How to Build Wood Shelters

Wood shelters are cost effective outdoor shelters for your animal. Wood shelters are not difficult to make and do not require a great deal of time to construct. You may build your animal's wood shelter as exotic or as simple as you desire. The important part of a wood shelter is structural integrity. You must build a sturdy frame -- strong enough that it will not collapse under heavy snow or winds.

Things You'll Need

  • Concrete mix
  • Wheel barrel
  • Shovel
  • Post hole digger
  • Posts
  • Level
  • Siding
  • Hammer
  • Nails
  • Joist boards
  • Roofing
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Instructions

    • 1

      Determine the exterior dimensions and height of your shelter. Dig one post hole for every 10-feet of exterior. Dig the hole depths equivalent to 10 percent of the height of your posts. For example, if you are building a shelter that is 10 feet by 20 feet with an open front, you will need a total of six post holes. If the posts on the open side are 8-feet high and the three in the back are 6-feet high -- so your roof will slope towards the back of the shelter -- your front three holes will be 9 3/5-inches deep and the holes at the back of the shelter will 7 1/5-inches deep.

    • 2

      Saturate the concrete mix in the wheel barrel with water the ratio recommended by the manufacturer. Mix it with your shovel. Drop the post in the holes. Pour the concrete in the holes, filling in around each post. Level the posts and allow the concrete to cure for 24 hours.

    • 3

      Hammer boards spanning across the tops of the posts on the exterior walls. For example, for a 10-foot-by-20-foot structure with and open face, hammer a board from the front outside posts to the back outside posts, and from the front outside posts to the front center post, and another two boards from the back outside posts to the back center post.

    • 4

      Lay joist boards across the top of the shelter. Hammer one end of the joist boards into the boards spanning the top back of your shelter and the other end of the joist boards into the boards spanning the top front. Space the joist boards 16 inches apart. Lay your roofing material over the top of your joists and hammer it down. Next, hammer the siding to your shelter. You can do this by simply hammering the siding to the vertical posts that you set in concrete.