A lean-to shed has one tall wall, at the front, and often stands with its low back against a fence or the house. The classic way to light one is clerestory windows: a row of small windows high in the tall wall, above the door head. They let daylight reach the back of the shed and leave the wall below them clear for shelves and hooks. The shed designer now offers that as a layout.
What it uses. The windows are the fixed 23 x 12 tempered transom already in the tool's catalogue (Shed Windows and More, $53.15 at its dated listing), set long side level. The layout puts:
- the door 12" from the left corner;
- a row of transoms along the rest of the wall, their sills 6" over the door head;
- 6" between transoms, which is room for two king studs; 8" clear of the door; 12" clear of the corner.
On a 12 ft wall that is two transoms. The tool frames each one with its own header and checks that it fits under the tall wall's plates. On the 8x12 lean-to preset, with its 6 ft back wall and a front wall 8 ft 6-13/16" tall, all three openings frame with no warning.
What it costs and what it gives. The same 8x12 lean-to with three front-wall layouts, at the dated prices before tax:
| Front wall | Total | Clear wall for shelves |
|---|---|---|
| Door, no windows | $2,803.15 | 34.5 ft |
| Door and one 14 x 21 slider beside it | $2,927.29 | 32.9 ft |
| Door and two clerestory transoms | $3,037.46 | 30.6 ft |
The clerestory row costs $110 more than one slider and $234 more than no windows. The "clear wall" column counts each window's whole rough width as lost wall. That is unfair to a high window, which leaves the wall below it for shelves, so the table undersells the clerestory there.
What the search makes of it. The design search seeds lean-tos with this layout, alongside the two other front-wall layouts. A gable's front wall is too low for windows over the door head, so gables are not seeded with it.
In a 300-design lean-to search, three clerestory designs were feasible and none reached the Pareto front. They cost more, and the looks score gives them no points for symmetry, since the door is at one end. That score is a rule of thumb this tool wrote, not a measurement. A row of high windows is a well-liked look on a lean-to, and the score does not know that yet. Which lane tunes the score is noted in the round's report.
As always: planning drawings, not engineered or code-checked.