Black & Decker the Complete Guide to Contemporary Sheds: Complete Plans for 12 Sheds, Including Garden Outbuilding, Storage Lean-To, Playhouse, Woodla

This books has the content in a very clear and succinct way. The pictures help a lot!!!

I bought this book along with Building a Shed from the Build like a Pro Series. Between the two books, I was able to come up with my own plans for my shed which I sketched out on graph paper. I had siding and roofing materials left over from a recent addition to my house that kept some of the costs down and I was able to mimic the look of my house. My only complaints with this book are that often times the step by step instructions do not always coinside with the plans that accompany each shed design so you have to pay attention and cross check. For instance, on the shed I built (basic shed), the roof pitch was 33.5 degrees, however, after completing the roof structure, the peek was noticeabley higher than that in the pictures. I was ok with this because I ended up with more storage space above and it is more aesthetically pleasing. also the rafter template is incorrect as the "bird notch" dimensions are not appropriate and after cutting my first rafter I realized that the rafter tail end was no where near close to 90 degrees (or parellel with the outside walls, so I had to adjust the notch dimensions so that it fit squarely on the top plate of the wall. Another thing I noticed was that in one picture it showed the plywood sheets running lenghtwise with the floor joists and in another it showed them horizontal which is correct when using tongue and groove flooring. Otherwise, a decent book.

If you buy this book and want to build a Shed. You have to read the first half of the book. No doubt about it, 100%, you have to read the first half of the book. The best part of this book, is that the first half of the book was written by someone who knows how to build sheds very well. And describes in detail how to execute each step of the shed building process. The worst part, is the last half with all the plans. Black and Decker did not make these shed plans. So they do not match up with first half of the book. Example, I am building the Basic Shed with plywood siding. Thats all the plans call for. But if you read the first half of the book it says to leave 1/8 spacing between plywood sheets for weather culking and 1x2 batting strip to cover the seam or you could just by tongue and groove plywood siding. So the first half of the book and the plans do not match up. They contradict each other multi times in the Basic Shed plan. One more problem. If you follow the shed plans, they are written for the intermediate wood worker, or someone who has already built a shed. As this was my first shed, i was very frustrated and doing a lot of extra problem solving trying to figure out what the directions were trying to get at. About shed building, roofing is very difficult. It was much easier by building a solid stand to hold the 1 x 8 Rafter Board in place and having three people to help. 2 people on each side of the rafter board to place the rafters, and a 3rd person to help get nails and pick up anything that falls down. Extra Details It took 1 day to buy all the supplies at the store and multi trips back. If I had to do it again, I would buy a kit just to save 1 entire working day and hauling around three carts of wood and trying to load them into a truck and unload them and extra carts of random supplies. oh and trying to find a drip edge and Z flashing. good luck. and our local hardware store (lowes / home depot) were out of the 1 x 8 x 12.) It took 1 day to create the foundation the floor. Our foundation was on a 2 foot slope which made it difficult. It also took 1 day to do the framing because we had to alter the shed height for our HOA. And it took one 1 day to put up rafters and the roof.

This book is well written and illustrated and provides a good selection of shed projects for the somewhat-skilled home handyperson. It is better than other books I've looked at. I'd suggest a grading of the sheds by skill level required, possible need for a helper (the high rafters seem most likely), and a glossary of terms in the back. I found one questionable instruction but it was easy spot and to modify. Otherwise, I'd recommend it to anybody who has had some experience in the home workshop and wants to build sheds.