As the fad of working from home slowly starts to fade away, professionals are still spending more time at home, but now with a sense that home is not the place to work. What they need, what all of us need, is a way to sit in peace, calm and quiet, and do our work, minus the annoying commute to work that robs us of hours from our day. Well, as the fad of working from home is going, there is a rise in the usage of shed offices. These are small sheds located within the premises of the house, usually in the backyard, completely furnished to double as your office.
For those of us with a streak of do-it-yourself creativity, let us take you on a thorough breakdown of how to build a shed office from scratch, making your professional office retreat a fruit of your own labor. Let’s get started with the basics.
You can only do so much when it comes to a DIY project, especially building your own shed office in your backyard. Short of sawing your own wood, we’d advise you to go for prefabricated panels that just need to be assembled. You will still have a lot of opportunities to really work with your hands, so once you have your prefabricated panels, you can start with the building process.
The prefabricated panels that you will have bought for your shed office in your backyard will presumably come with a set of instructions, including the dimensions. You need to ensure that these dimensions are in scale, especially with your backyard. Ensure that the prefabricated panels themselves don’t have any kinks or issues in them.
The shed office will need a flat surface to rest on, and this is where the mounting platform will go. If you have a grassy or uneven backyard where the shed will be mounted, start by clearing and leveling it. Once that has been done, we are ready to move to the next step.
While many prefabricated panels come with plans for assembly and how the final product may look, there is a certain degree of creativity here. Draw up plans of how you want your shed office to look like and run it against an experienced individual before you set out to do a great DIY job.
Don’t forget: if you aren’t organized well enough, you will run into a lot of problems, which will only serve to delay your build. So, before starting, ensure you have everything you might need, from drills to other power tools to any attachments you might have for your shed office.
Starting with the foundation, remember that the keyword here is sturdy. The sturdier the foundation, the better your shed will stand. If you have a prefabricated foundation, that’s good. If not, try using concrete blocks or timber panels to set up a sturdy base for the shed office to stand on. Ensure that whatever you have it is perfectly level and does not sag or tilt to any side.
Once the foundation is good and set, next is the flooring. Lay down your floor panel, and by using joints and nails or screws, bolt it down on the foundation. For this, again ensure that the floor itself is level and rests perfectly on the foundation. The floor panel will come with perforations for the walls, so be sure that they are open and not obstructed in any way.
Starting with one, first, mark or chalk out the wall locations on the flooring so putting down the panels will become easier. Bolt down your wall panels and ensure that the vertical angle is a perfect 90 degrees. Start attaching the screws for the rest of the walls, and by working clockwise, bolt all the walls up and lightly test them for rigidity and strength. The important thing to note here is that if you have attachments on the wall and for the front wall with the door in it or any windows, do what is necessary, like hinging the door or nailing in attachments before putting up the walls. Doing so post-installation will severely affect the integrity of the walls.
Once all four walls are up and tested for their integrity, it's time to put down the roof. Depending on the size of the shed and the material being used, you might have to use a small crane, or it could be done by assembling prefabricated joists on the cross beam above the walls. Whatever style or design you might want to go through with, what you need to ensure is that the roof sits completely on all four walls and does not display any kinks at all during installation. Since the roof is also part of the structural integrity of the shed, it needs to be installed flawlessly. Consult an experienced builder at this point.
Now that the structure is up, the shed is ready for you and your office supplies to move in. Depending on what you are looking for, get out of the shed office, move in your furniture, hook up the electronics, and plug in the coffeemaker. Your shed office is ready, and now you can work from your house without having to go through the torturous commute or sit through the chaos that usually unfolds at home.
These tips will help you finish off the job like a pro and will further simplify and ease the entire process. These are simple to follow.
While every now and then, a DIY job can help you brush up on your practical skills, in the case of a shed office, here are some reasons why a pre-built shed might be a better alternative than building one.
If DIY is not your style, but you want the best shed office imaginable, look no further than Backyard Escape Studios. With a selection of the finest designs, the most rugged and durable materials, and the best prices, our sheds are simply built differently. Whether it's additional storage space that you want in your backyard or a fully furnished shed office complete with all the necessary requisites, Backyard Escape Studios has it all. Wow yourself and elevate your backyard with the best shed solutions from us.