The walls for a shed are built just like the walls for a house, of course if you know how to frame a house you probably won’t be reading this. The first thing you have to remember is that you still need an opening for a door or doors, and windows if you plan to put those in as well. The walls of a shed are sometimes overlooked because after all, it’s just a shed, right? You have to think about safety for people and also the safety of the belongings you store in your shed. I keep all our Christmas decorations in the shed and if it fell down and destroyed them, my wife would not be happy, to say the least. What I’m trying to say is, don’t think the walls of a shed aren’t important.
A wall starts at the bottom with what is called a sole plate, then you have your studs (16″ apart) and finally a top plate to tie the entire wall together. There are lots of different terms that are used for different parts of a wall and I will explain them as I go along. There are lots of terms that professional framers use that are really, just confusing and don’t mean anything except the location of something. If you get into a “how to ” about framing it is often confusing, and trust me, there is a much easier way of explaining it.
The first thing you need to do is cut 2×4 sole and top plates to the length of your walls. The best way to make sure the studs will be lined up is to lay your sole and top plate side by side and mark the stud lines together, every 16 inches. Just make sure when you put them up, they are lined up correctly or you will have them backwards and crooked studs. It is important to cut your plates to the proper length as well. Make the longer walls the exact length of the wall, for example, if the shed is 10 feet long then those walls need to be 10 feet long. However, the other length needs to be 7 inches shorter than the exact length as to account for the long plates that are 3-1/2 inches wide each. Draw yourself a picture, it makes it so much easier. After measuring for the stud position you need to lay out your rough opening for a door and don’t forget to include space for hinges and enough room for the door to open and close properly. You need to do the same for your windows, leaving enough room to install the windows with shims. You will need to place extra studs in these areas so you have something to nail to, so make sure the opening is wide enough for that as well.
Next you need to cut 2×4 studs to size with a circular saw. To determine the length of studs subtract 4-1/2 inches from the desired height of the walls to account for the thickness of the sole and top plates. Lay the sole plate on edge on the ground and set the studs at the marks, make sure the studs are centered on your marks. Fasten the studs in place by driving 16d (3-1/2 inch) nails through the plates into the studs. On the end studs of the front and back walls, add 2×4 blocking and an extra stud. This makes it easier to tie the walls together with more nailing surface and also adds support to the corner. It also adds more nailing space when it comes to putting siding on the interior and exterior of the shed. As you are framing your walls, think ahead. It does not matter what the framing looks like, no one will see it, just think about what you might need to nail to a stud or what might make your life easier down the road. It’s a lot easier to add framing before your walls are completed.
This is framing 101 and it’s not that difficult. Again, no one is going to see the frame of the shed so do what you need to do to make it easier on yourself. Building the walls is actually the easiest step when it comes to building a shed, don’t let it intimidate you. Good luck.
