Cheap Shed

As mentioned before, not long ago, we moved into a home we recently renovated, but found that we didn’t have as much space as we thought we would have.  A garage is no place for things like the lawn mower, a table saw, and other tools so we made the determination that we needed a cheap shed.

Click here to find out what ultimately worked

So I started hunting around and found out that sheds aren’t cheap. We’re talking thousands typically. I didn’t want any old crappy shed, I wanted something that would look decorative in our back yard, but all of those weren’t cheap at all. I checked into shed kits, but you don’t always get control over the materials.

Then I started thinking back to my experience with our home, and how I remodeled it . . . how that felt. I wanted that again! I wanted to build my own shed. So by now I’m starting to get pretty excited about this idea, but I had no idea where to start. Finally our next door neighbor (who has an awesome shed BTW) told me about a site that sells shed plans — LOTS of shed plans, and other stuff too. Stuff started moving pretty fast at that point.

Did you know that certain local building codes prohibit the building of a shed without a permit? I didn’t know that. These plans and how-to’s take you by the hand and really show you what needs to be done. There’s a good selection of designs for wood sheds, garden sheds, storage sheds, big sheds, small sheds, you name it.

After adding up the cost of materials I was pleasantly surprised that the cost was going to be roughly half of what I would expect to pay for one that was pre-built.  My son thought I was a genius Hah!

Now it wasn’t perfect. I did get a few bruises, and I won’t name any tools, but I can’t guarantee that the hammer wasn’t involved! In any case, I finally finished our cheap shed, and we can now park in our garage.  The best part is the sense of quality and workmanship and materials that we put into it.  I don’t have to worry or wonder how well it will hold up while we live here, and I KNOW that it will last us for a long time to come.

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A lot of people are happy with whatever basic shed they can find at any hardware store, and that’s find for most people.  But if you’re anything like I am, you’re a little picky about what you’re looking for.  I don’t want just any old cheap shed.  I want something that isn’t going to rust out in a year.  I want something that isn’t going to start leaking.  I want something that isn’t going to start falling apart right away either.  I like doors that open and close the way they’re supposed to.

One of the fist things I looked at were metal sheds.  I like metal furniture, like metal and glass desks, a metal and glass dinner table, a metal and glass TV stand, etc.  It appeals to me for several reasons.  First you by pass the issue of whether the item is cheap.  With tempered glass, it’s going to be a certain quality level all the time.  The metal will be too, because it has to support it.  So metal sheds initially seemed like the way to go, but then I noticed metal sheds in other people’s yards . . . they were all discolored, and corroded, or rusted out.  Very few of them were actually in good shape, and if they were it was usually because they were new.

The prebuilt sheds were nice.  There’s no doubt about it, but my pocketbook didn’t like them, and my pocketbook and I have to agree.  There’’s just no way around that.  There was a lot to be had though, garden sheds, storage sheds, wood sheds, big sheds, small sheds, plastic sheds, you name it, they’re available.

At one point I looked into shed kits.  The seems like a great idea at first.  you save money because you have to assemble it, but I could never be sure on the quality of the materials.  Also, I was never really sure about the designs that were available.  It felt like a compromise to me.  I just wanted a decent storage shed, is that too much to ask?

Finally my neighbor (who has a garden shed) told me that he went through the same thing and found a better way.  To be continued on that one, but for me all of the other options had drawbacks that I was just unwilling to accept.  It’s almost like you can’t ever really find a good well-built cheap shed these days any longer which is sort of  a shame.

Hey everyone, you all have been asking about my shed project for a while now and I know  you want to know more details.  Sorry I made everyone wait, but honestly it’s easier and faster to describe how I did it here, and just send a link than to repeat the story to everyone I know.

In a while I’ll be posting much more details so that all you have to do is follow along with what I did, and you’ll get your project done a lot faster and just as well.  Honestly we’ve found so many uses for our shed.  I’ve been storing our lawn mower, weed whacker, blower, power saw, skill saw, table saw, and all of our garden tools like rakes, shovels etc. in there.  There was a bit of room left over, so I put my son’s bike in there too.  When you lock up the shed afterwards, there’s a sense of security knowing that your stuff will be safe in there from all sorts of elements, weather and otherwise!