Fast Framer Universal Storage Shed Framing Kit

Comment: I bought this kit due to a fear of having to cut "weird" angles for the roof. I built the 10x22. Before building the shed, I built a floor system using 2x8's with a plywood subfloor so this shed did not sit exactly on the ground.
I precut all my wood and my measurements were as close as anyone could get, yet there was no way myself or anyone else that looked at this kit, could get their sill plates to line up at all. I ended up having to cut new boards to make the dimensions work.
The brackets were a pain in the rear to install. They were flimsy and the companies recomendations of putting together one section and raising into place were impossible to do without twisting and bending the brackets.
I ended up having to raise each individual stud and then attach the brackets. I also toenailed into the sill plate other wise the studs would have just toppled over backwards.
The amount of time I wasted playing with the base and then wasted with the brackets I would have had the walls completely up and had the sheathing and roof in place if not shingled! As it was, I was able to get the base, 10 studs in place, one ridge board, and all the stud brackets in 9 hours!!!
I was very dissapointed with this product and would never purchase it again. I will learn how to cut the angles neccesary for the roof and get the job done in a quarter of the time it took me to use this kit.

Comment: I bought a couple of these so my teens could build a couple of things and hopefully learn some very basic building skills. But these things are just a bunch of metal pieces that you have to put together and NOT bracket you simply slip 2x4's into. In the end it was easier to teach them just basic angle cuts, which is what I should of done in the first place. The instructions are actually more confusing than just looking at a shed and figuring it out.

Comment: If I had to do it over again... I would not choose to go with the Fast Framing kit. While it does serve its purpose, I feel it is just as easy (and cheaper) to make the appropriate angled cuts (because you will be doing major carperty work to craft a door (at least if you want it done right) anyway. On a positive note, it does work and provides fairly simple instructions to get your shed up in reasonable time.

Comment: I got this kit knowing that it was just going to be brackets and nothing even close to what I needed to build a shed. These are very cheap brackets. When the box arrived I figured I could at least benefit from the instructions and this would be a good learning project. The instructions were useless. There is a cut list and some written directions. There is one drawing detail of the side of the structure that is totally useless. There is no door assembly of any kind. No hinges.
Going into this purchase I knew that I was paying for my own lack of experience and I was okay with that. I work in engineering so I know how to read and create Assembly and detail drawings. That is all I do all day long. I would be fired in an instant if I sent out something like the useless instructions that came with this.
I would send it back but the shipping weight would put me way over what the product already cost me. I spent over $50 getting the kit here and I am not about to spend more just to get rid of it. I am going to have to try to make the best of it and come up with my own instructions.
Northern Tool is great and they don't make the product, they just sell it. They are a good seller. This is a bad product.

Comment: I have always considered myself to be an `average' handyman.. I can do most tasks around the home without too much damage. Sometimes I need to research, but get there in the end. We had been lacking the use of a good sized work shed and really wanted to build it myself, but without the shed, I was lacking the tools or a work area. So we purchased one from a local company instead.

This year we wanted to move our chickens into a more permanent structure so decided to build one ourselves. Like I said, I consider myself to be average when it comes to most work but I had never put a shed together. It was the roof part that always looked difficult with the angle cuts. I came across this kit and was pleased to see that there was no angle cuts to be make. Just cut 2x4 to length and put together.

One kit allows for a 7x8ft sized building which was perfect for our requirements. The kit is basically 12 triangle shaped pieces for attaching the vertical studs to the floor and 24 pieces for attaching the studs to the rafters. It also states `full' instructions .. however, I do not consider 2 pages to be `full' instructions. There is enough however to get an idea of steps needed.

I will not go into details on the build process, but detail a couple of things..

The 24 pieces used to connect the studs to the rafters are thin and will bend when you are trying to move the attached pieces from one side to the other and then when you are raising to a vertical position. You certainly need 2, if not 3 people to support it.

I found it difficult to get exacting squares. When building a shed using normal methods, you effectively put 4 squares (sides) together and you need some bad luck to be completely out of shape if you test your diagonals. However, there are not many diagonals to test in this structure and could have spent weeks lining everything up to be perfect.

In the end, the shed was put together, and does appear to be sturdy. I did learn a great deal from using the kit and more importantly, it gave me the confidence to build another structure without using the kit. I also came across a lot of brackets and metal pieces at Lowes that would enable me to put a roof together without having to cut weird angles. Not a bad price for a 7x8, but I would not want to purchase 3 kits for a 10x22. You can buy a lot of 2x4's for the same cost.

Bottom line is yes, I recommend this kit if you are not too confident at putting a structure together in the first place, but once you do get one together, it is unlike you will use the kit again due to the increase in confidence you get from completing the task.