Shed Designing - Building A Shed

Sheds come in many different form factors. It’s interesting, because most people have in mind a typical shed. If you give them a piece of paper and pen they will all draw you out a shed that looks practically the same? But there are just so many different sheds that you can build these days. Many of which you may not have heard of but may like.

Something that defines a shed is its roof and understandably. In terms of form factor the roof is the part of a shed that really stands out the most.
Modern roof designs can appear to very much prioritise appearance over function but very often they are clever designs that serve very important functions – they just aren’t immediately apparent!
Salt roof – Salt roofed sheds really are the most basic, and in a very real sense ‘ugly’ roofs you can have. Why? Well, the defining characteristic of a salt rood is that is out of balance from the central point – one roof is longer than the other.

But this is for a very good reason.

The name ‘salt’ suggests, salt roofs were designed to be by sea. They had to be able to withstand gale-force winds and battering wave’s day in and day out.

By design, the longer roof, and so lower down to the ground, would be facing towards the sea. When the winds came in they would swoop over the roof because there wasn’t so much shed wall to be battered – and the same for waves.

The other side of the roof would be higher because the wind and waves would avoid it and so that it was more functional inside – having more head room.

And have you thought about the gable roof? Well, the gable roof has ample headroom and not only is this good for tall people and if you want to stand up. It also gives you the opportunity to build in a makeshift loft for storing extra supplies!

I want to end this article with a word on function. Also all sheds are designed with function in mind and ultimately you must have a very clear idea on what you want to use a shed for today, tomorrow and next year. Circumstances change but by looking into the future a little you’ll be able to make better judgements of how big the shed will be.

I recommend to friends of mine that they should write down a list of bits and pieces they want to keep in the shed and then have a quick measure up. You’d be surprised, people always have more ‘stuff’ than they originally plan – it’s quite shocking really. My recommendation is, if you have the space and finances – to identify initially what size shed would be good for you, and add 2 ft. onto the length and width. At the end of the day, no matter how big your shed is, you’ll find a way to fill it - it’s Murphy’s Law.

By: Stuart Chambers

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Stuart Chambers is a woodworking expert. For more on how to build shed visit tobuildshed.com