Building a DIY Storage Shed from Scratch

Wow! Time really does fly! A little over a year ago, I posted the first part of this project. In that post, I explained how we built the foundation for this DIY Storage Shed (my apologies if you’ve been waiting for me to show the rest of the work before you start working on your own shed!).

To be honest, it didn’t take me a year to build it, it has just been taking us way too long to work on posts for the blog. There are way too many different things taking our time these days, from virtual school right after the quarantine started in March, to the birth of our beautiful daughter in April. Everything is taking longer in our home now.

The good thing is that it is done now, and we got all the landscaping tools, including the lawnmower, and the wheelbarrow out of the garage! There is also enough space in there for the table saw and other smaller tools. I’m just super happy to finally have those in their own storage shed, instead of taking space in the garage like they used to.

BUILDING A DIY STORAGE SHED FROM SCRATCH

I would say the shed’s foundation was about a third of the work. The next steps included framing the walls and the roof. Installing the roof, house wrap, trim, siding, an access door, and painting the shed.

As you may remember from that previous foundation post, our idea was to make the shed look as much like it is part of the house as possible. Although it is not attached to the house (because that would require building a proper foundation for it), from the outside it looks like it is.

To build the shed, we used the following tools and materials. Quantities would depend on the size of the shed you are building:

• Hand Tools, Level
• Pressure Treated Lumber (for the sill plates)
• Framing Lumber (We used 2”x4”)
• Framing Metal Brackets (I used them on the wall “touching” the house)
• Pneumatic Framing Nail Gun & Nails
• Air Compressor
• Nuts & Washers to fasten the sill plate to the foundation
• ½” OSB Boards for the walls and roof
• Trim for Fascia, Soffits & Outside Walls.
• Flashing, Roofing Felt, Asphalt Shingles & Roofing Nails.
• House Wrap, Staples & Heavy Duty Stapler to install the House Wrap
• Door
• Spray Foam
• Siding
• Caulking
• Paint

FRAMING AND ROOFING THE DIY STORAGE SHED

These are actually a few steps in one, but they are all part of the structure of the shed.

To start framing the walls, I first cut the pressure treated lumber for the three different sill plates we needed. I then measured, drilled, and checked that the holes aligned with the threaded rods sticking out of the foundation blocks.

 

Then, I framed the first wall and put it in place.

 

 

 

Then the second one.

 

And the third one.

 

After the three walls, I framed a fourth wall basically touching the exterior of the house. This wall serves three purposes, it strengthens the structure, gives more space to hang landscaping tools, and it also supports the roof’s “beam” (that long 2×4 you see sticking out the side of the shed).

 

As you can see, I framed the walls, but I didn’t nail the OSB boards right away like it’s usually done to keep the framing from wobbling and twisting. The reason: I was working by myself, so if I nailed the OSB, the walls were going to be way too heavy for me to move, lift, and put in place.

Nothing wrong with that. However, it was necessary to use the level before and while nailing the OSB, to make sure that all the walls were perfectly leveled.

With the walls ready, I moved on and framed the roof.

 

 

 

 

Soon after, I installed the fascia, flashing, the roofing felt, and the asphalt shingles. Then the soffits (not visible).  I also used the spray foam to seal the gap between the house and the shed’s framing.

 

 

 

Can you tell I could not wait to get that mower out of the garage!?

 

INSTALLING HOUSE WRAP, TRIM, SIDING, AND AN ACCESS DOOR

After completing the framing and the roof, the next step was to install the house wrap. I’m not sure if they use house wrap on those sheds you can get at Home Depot or Lowes, but considering the low cost, I decided to do things right. This is a pretty easy step too, and all you need is the heavy-duty stapler.

Once done with the house wrap, it was time to install the trim pieces and the access door.

 

 

 

The siding was next, which was the last “construction” step.

 

 

CAULKING AND PAINTING THE DIY STORAGE SHED

With pretty much everything done, it was just a matter of making the shed look nice, and another part of the house.

That meant caulking all the trim seams and filling up all the nail holes on the siding, before moving on and painting it.

 

 

To make it look like it was part of the house, we used the same paint we got from the builder. I applied a couple of coats to both the trim and the siding. The door was painted the same color as the siding, both inside and outside.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see in a few pictures, we had already moved pretty much all the landscaping tools to the shed before it was even finished. That shows you how bad I wanted them out of the garage and how happy I am to have it now!

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