Shed Features

INTRODUCTION

As with any property, sheds come with their own ecosystem, giving a true life sense of life to your space. We strongly believe that, with the proper care, our sheds can last a lifetime or more, but we guarantee it for 20. Just long enough to see it off to college.

CONCEPTION

Of course in the shed life cycle, everything begins with a plan. Before even starting construction we receive your finely detailed order and put everything on paper prior to so much as touching a drill or hammer. This is to assure quality and stability throughout your build, and longevity once it’s been delivered. Additionally, locally made parts are sourced specifically for your shed. This planning stage normally takes about a week to ensure for maximum quality.

CONSTRUCTION

Next comes the beloved construction process. We put roughly a week’s worth of work into making sure the shed fits our grueling standards, and meets your extended needs. We perfectly round every corner, smooth each rough spot, and firmly seal the pieces. Once everything is perfect, and is in accordance with our Golden Shed Laws (and our finely tuned shed palettes), it is inspected by a master builder, with no less than 40 years of experience.

DELIVERY AND INSTALLATION
Our delivery process begins shortly thereafter, where we delicately pack each of the large shed pieces aboard our flatbed truck, and drive to your location.

Upon arrival, we inspect the area that the shed is to be installed, and if need be, do any additional preparations necessary. At this point, assembly commences and we put all of the shed pieces snuggly together, and do our best to help with any further accommodations required to get you up and running with your new space. Generally installation takes about an hour.

From here, although your space is set for its life, and yours, we like to think our process isn’t finished. We are always just an email or phone call away, and ready to help you enhance, protect, or expand your shed’s capabilities and lifespan at a moment’s notice.

INTRODUCTION

We love sheds (in case you couldn’t tell), and firmly believe they are the end-all be-all solution to lack of space, short of buying a new house. One of the greatest benefits of our beautiful custom sheds, is their ability to be utilized as finished living spaces, such as an apartment, studio, man-cave, or even an auto-body garage. In this article we aim to outline a few of a requirements needed to order a space you can enjoy and be proud of.

It is worth noting, that most of the things in this article should be considered aftermarket, DIY modifications to the shed, and are not (at least at this time) implemented standard from our shop. However, with prior planning and a detailed email, we might be able to make your dream happen, short of electrical and plumbing (you would want a professional for those).

CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST

When configuring your shed in the Builder, with intent as using it as a finished living space there are a couple things to consider:

• How many people will regularly utilize the shed’s space, one or many?
• How tall are the items (and the people) that are going to be in the space?
• Are the items used in the space going to be very heavy (like a car)?
• Are you going to need electrical or plumbing within the space?
• Are you going to need heating/air conditioning within the space?

IN THE BUILDER

Once you have a list of requirements in mind, it’s time to hit the Builder.

Typically, if you are planning on occupying the new space for any extended periods of time (really, the purpose of a finished living space), it is better to go bigger than smaller. We know, we know, you of course expect to hear that from the people selling them, but to be completely honest, while a six foot (6′) by eight foot (8′) shed is excellent for storing the lawn mower, some power tools, and a few bags of leaves, it is about the size of the average bathroom – you don’t want to live in a bathroom. Below is a list of standard, minimum size recommendations based on projected use. It may also help to brush up on standard shed measurements, particularly if you need something custom.

• Size Recommendations
• Painting/photography studio – eight feet (8′) by twelve feet (12′)
• Man-cave/club house/bar – eight feet (8′) by sixteen feet (16′)
• Game room/family room – ten feet (10′) by fourteen feet (14′)
• Automotive garage/apartment – twelve feet (12′) by twenty-four feet (24′)

Also, we think it goes without saying, but if you are going to be keeping larger things (or having taller people) in your new living space, it would be a good idea to increase the wall height. By default, the height is six feet (6′), plus the height of the roof, meaning that standing tight against the wall, one would have six feet (6′) of headroom. The standard wall height of your average ranch is eight feet (8′) high, allowing for plenty of headroom for even the tallest of people, tight against the wall, and we recommend this for any and all sheds used as finished living spaces.

By default, all of our sheds come ready for installation of insulation (say that 10-times fast!) This makes finishing the walls quite easy, only requiring insulation and sheet-rocking. However, given that electrical and plumbing needs are often highly custom, we do not implement any additional holes within the sheds walls to accommodate for either. Thus, it would be a good idea to have an initial consultation with a professional in either field prior to finishing the walls. Same deal with heating and/or air conditioning – you should speak with an HVAC professional prior to finishing.

If the intention is to use the new space as an automotive garage, or to hold other heavy items (engine blocks, refrigerators, grown/or even infant pachyderms, etc.), we recommend upgrading both the floor support boards and the wall joists. For obvious reasons, these will strengthen the floor, and help further preserve the life long enjoyment of your new space.

SOME OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER

While on the topic of larger items, a couple other things to consider would be whether or not said “large item” will need to regularly move in and out of the shed (such as a car or large/small pachyderm). If the answer is “yes,” might we recommend a roll-up door and a ramp? While ramps are free, be need to be selected within the Builder, roll-up doors are not, however, for larger objects, help evade a word of headaches. Particularly with vehicles, such as cars or even motorcycles, this is truly the only practical approach, sort of removing the wall each time the vehicle needs to exit the space… as one may guess, that’s not recommend and we do not support such mutilation of sheds!

Another thing worth mentioning would be, if you plan on using the shed as a finished living space, would be to remove the louvers (additional ventilation nearer the ceiling), as they let a lot of air escape. Naturally, this is not ideal, particularly if you are trying to heat or air condition the space. For more information check out our article on louvers and ramps.

Slightly beyond the scope of this article, another thing to consider would be securing your new space. Particularly if the shed is to be occupied, having the doors unlocked, ready for prying nosey neighbors, is typically not the best idea. Lucky enough, we also have a wonderful set of tips for increasing shed security!

SECURITY 101

Whether you store expensive tools and equipment in your shed, utilize it as a finished living space, or just aren’t a fan of nosey neighbors, securing your shed is never a bad idea. We have compiled a list of suggestions for enhancing your shed’s privacy and security below, to be considered a DIY project. At this time we aren’t implementing any of these standard, but would be happy to upon special request.

WHERE TO BEGIN WITH SECURITY

A wonderful starting point is locking down the standard point of entry – namely, windows and doors. We find that one of the best deterrents for windows is to simply put up a layer of reflective window film on the glass (we like 3M), thus preventing wandering eyes from peering in. This also gives the added benefit of keeping the shed cooler on the inside, which is particularly swell when used as a finished living space! Next, while it may seem like an obvious solution, simply locking the doors, either with the provided locking mechanism, with a padlock, or internally using something more sophisticated, is often deterrent enough.

EXTRA PRECAUTIONS

If you are absolutely paranoid about someone entering the shed, some extra precautions can be made just to further lock down the doors and windows. You can easily purchase a high-grade lock for the door, which will often come with security screws, which are nearly impossible to remove from the outside. Also, security bars can be installed on the outside of the shed, be it standard steel bars, or something more attractive, such as grates or wrought-iron bars.

All of this aside, we have found that simply keeping a shed locked is typically the most affective theft deterrent, but if you are using it as a finished living space, we can understand the logic behind taking a few extra steps for security’s sake. Some of our customers have even gone as far as shining a spot light on their shed or installing a video camera. To each his own.

Ah, the age old quesion!

To weigh the difference and similarities – both are wood (uhm, duh?); pine is significantly cheaper, and offered standard on all our sheds; both are equally as durable, and will not affect the overall shed stability in any way; cedar is a darker red color; people tend to favor cedar as it is a “rarer” natural wood; bugs don’t like chewing through cedar; cedar smells positively exquisite! (We’d seriously eat it if we could.)

Short answer? We heart cedar. But always show pine some love too! (Hey, we’re “shed folk.”)

INTRODUCTION

Our lovely sheds are available in a billions, upon billions, of possible configuration options (950 quadrillion to be exact). We understand that sometimes this can lead to a lot of questions regarding shapes, sizes, and general measurements, and perhaps even be a bit daunting.

WALL HEIGHT

For starters, our general wall height range is six feet (6′) to eight feet (8′), with availability varying depending on the desired roof shape.

Once one has selected a roof shape and the wall height is determined, it is quite easy to determine the overall height. For A-frames roofs, one adds **.*”; Gambrel – **.*”; Lean-To – **.*”; and the Chateau roof shape adds **.*” to the overall height. As you can see, each of the shed types can easily, and comfortably, accommodate a 6’+ person and larger furniture (with the exception of Lean-To sheds… (unless you’re really tiny.)

WIDTH AND LENGTH
We offer sheds in four (4) different widths, six feet (6′), eight feet (8′), ten feet (10′), and twelve feet (12′). These are (more or less) industry standard sizes, and are selected to allow for structural stability, while being cost effective for you, the buyer. However, if you are looking for something special, as we say – “we do custom;” just get in touch, we’d be happy to figure something out!

Unlike shed widths, lengths vary greatly depending on the selected width, and are far more easily modifiable in a custom instance.

These are just our favorite width/length combinations that we offer standard through the Builder. Again, if you need something custom, just say the word!

DOORS AND WINDOWS

On all of our sheds we (quite obviously) offer a door, available in all sorts of wonderful shapes, sizes, layouts, and configurations to match whatever purpose you intend the shed for. This includes hinged single doors, hinged double doors, roll-up doors, and more in any sort of combination one desires.

Alas, with all the options available, we offer hinged doors standard. Depending on the selected wall height, the door heights vary ever-so-slightly. At six feet (6′) the doors are 70.25″ tall, and seven feet (7′) and up they are a full 80″. This is true for both hinged single doors and hinged double doors.

As for other various combinations, the heights are fairly straightforward.

No, they are not.

If you are looking for a custom finish, feel free to get in-touch with us, and we will do our best to accommodate your request!

The biggest one! Hyuk-hyuk, just kidding… sorta. This is always a really tough question to answer, as it all depends on how you plan on furnishing your new space (if at all), what you want to put in it, if it’s going to need electricity/plumbing, the list goes on…

We can tell ya, our most commonly sold sheds lay in the “favorite-range,” of ten feet (10′) wide, and between fourteen feet (14′) long to eighteen feet (18′) long. Sheds in that range account for roughly 35% of our overall sales, and if you are unsure exactly what size you need, starting here may not be a bad idea.

If you are hung up on ideas, get in touch, we’d be happy to help!

INTRODUCTION

With each of our products being completely custom tailored to your every whim, an introductory price can be a difficult thing to peg down. That aside, we have taken each of our standard shed combinations and compiled a few lists of each introductory price, per respective material. Due note, sheds with the Chateau roof shape have a slight up-charge, on account of being taller.

Call us for to get an idea of how much your dream shed would cost!