The finished timber frame wood shed (sans siding)

In the fall of last year, I was contracted to build a small 8×16 timber frame wood shed and it was a great opportunity to get back to the ol’ chisel and mallet. I love this type of work — the materials, the scale, the tools, and the workflow feel so good. In my first post about the shed back in November, I shared some photos of the building process. Here are a few more pics of the raising and the finished shed.

8×16 Timber Frame Wood Shed

All the timber for this frame is locally sawn poplar, sourced just down the road from my home in fact. We cut most of the joints with hand tools, with the exception of some kerfing with circular saws and boring a few holes with an electric drill. The raising was quite simple, thanks to the small size of the timbers themselves (6×6) and the finished bents.

Bents staged and ready for a manual lift

The biggest challenge was lifting the 20′ long top plates onto the bents, but even that wasn’t so bad. It lined up beautifully and we persuaded it into its final resting place. Thank goodness for scaffolding!

Lifting the top plate into position… carefully…

For this project, I actually ordered some 1″ white oak pegs from the Northcotts. The quality of the pegs is exceptional and their prices are ludicrously cheap. Every peg went in like a dream.

White oak pegs secure all the joints

I’m pretty pleased with the rafter end detail — simple, attractive, and it matches the beam ends nicely too.

A simple rafter end detail

Eventually the whole shed will get spaced siding. Fin!

By the way, if you want to learn this invaluable skill for yourself, be sure to check out the details for our Timber Frame Workshop coming up.