Short Shed Plans -Short Height Shed Designs

Where Are Short Shed Plans Used?

Many building departments and home owners associations, HOA, require a storage shed height of 8 feet or less or 6 feet or less. The Short Shed Plans are designed to meet this building requirement. Shortening the overall height of the shed can be done in several way, either used independently or together.

Steel Stud Foundation: Building the floor using steel studs that sit directly on top of a gravel base. This allows the shed to be built without a wood rail foundation which lowers the shed height by 5 1/2 inches.

Reducing the roof slope to 2 in 12: Lowering the roof slope is a great way to reduce the overall height of the shed. On an 8 foot wide shed this will lower the shed height by 7 inches. The only additional requirement when lowering the slope is to add an additional waterproof membrane under the asphalt shingles. This is usually a product like aspahlt roll roofing or Ice and Water Shield.

Lower Wall Height: Shorter sheds often have a lower wall height. This reduces the interior headroom so it is typically our last resort when trying to make a shed shorter. But it is useful when you want to keep the roof slope steeper. The only restriction on how short you can make the shed walls is the shed door.

Picking The Perfect Short Shed Plan

The perfect shed size is one that meets your storage needs. There are two basic design styles in our short shed plan library. You can choose from either a gable shed design or the lean to shed design.

Gable Sheds work well for short sheds when you need a larger shed with a lower profile. The gable shed can be lengthened to allow for greater storage space. A 6 foot door will only fit on the gable end of a short shed because the roof and door header require the additional height to make up the overall shed height of 8 feet.. Shorter doors may be installed on the eve walls.

Lean To Shed Plans are also used as a short shed. When the lean to design is used to build a short shed the door will necessarily be on the taller wall. This is because the roof slopes upward on the taller wall and there is enough space to fit a door with enough height so that you can physically get into the shed. Lean to sheds with a low slope roof design can be made wide enough to allow for a end door. Shorter doors may be installed on the eve wall of the lean to shed.

Short Shed Doors

The 6 foot door design works well for most of our short shed designs. It is just high enough to allow easy access and still short enough to allow the shed to be designed so that the overall height is 8 feet tall or less.

iCreatables has two door designs that are about 6 feet tall. The single door is just under 4 feet wide which allows the door to be made using 4' wide sheet material like T1-11 siding and O.S.B. The double doors are designed to provide a door opening that is just under 6 feet wide. This allows you to move larger items in and out of the shed. One side of the double door locks to the shed floor and door header using spring pins so the other door can be the primary door that is used.

Short Shed Floor Framing

The floor framing of the short sheds is one of the key factors in designing the sheds to be under 8 feet tall. The floor joists for our gable sheds are made from either steel studs or pressure treated lumber. These materials allow the shed floor framing to come in direct contact with the bed of crushed gravel under the shed.

Pressure treated lumber and steel studs can directly touch the gravel bed and greatly reduce the chance of corrosion. There are benefits to both of these materials as a floor joist system. Over time any material will deteroriate. Having contact with the ground and repeated cycles of wet and dry will rot untreated wood.

Steel studs are galvanized which will reduce the chances of corossion of the joists. The cut ends of the floor joists will rust, as well as any other area that is drilled through or cut.

Pressure treated lumber is treated with chemicals that help it resist rotting.

The gravel bed under the shed helps reduce the chance of the floor joists sitting in standing water. This slows down the rate at which the joists will deteroriate.

Short Shed Foundation Framing

One of the key design elements for short sheds it to eliminate the shed foundation. By allowing the floor framing to sit on top of the gravel bed the shed will not need to have foundation rails under it. Removing the foundation rails reduces the overall shed height by the height of the rails.

Start Building Your Short Shed Today!

iCreatables.com is your best resource for planning and building your short shed. We have several types of planning and shed building resources that will aid you in building your new shed. You can click on any of the shed icons at the top of this page to learn more about the different short shed designs. Each of our short shed plans is a key piece of documentation to help you plan and build your new shed.

To go along with the plans we also have information that teaches you how to use the plans and build your shed. Our How To Build A Shed eBook is a free resource that comes with each shed plan purchase. It has more than 50 pages of detailed explanation and drawings to explain and show you how to build your shed. It shows you how to frame the shed floor, walls and roof. It also teaches you how to build roof rafters for all the different styles of sheds we sell.

If you enjoy watching how to build a shed we also have a video series that shows you every part of the shed building process from framing the floor to painting the shed. This video series is based on the construction of our 8x10 gable shed and shares most of the design characteristics of our gable short shed plans.

iCreatables has the perfect short shed plan for you! Our plans and how to information are designed to provide you with all the information you need to complete your shed build. Check out the different shor shed styles shown at the top of this page and pick your shed and start building today!