I'ma build a shed. Help me save some coin on it.
 

I had this awesome long post typed out and it vanished somehow when the boss walked into my office.

Here's the gist:

max size limit by county is 200 sf.
(I'm aiming for 16x12 for massiveness and construction geometry convenience)
max budget is roughly 2000 bucks.
current materials list is reaching around 3000 bucks.

big ticket items are killing me:
2 home depot double hung windows: $270
1 home depot prehung double patio door: $399
four exterior walls worth of fiber cement panels: $573
a roofload of architectural asphalt shingles: $435

That's $1677 and a too-big percentage of total budget.

Some ideas I have to cut corners and save some bills:

• use reclaimed lumber from the local salvage place
  (studs would be about 1/3 the cost of the Depot)
• use reclaimed shingles from the salvage place
• skin the rear and hidden exterior walls of the shed with cheap painted plywood instead of fiber cement.

I'm hesitant to find shitty replacements for the windows and door because they will be harder to install and less reliable, but if you know of something, I'm curious! My goal is to have a large-ish shed that keeps bugs and varmints out of my stored items and to provide myself a bit of a workshop.

construction is essentially stick built like a real building with a deck pier foundation and joist-style wood floor.

thanks BROZ

I can't find the town "fake" VA on google maps, but try CL, I found a few easily:

windows insulated

8~ 28x38 Pella Replacement Windows

5 ~ 36x54 Pella Replacement Windows

Windows

If it's a shed, find a place that sells recalimed wooden windows and doors.

If it's a shop (heated), bite the bullet and buy the better materials. A few hundred saved won't mean a thing several years down the road.

check this biznis out: CommunityForklift.com

Aaarrlington. Where the yuppie pirates live. but good finds.

Use steel siding instead of vinyl or plywood.
Definately use surplus shingles, or even steel roofing.
Search Craigslist for supplies, I always find bulk piles of cheap stuff on there.

arlington is real virginia now; I moved to fake VA.

Double sliding glass doors for a shed?

This is a nice shed (from the 12 Gauge Garage).

Often HD or your local building supply place will have windows and doors for really cheap because they were ordered in an entire house order and they ended up canceling or not using all the windows they ordered. Normally they'll be fucking weird ass windows and doors. And for the double door. Don't be a bitch, just make your own, its a fucking shed not a chapel. And on that note, its a shed, why the heck does it need windows? That just makes it easier for the scumbag neighbor boy druggie to break in and steal shit to pawn.

This is a classy neighborhood. Keep your child-torture-shed ideas out of my thread.

I went to HD today in fact and looked at the cast-offs in the windows and doors section. Not only were they beat to shit and some poor bastards first bad idea, they were all at least 50% more expensive than the stocked American Craptsman windows and Jeld-Wen double doors.

Seriously though, I plan to USE this shed. It may not be wired for power and the windows are going to make it possible to not cut my arm off on a table saw connected via extension cord. My current shed has no windows and about the only creature capable of using it 90% of the time are spider crickets.

And as Scrappy Jack: not sliding doors. That'd still only have one door-sized opening. Home Deep has prehung double inswing doors.

What's your garage like? Honestly, I put a (yet unfinished, cause I want to build something better) decent 10x20 storage tent in the back and it cleared up so much room in the garage I can do my work in there now. Perhaps by losing the windows, etc, you can keep the material quality up.

Given the animals, weather, and politics, I don't think I'd go light duty wood on the exterior. Metal siding! Cheap and can take a beating.

I will admit, everything I looked at turned out to be hopelessly expensive. Even when I resigned to cheap, pre-fab stuff, I was then limted by the house wall and fence being 10'1" apart, so it needs to be built in place, from the inside, or just slide in walls or something. :-(

my garage looks like an empty patch of grass the size of a garage.

if politics are a consideration for shed design, then I am asking the wrong people and maybe arming myself with lots of soon-to-be-banned assault weapons might be a better investment. for zombies.

I can compromise on windows by getting salvage but I will sacrifice operability.

I'm going to check on the potential savings of getting salvage lumber and roofing materials and consider some cheaper composite siding and see if it brings me down within budget.

I might also consider 24" OC framing versus 16 since it is a lightweight structure.

Salvaged building materials can be good. Bargain (new) building materials are a fail.

I'd keep my eyes open for used windows and doors. Eventually, something high quality will show up. Definitely don't try to save pennies on $0.99 studs.

I would figure salvaved studs would be better than buying new. Even working at a "high end" lumber yard I remember all those hours of my life helping customers picking good studs out of all the twisted to shit or checked studs... Or hiding them in orders I was building for contractors I didn't like. ;)

Habitat for humanity re-use centers in VA:

Habitat ReStore Directory - Virginia | Habitat for Humanity Int'l

obvious post is obvious as of post #2 in this thread.

post #16, let me introduce you to post #2:

post # 18 let me introduce you to post # 17

Sometimes, suicide IS the answer...

I was seriously considering welding my snap-together tarp-covered tent then paneling that. The material cost is 0, it'd be metal and rigid, and it's only for storage/emergency parking anyway. Plus, a "storm" in San Diego is someone forgetting their lawn sprinkler on while night time temps dip to 47.

Still kinda want to try it.