Considerations Often Ignored When Building A Storage Shed

When thinking of building storage sheds, there is a lot of advice that can be found from friends, relatives, books and on the Internet. Most, if not all of them, will tell you that the important things to consider include the purpose and placement of your shed as well as the materials and the workmanship (professional or DIY) that you decide to use. All of these are excellent points and can end up saving you time and money. However, there are some other factors to consider that can save you problems months or even years down the line.

So before you put down your materials and take up your tools, please consider the following.

Obstacles below

A pre-fab shed can last up to 20 years, while a custom-made one can be in place anywhere between 60 to 80 years. After all, you are building it to last. Since that is the case, you need to be mindful of exactly what you are building over. You may not be digging to lay a foundation, but having a storage shed filled with myriad bits and pieces of weight-worthy items from your life can become quite difficult to remove if you suddenly need to access the sewer or electric lines that you built over. 

Make sure to check the blueprints or other relevant documents that outline exactly where these are. You can also call 811 to contact the utility company to come and mark out the path of the utility lines in your yard. They will collaborate, color co-ordinate and mark all utilities such as sewage (green), cable (orange), gas (yellow), electric (red) and water (blue) so that you can ensure your shed will not impede access to any of them  

Let it flow

If you live in a rainy or flood prone area, it may be wise to consider a slope for building your storage shed on, as opposed to the most accessible location. This way the water will flow away from the shed, rather than being able to settle around it and possibly douse both the shed and its contents. Pre-fab storage sheds, especially, can see the flooring start to rot long before that 20 year life span, if they are constantly saturated from water settling under or around them on flatter landscape.

If this is not possible, then you will need to employ other means of diverting the water such as troughs, French drains or swales. This might be an additional but worthwhile expense that you need to bear in mind when calculating your budget. Be mindful also not to build your storage shed too close to--or even worse, on--your neighbor's property.