How To Build A Wood Shed: Fast & Easy DIY Tips

Materials Arrived!

After some careful planning and a bit of guesstimating, a material list was created.

The lumber is pressure treated 4″x4″ posts for the vertical posts, and 5/4″ deck boards for floor and walls.

The wood shed sits on concrete cottage pads

Position Concrete Pads

The first step was to position the (12) concrete cottage pads.

After digging a slight recess in the ground, sand was used to help level each pad.

Floor Joists

Next, it was time to begin construction of the floor joists, together with the vertical 4″x4″ posts.

It is HIGHLY recommended to use (2 or 3) 8″ galvanized carriage bolts, nuts, and washers, to fasten each of the joists to the posts.

Once the wood shed is loaded with several cords of wood, the total weight being supported is considerable. Wood screws are not enough to support the weight.

This lesson was learned the hard way!

Extra Support!

Because of the weight this size shed is supporting, it’s always a good idea to add a little extra support.

Use your scrap lumber to add these support blocks between the concrete pads and the underside of the joists. In this case, two 18″ boards were fastened to the 4″x4″ post using wood screws.

These simple blocks of wood will prevent any shearing between the joists and posts.

More Floor Joists

As more floor joists and vertical posts were added, several floor boards were temporarily used to hold the vertical posts vertically level.

Wood clamps proved to be a handy tool when levelling the 4″x4″ vertical posts using the floor boards.

Also, placing some floor boards over the joists serves as a handy platform to reach the upper ends of the 4″x4″ posts.

Time for the floor!

With the four floor joists completed it was time to build the floor.

You can see the first floor board installed in this photo. Notches were needed to wrap around the 4″x4″ posts.

Common deck screws were used to fasten the floor boards.

Floor Completed!

Apart from having to notch around the vertical posts, the flooring installation was the quickest part of the job.

Time for the roof support beams

Similar to the floor joist construction, the roof support beams are added.

The roof beams are angled down towards the back side of the woodshed to shed water off the roof.

Notice how floor boards were used to temporarily support the roof beams during assembly.

Time for the walls

With the roof trusses installed, it was time to begin construction of the walls.

Notice the gap between the wall boards to allow air to help season the wood.

Good air ventilation is vitally important to get the wood moisture level below 20% for best burning.

Testing firewood placement

Okay, maybe this was jumping the gun a bit, but beginning to load the shed with firewood before the walls were fully built did prove to be easier to load wood.

Mission Accomplished!

A simple tarp with budgie cord tie-downs was used as a quick solution for the roof.

Local building codes restrict the number of building with roofs to three out buildings. By having a removable tarp as a roof, this circumvented the building code issue.

Granite Steps

As a final touch, granite steps were added to access the wood shed.

This shed is located in an area that gets lots of snow so having wide, durable, granite stones proved to be an ideal choice.

Plus they look great!

Firewood Log Cart

Case and point; this sturdy, mobile log cart is ideal for transporting piles of firewood across the backyard to the fire pit or woodpile.

• Measures 43 inches tall x 21.5 inches wide x 26 inches deep; 13.5 inches wide without the wheels
• Holds 1/8 face-cord wood
• 10″ rubber wheels
• Weighs 21 pounds