DIY 8x16 Hip Roof Storage Shed Plan

The full plan is $19.99: buy the 8×16 hip roof shed plan. To see the drawing style first, open the free 8×16 hip roof shed plan PDF.

8×16 hip roof shed plan: the numbers for a site check

With a hip roof the overhang runs on all four sides, so mark the 18′ 1 1/2″ by 10′ 1 1/2″ roof outline on your lot, not just the walls, and leave room to walk around it with a ladder. The gravel pad is 1 ft bigger than the walls on every side, so its own diagonals are 20′ 7 1/8″ (inside the frame, corner to corner), not the shed’s 17′ 10 11/16″. Square the pad to the first and the floor frame to the second.

How the 8×16 hip roof shed goes together

At 16 ft long, every skid, rim and front and back wall plate is one board. The nailed floor frame weighs about 290 lb and racks out of square if you lift it, so the plan has you build it in place on the skids and square it to the same 17′ 10 11/16″ diagonals before you nail it down.

How the walls go up

Each wall is framed flat on the deck and raised as a bare frame, and the siding goes on after all four stand. Every wall is a two-person lift.

• Stop blocks. Nail 12″ 2×4 offcuts to the outside of the rim so the bottom plate tips against them and cannot kick out over the deck edge. Pull them before the siding goes on.
• Front wall, framed the other way. With the back wall standing, only 7′ 8 1/2″ of deck is free in front of it, too little to frame the front wall flat at its own edge. The plan frames it facing the other way, tips it up beside the back wall, then two people walk it upright across the deck on its bottom plate.
• Brace first. Brace each wall plumb at both ends from outside, pick a calm day, and never leave a raised wall unbraced, even for a minute.
• Siding. Screw a straight 2×4 ledger to the floor frame at the siding’s bottom line, stand each sheet on it and nail it off. On a hip roof every wall is an eave wall, so the siding stops 1 11/16″ below the top of the double top plate on all four sides and the soffit closes the gap.

What is on the 8×16 hip roof shed material list

The shopping list is split by section, in the stock lengths that waste the least:

• Foundation and floor: 3 pressure-treated 4×4 skids at 16 ft, 2 pressure-treated 2×6 rims and 13 joists, 4 sheets of tongue and groove plywood, two 1x4s ripped to a 1″ filler strip for the back rim and the 4×6 pad frame with 30 rebar stakes.
• Walls: 2×4 studs and plates, a doubled 2×8 door header, two doubled 2×6 window headers and 12 sheets of 4×8 T1-11.
• Roof framing: 16 commons, 4 hips, 16 jacks and 8 short tail jacks, the ridge, 7 rafter ties, 2 king tie pieces, 2 temporary ridge posts and their braces.
• Roof covering: 9 sheets of OSB, 1 roll of 15 lb felt, 8 pieces of drip edge, 10 bundles of shingles including the hip and ridge caps and 2 static roof vents.
• Fascia, door, windows and trim: 1×6 fascia, 4 sheets of soffit plywood, 2 new T1-11 sheets for the door leaves, 6 T-strap hinges, a handle and latch, 2 barrel bolts, 2 prefabricated windows and 1×4 casing and corner trim.
• Ramp: 2 pressure-treated 2×10 for the stringers, 4 pressure-treated 2×6 for the 8 deck boards, a 2×4 ledger, 2 hook-and-eye latches and grit tape.
• Hardware: nails by the pound (25 lb of 16d framing nails alone), 36 hurricane ties (skewable ones at the 4 hip corners), 4 strap ties, 6 ground anchors with straps, adhesive, flashing tape, roofing cement and 5 gallons of paint.

The list also counts the temporary braces, stakes and deck cleats. The cut list gives the length and count of every part, and the cutting plan shows which board each comes from. The plan does not price the list, since costs change by region and month. Take it to your local lumber yard for a quote before you build.

What you can fit in an 8×16 hip roof shed

The plan’s “What fits inside” page draws the room from above, 15′ 5″ by 7′ 5″ inside, with 7′ 7 1/2″ of clear height under the top plates.

• A 42 inch deck rider. It is drawn nose in, 4′ 7 3/16″ x 5′ 10″. With both leaves open the door is about 5′ 11 1/2″ clear, so a 42 inch deck clears each side by 8 1/8″. A 48 inch deck fits with its deflector raised, and a 54 inch deck does not.
• Bikes and a wheelbarrow. The drawing places a wheelbarrow (2′ 2″ x 5′ 0″) and two bikes with staggered handlebars (2′ 6″ x 5′ 10″).
• Shelves. There is room for 12″ deep shelves in 2 ft runs on the back wall. Park the mower’s nose about 1″ off the back wall and about 1′ 6″ of cross aisle is left behind its tail.
• Daylight. Each 8 ft end wall has a 24″ x 36″ window, so there is light at both ends of the room.
• A step up, then a ramp. The deck sits 9 3/4″ above the gravel. The ramp is 6′ 9″ wide and 3′ 6″ out at 1:6, and its top sits about 13/16″ below the deck at the door. The plan asks for 9′ 6″ clear and level, measured from the wall, to line a tractor up square.
• Headroom. All four walls are the same height on a hip roof. Seven rafter ties cross the shed at the top of the walls, so stand long items like ladders against a wall.

How the 8×16 hip roof is framed: ridge, commons, hips and jacks

The plan frames the roof in a fixed order and says who stands where:

1. Ridge on posts. The 2×6 ridge, 8′ 1 1/2″ long, sits on two temporary 2×4 posts, 9′ 7 5/16″ long, about 12″ in from each ridge end and braced to the floor both ways. Its top is 2′ 2 5/16″ above the top plates, and each end is 3′ 11 1/4″ in from the end walls. Two people set it, each on an 8 ft step ladder on the deck beside a post, no higher than the third step from the top. The ridge weighs about 16 lb.
2. Commons in pairs. Cut one pattern 2×4 common (board 5′ 8″) with a 2 1/2″ seat and a 1 1/4″ heel. That notch is 32% of the depth, under the one-third limit, so do not deepen it. Test it on both sides of the ridge, then cut 16: 14 for the front and back walls, at 4′ 0″ to 12′ 0″ from the left corner every 16″, and 2 king commons at the ridge ends. Set the end pairs first and check the ridge for level. An 8 ft 2×4 rafter tie goes on the plates beside each pair.
3. Four hips. Each 2×6 hip (board 7′ 6 13/16″) runs at 45 degrees in plan from a wall corner to the ridge end, sloping 19.5 degrees, with a double 45 degree cheek cut at the ridge end. Its heel is cut 3 7/16″ deep, 59% of its depth, because it sits right over the corner on the lapped plates and carries no bending there. A metal strap across the plates, a skewable hurricane tie and toe-nails hold it. Do not cut it deeper than drawn. Two people set each hip, one on a step ladder beside the ridge end and the other on a step ladder inside the wall corner. Nobody works from outside the walls until the fascia step.
4. Jacks. 16 jacks in two lengths, centered 1′ 4″ and 2′ 8″ from each corner, plus 8 short tail jacks, each with a 45 degree side cut. They come in two hands, so cut half of each length each way. Nail them in pairs on both sides of a hip so it stays straight, then take out the posts.
5. King tie last. Once the jacks are in and the posts come out, a 2×4 king tie, in two pieces joined with a flat strap, runs on top of the rafter ties so the end walls cannot spread.

The hips are one size deeper than the commons so the jacks bear on their full face. The 1×6 fascia is mitered at every corner over the hip tails. A hip roof generally holds up to wind better than a gable roof, according to the Building America Solution Center guide to hip vs gable roofs.

Roof vents and the soffit gap

A hip roof has no gable wall for a high vent, so the plan lets air in through a 1/4″ screened gap along the soffit on all four walls and out through two static roof vents high on the back slope. Buy vents rated 60 sq in net free area or more. They go in the bays between the 2nd and 3rd commons and between the 5th and 6th commons, 6′ 0″ and 10′ 0″ from the left end wall, each with its hole center 2′ 7″ down the slope from the peak, so no rafter is cut.

The plan prints the arithmetic. A common attic rule of thumb, not a shed requirement, asks for the floor area divided by 150: 128 / 150 is 0.85 sq ft, or 123 sq in, about half low and half high. The two roof vents give 120 sq in high (2 x 60). The soffit gap gives 72 sq in low (576″ divided by 2 for the insect screen). That is 192 sq in in all, so the total, the low side and the high side all meet the rule of thumb. This suits unheated storage; if you plan to heat or insulate the shed, ask your local permit office what it wants.

Free 8×16 hip roof shed plan PDF vs the full plan

The free PDF walks through the five stages (foundation, floor, walls, roof, trim) with 3D views and a framing preview. It has no materials list, no cut list and no measured drawings. The full plan adds every step, the roof framing plan with every rafter center, the hip and jack cut details, the sheathing piece map for each roof plane, the ramp, the “What fits inside” page and the complete shopping and cut lists. The PDF also lists the 98 checks it passed before going on sale: the framing closes, the roof geometry works, sheets and shingles cover every surface, no two framing members overlap, and the drawings, tables and lists agree.

Before you build an 8×16 hip roof shed

• Permits. At 128 sq ft and almost 11 ft tall, this shed can still run into size, height or setback limits, and rules vary by town and HOA. Check your local permit office before you buy lumber.
• Snow and wind. The plan uses common small-shed framing. In heavy snow or high-wind areas you may need closer rafter spacing, larger rafters or more anchoring; ask your local permit office for your loads. The plan has you set 6 screw-in ground anchors with straps once the roof is on, before you fill the shed.
• Safety. Plan for a helper on every wall raise and every roof lift. Stand each ladder on firm, flat footing, keep three points of contact, and stay 10 ft from overhead power lines.
• Skids. Use ground-contact rated pressure-treated 4x4s (UC4A or higher), set crown up, and keep 6″ or more between the siding and the soil.
• Materials. Store lumber flat and covered, since wet wood decays faster (USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook). Check the stamp on each OSB sheet for its span rating (APA: OSB).

Tools and ladders the plan lists

Beyond a circular saw with a rip guide, drill/driver and framing hammer, the list adds a miter saw for the door braces (set to 36 degrees) and trim, a reciprocating saw for flush cuts, a jigsaw for the roof vent holes, a 3 lb sledge for the pad frame spikes and stakes and a hand tamper for the pad. Two 8 ft step ladders reach the ridge, and a 16 ft extension ladder covers roof work from the eave, about 8′ 8″ up.

Related plans

• Same footprint with a single-slope roof: the 8×16 lean-to shed plan.
• 2 ft deeper with the same hip roof: the 10×16 hip roof shed plan.
• 4 ft shorter: the 8×12 hip roof shed plan, or a squarer hip shed, the 10×12 hip roof shed plan.
• 2 ft shorter with a gable roof: the 8×14 gable shed plan. 4 ft longer: the 8×20 gable shed plan.
• Choosing a base first? Read the shed foundation guide.
• Every hip roof shed plan in one place.