Wood Shed/ Tool Shed Design Ideas

[River19]

We are coming close to finishing our log cabin in VT, it can’t be done soon enough after 40 of 41 straight weekends of dedicated work…………..but I digress, anyways, now that we have the Jotul fired up for the winter when we are up there I need to think about out buildings. In the spring and summer I want to build a shed to serve two purposes, one part to hold about 2 cord of wood and another of about 10x12’ or so for a garden tractor and storage for other implements of destruction.

The challenge is the location for us, our lot is skinny but long and has a serious hill in the back and most likely we will have to build it with part over the hill on cement posts etc. so that will be fun to build.

Does anyone know of a good source of shed ideas/plans? Obviously, I would love to see any pictures or descriptions of what you guys have done……..

Thanks for the help

Steve

 

[firefighterjake]

Hard to say what might work for you and your specific needs, but try doing a search for wood sheds . . . a number of folks (myself included) have built some wood sheds this past summer and in the past many others have built some really slick sheds . . . some of which you may be able to customize to suit your needs (I think Fossil has one of the coolest wood sheds . . . and LL has a pretty sharp looking one as well.)

 

[Roxburyeric]

Take a look at betterbarns.com for their plans. I just built a 12X20 shed from their 12X16 colonial set. I used their plans because I think it looks more like a barn than a store bought shed. I'll post a picture later.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

I'm in the gathering materials phase for a 8' x 24' woodshed. It'll be a basic post-and-beam structure made from used power poles (which are free from the local utility). No plans needed - sink the posts 3' in the ground (just like fence posts), use a level to trim the poles to the right height, run your beams (also power poles) E/W or N/S (depending on the look you want), nail some 1x or 2x over the beams, then, depending on the roofing material you have you can put your roofing right on the 1x or 2x or you'll have to put plywood down on the 1x or 2x then your roofing. Simple.

 

[LLigetfa]

2 cord ain't a lot of wood. You could fit that under the eaves. Maybe extend the gable end of the roof to cover your wood and whatever else you might want to stick under there.

 

[jlow]

The shed I built is in this thread about my tree cutting adventure. It holds a little over 8 cords. Maybe it will help in your design.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/39246/

Jeff

 

[River19]

Thanks for the thoughts guys I have checked out that thread above, nice pics.

Maybe I’ll rethink the 2 cord idea……….the reason I went light on volume is that this is still a part time house for us (not that we are loaded, just the timing was right to build the cabin) as much as I would love to move up there. During the winter I would imagine it will get weekend use 3 out of 5 weekends or so. Although it is a long season, Oct-April really, so maybe more like 3-4 cord would be more realistic.

I would like to figure out how to incorporate at least a decent sized enclosed shed adjacent to the woodshed to store the implements of destruction…..like my 1975 Wheel Horse tractor which I grew up on and still love and use.

 

[kenny chaos]

I hate out-buildings.
Add it to the back of the house.
The blue thing is the firewood pile which has a final storage spot in that back room.
(Can anyone see why sometimes I may have draft issues?)

 

[savageactor7]

Yeah what kenny says...lean-to's will give you the most bang for the bucks.

 

[deck2]

Check out this link, I am really thinking of building something like it.

(broken link removed to http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/1766661.html)

 

[kenny chaos]

The problem with out-buildings is that they are usually taxed higher.
Once you mature, you no longer enjoy the trip out to them in the rain, cold, and snow (very inefficient).
And, they're a seperate entity requiring regular maintenance if nothing more than something else to mow around.
This may seem trivial now but we all think differently as we age.

 

[woodsman23]

If you hae a hill behind you then why not dig into it and make a kind of underground type of storage area. A nice big clean, new concrete septic tank would work nicely.

 

[gzecc]

Kenny, Your chimney isn't high enough. The trees are probably creating a wind tunnel that is negatively effecting your draft because of your vertically challenged chimney. If I were to guess, the front of your house faces- east.

 

[River19]

If you hae a hill behind you then why not dig into it and make a kind of underground type of storage area. A nice big clean, new concrete septic tank would work nicely.

This is a good thought but unfortunately the hill is sloping away (as in down) from the home site and there isn’t a good way to get around to it. It is fairly steep.

While I like the lean-to idea from an efficiency standpoint, I am married and therefore I have to pass the plans/ideas past “The War Department” and I know for fact the lean to wouldn’t even make it past the first round of ideas.

I don’t mind the walk to the out building as we are only talking about 15-20’ from the porch, of course I hear your point, I’m 34 now……..maybe after a few years of it the 20’ might as well be a mile.

I’m thinking of something similar to the jlow pic on the link he provided. If I make it 8’x8’x 8’ that should provide exactly enough for 4 cords or maybe increasing the width to 10’ which would provide for 4-5 cords. Adjacent to that I can build an actual shed of about 10x10 or 10 x 12 for the tractor, lawn mower and various implements of destruction to be housed.

I’m getting there from a concept standpoint.

I believe something along those lines will be palatable to The War Dept.

Thanks

Steve

 

[LLigetfa]

A picture of the slope might help. You could put the shed on piers so the entrance is on grade and carve a sloped path or stairs to the lower end along one side. The space under the shed between the piers could be used for additional storage.

 

[SolarAndWood]

If the hill is falling away, I would fill the space you want for the shed and then use a gravel floor. Stacking 8' tall is going to put a lot of weight on a framed floor supported by posts that are likely to see some frost heave cycles in northern VT.

 

[River19]

I don’t have a great picture of the slope (never really had a reason to take one………) but this was taken of the view out the back standing right at the edge of the slope……..I’m 6’ and those trees in the foreground vary from 6-10’ high from their base. So I would say the slope is damn near 45-60 degrees.

I think I’m going to have to rethink the 8’ high stack, that was a good point, heavy freakin’ load. Although I tend to build everything with 6x6PT posts sitting on cement 48” deep I still will have to think this through.

I don’t think stacking anything under the shed and down the slope would work for us, that slope will be a groan in the winter.

 

[LLigetfa]

I don’t think stacking anything under the shed and down the slope would work for us, that slope will be a groan in the winter.

Actually was thinking you could put Summer stuff under there for Winter storage. My wife keeps shoving stuff in my shed to store for the Winter.

For the small amount of wood you intend to store, there's no need to stack it 8 feet high. You could stack it maybe 5 feet high and leave a few feet above the stacks for hanging stuff or a shelf or two.

 

[Woods Dweller]

I just posted this thread of my wood shed: The Evolution of My Wood Shed
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/43636/