Guide on How to Build a Pole Shed

Pole sheds do not usually have walls.

Pole sheds are popular for those who have land with access to small trees for pole cutting. Sometimes large, straight branches from big Redwoods or other abundantly available trees are used. Alternately, some choose used telephone poles, metal or concrete pillars, or poles purchased at lumber yards. Home-cut poles need to be seasoned or dried; in other cases, the pole is treated with a protective chemical such as creosote to prevent rot.



Pole sheds are traditionally built for firewood storage or other uses such as tractor, livestock or tool storage and do not usually host walls. A well-built roof with gravel-planted support poles assures a long life for your shed.

Things You'll Need

• Limned and debarked poles
• Gravel
• Nails
• Saw
• Hammer
• Plywood
• Tar paper
• Rolled roofing
• Roofing tacks
• Tar
• Design
• Tape measure
• Post-hole digger
• 2-by-4 boards

Instructions

1. Designing your shed and gathering all materials before you begin is the fastest, most organized approach. Create a design for your shed that indicates dimensions, positions of poles, and other relevant characteristics of your shed. You can make your own design or rely on commercially available construction plans found online or in places such as building supply stores. Planning your shed before you start building it will ensure you have a stable and practical design that will work well in the space allotted for it.

   A scale model may help you visualize how your pole shed will look after it is built. Following your building plan, put together a scale model with one inch representing one foot. This model helps any builder work out the kinks of the project before beginning with the heavy labor and expense that creating a full-size building requires.

2. 

   Some choose to use all free, even grown poles, when possible, to avoid lumber costs.

   Following your shed design measurement specifications, mark and measure the building parameters and pole-planting sites with sticks and/or string. Dig your pole-setting holes with the post-hole digger. Dig the holes about four feet deep and twice the diameter of your poles. Fill these bottom of these holes with about a foot of gravel.

3. Prepare the poles for attachment of the roof. This slanted shed roof should be about seven feet high in the front, dropping to around five feet in back. Cut your poles at an angle so that your roof framing boards will fit snugly on top of your poles, providing an easy-to-work-with platform to nail plywood sheets onto your roof. To check the angles where the roof will be attached, lay the poles down side by side at the installation distances and cross-check your measurements and cutting angle. Double check your angles and measurements.

4. Drop your poles into their hole, one by one, and fill the holes to the top with gravel. Make sure no wood is touching any earth and that the poles do not wiggle or move. Take your framing poles, or boards, and make your frame by nailing them at the top according to the design you have chosen. Place and nail any side supports according to your design.

5. Place and nail your plywood sheets onto the roofing frame, on top of your rafters. Roll and nail your tar paper onto the plywood using the roofing nails. Spot each roofing nail with a dab of tar, spacing the nails about three inches apart. Be sure to start at the lowest end, moving up with each layer of tar paper so the overlap is on top of the next row and no edging lines can take up any rain seepage. Dab tar anywhere you feel seepage could occur.

6. Unfurl your rolled roofing the same way, again dabbing the roofing nails with tar as you go. Once the rolled roofing is completely nailed down, your shed is complete.

Tips & Warnings

• Some builders pour liquid concrete into the gravel around each pole setting for better stability and rot prevention.

• Make sure your roof slope angle is accurate before cutting your top poles. Once poles are cut, it is difficult to correct for mistakenly cut or poorly slanted angles where the roofing framework is supposed to be nailed place.

References

• Secrets of Shed Building.com: Pole Shed