Six Critical Components That Good Plans for Building Sheds Must Have
If you're thinking about building a backyard shed from a plan
, there are a minimum of six criteria you will want to insure your plan has before your purchase it. Unless you're a skilled carpenter, you'll need all six of these to insure you have a pleasurable and successful shed-building experience.
1. A drawing or photograph of the finished product
It always helps to have an image of the end goal of any endeavor. This is also true of building your own shed. Good shed plans will come with an artist's rendering of the shed, perhaps with landscaping and potential uses shown as well. There may even be photographs of actual sheds built from the plans, with alternative outer style enhancements shown. In any case, you will want to have an image of what your shed will look like when it is finished so that you can determine if this plan is right for you.
2. A detailed blueprint
Most all shed plans come with what is known as a blueprint. The term blueprint comes from many years ago when drawings were produced using duplicating equipment that caused the paper and drawings to be blue in color. Today, most prints are digital and are meant to be printed on white paper. In any case, you want the shed building drawings to be detailed so that there are no questions how pieces are meant to go together. A good way to determine whether your blueprints are detailed enough is to look at the style accent pieces or the roof framing. Usually these two components have complex angles that require extra detail in order to be able to make the pieces successfully. If you don't see sufficient detail for your skill level to be able to replicate the pieces in question, you should probably pass on those particular plans.
3. A complete material list
A detailed and complete materials list will have everything you will need to build your shed. Usually there will be a little more than is actually used in the shed, just in case of mistakes. A good materials list (also known as bill of materials) will list every piece of lumber, fastener, shingle, and miscellaneous component needed and include the quantity, grade, and size required. With a complete material list, you can take it to your building supply store and just hand it over to them and leave with everything you need.
4. List of tools required
A list of tools required to build the shed is a necessary component of a good shed building plan. If you see equipment on the list that you don't own, you will have to take into account whether you will buy the necessary tool, rent it, or borrow it. Also, if for your skill level you see tools required that you have not used, you may want to consider whether this particular shed plan may be "over your head" and one you should pass on.
5. Foundation specifications
While shed plans don't normally detail how to build a foundation, really good plans will go into some detail on the options you have available to you for acceptable foundations for your shed plan. You can then weigh the options against the functionality of your shed to determine whether you should go with a permanent option (such as a concrete floor) or a semi-permanent one (like a skid foundation).
6. Step by step instructions
Good shed plans will contain step by step instructions that will walk you through every phase of the shed building project in order. This is helpful in that the plan designer can alert you to some tricky areas or specific areas to pay attention to for safety or structural reasons. Make sure the wording makes sense to you and that you can understand the jargon. Sometimes plans are written by skilled carpenters and their own terminology can come across as a completely different language. If you can get a clear picture of what you need to do at each step, then the plan you are considering is indeed a good one.
There are a myriad of sources for shed building plans. Your local building supply store will more than likely have some, as well as books and web sites on the Internet. If you're buying from the Internet, make sure you get a money-back guarantee before you buy. That way, after you have had a chance to analyze the plans against these six criteria, you can return them if they don't stack up.
Six Critical Components That Good Plans for Building Sheds Must Have
By: Tom Whitlow
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