Building a Storage Shed in Your Backyard

As my wife often tells me, well designed, efficient storage can’t be beat. When we built our house a few years ago she dug through the plans before the house went up checking to see how much storage space there was.

Unfortunately, by the time we got around to finishing the garage the money was running out, and as often happens, one has to cut back in order to fit within the budget. The garage/woodshop turned into a 24 by 36 room into which everything was supposed to fit, but with vehicles, table saws, lawnmowers, etc, etc it just wasn’t going to happen.

It didn’t take too long to realize that when the snow left, I would be learning how to build a storage shed in my backyard.

So where does one start?

Turfing – I’m not talking about your lawn. I’m using turf as a verb, as in “do I really need all this stuff? Would I miss it if I didn’t have it? Is it valuable enough to warrant the cost of the space to store it?”.

Size –To determine the size you must first determine what’s going into the shed and how big a footprint each item has. When determining the footprint, don’t forget the room needed for maneuvering lawn mowers and roto tillers in and out of the shed. Does the item need to hang from or lean against a wall, or is it free standing? Don’t fill every square inch of floor space, because if you can’t move around in your shed you might as well have left it piled up in the corner of the garage.

Location – OK, so you’ve determined how big your storage shed needs to be, but will it fit into your garden? Is the ground level? The levelness of the ground will determine what type of floor you can have.

Wall height – If you’ve got a 6′ garden rake don’t build a 5′ wall. Are you going to have a workbench in your shed? If so, make sure you’ve got enough head room to stand at your bench.

Floor – If your building site is level you can build the floor directly on the ground with gravel, cement, brick, pavers or wood. If you are dealing with a slope then the low areas will either have to be built up behind a retaining wall or a wooden floor will have to be set on or hung from cement or wood posts. If you want to keep critters from getting under the floor it will be necessary to build a foundation wall. In my case I dug four shallow holes in the ground, filled them with gravel before placing patio blocks on the gravel. On top of that I leveled two treated 4″x 6″ timbers, followed by floor joists and plywood. The floor is about 10 inches off the ground at the door.

It sure is nice to roll heavy machines into a built-on-ground building but sometimes it’s just not possible, in which case heavy duty ramps will have to be built.  The ramps will have to long enough to provide a gentle slope to roll the machines in and out. Make sure there isn’t a fence or tree  to get in the way of the ramps.

Door or doors – While more than one door would be handy, can you spare the wall space? In my shed a lot of items are hanging on wall racks and one whole wall is shelves from floor  to ceiling. Do you have room outside the building for both doors to swing open?

Construction Materials – The walls and roof of most garden storage sheds are built with wood, plastic (resin), or metal.

Metal and plastic buildings usually come in kit form.  The pieces are pre-cut and easily identifiable.  There will be a bag of nuts and bolts to fasten the pieces together. The wall and roof panels for vinyl sheds usually snap together or interlock in some way.

The wooden sheds also come in kit form or you can buy plans and build it from scratch. My experience with the wood kits was that the quality of materials was poor. When equipped with good, detailed plans, building from scratch is not difficult and is in fact an excellent way for a beginning woodworker to get “their feet wet” in general construction practices.

Cost – Because there are so many variables related to your site, climate and design, (as well as the cost of materials in your area) it’s difficult to come up with an accurate cost for a storage shed. What I can do however, is give you a few examples of kit prices.

If we compare an 8′ x 10′ metal shed,  your cost will start at about $700. The same size resin (plastic) will set you back about $1300 and the equivalent wood structure will be anywhere from about $1000. (from your local building center) to several thousand for a beautiful Pine Harbour structure.

Use care when using these prices for comparing. Each company has many different levels of material qualities, finishes, shipping prices, and specifications. For example, some kits include a floor, others don’t. Both wood and metal sheds have many different finishes to choose from with warranties (as long as 25 years) and prices to match.

There are many excellent books and websites available on the subject, so do your research, and then go shopping.

And above all, enjoy the process and the satisfaction of everything having a place and a place for everything.