I need to clean out my garage; any opinions on garden sheds?

[bobmans]

Home Depot has a sale on sheds, I saw a Royall Outdoors product ( 8' X 10') which was knocked down from $1,000 to $899. Does anyone here have any experience with putting one of these up? Seems simple enough (5 hours of labour) but I noticed they also sell a floor kit, a window kit, an extension kit and any number of things to go with it. I assume a floor kit is essential but I am not sure what else is involved. HELP!

[virgoan]

it's really easy to assemble...only takes a few hours with a few basic tools...you don't need any of the extra kit unless you want to add a little window to it or extend the shed a little bigger...the floor kit is pretty useful if you don't want to make your own...I would recommend getting it...the pressure treated sub floor is not exactly cheap...so you'll not end up saving much...plus...I am sure it will last longer...

[dolphie]

we got the 10 by 10 gable end wooden shed at home depot a month or two ago (can't remember what its called) for $999.
Great shed, didn't include shingles.
came with a 2 by 4 floor frame, but we changed it to a 2 by 8 to make it stronger.
happy with it and the size though.

[gmark2000]

I put up a 10x10 Royal shed about five years ago with two buddies. The box said three hours plus the floor. It took us about 7 hours to put together! The floor wasn't very straightforward.

Hot weather slowed us down.

[JetLi]

I shopped around big time last year for sheds. The price was significantly more last year, not sure why. I went to home depot/rona and was looking for a 8x8 or 10x10, maybe larger shed and instantly noticed some issues.

1) The wooden sheds at HD/Rona don't come with windows, vents, or shingles. The unit I was looking at (I think it was $1099 this year for 8x8 but last year was $1499 + all the stuff. Windows were like $250 each already) Total price was about $2000 when it was all said and done (delivery, taxes, all the stuff I wanted, blah blah blah).

2) There was a 'cheapish' plastic/vinyl one at Costco for $749 which came with everything, just drop it on your patio, it was only an 8x8 (I would have preferred larger, but $850 vs $3000 at the time didn't make sense for an extra 50% space (yes, the 10x10 shed is 100sq ft vs 64 sq ft, so almost 50% larger) - so I opted for this one. It came with a plastic roof with vents and 2 windows. Not bad for $850. It took us about 4 aggravated hours to build this thing and it would have been easier, except after about 2 walls were up (in about 45 minutes, it started to get real windy. It took a lot of effort to hold up the walls while the other person walked around with these giant 8ft x 4ft vinyl panels. In the end, we've been very happy with it. It's a little small for our needs (especially since my dad instantly moved his table saw and router table into it) but not a bad deal. They sell the same unit, but 11ft x 8ft this year at Costco (or at least they did, not sure if I have seen it lately at the Brampton location) for $999, still a great buy.

Goodluck.

Tip on the padtio, if it helps. I made a re-inforced box out of pressure treated wood, dug up a path to drop it into the ground, leveled it out by putting some pea gravel underneath and filled the box with pea gravel and just dropped the ugly 24" patio walkway stones on top, and it was a $100 patio for the shed. (There was a surprising amount of pea gravel underneath it! about 1 cubic yard!)

[bobmans]

Thanks guys for the feedback. I have a week off next week and hopefully it will be hot enough to justify a few beverages when I put it up but not hot enough to slow me down.

[pinkyring]

Anyone have opinions/experience with the aluminum/steel type sheds that are available at Sears for about $500-600? I think the brand is called Spacemaker. I think the material would be quite thin since the description even called for bracing of the roof in heavy snow areas.

Any thoughts?

[adrian123]

I put up a Spacemaker shed at my old house. Takes a lot more time to put up than the new Royal Plastics models but still can be completed in a weekend.

Metal will dent and scratch easily so you have to handle it carefully. You have to be careful you dont bang your lawn mower into the doors. Plastic sheds dont have this problem.

I never had a problem with the roof bracing. We actuallly hung garden tools from it although thats not reccomended. The bracing is sufficient to withstand snow loads. Plastic sheds have much stronger roofs.

A Spacemaker shed will work fine, they've been around for 30-40 years at least. If you have an old one to dispose of, you can actually make a little money off the old aluminum since aluminum scrap is often 40 cents a pound nowadays.

Plastic sheds are more expensive but they are a better product. Much more robust and durable. They should last forever. The only drawback is they can be totally destroyed by fire, so dont barbecue inside one when it raining !

[mlc2000]

I put up a 10x10 Royal shed about five years ago with two buddies. The box said three hours plus the floor. It took us about 7 hours to put together! The floor wasn't very straightforward.

Hot weather slowed us down.

And beer, no doubt. :lol:

[mart242]

Plastic sheds are more expensive but they are a better product. Much more robust and durable. They should last forever. The only drawback is they can be totally destroyed by fire, so dont barbecue inside one when it raining !

Don't they lose their color after a few years? ie: turn an ugly pale / whitish color? With a wood shed, you could paint it. Plastic, I don't think so.

I'll need a shed next year and am not sure about what's the best solution.

[Ben Doone]

I put up a 10x10 Royal shed about five years ago with two buddies. The box said three hours plus the floor. It took us about 7 hours to put together! The floor wasn't very straightforward.

Hot weather slowed us down.


Ditto on that, just put up a 10x8 shed today and the sucker took 5hrs to complete. What a waste of a Saturday.