We always wanted a Garden shed to store the lawn mower and the things we stored in the basement and the costly $80 a month self storage unit – that was $960 a year! I started to look online as well as in store for pre-made sheds but I got immediately stunted by the cost $1,500 for an ugly 8′ x 10′ to $5,600 for what I really needed so I looked at building one from a garden shed plan.
I purchased a $250 shed plan - the exact same shed plan you can request for absolutely free below. I encourage you to request it even if you’re not ready to build a garden shed.
First thing to do is to check with your city regarding the codes, in my case the maximum size allowed without a permit is 10′ x 10′ and up to 12′ tall on a concrete slab. The shed plan I purchased was custom modified to fit these requirements.
Building a Garden Shed from Shed Plan
The list of material in the shed plan is well listed and the shopping at Home depot was quick and easy – I got the 2 windows from a distress construction material shop – these are windows, doors and other materials that were ordered but never picked up – I got 2 windows for $40 each – the total cost of the list from the shed plan: $720 only.
Following the instructions, we cut the lumber at dimension – yes that my daughter in the picture 
she loves woodworking and she is good at it. Building the wall are easy as well as raising them – the plan describes very well all the steps needed for a perfectly squared set of walls.
My main concern was building the roof – here in Minnesota we can get up to 2′ of snow in one day and I had no experience building from a garden shed plan! But with 8″ floor joist and 7 trusses spread every 2′ it didn’t seem very complicated.
Walls were very quickly up and standing, as we built the joist box in an hour or so installing the joists and the attic floor was easier than expected and quite fun to do.
Building the gable shaped trusses from the shed plan
The trusses are composed of 3 pieces of 2×4 nailed together through gussets - because of the gable shape of the roof, angles are a bit crazy but following the shed plan it’s quite easy – I drew lines on my garage floor and cut all the lumber as required. I measured twice and drew once – the gussets are made from plywood and I nailed them to the 2×4 – it took about half a day to make the 5 internal trusses and the 2 external ones. I have to admit that some measurements are a bit funky like 36″ 13/16 or 47″ 9/16 but if we wanted a good looking roof we knew we had to follow the shed plan and make these dimensions.
Finishing the garden shed as per the shed plan
Following the instructions and a little bit of imagination helped a lot - sheathing the roof and the walls are quite easy but that’s something that can’t be done alone, I know I tried 
and finished with a nice bruise but with two people to hold the 4×8 sheet of OSB and one to nail makes the job so easy.
For the roof I used asphalt shingles – 2 packs were enough and inexpensive – I bought from Home Depot 6 Particle Board Panels 1/4 x 4 ft. x 8 ft. and yellow paint for the outside as well as some 1×2 white composite to trim the new garden shed we built from scratch – we built the door ourselves as I needed custom sizes and I finished their installation during the 3rd weekend of the project.
Bottom line, building a garden shed from a shed plan is quite easy and really inexpensive – mine cost around $800 and the same type pre-made would have hit the $2,500 range without the windows! If I can do it, any one can do it. Don’t forget to request the same shed plan absolutely free above!
