Nothing heats your home like a wood-burning stove. But if you have one, or a fireplace or outdoor fire pit, you need to keep firewood on hand. The challenge is protecting your woodpile from rain and snow. By building a handy wood shed from pallets, though, it’s as easy as 1, 2, 6!
Steps for Building a Pallet Wood Shed
The standard size of a pallet is 48 by 40 inches. For this wood shed, we’re going to use nine pallets to create a structure that is 4 feet deep by 6.5 feet wide.
Step 1: Choose a Location
Choose a flat, level area of your yard or grade the area by removing soil with a shovel. Save any removed topsoil to use around your property or add to your compost.
Step 2: Assembling the pallets
- Cut one of your 1-by-4-inch pieces of lumber into ten 1-foot-long pieces to use as joiners for your pallets.
- Join two pallets along the 48-inch side to create your floor by screwing two of your joiner pieces where they meet.
- When done, the floor will measure 48 by 80 inches.
- Cut one of the pallets in half using your circular saw to create two halves measuring 24 by 40 inches.
- Join these halves to two of the other pallets to create two wall pieces measuring 40 by 72 inches. These pieces will make the back wall.
- Using your circular saw, cut a 32-inch section off two other pallets to create two pieces measuring 32 by 48 inches.
- Join these pieces to two separate pallets along the 48-inch length. These will be your two end walls.
Step 3: Setting your posts
- Before digging the holes for your posts, consult with your local utilities to make sure you aren’t going to dig into power, gas, or cable lines.
- Lay your floor in the area you leveled out.
- Mark the ground at the corners with brightly colored spray paint.
- Remove the floor and dig post holes 9 inches in diameter with your post hole digger or an auger.
- Set the 4-by-4-inch posts in the holes. Have someone hold the post upright while you check for plumb with a level.
- To accommodate the pitch of the shed roof, set the two posts in the front 12 inches higher than the two posts in the back.
- Brace each post with a 2×4 by nailing one end to the post and securing the other end with a stake in the ground.
- Follow the manufacturer’s directions to mix fast-drying cement in a wheelbarrow.
- Pour it into the holes around the posts to within an inch of the surface.
- Resist filling it to the top as it expands as it dries. Work up any air bubbles as you pour using a shovel.
- Allow 48 hours for it to cure.
Step 4: Attaching your walls
- Once the concrete is set, remove the braces and lay the floor pallets back in place.
- One by one, screw your wall pieces to the posts using the 3-inch deck screws.
- Use one of your 1-by-4-inch pieces to join the two pieces of the back wall.
- Create top sills by setting pressure-treated 2x4s, cut to length, on edge along the front and rear of the shed.
- Screw to the posts.
Step 5: Install the rafters and purlins
- Cut the remaining pressure-treated 2x4s to the correct length to use as rafters.
- Using the galvanized roof ties, attach each rafter to the top sills 24 inches apart on center. The final one will be about 8 inches from the sidewall.
- Screw the remaining pressure-treated 1×4 to the rafters perpendicular down the middle, dividing the rafters in half as a purlin.
- If you live in an area with a lot of snow, add additional rafters.
Step 6: Install the roof
- Use your metal snips to cut the sheet metal panels to length.
- Lay the pieces on the rafters overlapping the edges by 2 inches.
- Screw in place to the rafters and purlin using the roofing screws.
- You’ll need to cut the final piece to fit the narrower space.
And you’re done!
While this shelter will definitely work to protect your firewood, you might also consider it as a viable place to store bicycles and lawn equipment, or as a run-in for small livestock.
Tools:
Materials:
- Nine 48″ x 40″ pallets in good condition, stained to preserve the wood
- Four 4″ x 4″ x 10′ pressure-treated posts
- Six 2″ x 4″ x 8′ pressure-treated boards for rafters
- Three 1″ x 4″ x10′ pressure-treated board for purlins and joiners
- Four 2″ x 4″x 8′ boards for bracing
- Two 26″ x 10′ sheets galvanized roofing metal
- Six galvanized rafter ties
- Box of 3-inch deck screws
- Box of 1½-inch metal roofing screws
- Four wooden stakes
- Fast-drying concrete mix
- A can of brightly colored spray paint