I am looking to put a storage building on my property and was wondering about the advantages and disadvatages of wood vs. concrete vs. steel vs. vynal vs aluminum (including aproximate price because these sites that sell buildings dont ever list them.)
thank you
Clark
What size storage building are we talking about?
I'd avoid aluminum or metal construction personally. I assembled a
6x8 aluminum shed once and it was a complete pain in the butt. I've never seen so many sheet metal screws in all my life. Plus, it requires a great deal of care to handle the metal without cutting yourself. THen again, this was a very cost effective unit, lets say, so perhaps there are better quality easier to assemble metal DIY sheds out there . 15x30 though, in many municipalities is large enough that it may require a concrete pad. Nearly big enough to be thought of and spec'd as a detached garage. Here, I think we can go up to 100sf before requiring a pad, but hurricane anchors and steel tethers are required as a minimum.Dunno if any of those bits of info are useful to ya. But I'd lean toward wood or vinyl myself at that size. There are some vinyl based structures out there that are very easy to put together. I'd have to guess, ballpark something that size will run around $800-$1000.
-- Todd H.
First contact your building inspection people and find out what zoning/permit requirements are. Then go to Menards, HD, whoever, and look at whatever prefab kit pleases you and fits the city codes. Line up a good concrete crew for the pad and get a contract. Get a crew for site prep and another contract. Go down to city hall and get a building permit, now that you know roughly what your costs are. The size of structure you contemplate pretty much eliminates vinyl sheds. DIY steel buildings take incredible amounts of time and fussing with fasteners to assemble and then need major interior work unless you are only keeping rough eqipment out of the weather in them. Prefab structures are by far the most cost effective in most areas on the dollars per square foot basis. HTH
Joe
Also look into what TuffShed has to offer.. Someone had them put up a garage a few years ago and it looks pretty good -- you will need a concrete pad poured for most applications though..
I see this kind of prefab storage building ads on late night TV
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