ShedBuilder’s Outdoor Storage Sheds

Is it time to place an outdoor shed in your garden? Don’t be in a rush to get the first one before you learn more about the different types of outdoor storage sheds. The main characteristics of the sheds depend on the material used, the shape of the shed and how much “finished” it is.

The Different Shed Materials

The factor which probably has the most importance for the outdoor storage shed’s quality is the material used for building it. If the shed is built with low quality materials chances are it will be of low quality too.

The metal outdoor storage sheds are cheap and robust but rare look as good as the timber sheds. The later are more expensive, but are very beautiful and are excellent for green houses. There are many outdoor sheds made of plastic or fibreglass. In most cases they combine the positives of the metal sheds and wooden ones.

Sometimes you can see sheds made of bricks, panels, rammed earth or even straw.

Types Of Sheds Depending On The Purpose

The outdoor garden sheds may have different purpose. Most people just want to store tools and stuff inside, that’s why we most often call them storage sheds.
However, you could want your shed to serve your kids as a green house or a house for games. Many other people use the sheds as a green office.

The purpose of the shed often will determine the material and the shape as well. If you want to use the building just to store things, you can go with cheap and tall metal shed. If your target is a green house or office, then wooden will be best.

Shed Kits, Shed Plans And Finished Sheds

I have written about this before. Most people don’t purchase ready sheds because there is not enough variety, transportation is harder and the price is higher. That’s why the most preferred way for buying outdoor storage sheds is as shed kits.

The kits require some work on your side. Usually it’s going to take few days to build a shed by using a kit. But the huge advantage to select between many models of sheds and buy even overseas is well worth it.

Some enthusiasts like to build shed entirely on their own. They just buy shed plans and materials and start working. Building a shed this way can be a long process if you have no experience with do it yourself projects. For someone who knows what they are doing it’s a one week work in most cases. If you choose this route, I can recommend this online shed plans store, because they have good variety and decent prices.

Getting a shed is not a big deal and you don’t need to spend months planning. But at least you should make sure that you know about the different types of outdoor storage sheds before going further and purchasing or building one.

Can you design and build a shed from scratch?

Sure, you can. Hopefully you have experience in architecture design, because you will need to create good sketches of the shed. Then you’ll have to print them out and start your work.

While designing your shed you should have in mind its size, the space in your yard, the cost of actual building, the materials that will be used and that the final look should match the look of your house and around. When you are the shed designer, everything is in your hands, so you take all the risks.

Can you at least use a ready design?

Of course, and that’s what I recommend you, unless you are an architect. You can purchase paper plans or download shed plans online for a small amount of money - usually $20 - $40. There is a great choice of plans available so you should not worry about not finding the one that is right for you.

Building a shed with a plan has the advantage that you are building some proven design. You don’t have to worry if the walls and the door will match. This is probably the most cost effective way to build outdoor storage sheds - you should skip the plan purchase only if designing yourself is something you enjoy.

Doing it easier - using a shed kit

Building a shed with shed plans is fool proof in the sense that you can’t go wrong if you follow the plan. But it’s quite time consuming and requires hard work.

If your reasons to want to build a shed yourself are less about cost saving and more about not being able to find the right outdoor shed design, then buying a shed kit is the best option for you. Why is that? Mostly because there are thousands of shed kits stores available online and they can ship you your kit in a matter of days.

One of the greatest advantages of using a kit is that building a shed with it is easy - you can finish it in 2-3 days. At the same time you’ll have much better choice compared to when you want to purchase a ready garden shed and you’ll pay less.

If you want to build a shed yourself, don’t be scared. The above three options allow everyone do it depending on their experience level. Just go ahead, estimate your skills and start work!

There are thousands of shed designs available on the market. You would think everyone would be able to find exactly the garden shed they dream about. But the truth is people have even more ideas about their yards than the shed designs available. If you are one of those creative people you may have problems finding exactly what you want.

Customizing A Ready Shed

For people who don’t have much experience in do it yourself project, don’t have much free time, or just don’t want to get their hands dirty, it’s most recommended to purchase pre-built outdoor storage sheds or at least shed kits.

What can be done to customize such storage shed? Here are few ideas:

• Painting. Putting your custom paint is a great way to give uniqueness to your outdoor storage shed. If you have fantasy, you could combine different colors, drawings and more.
• Isolation. If you are planning to store expensive items or things like food in your shed, you may improve it by adding custom isolation. Doing this is very popular for people who use their sheds as greenhouses.
• Customize around the shed. The pre-built sheds don’t allow you to change much in the shed itself. But you can customize the things around it - the pathways, the vegetation around it and many more. Imagine what a great combination you could achieve with a good timber shed, a pergola and beautify green pathway to it.

If that is not enough, maybe you are one of those people that prefer to do things themselves. If so, read below.

Customizing Shed Plans

The best option for people like you is to buy shed plans, preferably online, and build the storage shed yourself. The plans usually come with instructions what materials should be used, but here is the first place where you could be creative. Once you have the plans, you can use them for almost any other material - of course, with small adjustments.

Working with plans gives you one more advantage about customizing your shed. You can just make adjustments to the plans and see how the shed would look before you actually do anything. That’s why I suggested you to use downloadable plans and not paper ones. You can find the ones I like most here. Using a design software you can see how your adjustments will effect the shed without wasting any materials!

Design Your Own Shed

Of course, the most straightforward way to the shed you dream about is to design it yourself entirely from scratch. If you have never done any sketches and never worked with software like AutoCad, you will need first to learn how to do that.

If you already have more experience, be careful about several common mistakes that enthusiasts do when designing their first shed:

• Don’t forget the costs. People who want to design their dream shed often do wonders in the software design programs and then realize the shed is too big or too hard to build in the real world. Don’t forget that there are materials and actual work involved in building your shed - a design may look great on the screen, but can you really implement it?
• Match the design of your house. You may be very creative when doing your design but if it is not compatible with your existing house and yard, that will be waisted effort. Of course sometimes you can achieve great result by making the outdoor storage shed stand out with different design, but that requires much more experience and talent in design than most people have.
• Functionality is most important. Of course your outdoor storage shed must be beautiful but don’t forget that the most important is its functionality. When designing, think well what you are going to store in your shed, are you going to stay there yourself and where it will be placed.

Outdoor storage sheds give everyone the ability to customize them to their needs. Just decide what level of customization you need and go ahead with some of the options I suggested above.