How Many Studs for an 8x8 Shed?
Studs to buy
42 studs
32 ft of wall around an 8 by 8 shed, 8 ft tall, 16 in on center, 4 corners, one 3 ft door, 10 % waste.
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How that number is worked out
These are the figures this page was built with and every line the calculator produces from them. Change anything above and all of it moves.
- Wall length32 ft
- Wall height8 ft
- Stud spacing16 in on center
- Doors and windows1 opening
- Average opening width3 ft
- Corners4 count
- Partition intersections0 count
- Waste allowance10 %
Studs to buy42 studs
| Wall area | 256 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Field studs | 25at 16 in on center |
| Positions the openings remove | -2 |
| Cripples above and below | 33 per opening |
| Corners and tees | 8two extra at each |
| Kings and jacks | 4four per opening |
| Studs before waste | 38 |
| Rule of thumb check | 32one stud per foot of wall |
| Plate stock | 96 ft6 at 16 ft, bottom plate and double top |
| Header stock | 7 fttwo plies, opening plus 6 in of bearing |
| Sheathing | 8 sheets4 by 8, gross wall, no openings taken off |
The material list this produces
| Studs at 8 ft | 42 |
|---|---|
| Plate stock, 16 ft lengths | 6 |
| Sheathing, 4x8 sheets | 8 |
| 16d framing nails, lb | 7 |
| Header stock, ft | 7 |
Stud spacing compared
The same 32 ft of shed wall at four spacings. The middle column thins out and the last one does not move at all, because four corners are four corners however you space the studs between them.
| Stud spacing | Studs to buy | Field studs | Corners and tees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 in on center | 51 studs | 33 | 8 |
| 16 in on center | 42 studs | 25 | 8 |
| 19.2 in on center | 38 studs | 21 | 8 |
| 24 in on center | 33 studs | 17 | 8 |
What else matters here
Forty two studs for the smallest shed people build. The number that surprises everyone is the last column of the table: 8 of those 42 are corner studs, nearly a fifth of the wall, on a building with only 64 sq ft of floor in it.
That is what four corners costs. Each corner of a framed building takes a pair of studs so that both walls have something to nail to and the drywall or sheathing has a backing at the change of direction. A straight wall has two corners; a shed has four, and a small shed does not have much wall to spread them over.
It is also why widening the spacing does less here than anywhere else. The table drops the field studs by a third from 16 in to 24 in on center, and the corner studs sit there unchanged through all four rows. On a 32 ft perimeter the saving is real but modest, and it is worth asking whether it is worth having before deciding a shed this small needs value engineering.
What this calculator assumes
- Studs are counted position by position: the field studs at your spacing, minus the positions the openings take out, plus the cripples that go back above and below them, plus two extra at every corner and every partition tee, plus a king and a jack on each side of every opening.
- A corner is counted as three studs and a partition tee as three, which is the traditional way. A California corner or a ladder tee uses two plus blocking and saves a stud at each one.
- Cripples are counted as whole studs because they are cut from stock. If you are nesting cuts carefully you will use fewer, and the waste line is where that shows up.
- Plates are one bottom plate and a double top plate, so three times the wall length, and they are priced in 16 ft lengths.
- Headers are figured two plies deep at the opening width plus six inches of bearing. Span, load and species decide the header depth, and that is an engineering question rather than a takeoff one.
- The rule of thumb line is the old one stud per foot of wall at 16 inches on center. It is there as a sanity check, not as the answer.
Questions people ask
How many studs for an 8x8 shed?
42 for the 32 ft perimeter at 16 in on center, including a ten percent waste allowance and one 3 ft door.
Why are so many of them corner studs?
Because a building has four corners and each one takes a pair of studs so both walls have backing. On a shed this small that is 8 studs out of 42.
Is the shed perimeter really what I measure?
Yes. The wall follows the perimeter, so an 8 by 8 shed is 32 ft of wall. The floor area does not come into the stud count at all.
The framing calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.