Low Cost Sheds Plus Workbench from Recycled Pallets (Videos)

posted 3 years ago

This is an article I stumbled upon while looking for a way to utilize some old pallets I have been collecting and are stacked in the back of the house. I love this idea because having just moved to a new property we lack the space to store anything. So this shed project will be a perfect thing for my husband and I to build. This step by step blog was written by Butch Bridges back in 2009 but updated along the years, the good thing is that articles like this never get old. Ingenuity is timeless. The following is a full transcript of the original article, if you want to read the original one, please go to the end of this page to find a link to the website. Thank you.

Turn something destined for the dump into a useful backyard shed. This ingenious design by butch bridges turns wooden pallets into a simple diy pallet shed project. Check it out.

Make sure to go to the next page for a terrific step by step how-to video for building a free pallet shed and a how-to video for a building a pallet workbench to put in that shed.

Around the first part of March 2009 I came up with the idea of building a tool shed out of wood pallets. I was needing a good shed for various things every since we moved here, and I thought the wood pallets just might fill the bill. And recycle pallets that would have been headed for the dump!

My first task was to find suitable wood pallets. Pallets come in all sizes. I just happened to find a place in Ardmore where nearly all the pallets they put out back by the dumpster were exactly 42 inches square. And each pallet just happened to be in nearly new condition! I wouldn't realize until later how important it would be to use square pallets. By using 42" X 42" square pallets meant no modifying. The less cutting you have to do to the pallets, the better, because they are made of extremely hard wood. Ideally 36" square pallets should be used, but I didn't know where a good source for that size was available.

To make one wall, I bolted 3 pallets together, end to end (42" X 126" inch wall, about 10½ feet).

To put together all the walls I used about 50 3½ inch long, 5/16 inch bolts along with washers. If I had it to do over again, I might have used ¼ inch bolts and saved a little dough.

A couple of people has asked how it connected the corners. I still used bolts and since I didn't have a short bolt, I used a spacer board to make up the difference. Corner Bolt

To start the second level wall, I bolted 2 sections together, then placed them on top of the first wall, beginning at a corner. I continued bolting one section to the next, until I had gone all around the shed's 2nd level. To secure the 2nd level to the 1st level, I used a couple of short pieces of 1X4's inside of the walls of the pallets with bolts (about 24 bolts) all the way through. It took 4 inch long bolts for this.

For the roof I used 2X4s (12 feet long) turned on their sides (2X6s would be better, but cost more). I raised the front of the shed's roof by another 10 inches using 2X4s as extensions. This would give the roof the slope I think it needed. Across the 2X4s I placed 1X4s (12 feet long) secured with 3½ deck screws (63 of them since I put 2 at the ends of each 2X4). For the roofing material I selected galvanized carport type sheet metal from Builder Bob's in Ardmore.

To connect/hold the roof to the walls I used Hurricane Straps.