In this do it yourself renovation post, we will cover the process of Building a Barn Style Shed, in detail.
The suggested tools that you will need for this project will include the following:
- Framing Hammer
- Tape Measure
- Carpenter Pencil
- Chop Saw
- Circular Saw
- Carpenter Square
- Drill with Phillips Bit
- Utility Knife
- Chalk Line or 4ft Level
Type of Shed
Before you begin this project, you must determine what type of shed you would like to build. There are a many different types of sheds that you can build, we will be covering three different types in this post; they are Baby Barn Shed, Gable Roof Style Shed and Slant Roof Style. In this post, we will be covering a Barn Style Shed.
Estimating for Material
Estimating material needed for your shed is a very important aspect of this whole process. You probably already have in mind what type of barn you want to build and the size, therefore you need to start with a small sketch of the barn how you want it built.
Material needed for Floor
Start from the bottom up, meaning the floor starts first. When you first start, it doesn’t really matter what shed or barn you are building, the floor will usually be the same. Depending on how wide you want your shed, it will determine the size of the floor joist in the floor. The wider the shed, the wider the joist. I recommend using a minimum of 2×6 for a shed that is 8 ft wide, 2×8 for a shed that is 10-12 ft wide. Most sheds dont get any wider than this.
For this example, lets pretend you want to construct an 8 x 10 shed. For support reasons, your floor joists should be 16 inches on center. So you will need eleven 2×6 boards; nine 2x6x8 boards for the Floor Joists and two 2x6x10 for the Rim Joist (the joists on the ends, where the floor joists are nailed). See the illustration.
Note: The illustration below is a floor designed for an 8 x 8 Shed.
The other material will consist of 4×4 pressure treated posts to lay perpendicular under the floor joists (shown above) for added support and 3 sheets of 5/8″ plywood for the flooring. For this barn, you will be required to have three 4×4 posts; one on either end, and one in the center. These pressure treated 4×4′s will be secured to the floor joists and sitting on leveled blocks (this will be covered during the construction faze).
Material needed for Walls
Next, we will start to work out material for the walls. I recommend having the wall studs on 24 inch centers, reducing the material and work load slightly. Therefore, if the walls will be at 24 inch centers, you will need eight walls studs for the 8 ft rear wall, twelve studs for the two 10 ft side walls and six for the front 8 ft wall. For the sidewalls, you will be cutting each of  the 2×4 in two pieces, therefore you will use 5 half pieces on one wall with a bottom plate for each side.  you will also need seven sheets of 3/8″ plywood (recommended good one side) for outer sheathing for the walls. The below illustration will show how to plan for the amount of material needed for the studs and trusses of the shed.
Material needed for Trusses
There are many different designs for building a truss system for each baby barn style. My own choice is to make the most out of the limited room in this type of shed, allowing the side of the truss to be more vertical, and the top portion of the truss to be slightly horizontal. Doing this gives the shed much needed headroom and extra storage area. This is accomplished by using a different combination of angles to get it just right. See pic for a better understanding of the truss angles.
Whatever you decide to do, your material list will most likely be exactly very similar no matter what type of truss you will end up putting on the shed. With this in mind, you will want to match up each wall stud with a roof truss, therefore they will be on 24 inch centers as well. You will need two 2×4 boards per truss, giving you a total of 10 in total for all trusses. Calculating the angle will come later. You will also need three sheets of 1/2 chip board (or plywood) for the roof and a bundle of shingles for every piece of chip board, plus one extra for waste, starter strip and ridge caps.
Material needed for Doors
For this design, you will have two 2ft wide doors. By doing this, you will only need one sheet of 3/8″ plywood for both doors and 6 pieces of 1×3 spruce strapping to frame and give the doors some support. This will be illustrated below.
Finishing Touches Material
Baby Barn Style Shed Construction:
Preparing the Ground:
Marking the Ground -Â Simply take your measuring tape and spray paint and spray the ground where the you want the front of the shed to be. After determining and marking the front corners, measure back from each front mark your desired length, and spray the ground. This will give you a rough area of where your shed floor will be positioned.
If you are really fussy about the exact area where your shed will sit, lay out some boards on the ground and square them off, measuring the front, back and corner to corner…ensuring that all measurements are the same. If you are building a 8×10 Shed, your floor Corner to Corner measurements will be 12′ 9 11/16″ or 153 11/16″.
Leveling the Ground – Before you begin constructing the shed floor, leveling the ground needs to be done. If not, the shed will be on uneven ground and shift over time, making the doors impossible to close and cause fastened materials to separate. So, with that being said, you need to remove all the grass from the area under your shed. If there is grass under your shed, it will grow up around your floor supports and joists, rotting them out.
Remove the grass from that area and level the ground by using a 2×6 board and a level. The grass can be removed from that area with a spade shovel and a rake, carrying it away with a wheel barrel. Pick the lowest point where the shed will be, and level all parts of the ground under the shed off that point. Spots on the ground that are going to have deck blocks should be tamped, so settling doesn’t occur after the shed is put in place.
Building the Floor:
Position Floor Supports – Position the cement deck blocks evenly on top of the ground, ensuring that they remain level with each other. Next, lay down your Pressure-Treated 4×4 along the deck blocks, making sure they are spread out evenly; one located on either end and a minimum of one positioned in the center. See the pic below.
Assembling the Floor – As stated earlier, for this shed you will be required to have Nine 2x6x8 Pressure-Treated boards for the Floor Joists and Two 2x6x10 Pressure-Treated boards for the Rim Joists. Your shed will be exactly 8 feet wide, therefore you will need to cut your floor joists so that they measure 93 inches in length. Once the Floor Joists are secured to the Rim Joists, you will have a total of 96 inches (8 ft).
Start by preparing your Rim Joists for the Floor Joists; done by measuring / marking every 16 inches along the Rim Joist. These marks will be where the center of the Floor Joist will be secured. To prevent splitting of the ends of your Rim Joists, drill three 1/16″ pilot-holes for your screws for the first and last Floor Joist. These holes will be where you will screw in your 3″ Decking Screws, securing the floor joists.
Next, lay out your floor joists perpendicular over your 4×4 supports, and Screw-nail one side at a time. Simply butt your first joist flush all around with the rim joist, and secure with 3″deck screws. Remember when you secure your inner floor joists to the rim joists, they need to be centered on the mark you made. If the floor joists are not centered, your floor sheathing (plywood) will not line up on the center. See the pic below.
Obviously, the pic above is an example of how to sheath at 12×12 Shed, but the principles are the same. Lay your sheathing perpendicular on the floor joists, and screw-nail approximately every eight inches into the joists. While screw-nailing, you must keep in mind that the sheathing needs to square up the floor framing, and be plum and flush to the floor framework. To fill in the remaining of the space of the floor, simply measure off a 4 x 4 ft piece of plywood and butt it up tight to the others, making sure that you offset the joints, as illustrated above. Once the floor is complete we can start to build our walls.
Building the Side Walls - building the side walls is a very similar process to the floor. We construct framework, and then sheath it…and ultimately, secure it to the floor. Lets cover how this is done.
The side walls are going to be an 1 1/2″ shorter than 4ft, which would make them 46 1/2″ high. This is done by cutting each wall stud at 45 inches, allowing you to get two wall studs out of one 2x4x8 board. Since the wall studs are 24 inches apart, you will need to Six per side, for a total of twelve 45 inch pieces…and two 2x4x10 boards for the bottom wall plates. Once all the pieces are cut, you can start to assemble the wall framework. My suggestion, would be to also mark the inside of the plywood sheathing, an 1 1/2″ from the bottom. This mark is where the bottom of your wall plate will sit, and where your wall sheathing will be nailed. As stated before, the same principles apply; marking on center where your wall studs will be secured and make sure the top of the wall sheathing is matching up flush with your wall studs. See the pic below to see what I am talking about.
Although the pic does not depict how….post under construction, sorry for the inconvenience!
