This is the 4th post in a series for the DIY She Shed. In this post, we’ll explore how to frame your very own cute DIY She Shed wall framing.
If you want to start from the beginning of the shed build, you can find the planning post here. Then check out the foundation build here, and the DIY brick floor here.
OK, now let’s get to our DIY She Shed Wall Framing! Here is the shed foundation and floor, all ready for walls.
DIY Side Wall Framing:
The walls are framed with standard kiln-dried 2×4 studs I picked up from Home Depot. I followed standard construction practice with studs at 24″ spacing (or on-center) and a double top plate. The new shed floor was a great level, flat surface to frame out the side walls. Let me show you.
Each stud is connected to the bottom sill plate and the top plate with at least two 10d galvanized nails nailed through the plate up into the stud. Galvanized nails help provide a bit more weather resistance since I won’t be using house wrap.
Here is a closer look at the framing for the small window opening. I used a 4×4 header across the top that bears on shorter studs. The short studs are then nailed to adjacent full-height studs.
The dark wood along the bottom, known as the sill plate, is actually a leftover 2×4 redwood piece I had from a deck project that I covered in Copper Green to add more rot protection. The Copper Green is a bit over-kill, and you could simply use a pressure-treated (PT) sill plate instead. A PT sill is actually the more common method compared to redwood. The Copper Green was also leftover from the deck project, so why not use it?
Here is the opposite side wall. No window here, just a nice long storage wall.
DIY Gable Wall Framing:
With the easy side walls ready, I moved on to the more difficult “gable walls.” They are called gable walls because the wall shape needs to follow the shape of the gable roof. Here is the back gable wall.
The top center part is framed out for a gable vent to provide air flow through the shed. How did I get the geometry correct? Well, lol, I got it good enough by following my drafted plans and measuring things carefully. Check out the DIY She Shed Planning post for more on what I used for drafting.
The front gable wall was the trickiest because it is framed to allow for a large door opening. I decided to frame it out with a continuous sill plate across the bottom. The sill will help keep the wall together while moving it in place. Then, once the wall is set onto the foundation, I will cut away the unneeded sill section at the door opening. Here is the framed front gable wall.
There is a 4×4 header across the door opening. And you can see framing at the top for another gable vent. You can also see the bottom sill plate is partially painted with Copper Green for rot protection.
Raising & Placing Stud Walls:
Raising studs walls by yourself is tricky and can be dangerous work! You don’t want your DIY farmhouse toolshed wall framing to fall back on you as you set it! So I recruited my husband to help. But before we could raise the walls, I needed to drill holes in the sill plate for the already placed foundation anchors. I lined the walls up as close I could and drilled the holes a bit over-sized to be sure they would fit. The bolts will be connected to the sill plates with an over-sized plate washer and a nut so they are held down well.
Once the anchor holes were ready, we simply tilted the wall up and set it in place. It is precariously balanced in place for the photo, but shortly after we added cross bracing to keep the walls from falling over.
More walls in place!
You should be able to click on the photos to make them bigger. You can see some cross bracing to keep things in place.
OK, one more wall, and we’ll have all four.
The gable walls don’t have a double top plate because I’ll run a roof rafter along the top to act as a rim joist. It will be clearer once I show you the roof framing – coming soon!
I hope this was helpful, but let me know what questions you have in the comments below.
