The Wooden Garden Shed

A shed may be a simple box shape, attached to a greenhouse or a lean-to, or designed to match the architecture of the home.

The primary purpose of a garden shed is to store essential hand tools, large garden tools, and heavier and bulky equipment such as the lawnmower and wheel barrels.

The first item on the list is deciding how the garden shed is to be used as this will determine its use and how it is to be constructed.

Shed Usage:

1. Storing small and large garden tools
2. Parking different types of lawn machinery and other electrical tools
3. Storing facility for vegetables
4. A work place for cutting, planting, transplanting or repairing tools

Constructing a shed made with wood appears to be more expensive than vinyl, resin, plastic, and various metals which are used in shed construction. There are advantages to a wooden shed which are preferred by many of us.

1. Attractive and beautiful
2. A selection of wood choices
3. Apply paint or stain
4. Quality of workmanship
5. Customized
6. Size can be adjusted
7. Easily repaired
8. Longevity
9. May be changed to become another type of shed
10. A renewable building material
11. Environmentally friendly

The wooden shed is often considered after using other sheds made with plastics or metal or it is a personal choice because of childhood memories or gathering opinions from others.

A decision has been made as to the type and design of garden shed to be built. Next are the plans and blueprints. This may also be done by your self, hire an architect, or purchase print ready plans and blueprints from local hardware stores in your community or online.

Other important steps before building include:

1. Location

2. Size

3. Utility outlets (if electric and plumbing are to be installed)

4. Local residential building codes, licenses, and permits

5. Zoning requirements

6. Location of underground cables

7. Neighborhood restrictions

8. Building inspections

The size, location, and neighborhood type are seemingly the greatest concerns for legal responsibilities. It would be best to check on these items before building the shed.

This list at first glance may seem over whelming, however, planning is very important. Planning will save you unwanted heartaches and a drain on your finances.

The shed construction phase of the project is bringing your dream into a physical reality. And that is the excitement of creating your remarkable wooden garden shed.

The ease of the construction is understanding and following plans and blueprints. Follow instructions step by step in an orderly manner and the woodworking project will be completed in a short time.

Building Necessities:

1. Measure site for width and height
2. Measure tools and machinery for both height and width
3. List materials and tools
4. Design plans and blueprints
5. Decide on partitions, shelves, racks, and cabinets to be constructed
6. Selection of doors, window, shutters, and porch or deck
7. Include a ramp for moving heavy or awkward equipment
8. Electrical needs to operate lighting and electrical appliances and tools
9. Exterior and interior paints or stains
10. Types of shingles for roof

General Procedure :

1. Layout and prepare foundation
2. Build floor
3. Build frames
4. Attach walls
5. Insert doors, windows, and vents
6. Build rafters and roof
7. Build or purchase ready-made ramp
8. Construct shelving and other accessories
9. Inspect for refinement accessories
10. Paint or stain

We have experienced owning factory made sheds with some assembly in both plastic and metal. These sheds have their good points and their bad points. A decision to own these sheds is dependent upon their use and life expectancy.

The plastic shed which was used to store rarely used items is still with us. It is being used to store fertilizers and small miscellaneous items. We have had it about eighteen years and it is still in good condition. We discovered that rain can enter the shed and if not checked on a regular basis stored items will damage. The hot sun makes the interior very hot, therefore items need added protection.

Four metal sheds that we have owned have all rusted, dented, and lasted about ten years. The weather can do much damage to these sheds.

We had built a wooden garden shed and it has outlasted the four steel prefab sheds. After twenty-five years there are some small repairs which need to be done to the shingled roof and wooden floor as a result of many hurricanes.

This shed was fastened with screws rather than being nailed in order to make it mobile and easy to take apart.

This particular shed is going to be recycled and converted into a larger wooden shed to house larger lawn and garden machines as well as other large tools. I feel pretty confident that this new shed will last another twenty five years before needing any repairs.

After careful consideration we found that it is less expensive to own a wooden shed.