Portable Storage Building Prices: How Much Should a Shed Cost?
James Charles - January 26, 2021
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(Excludes add-ons and upgrades.)
If you find yourself looking around for portable storage building prices, you’re probably wondering how much a storage shed should cost. That’s an important question and one that you’ll find different answers for depending on who you ask.
The difficulty with setting an average price for storage buildings is that storage buildings are built using a wide range of methods and materials. When comparing different backyard shed styles, you’ll soon find that each shed company has its own set of standard features. So, in order to talk about what a storage building should cost we first of all need to clarify what kind of storage building we’re talking about.
Portable shed prices will vary significantly based primarily on how the building is constructed. You can get cheap quality buildings for relatively little, but if you want a building that your grandchildren will be using, you’ll need to be willing to pay a higher price tag. (Click here to request shed prices via email, or keep on reading to learn more about how much a shed should cost)
Materials and Building Methods
The saying, “you get what you pay for” more often than not still holds true today. There are those rare cases when you might find a high quality product at a dirt cheap price, but that is the exception rather than the norm.
Common materials used for storage buildings are metal, vinyl, and wood.
Metal
Storage buildings built entirely of metal are often found at big box stores for low prices. These buildings often use minimal framing and are susceptible to dents and rust. A better alternative if you wish to have the metal look is to buy a wood building with metal siding and roofing. The exterior siding looks similar to an all metal building but the wood framing greatly increases the strength and durability of the building.
Vinyl
Vinyl (also know as plastic or resin) storage buildings are also found at big box stores. Many of these buildings are constructed entirely of plastic which usually does not hold up to many years of use. Here again, wood storage buildings can be built with vinyl siding which makes for a much stronger and longer lasting building.
You’ll notice that many of the inexpensive metal and vinyl buildings found at department stores have a roof that’s almost flat. This is done in an effort to save money. But if you live in an area with heavy snow it can spell disaster, especially considering that a cheap building has minimal interior framing for support. A flat roof is more susceptible to roof cave-ins and leakage.
Wood
Wood storage buildings offer superior strength and durability, especially if all wood that comes into contact with the ground is pressure treated. Wood framed outdoor buildings can have a wood, metal, or vinyl exterior. You can expect to pay more for a wood building but (if purchased from a reputable builder) wood buildings will outperform the cheaper metal and plastic buildings almost every time. For more info, read our article on exterior shed wall materials, which breaks down all the options in more detail.
What Does a Quality Constructed Storage Building Look Like
So how do you know if the building that you’re interested in is worth the money? Let’s examine the storage building features that set quality buildings apart from the cheap buildings you’ll find in big stores and online.
Pressure treated skids and floor joists
This is one of the most important features of a wood storage building. A steel building will rust if the metal is not properly protected from moisture. In the same way, a wood building will begin to rot within a few years if the foundation components of the structure are not made of pressure treated wood. Read this article for more information on pressure treated wood and how it protects against rot and decay.
⅝” thick (minimum) floor plywood
A quality storage building should have a floor. Many of the inexpensive buildings you can buy don’t come with a floor. This has several disadvantages including moisture problems from water seeping under the walls to rodent problems from rodents digging their way into the shed and ruining your stuff. You could set your building on top of a slab of concrete. The downside of that is higher humidity and water seeping under the walls if the concrete slab is larger than the building.
The best floor is a wood floor (with pressure-treated components) that comes with the shed. The wood floor should have plywood flooring with a minimum thickness of ⅝” to make sure it stands up to heavy use. If it will be used as a car shed for vehicle storage, the plywood floor should be at least 3/4″ thick.
Exterior grade ½” plywood siding
Plywood siding plays a major role in the structural soundness of any storage shed. Even if you choose a metal or vinyl building, it should still include plywood or OSB under the siding. If the siding on your building is made of wood it should consist of an exterior grade siding that is painted or stained. Quality wood siding today is engineered to last for a long time with only a little maintenance. See this video on LP wood siding.
2×4 wall and rafter framing
The wall and rafter framing make up the skeleton of the wood storage building. It should be made up of 2×4’s spaced at 16” for the walls and 24” for the rafters. Avoid buildings with wall framing spaced at 2’ because the plywood siding will probably not lay flat over time. 16” wall stud spacing is the standard used in residential housing construction.
Radiant barrier OSB roof decking and ventilation
An important part of protecting your stuff is protecting it from extremes in temperature. Radiant barrier OSB roof decking helps to reduce the temperature in the storage building on warm sunny days. Properly placed wall or ridge vents allows hot air to escape instead of building up inside the shed. See this video on the benefits of radiant barrier OSB roof decking.
30 yr. roof shingles or metal
The roof of the building is what will protect your stuff from the rain and sun. Roof material should be asphalt shingles or corrugated metal that’s made to last 30 yrs. or more.
Does that help?
Hopefully, all of the technical construction details don’t sound too overwhelming. You don’t need to understand all of the details to make a wise purchasing decision. The main point is, if you want a wooden garden shed or garage shed that will last a lifetime and enhance the value of your property, you’ll want one with features similar to those mentioned above. And of course…we think we have the best storage sheds for sale in Georgia! 😉