How to Build a Shed

There are many reasons why you want to build your own shed or workspace. The main reasons are that you get to choose your own style and size and you have full control over the quality of materials.

It’s a big investment of time, but if you can measurement, cut, screw and hammer then it’s easily in realm of the home handyman. Pre-fabricated kit sheds are easier and quicker, but I found I couldn’t find the right style or size of shed for what I wanted. Also the materials list show that these types of sheds are really built to low budget materials.

I had no plans, but a lot of ideas from looking at many sheds. Searching for shed plans on the internet is frustrating, normally always ending up at the same “buy our shed plans CD” pages on the internet.

There are some good Youtube tutorials that give you all the basics from parts of the shed to full on “How to build a Shed” tutorial.

Other than working out where to put it and the size (and building to council rules) is deciding on the foundation. I decided upon mounting mine on precast foundation supports – a concrete slab was too costly and too permanent.
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Here is the start of the foundation. I’ve decided upon using Handi Blocks – they are about $18 from Bunnings. Just a matter of clearing the ground of grass and loose soil. Level and height doesn’t really matter because we can level the bearers with 90×90 posts as we go. Spacing between the blocks is dependant upon the relevant span tables for the type of timber you use. 1.6 Meters is normally pretty good. Since I generally over-engineer everything, I went for 1.2 Meters with 45×120 bearers.