The Storage Shed

When I was in the Army, actually SCARWAF, which meant Special Category Army Reassigned With Air Force and stationed at Beale Air Force Base in California, my job was construction design specialist and I was given the assignment to design a storage building of approximately 100 sq. ft floor area which could be built from standard dimension materials, erected by average soldiers using normal carpenter tools and with as little waste as possible. When the design was finished, I found that I had a half sheet of plywood left so I added a shelf at one end. After that only a few small pieces of lumber were waste.

It also needed to be a single package for shipment. That meant that it would be constructed of 4 x 8 sheets of plywood and 2 x 4 lumber 8 feet long. The final bill of materials came to 20 sheets of 1/2 exterior plywood, 72 8ft 2 x 4s, 4 rolls of rolled roofing and I forget how many pounds of roofing nails, 16p and 10p nails. Except for the rolls of roofing, nails and misc. hardware for the door, it could be banded into a single package 4' x 8' x about 3' high.

Once they got used to what they were doing, three men could build one in a day and we had built a total of 24 of them before we shipped out to Korea. I have no idea how many of these buildings were put up at various places across Korea but it was a bunch. I got a letter of commendation signed by some General for my design.

After I left the Army, married and bought homes, storage buildings seemed to be needed at every house we lived in and in the process, I've built a total of five of them in various places. One of the good things about the design is being just under the 100 sq. ft. floor area (96 sq. ft) few cities require building permits for them and it doesn't raise the property taxes.

I built our first house in 1957 in Amarillo and this shed behind it. It was built the same as the ones in the army, covered with rolled roofing and with no eves or overhang. It looks a bit down in the mouth but is still standing and being used after 50 years.

This shed was built in 1978 next to the house I built in Black Forest, Colorado. It's also still in use for storing tools etc.

Built in 1991 in Moore, Oklahoma.

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