5 stunning homebuilt sheds

English cottage in Minnesota

While vacationing in the Cotswolds region of England several years ago, retired electrical engineer Tom Schroeder came across the quintessential English Tudor cottage. The centuries-old building had dark, exposed timbers contrasted with bright white stucco panels. The first-floor walls were built of rough-cut rock and mortar. Schroeder admired the building, and snapped a picture of it before returning home to Minnesota.

A few years later, a large oak tree fell in Schroeder's backyard. He decided then and there that he'd harvest that old tree and build a potting shed based on the cottage he saw in England. Using the photograph as a guide, and a portable sawmill to slice up the oak, Schroeder devoted a year to constructing his 8-by-10-foot building.

Schroeder fabricated all of the shed's windows, including a pair of arched casements on the first floor and a second-story box bay directly over the front door. "The box bay lets in a lot of natural light," Schroeder says, "and it creates a comfortable window seat for my grandkids." (Schroeder has 11, with another on the way.) He added a traditional Dutch door and painted shutters, and incorporated a pull-down attic staircase for access to the second floor. The walls of the first floor are built of blocks that are made of concrete but that resemble sandstone. The second story has a faux-stucco finish made of white painted plywood outlined in dark brown trim.

On the right side of the shed, Schroeder built a modest 5-by-8-foot greenhouse, which he and his wife use for starting plants in preparation for Minnesota's short growing season. The interior of the shed is outfitted with a wood-burning fireplace and a circa-1920 three-burner gas stove.

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Post-and-beam woodshop in North Carolina

Bruce Bradford grew up on a fifth-generation family farm in western Michigan where he helped his father and grandfather tend cattle. "Dad was an excellent mechanic and was in charge of maintaining all of the farm machinery," Bradford says. His grandfather handled all of the farm's carpentry and woodworking chores. "To keep me busy, my father would send me over to help my granddad." As a result, the young Bradford developed skills that would eventually lead to a late-life woodworking career.

In 1997, after 13 years traveling the world as an international product development manager, Bradford hired architect Quinn Pillsworth to design a new workshop on his 2-acre lot in Winston-Salem, N.C. "Reflecting on my days growing up on the farm, I wanted the inside of the shop to have the feel of an old dairy barn," Bradford says. The result is a spacious 23-by-25-foot post-and-beam building with traditional board-and-batten siding. This kind of structure, with its heavy timbers and intricate joinery, is costlier to build than a conventional stick-built design, but Bradford discovered some unexpected benefits: "Once the timbers were milled, it only took a few days to erect the frame. And the shop was weather-tight within a week, which allowed me to complete the interior at my own pace." It took him a little more than six months to finish the building.

In 2002, Bradford left the corporate world to pursue his dream of making custom furniture. Today, the shop is outfitted with a full complement of woodworking machinery: table saw, shaper, lathe, spindle sander, band saw, thickness planer, drill press and jointer. The shop has a 200-amp electrical service, and each major piece of machinery runs on its own circuit. Bradford builds furniture on commission, specializing in dining tables and chairs.

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Garden shed in Michigan

Plumbing contractor Randy Gerweck says that his mom has been gardening for as long as he can remember and that, as a toddler, he helped her clean out the flower beds. So, one day when she showed him a magazine photo of a garden shed, he decided it was time to put his carpentry skills to work. Ten Saturdays later, her handsome 10-by-12-foot "puttering shed," as Gerweck calls it, was finished.

The outbuilding, designed as a secure place for gardening tools and supplies, has plywood siding, rough-sawn cedar trim and architectural asphalt roof shingles. It rests on a skid foundation made of 4-by-6 pressure-treated timbers. There are four vinyl windows, a roof-mounted cupola and two metal doors. Gerweck built a ramp outside the rear door, so it's easy for his mother to wheel garden equipment in and out of the building.

Being a professional contractor, Gerweck often comes across discarded materials, which he rescues from the scrap heap and saves for his own projects. The doors, windows, trim and much of the framing lumber were all salvaged. But his best find was several scissor trusses, which he used to frame the shed's roof.

So, what would he do differently next time? "Not a thing," Gerweck says. "Mom loves the shed exactly the way it is."

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Big Sky sauna in Montana

Sheep farmers David Tyler and Becky Weed live on nearly 500 acres of prime pastureland in southwestern Montana. They own and operate Thirteen Mile Farm, a certified-organic spread, which sells a range of products, including wool, clothing and lamb meat. Like most working farms, this one is dotted with barns, sheds and outbuildings of various shapes and sizes. But, there's one structure that stands out from the rest: It's a wood-fired sauna built of logs.

"I always liked saunas," Tyler says, "and thought that perhaps I'd try building one someday." The plan got a boost in September 1999 when he and Weed were on a two-week canoe trip in Canada's Northwest Territories. "A fierce early-winter snowstorm blew in and pinned us down on a small island," Tyler recalls. The couple spent four days and nights in their tents, tucked in sleeping bags. "As we waited out the storm, I began dreaming about how nice a hot sauna would feel." When they returned, Tyler got to work.

The 10-by-12-foot building features a small front porch, two large windows and a sod roof. Inside, there's a cast-iron, wood-burning stove that provides heat for the sauna.

The unusual log design Tyler used is called cordwood construction, or stove wood masonry. Instead of incorporating long logs, the walls are built of short lengths that are stacked like firewood. The spaces between the logs are filled with mortar mixed with sawdust. The sawdust acts as insulation to help retain the sauna's heat.

Tyler built the sauna out of lodgepole pine logs, but he now says he would've been better off choosing cedar or black locust. "The pine shrank more than I would've liked," Tyler says, "but it was the only wood available at the time."

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Framing basics: Platform frame

Small sheds don't need foundation excavation. Instead, they're typically set on solid concrete blocks or treated wooden skids that rest on the sod. The floor is framed with 2-by-6 or 2-by-8 joists and covered with 3/4-inch plywood. Conventional 2-by-4 stick framing and plywood sheathing make up the walls.

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Framing basics: Pole-barn framing

A pole barn is supported by a series of wooden posts set in the ground or secured to concrete piers. This building method is particularly well-suited for larger outbuildings. Vertical siding is secured to horizontal members called girts. It's important to dig the post holes down to the frost line to prevent frost heave from upsetting the posts.

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Framing basics: Roof details

Modest-size sheds without loft spaces are easy to frame with site-built 2-by-4 trusses. The chord, or horizontal tie, is equal to the distance between the walls, and rafter ends overhang at the eaves. Half-inch plywood gussets tie the truss members together at the corners. For a gable overhang, you can construct ladder-type frames (commonly called lookouts) and secure these to the gable-end walls after the siding is in place.

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Before you begin

Ready to build your own backyard castle? Before you start, investigate local zoning regulations. Here's how to stay legal:

• Draw up plans with dimensions, the location on the property and the size and spacing of the framing lumber.
• Apply for a building permit.
• Be prepared to pay a fee. Sometimes it's a flat rate, but more often it's based on the overall cost of the building.

Read:  Build your own garden shed

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