DIY Builds
DIY Builds
Photo: Rachel Claire
This shed is well worth the time and money for sure. This is easy to put together. Level ground surface is a major help for best assembly. The floor design is great for keeping the contents dry as well as make clean ups super easy.
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This month I set up the RUBBERMAID 7 FT. X 7 FT. Storage shed. Overall. I am very happy with this... This month I set up the RUBBERMAID 7 FT. X 7 FT. Storage shed. Overall. I am very happy with this, as it really is a good size for the bulk of my yard equipment. Here is my experience setting it up: Bottom line up front: One person CAN build this in a day with very basic tools. You WILL need to buy more than just the shed. The effort IS worth it. First, you will need to prepare a foundation, as the floor that comes with the shed is not anything you want to just place on bare ground. Many sites recommend packed gravel, concrete, or a framed subfloor with treated plywood (which is what I did). The picture doesn't show it, but I opted for boards at 16" on center. The instructions that come with the shed do not cover the flooring, or anchoring the shed so it doesn't blow away... you'll have to figure that out on your own. I probably spent about half the day prepping the pad before I ever pulled the shed out of the box. For me, it cost roughly an additional $200 in materials to prep the area for the shed. Once the flooring is ready, though, assembly is fairly straight forward. The instructions lack guidance on securing the flooring, but the pre-drilled holes around the perimeter are pretty simple to find. Use 2-3" exterior screws for this, as it will be responsible for keeping your shed in place when empty. Assembly of the walls can be tricky if it is windy... aka. Do NOT attempt this on a windy day! Each panel is hollow core plastic, fairly large and very light... a strong gust of wind and it becomes a kite... Aside from that everything literally snaps together. The provided hardware fits the walls well, and does a good job of adding quite a bit of rigidity to the structure. The roof kit is built and assembled in much the same way, however the fit of the hardware to the roof decking itself was not as accurate as it was with the walls. On several of the roofing anchors I found myself having to modify the metal braces because the holes just did not line up with the anchors at all. But again, a few seconds with a 1/16" drill bit and the problem is quickly solved. The door kit went together well, but, at least on mine, was not a great fit, overall, as the doors interfere with one another. The downside to the doors is that there is no method to adjust them at all once hung. They use a combination of pressure fit and a 'bump' on the floor to keep the one door closed. The other door secures using a set of toggle bolts that work perfectly. In the end, I think I will wind up having to modify the doors a bit... but for now, they open and they close, and as long as I have a lock or clip on the latch, they stay closed. For assembly time, I probably spent about 4 hours assembling the shed, and 6ish hours prepping the pad and flooring prior. For assembly of the shed, I wound up using only a hammer, a power drill, a 1/6" drill bit, a Phillips screwdriver as an alignment tool, and 2x 7/16 box wrenches. The instructions (while lacking some "before you start" information) are actually very good. The pictures make it very clear the parts that will be used in each step, and how each assembly goes together. The pictures are large, clear, and easy to understand. I did wind up with a shocking number of "spare screws" of different sizes. I went back and checked to make sure I didn't miss any steps in the assembly guide, twice, and then had my wife check... I might have expected 1 or 2, but I had well over a dozen. Once complete, the shed is very sturdy. I am extremely pleased with how much interior room there is, and that a full size zero turn mower can be parked inside with enough room for additional yard equipment. Overall, I really like this shed and hope it will last for many years to come. It looks sharp, is much sturdier than the individual parts suggest, and seems like it will be easy to clean and maintain. Upgrades I would recommend: 1. Some kind of solar powered LED light for the interior. Even though this unit HAS windows, they don't do much. Having a small interior light will make it much easier in the long run. 2. Some kind of adjustment for aligning the doors. 3. Better handles for the doors. While everything else feels well engineered, the door handles feel like a flimsy, somewhat underfinished afterthought. 4. Better ventilation. The shed does have built in ventilation near the top of the roof. However, the smell of lawn mower gets fairly powerful in there, so either widening the stock vents a bit, or maybe adding a roof vent will likely be in my future. Maybe even a solar driven vent fan or something to draw the fumes out. In addition, I will likely add some tight mesh over the vents to help keep the wasps out of the shed. 5. Solar powered battery tender, or similar to keep the yard equipment charged with. 6. Shelving. It looks like the walls were designed to support some kind of shelving, or hooks. I would like to investigate just what can be attached to the walls to maximize storage, without causing the wall to bend or deform.
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