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" If you&amp;#039;re like most homeowners, you know that there&amp;#039;s no such thing as enough storage space. There&amp;#039;s a limit, after all, to the things you can squirrel away in your basement and garage. What you really need is a garden shed--one large enough to house an arsenal of outdoor power tools while providing organized space for everything from rakes and shovels to fertilizer and fuel. There are two choices when it comes to building a wooden garden shed: You can buy a kit--and put up with the manufacturer&amp;#039;s choice of materials and layout--or you can design a structure to suit your own particular needs and tastes. This approach may cost more and take longer, but it&amp;#039;s the best way to get what you want. We had in mind a basic 9 x 13-ft. shed built with decent materials and conventional framing methods. Material costs for our project came to around $2400. Click on link for high-resolution version of the plans. (Illustration by Eugene Thompson) Step 1: Shed Foundation  Most wooden sheds are set on concrete blocks or treated-lumber skids. That&amp;#039;s all they need, even in deep-frost situations, because the soil moves uniformly as the ground freezes and thaws. To accommodate our sloped site, we built on solid concrete blocks set on compacted crushed limestone. Start by laying out and staking the four corners of the shed. Dig 6-in.-deep depressions at each corner and at the center of each long wall. Use a torpedo level to check that the bottom of each hole is level. Pour about 4 in. of crushed rock into each depression, level it and compact the rock with a hand tamper. If your site is sloped, set and level the blocks on the uphill side first, leaving 4 to 6 in. above grade, then use a 2-ft. level taped to a straight 2 x 4 to determine the height of the downhill blocks. Step 2: Shed Foundation  When stacking blocks for the downhill supports, glue them together with construction adhesive. Then, cover the area within the blocks with landscape fabric and 2 in. of crushed rock. Step 3: Building The Floor  Cut pressure-treated 2 x 6 sill lumber to lie flush with the outer edges of the blocks, and then cut the band joists that rest on top of the sill. Stagger the sill and band-joist lumber at the corners and nail each sill piece to the bottom of a band joist. Fit the offset corners together and secure them with 16d galvanized nails. To lay out the floor framing, mark the first joist location 15-1/4 in. from the outside edge of the band joist, and mark all subsequent joists at 16-in. intervals. Step 4: Building The Floor  Cut 2 x 6 joists to fit between the band joists. Sight down each piece to determine its crown (bow), and set the joists in place, crown up. Secure them with 16d nails driven through the band joists. Step 5: Building The Floor  Then, install the 3/4-in. tongue-and-groove plywood floor. Use the factory edges to make sure the band joists are straight, and nail with 8d galvanized nails. Step 6: Adding The Walls  Cut the wall plates for the long walls and lay out the studs on 16-in. centers with the first stud 15-1/4 in. from one end. At both ends of each wall, install triple studs to act as nailers for the short walls. You can use scraps in place of a center stud. For the wall with the door, mark its rough opening on the plates. Build a door header from 2 x 6s sandwiched around a 1/2-in. plywood spacer. The length of the header is the rough opening plus 3 in. for the jack studs--the shorter studs on each side of the opening that support the header. Cut two jack studs to the height of the rough opening, nail these to full-length, or king, studs so their bottom edges are flush, and secure these doubled studs to the floor plate at the rough-opening marks. Then, nail the header in place on the jack studs. Install the second top plate on each long wall, but cut 3-1/2 in. from each end. Step 7: Adding The Walls  We used T-111 vertical plywood siding on the shed. Set the first piece flush with the top plate, and nail it about every 6 in. along the edges and every 10 in. elsewhere, with 8d nails. Install the remaining sheets in a like fashion. Tip the wall up, plumb it and have a helper secure it with braces. Nail through the soleplate with 16d nails, and through the siding into the band joist and sill. Then, build the opposite long wall. On the window wall, space the studs from a center stud to suit the window openings. Plan the short, cripple studs that are above and below the openings to fall on 16-in. centers. Use 2 x 4 stock and 1/2-in. plywood to build the window headers. Unlike the door opening, each window opening requires a horizontal 2 x 4 that&amp;#039;s supported by cripple studs. Step 8: Adding The Walls  After nailing together the king, jack and cripple studs for the window wall, secure them to the plates and add the headers. Install the siding, but leave the second top plate off each end wall until they&amp;#039;re up. Step 9: Adding The Walls  Our vinyl windows came with nailing flanges. Cut the window openings with the siding in place. Position the windows so they&amp;#039;re square with the wall, and nail through the flanges with roofing nails. Then, raise the end walls and nail them at the corners. Nail a top plate onto each end wall so it overlaps the lower top plate on the long walls. Step 10: Framing The Roof  The best approach to building roof trusses is to use a jig laid out either on the shed floor or on a piece of plywood. Start by drawing a centerline across the plywood. Then, nail a straight 2 x 4 along the bottom of the plywood to serve as a stop for positioning the bottom chord of the truss. To make the bottom chord, cut a 2 x 4 to match the width of the shed. Mark its center as well. Our roof is sloped to rise 7 in. for every 12 in. of horizontal run. To use a rafter square to mark the angled cuts on the ends of the bottom chord, align the 12-in. mark of the wide blade with a lower corner of the stock, then pivot the square about this point until the 7-in. mark of the other blade lines up with the lower edge of the 2 x 4. Scribe the angled line and repeat at the opposite end. Then cut to the lines. With the bottom chord in place and centered, use your rafter square to mark the top angled cuts on two truss rafters, and make the cuts. Position the three pieces, and check that they&amp;#039;re centered and meet properly. Then, nail 2 x 4 stops against the outside edges of the sloping members to aid in aligning the remaining trusses for assembly. Cut the rafter tails at the appropriate angle, allowing for an 8-in. overhang. Assemble the trusses with 1/2-in. plywood gussets over each joint. Use construction adhesive and nails to secure the gussets. Note that the inner trusses are simple triangles with gussets on both sides. The end trusses have vertical nailers for securing the siding, with gussets on the inside only. Step 11: Framing The Roof  Toenail the end trusses through their bottom chords, and hold them plumb with 1 x 4 braces. Nail a 3/4-in.-thick spacer to the tail of each end truss. Stretch a string between the spacers, and install the remaining trusses so their tails are spaced 3/4 in. from the string. Step 12: Framing The Roof  With the trusses in place, install siding on the gable ends and build the gable overhang from 2 x 4 blocking nailed along the rake of the roof. Cover the blocking with 1 x 6 cedar boards secured with 8d nails. Finish the underside of the roof overhang with 1/4-in. plywood. Then, deck the roof with 1/2-in. plywood, leaving a 1-in. gap on each side at the peak for ventilation. Cover the plywood with roofing felt. Step 13: Detailing And Door  Trim the corners with 1 x 4 rough cedar and use 1 x 2 cedar strips under the eave, where the soffit meets the siding. When trimming the door, use 1 x 6 pine for the jamb--ripped to 4-1/8 in.--and 1 x 4 cedar for the exterior. We protected the plywood floor at the door with a 16-ga. sheetmetal edging that we had fabricated locally. Slightly recess the back face of the window trim on a table saw so that it fits over the flange. To build the door, cut tongue-and-groove car siding (V-groove pine) to length and lay it out on a level surface. Square the assembly and screw 1 x 6 crosspieces at the center and near each end. Then, install two diagonal braces. Step 14: Detailing And Door  Prime and paint both sides of the door and hang it with decorative T-hinges. Install a matching, lockable latch in the middle crosspiece. Step 15: Capping It Off  We chose architectural asphalt shingles, but 3-tab asphalt or cedar shingles also would have worked. Begin by trimming the perimeter of the roof with drip caps. Install the eave drip caps first, slipping them under the roofing felt. Then add the rake drip caps over the felt. Roll out an asphalt starter strip along the eave so it overhangs about 1/2 in. Install shingles from one edge, using the spacing recommended by the manufacturer. At the edges, let the shingles overhang the drip cap by 1/4 in. Step 16: Capping It Off  Trim away shingles that cover the 2-in. ventilation space at the peak. Then center the ridge vent and tack it in place with roofing nails. We used VentSure Rigid Roll Ridge Vent made by Owens Corning (800-438-7465; www.owenscorning.com). We chose special cap shingles to match the architectural shingles. Install the first cap shingle on the ridge with 1-3/4-in. roofing nails. Install the second over the first, leaving the recommended exposure, and continue across the roof. Cover the nails of the last shingle with a light coat of asphalt cement. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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