Shed Plans: 5 Easy Steps To Select Your Building Materials

http://www.GardenShedPlansCenter.com 5 Easy Steps for selecting your building materials for your garden storage shed, getting them home, stacked, and protected from the weather. An often-overlooked aspect of building a good wooden shed is the selection of the materials. These days, you're often faced with grabbing a cart and picking out your own lumber from the bins at the local home center. Choosing the right lumber and getting it home is a hassle in itself. I've done it many times so I've got some tips for you. Plus, you'll discover how best to protect that pricey lumber.

With your materials list in hand, you set out for your local home center. These stores will have most everything you need to build your storage shed, and the prices are usually competitive. Sometimes you can catch their flyer and find specials on one thing or another. If you are in the military, they often give an extra 10% discount. It doesn't hurt to ask for a discount since you'll be buying a lot of stuff. Usually, you can work out a discount 8 out of 10 times. Just show your materials list at the contractor's desk. They'll likely not only give you something like 10% off your whole order, but they'll also call one of their people to help you load up your cart.

If you have a lot of lumber to carry home, these stores often have small flatbed trucks that they rent by the hour. These rental trucks are an economical way to get your materials home. Just park your car, rent the truck, take your materials home, unload, return the rental truck with any gas you burned replaced, and pick up your car and drive home.

In the store, be sure to take your lumber from stacks that have not been picked through. That's what you need to do, is to pick through the lumber. Look for any serious defects. The main thing is to choose straight lumber. If the lumber is still in a tightly stacked pile, or is still strapped into a bundle, then you're in luck. You should have no problem finding good and straight materials for your job.

If you look at the end of a 2x4 stud, or at the end of any dimension of lumber for that matter, you'll see the growth bands from the original tree where the lumber was cut from. These circular annual bands will determine the warping tendencies of the wood. Spruce lumber has the lightest of annual bands and resists warping the best. Longleaf Pine lumber, on one hand being very strong, also has strong annual growth bands, and will tend to warp more.

The best thing to do is to pick out straight lumber. When you get home and create your own stack of materials, make a separate stack for each kind and dimension of material, and place it on blocks off the ground. Stack it straight and tight, and cover it with plastic to keep it out of the weather. It's best to use the materials in the building within a couple of weeks to avoid warping and other damage. If you do leave a stack of lumber exposed to sunlight, then you should turn the top pieces over every couple of days to counter the warping tendencies.

Wrapping your stacks in black plastic is best as it cuts out the sunlight that causes warping by drying out one side of the wood.

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• shed plans
• garden shed plans
• building a storage shed
• gambrel roof shed
• pole barn
• shed doors

[crennyw]

I like this video, useful info and nicely done!