My Lumber storage shed

​INTRODUCTION

​Providing yourself with a proper environment to store your lumber is an important addition to your building quality wood pieces. It is an effort to build a shed such as this, but it will provide a lifetime of security for your stock. Being able to select that perfect piece of walnut or oak immediately will always be a benefit to your passion for makings things from wood.

​Having lived with stacks of lumber cluttering up my yard and garage for years, it was time to build a place to organize and store my accumulation. Having a sawmill as a hobbyist means that you eventually WILL need a place for extra pieces from projects, as well as a place to store unexpected lumber from logs that just seem to show up. Many times, logs will be offered from folks that know or learn of your mill. Many hate to see the logs they believe useful going to waste, and will gladly give them to you. And that means MORE LUMBER!

The first challenge for me (and doesn’t apply to large scale sawmill operators) was to design a structure with easy access. I lift my boards manually since I don't own a fork lift. It's just impractical for me at my home. I looked for lumber storage ideas all over the internet, and saw only a few that resembled the look I wanted. I finally came up with a system which provided strength, and good organization to meet my needs.
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I wanted to be able to store lengths up to 16′, since I rarely cut anything over that length on my Norwood Lumbermate 2000. I began by laying out a 16′ wide by 16′-8″ deep design with 2 aisles. Each aisle would have stacks on each side. I’ll show you the finished product first, and then a few pictures showing how I built it. Now that it’s done, its only about one third full, with all of my different wood species and sizes available for immediate retrieval.

​My Lumber Storage Shed

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The front entrance doors lead to two aisles front to back, with shelves on each side. The shed is 16′ side to side, and 16′-8″ front to back. The glass area in my two flea market doors were perfect for allowing light into the storage areas. Both were found at the local Texas trade days flea market for $20 each. I cut the majority of the lumber for the shed on my sawmill. I ended up purchasing the 1″x4″ material for the shelves and a couple of treated 2"x6"s for the foundation since time was limited for me, and I wanted a consistent finished size of lumber to make the parts fit well.

​Lumber Shed Aisle

​FOUNDATION

​For a small hobbyist/woodworker like myself, this was a perfect size building to house the leftovers. I seem to use much of it at about the same pace that it's refilled. If you'd like to build one, keep reading and I'll give enough detail so you can do it yourself. Feel free to adjust the overall size to fit your situation.

I began by deciding on a location I could easily access with my trailer or vehicle, and not be in the way of anything I might want to do in the future. I needed to be able to back my trailer right up to the doors for easy loading or unloading. I had to take down a few trees there were a little close to the site, and my brother Ronnie showed up to give me a hand:

​Cutting a few Trees and Clearing the Site

I leveled the area by using my box blade on my 1943 Ford 9n tractor. That thing is like a mini bulldozer. Henry knew how to build something that would last! The frost line in north Louisiana is only about 4″, so footings around here need to be at least 6″ into undisturbed soil. This was a shed, and so there was no need for me to do any overkill on the footings. I simply dug out nine holes, spaced to accept concrete blocks at the corners and centers.

Next, I measured and placed 18″x18″x4″ thick concrete pads I bought at the lumber yard and leveled them all up to the same top height. That took a little doing, since I still had a site that sloped down from the back about a foot. I suppose that’s good so that it won’t hold water under the shed. Then I placed the 8"x8"x16" concrete blocks on top, and fabricated a termite shield to fit over the top. The galvanized sheet metal has bent sides to prevent termites from building their tunnels up the block sides and into the structure (at least that’s the theory, and so far so good!) Here’s a picture of one of the corners:

​Foundation Corner Blocks

​Next, I laid a treated 2″x6″ on top of the blocks cut to the exact dimensions. This helped in two ways. First, it of course became the bottom plate for the floor joists to rest upon and secondly, gave the center runs something to rest on while I nailed them all into place. Here’s a picture of the plate simply resting on the leveled blocks. (It was NOT bolted down. I'm not worried since the joists will hold it firmly in place, and the weight of the shed plus the lumber will definitely prevent anything shy of a tornado from moving it!)

​2"x6" Treated Base Plate Set On Blocks

​I began to place on the 2″x10″ joists at 16″ on center. I doubled the perimeter joists and the center beam. I nailed them together as two large sections and pushed them together at the center beam afterwards and nailed them together. This way I didn't have to use any joist hangers.

​Installing the Floor Joists

The Completed Floor Joists

With the double 2″x10″ beam across the center and the double beams around the perimeter, I was able to build the entire joist system using 8′ long material by lapping them. I think I did have a few boards a bit longer for the 16′-8″ lengths, so they must have been at least 8′-4″ long. I nailed them down to the bottom plate everywhere I could. The flat treated base plate resting below on the termite shield and blocks was now stable. It turned out really well!
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One thing I need to mention is one of the most important features of the shed. The entire thing, floors, roof, and walls are all surrounded by a layer of 15# roofing felt. This creates a moisture barrier that completely encircles the lumber stacks. That way, I don’t have to worry about the kiln dried lumber re-absorbing humidity from the outside air. The outside temperature doesn’t matter, but the moisture content of the boards does!

The next step was to roll the felt across the joists and apply the 1″ rough sawn stock for the floor. Here’s a picture showing what I mean. (That's my friend Tim giving me a hand). If you look closely, you can see the felt underlayment under the last board that was just installed. I don’t think we even had to staple the felt in place. Oh, and yes, we hand nailed the thing together! My nail gun was on the fritz. What ya gonna do? :)

​Installing the 1" Floor Boards Over Felt

​The Completed Floor

FRAMING

Framing of the lumber shed was fairly straight forward. I stood up the 2 side walls and rear walls using 8′ long 2″x4″s spaced at 16″ centers. I used a 2″x4″ bottom plate, and a double 2″x4″ top plate. If you’ve done framing before, you know that the upper plates lap at wall intersections. This provides stability in the corners. The front wall with the doors was about 10′ high I believe. The upper sides were filled in with 2″x4″ blocks in line with the studs below. The last wall to stand up was the center one which runs front to back.

One more important point to note is that the side and center wall studs were spaced the same so that the shelf arms would all line up. The spacing of the supports are 32" apart due to the stud 16" spacing ... so every other stud got a shelf.  Keep the stud spacing in mind if you decide to build one of these!
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I placed a double 2″x12″ beam on top of the side and center walls across the center of the building side to side. This once again allowed me to use shorter boards for the rafters to rest upon and lap at the center. When you work alone, it’s not a lot of fun to lift long boards by yourself. Just a tip. (I’m smiling here.) Here’s a picture showing the beam running side to side sitting on top of the walls. I think it was taken from the right front door looking up. You can also see where the rafters lap on top of it (The beam itself also laps due to 8' long boards):

​The Center Upper 2"x12" Beam

Next I installed the rafters running front to back, lapping the shorter boards over the center beam. I must have cut a bunch of 10' long stock for that. I extended them on the front and rear for a 12" overhang. We don't worry about snow load down here, so I used standard 2"x6"s at 24" centers for them. I also hung a couple of rafters out each side 12" for an overhang. They are secured using 2"x4"s notched into a center end rafter, and nailed into one of the inner rafters. Next I installed flat 2"x4"s on top for the metal roofing. I think I spaced them at 24" centers too. You could probably spread those out a bit more. 

The last step before roofing would be to fill in the short gable end blocking. I just kept them in line with the stud walls below. Here's the completed framed building:

​Completed Framing

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I had some help putting on a metal roof. We put on 2″x4″s about every two feet spacing to brace the rafters first, and then applied 15# felt over them before adding the metal roofing. I let the metal overhang about 4″ since we were later to add a 1″x8″ fascia board and a 1″x4″ trim board around the top over the fascia board. This gave a finished metal overhang of about 2″.

​Rear View of Framing (Metal has been Applied)

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I used 8″ pine beveled lap siding that I made on my bandsaw mill. (I plan on doing a post showing how I cut the lap siding with a piece of scrap wood as a jig!) I first applied felt over the walls, and then nailed on some corner boards and butt the lap siding to them. I added a 1″x4″ trim piece to the top of the siding after we nailed on a 1/2″ x 12″ soffit board (that I also cut on the mill.) Here’s a few pictures I took during the siding installation:
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Applying the 8" Lap Siding

​The small roof over the doors was a design element that I added for looks as well as functionality, mainly to protect the doors from rain. It turned out kinda cute I thought. It was tricky to build though, and I had a lot of little tacky sketches to go by that I drew out after some powerful head scratching.

​The Front Overhang

Maybe this closeup will help you a bit if you decide to go with something like it. It does a fantastic job of protecting the front doors from weather also. You can also see the 1"x8" and 1"x4" trim board fascia above, and the roofing sticking out the top about 2". The last thing to do on the exterior is caulking every joint with an acrylic latex caulk, and then adding a couple of coats of exterior paint. Now it's starting to look like something!
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THE INTERIOR 1"x4" STORAGE RACKS

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The last thing I did was to install the interior storage rack system. I used 1"x4"s from the lumber yard for all of them. There are five sections front to back. The three rows high are spaced 24", 48" and 72" above the floor. This spacing works well. It's very important to use 2" screws to hold the pieces together ... nails will work loose and cause an eventual failure with the tremendous weights involved.

You can see from the photo above that the center arms are common to both aisles, and the end arms are one sided only. The center arms are 4' long (you'll need 30 pieces) with an angle cut on the ends to prevent knocking yourself out as you move the lumber. Don't ask me how I know this. The sides are 24" long (you'll need 60 pieces) also with the angle on one end.

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​Bottom support Pieces

I just took the photo above showing the bottom of each rack post. Screw a 15 1/2" long 1"x4" (you'll need 30 pieces) to BOTH sides of the stud bottom with a rack. Next, cut the angled pieces for the center racks that rest over the first piece below. They are 10 1/2" long with a 45 degree cut on each end (You'll need 30 pieces for the center area.) These direct the weight downward evenly as well as support the arms effectively. Next cut the end wall angle pieces 7" long with an angle on one end only (you'll need 60) and install them on the end wall racks. ​Now install the arms that you've cut:  48" long in the center area and 24" long on the end walls.

​Center Area of the racks

Now cut and install the next pieces 17" long (you'll need 60 pieces) on all the racks. Then add the next layer of arms, rinse and repeat until you've done the three rows high. Lastly, nail on a 2"x4" block between all of the arm extensions. It's not necessary to screw these on. I don't think they show on the photos, but just everywhere you see each of the arms sticking out, add a block between the two 1"x4"s. That's all.

Top Of Rack

Last thing, add a small 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece on top (you'll need 30) to hold everything in place. This system is great and DOES NOT SAG OVER TIME. Just take your time, look at the pictures, do a bit of measuring to make sure your heights are right, and you'll be good to go. Screwing in all the pieces is tedious and takes some time. Just don't rush it, and you'll have a great storage shed for all your future projects. Thanks for reading!