One of the greatest gifts you can give a child is a place of their own to play. Children desire space they can call their own – that is why they are constantly building forts for themselves. Why not give them a gift and make them a wooden playhouse of their very own? Building a playhouse is both rewarding and challenging. After all your hard work you will be able to enjoy the face that you built your children their favorite play place.
The first step to building a the house is deciding on what size it is going to be. It needs to be big enough for the kids to have room to move around, but you don’t want to spend as much as you would on a garage. One good technique to decide on the size of the house is to measure it out in your yard and make a box out of string. That way you can get a feel for the size of the room.
The next thing to do is frame the floor. This will done with 2×6 pressure treated boards. To frame the floor lay two boards out that will be the length of the house. Mark a line every 16 inches along the boards for the studs to go. Cut studs at the width of the house: you will need one for each end of the boards as well as one for each of the lines. After they are all cut screw them in place going along the back of the board into the end of the studs. You now have a floor. Use a level along with stones and sand to level up the floor. Make sure that it does not shake or wiggle at all.
Now to install the flooring: pressure-treated deck boards are good for outdoor playhouse flooring. Squirt subfloor glue on to a few of the floor joists at a time, then lay the deck boards over them, pull them tight with a hammer and pry bar and screw a few screws down into each joist. The subfloor glue needs to be put under all of the boards to prevent creaking and help hold them tight. The last board will need to be ripped down with a circular saw to the proper width and after this is installed your floor is complete.
Framing the walls will be a little more difficult than the windows because spaces will have to be framed for the door and the windows. First lay out the wall that will have the door. Put studs in for either side of the door and then nail in a board horizontally at the height for the top of the door. Then add all the other studs making sure that there is no space greater than 16 inches between each. Do the same thing for the walls with the windows except add a horizontal board where the bottom of the window is going as well. After all the walls are framed up you can put them in place, nail them to the floor, and nail them to each other in the corners.
Now it is time to install the siding. T111 siding is good for this type of project. Cut it to the proper sizes and nail or screw it to all the wall studs.
After the siding is on, the roof can be built and attached. Attach 2 2×4′s to a bottom 2×4 that is the length of the roof. The attached two must be angled so that they go up and meet each other forming a triangle. After they are together cut a piece of plywood to fit over all of the joints between the boards. Screw the plywood on to strengthen the joints. After all of these triangles also known as trusses are built simply lay them on the top of the walls and screw them down.
Now apply some plywood to the roof, then tack down some felt paper making sure that each run overlaps the last by at least 6 inches. Now the shingles can be nailed on. Nail them on, overlapping one another so that the water will run down without running in to them.
Installing the windows is rather easy. Caulk the nailing flanges and then slide them in the holes. Screw through the flanges into the wall and the window is done.
To finish off the front porch simply buy a pre-made railing and put it together between the posts.
All of the playhouses parts are now put together and your child can now go and enjoy your hard work. Congratulations on finishing your playhouse!