Bracing an old shed

[Maximus]

Beenthere, that's probably what we'll do for this year.  Ensuring "a good hat and shoes" is always the first step, and right now, this fella's hat is compromised.  The upper roof is fine, it's the lower (slightly less sloped) roof on the left that is leaking badly.  There is zero damage to any important joints b/c the leaks are all in relatively innocuous zones.  We're going to tarp the problem for this year, then replace the shakes on the lower roof with metal panels next summer.  We already have the metal panels, but for this winter, they're already employed protecting our wood piles!

[NE Woodburner]

Had a friend who inherited an old farm and it had a small barn that looked like it was about to fall over. He thought it would be best to tear it down as it seemed like more work to rebuild than it was worth. He put a chain on the frame and tried to pull it down with his tractor several times from different angles and chaining to different parts of the frame. Nope. He ended up having to chainsaw the building in sections and it still came down hard. Sometimes these old structures are tougher than they look...

[beenthere]

Here is a shed that does indeed need some bracing. Across the road from me. When it had ear corn stored in it, was much better but that hasn't been for the last 55 years I've lived here. 

[doc henderson]

How well do the hanging door slide?      cute old shed.

[Maximus]

Yup, this barn nicely displays the architectural disconnect of the roof trusses from the support structure, making Doc's idea of extending some of that truss stability down into the support structure via post-to-peak knee braces very attractive for smaller sheds like mine.

Doc, maybe slap a name on your idea right now.  The "Henderson Chord"?

[TreefarmerNN]

Doc has some good ideas on bracing but I'll add a couple of thoughts.  I'm not entirely clueless on old sheds having mostly finished jacking up and stabilizing one shed, (30 x 40) and working on a second, larger one.  These are from the 90's as well but 1890's or earlier.

Dig down around your posts about 6" to make sure they are solid.  Most of our rot was actually just below ground level.  The posts above ground were solid and what was a foot or more in the ground was solid but the twain didn't always meet.

Your board and batten lean to ads a lot of stiffness to winds from the side but if you brace the inside stringers it will add more, particularly if you go up toward the top of the posts.  It doesn't have to be big timbers, a 1 x 6 nailed to each stringer will add a lot.

Remember that buildings can lean front to back as well.  It's tough to add braces to the open side but you can do so on the lean to side.

Finally, consider nailing a diagonal brace to the underside of the rafters to inhibit twisting.  Blocking between rafters adds a lot of stiffness as well but the purlins should be enough if you have diagonal bracing.  Have fun with the shed, you'll learn a lot.