve piles. I also have about a cord or so of "chunk wood" - all the scraps from splitting that are larger than fist size, the odd cutoff bits, and so on...

As to sealing the sides, I like doing the tarps, they work well at keeping the snow off, but still allow pretty decent air circulation. If I were purchasing them again though, I'd probably get slightly shorter so they'd end a little shorter than ground level, right now they are a little longer, which makes it to easy to suck them up with the snowblower... :red:

Gooserider
 
I've never felt a need to tarp in the sides. The small amount of horizontal rain that might wet the edge dries in no time. I want as much air movement as possible.
 
LLigetfa said:
I've never felt a need to tarp in the sides. The small amount of horizontal rain that might wet the edge dries in no time. I want as much air movement as possible.
Click to expand...

I don't tarp in the sides when the weather is decent (i.e. not in snow season) for exactly the reasons you mention. It's also why my shed is open sided (besides being cheap) However in this area, we get a fair amount of drifting snow that will build up around the splits, then turn to ice. Makes it harder to get a load of wood when it's all frozen into one lump, plus it isn't the happiest thing in the world to drag a bunch of ice covered splits (which weigh extra BTW - I don't need to drag an extra 20lbs up the stairs) into the living room and have them melt on the carpet...

Thus the tarps, which don't impede air circulation that much, especially since the wood is already seasoned, but do keep the worst of the snow and ice off.

Gooserider
 
Gooserider said:
raybonz said:
That's quite the firewood collection! Is that a recycled awning you use to cover the front? I could use something like that myself.. How much wood do you burn a year? I use about 3 cords here and that's 24/7 pretty much.. My wood shelter is highly visible as you drive into my yard so it was more expensive than I wanted it to be otherwise I would have gone a cheaper route... Now to figure out how to seal in the sides for winter...
Ray
Click to expand...

The rollup covers are all tarps. The blue one was given to me by a friend who was moving from her house to an apartment - the rest are all the high grade silver tarps from Harbor Freight (purchased back when they had free shipping...) I like the silvers better - they are about twice as heavy, and are much better made, plus they aren't as much of an eyesore, as the blue poly ones. HF sells the silvers for about the same price as the local shops sell the blue poly's so it works well. I fasten them up with recycled "Lettuce velcro" - great stuff, I use it for all sorts of things.

My wood consumption is much higher than yours. I went through about 4-5 cords last year, Carver is that much further south and closer to Cape Crud, so you tend to get rain when we get snow... The new shed holds about 6 cords, the old one holds about 1.5, so I have a good reserve. Except for the section I'm working out of right now, I've got the sheds filled, and have been working on my reserve pile - which will eventually get top covered for the winter, then move into the wood sheds in the spring. I've probably got 1-1.5 cords split and stacked so far, and another half cord split but needing to be stacked. (Hard to tell - pile size is dependent on my pallets, right now I have one row 11' long by 5-7' high, and a good start on the next row...) I think I'm about 1/2 way through my piles of rounds, so I'll end up with about 3-4 cords in the reserve piles. I also have about a cord or so of "chunk wood" - all the scraps from splitting that are larger than fist size, the odd cutoff bits, and so on...

As to sealing the sides, I like doing the tarps, they work well at keeping the snow off, but still allow pretty decent air circulation. If I were purchasing them again though, I'd probably get slightly shorter so they'd end a little shorter than ground level, right now they are a little longer, which makes it to easy to suck them up with the snowblower... :red:

Gooserider
Click to expand...

Free shipping at Harbor Freight, I doubt I will see that deal.. I did a little research on tarps online and find that the shipping exceeds the cost of the tarp itself!!! LOL on the Cape Crud thing!! Never heard it called that before and yes I am pretty close to the Cape but far enough away so the traffic isn't much of a factor here however I commute to S. Boston so I'm pretty much used to the traffic thing.. Carver has virtually no traffic so I can deal with Boston for working.. I too feel I need to seal my wood for the winter because of drifting wind driven snow and also sideways rain can be a problem.. BTW I plan on sending all my snow to you seeing you have a snowblower :)

Ray
 
Last time I checked an HF catalog, they had a sliding scale on the shipping, they hit you pretty hard on the first few dollars, but once you reach about $50 it doesn't go up any more, as long as you avoid the truck ship stuff.

I found the secret w/ HF is to save the catalogs and purchase a bunch of stuff all at once, mostly from the first and last pages of each catalog. The catalog prices are good for 6-9 months I've found... If you do it that way the freight isn't to bad. They also have an HF retail store in Worcester, which would be a haul for you, and make you pay the 5% local shopping penalty, but...

Gooserider
 
Gooserider said:
Last time I checked an HF catalog, they had a sliding scale on the shipping, they hit you pretty hard on the first few dollars, but once you reach about $50 it doesn't go up any more, as long as you avoid the truck ship stuff.

I found the secret w/ HF is to save the catalogs and purchase a bunch of stuff all at once, mostly from the first and last pages of each catalog. The catalog prices are good for 6-9 months I've found... If you do it that way the freight isn't to bad. They also have an HF retail store in Worcester, which would be a haul for you, and make you pay the 5% local shopping penalty, but...

Gooserider
Click to expand...

Thanx for the info I'll keep that in mind..

Ray
 
raybonz said:
Gooserider said:
Last time I checked an HF catalog, they had a sliding scale on the shipping, they hit you pretty hard on the first few dollars, but once you reach about $50 it doesn't go up any more, as long as you avoid the truck ship stuff.

I found the secret w/ HF is to save the catalogs and purchase a bunch of stuff all at once, mostly from the first and last pages of each catalog. The catalog prices are good for 6-9 months I've found... If you do it that way the freight isn't to bad. They also have an HF retail store in Worcester, which would be a haul for you, and make you pay the 5% local shopping penalty, but...

Gooserider
Click to expand...

Thanx for the info I'll keep that in mind..

Ray
Click to expand...

Goose I just checked the Harbor Freight site and found they have locations at S. Attleboro and even a bit closer in Fall River.. Gonna have to take a ride and check it out..

Ray
 
Good deal - I hadn't remembered those locations as they are farther for me... I just wish they'd open up something in NH, say Nashua or Salem area - I hate that 5% local shopping penalty (I wish Carla Howell had gone after the sales tax instead of the income tax....)

Gooserider
 
sly22guy said:
Hopefully you can see the pics there attachments
Click to expand...

Looking good. Not knocking, just a couple tips.
With the roof rafters on 2' centers, You should use 3/4" plywood.
Anything smaller will sag from snow load in time, or at least belly in between the rafters.
The sides of the rood where you have just plywood hanging out there with no framing underneath, thats definitely going to sag.
You may find you need to add some framing after things settle in. No big deal, its a wood shed, but just thought I'd add my 2cents
;)
 
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