Shed? I found this on an Amish-built lot last year. I wanted a roll-up door on the end and a man door on the side, and lo and behold, they had this finished and ready as a demo. Its 12 x 16 x 8, solid split pine (no particle board) with a metal roof and full floor. With just regular swinging doors on the end and no stain, they run $2K. With the extras and delivery, I was at $2500 installed.
It replaced this, so its a major upgrade.
The only other expense was $100 in crushed limestone and wood to prepare the base, and a few $ to run electricity to it. I extended the ramp that was provided so the lawn tractor could clear the breakover.
I can imagine building this myself for the same cost, or spending twice to get a particleboard shed fro a big-box store. I love living in PA!
I recently added a large shed- the biggest I could have that was still reasonably transportable. 12x28. To be used as a wood shop/ man cave.
I wanted something nice. Including transom windows and a dormer. Reinforced floor, 16" centers.
I have been building my entire life. I am perfectly capable of doing this. But there was a design at the local shed sales company that I liked, and I went there to steal ideas and take dimensions off of it. While I was there, I learned that the unit sitting on the lot had been sitting too long, and they were discounting the price significantly. Turns out the price difference between me building it myself and buying it pre-built was less than 20%. My labor was worth much more than that to me, and so were several weeks worth of weekends.
I bought the pre-built unit, and they delivered it 4 days later. I started moving in that weekend.
No regrets.
I think you should build it and you should do it from pieces and you should design it yourself (using code/best practices/help from here/whatever)
Building a building from scratch is one of those things that very few people outside the building trades get to do. Even then, not too many people do ALL the work on a building from dirt to move in. It's an immensely satisfying process and you'll learn a ton. None of it is "hard" in that if you can swing a hammer and measure/cut fairly accurately you can do it.
Find out what's legal, get out a napkin and a pen, and get to work.
BTW, I disagree that pre-built sheds are crap. Some are, but most are not too bad.
They are built to be transported, and tilted radically, which means they have to be reinforced better.
Most shed manufacturers offer pre-built options that include wood floors strong enough to drive a car on. That's much better built than 95% of home built versions.
If they have 2x3 wall construction, 24" on center, thin plywood floors, or lack solid connections at all of the joints, then yeah, they are crap. But if they are built by a reputable manufacturer, they are probably better at building sheds than most homeowners. It just comes down to price.
Delivery day for mine. Most home built sheds cant do this.
And yeah, that's a $350,000 trailer. It includes an extra set of wheels perpendicular to the axle which can be lowered hydraulically so the trailer can be driven sideways by remote to maneuver into tight places.
Shed companies are no longer fly-by-nights.
SVreX, It does come down to price. Are you comfortable saying what the total cost as set up in your yard?
Last year I finished out one of those nice units for a customer. A nice building to finish out. They wanted electric, A/C, sheetrock and vinyl plank flooring, front deck. Turned out real nice.
Thanks for the post. 
The trailer that delivered mine was pretty awesome to watch.
In reply to Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) :
Hmm... honestly I don't remember exactly. I think it was $12K delivered.
But that shed includes a lot of upgrades. Dormer roof, transom windows, tall walls, pre-wired with electric panel, extra door on end, architectural shingles, reinforced floor. Plus, it's 2.5X the size of what the OP is looking for.
pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) said:
The trailer that delivered mine was pretty awesome to watch.
Totally agree.
That alone was worth the cost of admission.
One thing that drove me towards a DIY built rather than a pre-built is I don't have truck-access to my back yard. Getting materials back there is a PITA (just getting small cars back there sucks). While I really want a shop, I am quite fearful of what the concrete costs will be - because I'm 99% certain they will need a pumper truck to go over my house from the street almost 100' away.
Many years ago, my ex- bought a 10x10 shed kit from a local vendor. It wasn't bad to build, although after all was said and done, we didn't see the advantage of the kit over building it ourselves from scratch, which is one reason I went the full-DIY route for my own shed. I guess one advantage of a kit is you'll end up with less off-cuts to deal with when you're finished.
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
I had to take down a fence to get my shed delivered.
Concrete can usually be buggied with a Georgia buggy, and pumper trucks really are not that prohibitive.
In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
I think your trailer was significantly smaller than mine. Mine hinged in the middle, and had the extra sets of wheels for driving sideways.
He turned the entire rig around in my back yard in a space too small for me to turn my pickup around.
Thanks SVreX for the info.
Ian, a concrete pump can pump it from the street to the back yard via hose. No deep truck ruts. Some even use a crane affair to pump it clear over the existing house. Just saying.
My point was not to show off my big-ass shed. My point was to go to the shed sales companies, and expect that good deals are available. They are often willing to negotiate quite a bit, especially for a unit on the lot, knowing you can easily go somewhere else.
The shed manufacturers can build these things MUCH cheaper than anyone can do at home, and the dealers can still make money even if they are only making a couple hundred dollars on a sale. Its a volume business, and they need to move them off the lot.
Don't rule it out until you check it out.
Do you want to have a shed or do you want to build a shed. Those are two very different things.
In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
We'll see. First, I have to draw up the plans and get Twp approval. This is sort of a quick diagram of what I want. My DIY shed is in the lower left. The angled "thing" in the middle of the back yard is an old Shelter Logic 13x24 temp garage (after the second tarp disintegrated, it's been a bare structure since). The dashed square is the rough 20x24 location I'm hoping to put the shop. Also the back property line - the entire lot is about 40' x 100'. It looks like Google recently updated the satellite image for my area:
There's just under 8' between my house and the neighbor's fence. Oh, and the red blob on the other side of a the fence is a recent model GTO 6 spd salvage car they intend to do a drivetrain swap at some point. They (two brothers) have a trio of old GM A-Bodies. It's one thing I really like about where I live - I'm not the only one with project cars scattered about their property.
Real shed companies do build real nice sheds. But if you're spending $2500, homebuilt is going to be nicer than $2500 at the big box store. The ones I've seen at lowesdepot at a low price point are garbage, and the nice ones are priced accordingly. I also really do like full 8 foot walls. If your local code allows the height, I don't see any reason to go shorter and most prefab sheds are short.
You do need to discount your time and labor, or take it on as a fun project. I certainly wouldn't do it myself if I was still working in construction all day too.
The Amish products are super nice, if you have that option, we don't get Amish around here.
We ended up dragging my 12x12 shed (whilst loaded full of car parts and building materials) about 100 feet with an excavator, including a 180 degree turn, because it was going to be too close to the new house. It's still just as plumb and true as it was when I built it.
newrider3 said:
Real shed companies do build real nice sheds. But if you're spending $2500, homebuilt is going to be nicer than $2500 at the big box store.
That's true. (Although I didn't see anywhere the OP said his budget was $2500)
There is one good reason to avoid building 8' walls. If there is any possibility at all the shed might be transported in the future, 8' walls will exceed the DOT height limits once they are on a trailer.
Why not put down a 20' shipping container then slap a roof and siding on it?
nderwater said:
I was kicking around the idea of building one of these Allwood kits:
...but then I moved into a subdivision with an HOA, so yeah, that's out of the question now.
Could you attach a ladder up to the roof and a slide and call it a playscape?
In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
In a previous sub, 2 neighbors across the street didn't get along. N1 built a sweet shed, N2 complained to HOA. N1 changed one window to swing-out and added a ladder and slide, called it a playscape, N2 had to eat a bag of Hennessy Honda Snacks. Best part: N1 didn't have kids!
slefain
PowerDork
6/10/20 9:57 a.m.
You guys are killing me. My wife said no shed until the house is renovated. Well the house renovation was finished a year ago and now I've got sheds on the brain. I squirreled away a TON of spare wood each night after the builders filled the dumpster (hey, I paid for the wood, I'm keeping it). I already have a 10x10 concrete pad where a metal shed once stood (long gone though). I want a shed just to hold the yard tools and bikes.
Time to inventory my wood stash and start making a plan.
Let me firm up the actual requirements:
Wife wants a place that's clean enough to do her sewing and crafts in. The house is fine, but she wants a space just for her.
It must be big enough to hold a sewing table and a chair and probably a self.
Electricity could be supplied with a drop cord from the garage, but I do want to wire it up.
Walls and floor will be finished as inexpensively as possible.
Roof, too. I have some shingles left over from when they just repaired my roof a few months ago. I might even go with something different from shingles.
Easy Button: I have a wood framed shed that needs work. The easy button is to take that shed and make it nice. It's about 10' 4"x10', which is probably big enough. We'd have to replace the floor, re-do the siding, install some windows, refinish the roof and finish the walls and run wiring. The flooring seems non-standard, and looking at that list, I was thinking that it may be easier to rebuild. If I build a new shed, I can disassemble this shed and use the existing roofing and door frame as a template.
