The 7 Best Storage Sheds (2026)

The best storage shed is the Lifetime 8 ft by 10 ft, the only pick here whose maker publishes both a snow load and a wind rating. The cheapest shed with a published door opening wide enough for a riding mower is the Arrow Classic 10 ft by 8 ft steel shed. We checked every pick on Amazon on 2026-09-19.

Shed roundups tell you a shed is 8 by 10 and leave you to guess the rest. They almost never print the two numbers that decide it: how wide the door opening is, and how much snow the roof is rated to carry. So we found those, worked out what each shed costs per square foot of ground it stands on, and measured its door against a real mower.

One thing before the list: we make digging spades, not sheds, so nothing here is ours. Every pick is judged on published dimensions, published ratings and cost per square foot, traced to the maker's own page or to its Amazon listing, pulled on 2026-09-19.

Disclosure: as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. It does not change what we recommend or what you pay. Prices and availability were checked on 2026-09-19 and can change.

Best storage sheds at a glance

How we chose

We did not put a single one of these in a backyard. Nothing here was hand tested. What we did was pull each maker's own published specifications, check them against what independent reviewers reported, and verify prices and stock on Amazon on 2026-09-19.

The roundups we read are Bob Vila, which says it tested one of its nine picks and names the tester, Business Insider, whose writer says "I personally assembled and tested this shed" of the Keter Manor, and HGTV, which names models but never claims to have tested them. The Spruce publishes a tested roundup and its site refuses every automated read we tried, so two search snippets are all we have from it and all we take.

Our rule on numbers: a snow rating, a wind rating or a warranty term appears here only where the maker publishes it, and we say where, because two of those figures are not on the product page at all. Where a tester has measured something the maker will not publish, we print the tester's figure and name them; that happens once, on the Keter Manor's door. Everything else is the brand's own Amazon listing.

Six of the seventeen models these four recommend are not sold on Amazon at all, including every wood shed kit the two tested roundups pick. Where a reviewer's model is off Amazon and the same brand sells the same size here, we take the sibling and say so; that happens once, on the Arrow. Three of the seven picks have no reviewer behind them, and each says so.

The list has a price floor and a price ceiling, and the reason is what sits on either side. Below the floor you are buying a cover on a frame rather than a building. Above the ceiling Amazon's shed aisle turns into branded wood kits. One shed sits just over the line and both tested roundups make it their overall pick, so it gets a full entry below, head to head against our number one. Read that before you buy ours.

The best storage sheds, by what you need to put in them

1. Lifetime 8 ft by 10 ft: the best storage shed overall

The Lifetime 8 ft by 10 ft (ASIN B0DFMX6JC6) is the one to buy if you want a shed you walk into and stop thinking about. Lifetime's own page for model 60469 states a 9.8 ft by 7.8 ft exterior footprint, 71.4 sq ft of interior floor and 6.6 ft of headroom at the peak, on steel-reinforced double-wall panels with an HDPE floor included.

It is also the only pick whose maker publishes both a snow load and a wind rating: 23 lb per sq ft of snow and a 65 mph wall wind pressure rating. Neither number is on the shed's page. Both appear on the page for a different product, the Extreme Weather Kit, which sells itself on raising them: it "Increases Roof Snow Load Capacity from 23 lb/sq. ft. to 30 lb/sq. ft." and "Improves the wall wind pressure rating from 65 mph to 94 mph". Those "from" figures are the base shed, given away by the upsell.

What you get for the money is a footprint that is almost all shed. The interior floor is 93 percent of the ground it stands on, a ratio only the Arrow matches, and the door opening is 6.3 ft by 4.6 ft, which takes a riding mower. Inside there is an extra-wide roof skylight, a window, screened vents and a height-adjustable shelf.

Where it loses. No reviewer names this model. Business Insider's Lifetime is the 15 by 8 Dual Entry and HGTV's is a different model again, so this pick rests on published numbers, not on consensus. Lifetime also publishes no warranty term on the page, which Arrow, Rubbermaid and Suncast all do. And the door opening above is borrowed: this colour's page prints its own interior wall dimensions, 9.5 ft by 7.5 ft, in the door-opening field, which cannot be a door, so the figure comes from Lifetime's page for the same 8 by 10 shell in desert sand, model 60371, which shares the footprint, floor and headroom but not the skylight package. Lifetime prints that opening two ways, 4.6 ft and 142.8 cm, and we use the smaller, 55.2 in.

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2. Arrow Classic 10 ft by 8 ft steel: the most shed per dollar

The Arrow Classic 10 ft by 8 ft (ASIN B08TPTHC53) does the same job as the Lifetime for less than half the price. Arrow's own specification table for SKU CLG108CC gives 74.00 sq ft of storage area, 432.00 cu ft of volume, a door opening 55.5 in wide by 63.0 in high, 65 in walls and a 12 Year Limited warranty.

Per cubic foot it is the cheapest volume of all fifteen models in the table below, and per square foot of footprint it is the cheapest of the seven picks. Its 55.5 in door opening is the widest of the seven, beaten on this page only by the out-of-band Tremont's 5 ft.

The trade is weather. Arrow's product page has a field called Wind Speed Rating and the value printed in it is 0.00, and no snow figure appears there either. The number exists, but in ShelterLogic's brand FAQ, covering the whole line rather than this model: "Standard Arrow sheds are rated for a snow load of 10 lbs per square foot", raised to 15 with the Arrow Roof Strengthening Kit.

So which of the two do you buy? Take the Arrow if your winters are mild, you are happy building a base, and you would rather put the difference into the pad and the shelving than into the shell. Pay up for the Lifetime if snow is the thing you worry about, because you are buying 23 lb per sq ft and a 65 mph wind rating against 10 lb per sq ft and a field that reads zero, plus a floor in the box. The Arrow answers back with a 12 year warranty where Lifetime publishes none.

Where it loses. 10 lb per sq ft is the lowest published snow rating on this page, and the section on snow turns that into inches. No floor is included, so the pad you build is doing more work here than under any other pick. Arrow's own data is also not airtight: its interior depth field reads "8 in.", which is impossible beside a 9 ft 9 in interior width, so the depth in the fit table below is worked back from its own 74.00 sq ft rather than read off the page. Its listing for the same shed in sage green prints a 1 year warranty in the spec table and a 12 year warranty in the bullet above it.

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3. Rubbermaid 7 ft by 7 ft: a floor, a gutter and a warranty in writing

The Rubbermaid 7 ft by 7 ft with floor (ASIN B09K92T3HV) is Business Insider's best shed with a floor, and it fits where a 10 ft shed does not. Rubbermaid's page for model 2119053 gives an 86.5 in by 85.7 in footprint, a 10 Year Limited Warranty, and an interior floor of "6 feet 9 inches wide x 6 feet 9 inches deep (81 inches x 81 inches)".

Its listing is also the only one among the picks that states a roof load, though it states it as a comparison rather than as an engineering rating: "50% STRONGER ROOF: Roof supports heavier snowfall by withstanding loads up to 15 lbs./sq. ft. compared to other Rubbermaid 7x7 models". It adds an integrated rain gutter, doors that open a full 180 degrees flat to the wall, and a stated third fewer parts than other 7x7 models, which matters more than it sounds on a resin shed you assemble yourself.

It is probably also The Spruce's overall pick. The one snippet we could retrieve reads "Best Overall: Rubbermaid inside. After testing, the Rubbermaid Resin Outdoor Storage Shed is our favorite shed". Rubbermaid sells several, so we cannot tell you it is this one.

Where it loses. It is the third dearest square foot of the seven picks, and it publishes no door opening at all, so the mower question below cannot be answered for it. Rubbermaid's own page also states a capacity of 337 cu ft, the identical figure it prints for its 7 ft by 10.5 ft shed, which is half again as big; the two cannot both be right and this page uses neither. If you want the same shed for less, Rubbermaid sells a brown 7 ft by 7 ft, whose listing drops the double-wall and the fewer-parts bullets the gray one carries.

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4. Keter Manor 4 ft by 6 ft: the best small shed for bikes and patio furniture

The Keter Manor 4x6 (ASIN B009T7HHGA) is the most widely named shed on this page: Business Insider's best for bikes, HGTV's best for pool toys, and the model a Spruce snippet calls a good option for small areas. It is also the only shed here anybody has actually built. Business Insider's writer says "I personally assembled and tested this shed", which is why this section can tell you things no listing does.

Its listing states an exterior of 51.2 in by 75.6 in by 78 in, an interior of 43.7 in by 69.7 in by 74.8 in, and 131.8 cubic feet. That last figure is worth a moment: multiply the three interior dimensions out and you get 131.85 cu ft, so Keter's stated capacity reproduces from its own numbers. Most listings in this category do not publish enough to check.

Per square foot of footprint it is the cheapest resin shed in the table below, and per cubic foot only the Arrow and the two out-of-band sheds beat it. Steel-reinforced polypropylene, a skylight, a window and vents. Business Insider reports it holding several bicycles plus a lawnmower, rakes and shovels, with "no wear and tear" despite what it calls plenty of severe summer weather.

Where it loses. The door. Keter publishes no opening, but Business Insider measured it: "the door is only 24 inches wide, and the lip made it hard for us to put our snowblower in there". That rules out a riding mower twice over, once on the door and once on the 43.7 in interior wall, and it rules out the 25.5 in wheelbarrow in the fit table below. Narrow door opening and difficult assembly are two of the three cons that tester lists, and it puts the build at about four hours with "much of the difficulty" in getting the pieces to line up. It comes with no shelves. Keter itself publishes nothing at all for this model: there is no US product page for the Manor 4x6, its US Manor line is 6x8 and 6x6 only, and the global page renders no specification table, so there is no snow rating, no wind rating and no warranty term from the maker.

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5. Suncast 22 cu ft vertical: the best locker for long-handled tools

The Suncast 22 cu ft vertical shed (ASIN B07Q4DT7KN) is not a building and is not trying to be. It is a 2 ft 8.25 in by 2 ft 1.5 in cabinet, 6 ft tall, that you stand rakes, spades and hoes up in. Suncast's own page states the interior at 2 ft 3 in by 1 ft 8.25 in by 5 ft 9 in, a door opening 2 ft 3 in wide by 5 ft 8.5 in high, and a 10 Year Limited Warranty.

That door is the point. It is 5 ft 8.5 in of a 6 ft cabinet, so a rake, a spade or a hoe goes in standing up rather than lying across the floor, which is the thing that actually ruins a garage. If a shed is more than you need, our garden tool storage ideas cover wall racks and rails for the garage you already have.

Business Insider makes this exact model its best storage cabinet. Bob Vila's best for gardening tools is a Suncast vertical on the same 2.7 ft by 2.1 ft by 6 ft footprint in a different part number, so we credit the footprint and not the model.

Where it loses. It is the dearest ground on this page per square foot of footprint, and it keeps only two thirds of that footprint as usable interior, the worst ratio of the six picks that publish one. Suncast publishes no snow or wind rating for it. And with a 20.25 in interior depth, nothing with wheels is going in.

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6. Keter Store-It-Out Prime XL: the best shed for trash cans

The Keter Store-It-Out Prime XL (ASIN B0BQ9NPPBY) solves the job half the sheds in the search results are secretly bought for: hiding the bins. Its listing states an exterior of 57 in long by 32 in wide by 49 in high, an interior of 52 in by 30 in by 43 in, and that it "Holds two 240 L/63 G trash cans".

Two details make it the pick over the cheaper horizontal boxes. It has a sloped threshold, so a loaded can wheels in instead of being lifted in. And it takes two full-size bins: its listing states two 240 litre, 63 gallon cans, where the Homspark below states only "two - small trash cans". At 49 in tall it is not automatically invisible behind a fence, so measure yours.

Where it loses. Nobody reviews it, and Bob Vila's bin pick, the Homspark below, is the lower of the two on his figures at 3.9 ft. We take the Keter because it publishes its own dimensions and states two full-size cans where the Homspark states two small ones. It is the dearest cubic foot on the page, and Keter publishes no snow rating, no wind rating and no warranty term for it.

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7. Yardenaler 7 ft by 7.35 ft cedar: the best wood shed kit on Amazon

The Yardenaler 7x7.35 cedar shed (ASIN B0H6PMBHW6) is on this list because of a gap worth knowing about. Every wood shed kit the two tested roundups recommend is sold at Lowe's, Wayfair or Home Depot, and every branded wood kit Amazon carries, from a Handy Home up to a Little Cottage, is priced above our ceiling. Below it, on Amazon, a wood shed means a cedar kit from a name you have not heard of.

This is the better of the two. Its listing states an overall 83.46 in deep by 88.19 in wide by 80.92 in high, solid cedar walls under a galvanized steel sloped roof, a polycarbonate skylight, and a double door 44.1 in wide by 68.9 in high. That door is 4.7 in wider than the MUPATER and Yardenaler 6x10 kits below, which matters for getting a wheelbarrow through at an angle.

Where it loses. No reviewer names it, no snow rating, no wind rating and no warranty term are published anywhere, and Yardenaler publishes no interior dimension either, so the only floor figure we have for it is the outside of the box. A 44.1 in door will not take a riding mower. Cedar also wants maintenance that resin and steel do not, which is the trade you are making for the look.

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What does a storage shed actually cost per square foot?

List price tells you almost nothing here, because roughly the same money buys 73 square feet of steel or under 6 square feet of resin. Dividing price by the ground each shed stands on spreads these fifteen models across a nearly elevenfold range, and it is the most useful comparison on this page. The table below lists them from the cheapest ground to the dearest.

The seven picks are in bold. The takeaway in one line: every metal-framed shed in the table costs less per square foot than every resin one, and the cabinets and bin stores that look cheap on the shelf are the most expensive ground here.

How the columns work. Footprint is the exterior ground the shed stands on, which is what a yard, a setback rule and a gravel pad all care about, and the maker or the listing publishes it for twelve of the fifteen rows. The other three: the Lifetime 15 by 8 and the Homspark publish no dimensions at all, so their footprints are the ones Business Insider and Bob Vila print, and the Rubbermaid small horizontal has only the nominal size in its own title. One caveat: the Patiowell's 118.1 in by 89.7 in is the only figure its listing gives and that sentence calls it an interior, so if anything the table understates how cheap its ground is.

Volume is each maker's or listing's own stated capacity, except two computed rows. The Lifetime 8 by 10 states none, so it is its 71.4 sq ft interior floor times the average of its 5.9 ft interior wall height and 6.6 ft peak, 446.3 cu ft. The Keter Prime XL states none either, so it is its 52 by 30 by 43 in interior box, 38.8 cu ft. Seven rows publish no usable height and no capacity at all.

Will your mower actually fit?

This is the question the category never answers, and it is answerable, because sheds publish door openings and machines publish dimensions. Three real machines, each with the maker's own published figures: a John Deere S100 lawn tractor at 69.7 in long and 46.5 in wide with the deflector raised for storage, a Toro 21462 Recycler push mower at 59 in deep by 23 in wide, and a Jackson M6T22 6 cu ft wheelbarrow at 58.75 in long by 25.5 in wide.

Two cells need a footnote. The Arrow's interior depth is not printed anywhere usable, so the 91 in is worked back from its maker's own 74.00 sq ft and 9 ft 9 in interior width. The Yardenaler publishes no interior at all, so its floor figure is the outside of the shed; both machines clear it either way.

Read the table as a floor, not a promise. A machine that fits by two inches fits like a jigsaw piece. Business Insider's note on the Keter is the warning worth carrying: 23 inches through a 24 inch opening is arithmetic, and the tester who owns one still found a lip that defeated a snowblower. Bob Vila's advice settles it properly: mark the footprint out with stakes and stand the actual machines inside it before you buy.

Two things surprise people. A riding mower is a door problem before it is a floor problem, which is why the Yardenaler has a bigger footprint than the Keter Manor and neither takes one. And very little of this category clears a 46.5 in machine at all: two of our seven picks publish an opening wide enough, two publish one that is too narrow, and three publish none, though a tester measured one of those three. If you have a genuinely narrow side gap and a push mower, nothing here is the answer: what you want is a horizontal box longer than the mower's 59 in, which is a size above the Prime XL.

How much snow can a storage shed hold?

A snow rating comes in pounds per square foot, which is useless until you turn it into inches. The University of Minnesota Extension puts snow density between "3 pounds per cubic foot (pcf) for light, fluffy snow to 21 pcf for wet, heavy snow", and those two figures convert any rating into a depth.

So the honest headline is that six to thirteen inches of wet snow is the practical ceiling on every shed here as sold, seventeen with Lifetime's kit fitted, and the gap between the weakest and the strongest as sold is about seven inches. If you get lake effect snow, the answer is not a better kit. It is a roof rake, used before bed.

Two caveats on that table. The Rubbermaid's 15 is a comparison, not a flat rating: in full it is "withstanding loads up to 15 lbs./sq. ft. compared to other Rubbermaid 7x7 models". And the Arrow row covers a whole product line rather than this model.

The harder finding is how few of these numbers exist at all. Four of the seven picks publish no snow rating and six publish no wind rating, and neither of the two makers with a real snow figure prints it where you would look: Arrow's is in a brand FAQ, Lifetime's is on the page for an accessory. One shed in the also-considered section below, the Aoxun 8 by 6, states its weather limits right on its listing in units that need no conversion, "withstands 6 inches of snow loads, 25 mph of wind", and that 25 mph is the weakest real wind figure on this page. Arrow's zero is a blank field, not a rating. Clarity is not the same as strength.

One sanity check on Lifetime's arithmetic, since it is the only maker giving enough to check. Its kit page says the total snow load after fitting is "2400 lbs. of evenly distributed weight for an 8 x 10 foot shed". Thirty pounds per square foot across a nominal 80 sq ft roof is exactly 2,400 lb, so Lifetime's two figures agree with each other.

Resin, metal or wood: which storage shed should you buy?

Resin if you want to assemble it once and never paint it, metal if you want the most covered ground for the money, wood if you care how it looks from the kitchen window.

The cost table settles the money half of that. The four cheapest square feet on this page are all metal framed, and every resin shed costs more per square foot. Cedar sits inside the resin range, which is a smaller premium than most people expect.

The trade is what each material does badly. Bob Vila's buying guide puts it plainly: metal sheds are the most affordably priced of the three and "are prone to denting", wood "is susceptible to rot and insect damage", and resin "still isn't quite as sturdy as wood" but is "impervious to damage from sun, water, and insects". Our own numbers add one thing to that: the only steel brand here publishing a pounds-per-square-foot rating is rated below both resin sheds that publish one, 10 lb per sq ft against 15 and 23.

What is the best small storage shed?

For hand tools, the Suncast 22 cu ft vertical, because its 5 ft 8.5 in door takes a rake standing up. For bikes and patio furniture, the Keter Manor 4x6, which three of our four sources name and which Business Insider says holds several bicycles alongside a lawnmower and yard tools. Just do not expect a wheelbarrow through its 24 in door.

What is the best metal storage shed?

The Arrow Classic 10 ft by 8 ft, on a published 55.5 in door, 65 in walls, a 12 year limited warranty and the lowest cost per cubic foot on the page. If you want the same shape for half the money, the Patiowell 8 by 10 in the section below is the cheapest ground here per square foot, and what you give up is every number: no snow rating, no wind rating, no warranty term, no door opening, and its own listing tells you it ships without a base.

Also considered: models that missed the list and why

These are the sheds a shopper is most likely to be weighing against the seven above, each with the specific reason it missed.

Suncast Tremont 8 ft by 10 ft. The one model both tested roundups make their overall pick, and the only thing keeping it out of this list is our price ceiling, which it narrowly clears. It deserves the head to head, because Suncast's own page for the BMS8100 publishes plenty: an 8 ft 4.5 in by 10 ft 2.25 in exterior, a 7 ft 9 in by 9 ft 9 in interior that works out at 75.6 sq ft against our number one's 71.4, 8 ft 4.5 in of internal height against 6.6 ft of headroom, a 5 ft by 6 ft door opening that is the widest on this page, 547 cu ft of capacity, and a 10 Year Limited Warranty that Lifetime does not publish at all. It is slightly cheaper per square foot than our number one. What Suncast does not publish for it, anywhere on that page, is a snow rating or a wind rating, and that is the whole case for the Lifetime: if your winters decide this purchase, buy the shed that tells you what its roof carries. If they do not, and the extra cost is inside your budget, buy the Tremont. One footnote for anyone cross-checking: Business Insider's comparison table prints 574 cubic feet where Suncast's own listing says 547.

Lifetime 15 ft by 8 ft Dual Entry. Business Insider's best large, and the most shed here by a wide margin: two sets of double doors so you are not climbing over the mower to reach the ladders, five steel trusses, eight skylights, two windows and a 90 inch shelf. It is well over our price ceiling. Its footprint and volume in the table are Business Insider's stated figures, because the listing publishes no dimensions at all.

Rubbermaid small horizontal 4.5 ft by 3 ft. Named by two of our sources, Business Insider as best small and HGTV as best for small spaces, and still not a pick. It is a lift-lid deck box rather than a shed with a door, and Rubbermaid's own listing sells it for "small decorative pillows, patio cushions, pool chemicals". The one figure a reviewer adds to it is also wrong: Business Insider's table gives it 2.3 by 4.6 by 2.8 feet and 18 cubic feet, which are the dimensions of a different Rubbermaid, the small vertical, whose own title reads 2.3 x 4.6 Ft.

ShelterLogic 6 ft by 6 ft Shed-in-a-Box. Bob Vila's best temporary, and a genuinely good answer if what you need is a motorcycle or a mower under cover for a season. It is a powder-coated steel frame under a triple-layer polyethylene cover, with a ratchet tensioning system and a 1 year limited warranty. It missed for being below our price floor and for being a cover rather than a building. Its listing also cannot decide how big it is, stating 35 sq ft in one bullet and 36 square feet in the next; the assembled dimensions it gives work out at 35.6.

Patiowell 8 ft by 10 ft steel. The cheapest ground on this page, at less than half the Arrow's price, and the reason it is not the value pick is everything it does not say. No snow rating, no wind rating, no warranty term, no door opening. Its own listing adds that "The shed doesn't include base, you need to build it yourself if needed" and that it arrives as two packages that may turn up on different days.

Aoxun 8 ft by 6 ft steel with floor. Interesting because it includes a 12 mm interlocking plastic floor, which the Arrow does not, at half the Arrow's price, and because it is the only listing here that states its weather limits in plain inches and miles per hour: "withstands 6 inches of snow loads, 25 mph of wind". That is also why it is not a pick. Twenty-five miles an hour is a breezy afternoon.

Homspark XL horizontal, 48 cu ft. Bob Vila's best for garbage bins, in double-layer blow-moulded resin, assembled in under an hour with a screwdriver and an Allen key by its own account, and the lower of the two bin stores here at his stated 3.9 ft. It missed on two things. Neither Homspark listing states a single dimension, so its whole row is Bob Vila's 4.5 ft by 2.9 ft rather than the maker's, and that makes it the third dearest ground here per square foot. Its listing also promises only "two - small trash cans" where the Prime XL states two 63 gallon ones. Nor is it clear which size Bob Vila means: his summary links this one and his review section the smaller 26 cu ft version.

MUPATER 6 ft by 10 ft cedar. A bigger cedar kit than our wood pick, 60.1 sq ft against 51.1, for a little more money. Worth knowing before you compare cedar sheds: its published dimensions are identical to the hundredth of an inch to the Yardenaler 6x10 at the same price, both stating 118.11 in wide by 73.23 in deep by 80.97 in high with a 39.4 in by 68.9 in door. Either way the door is 4.7 in narrower than our pick's.

How do you choose a storage shed?

• Start with the door, not the floor. A riding mower needs a published opening wider than about 46 in, and only six of the fifteen models in the table above publish a door opening at all. If the listing does not state one, you are guessing.
• Then measure the gap, not the shed. We allow about a foot around the shed on every side, which is what the gravel pad below needs anyway, so a shed with a 7 ft footprint wants roughly 9 ft of yard. Subtract two feet from the space you have, then shop by exterior footprint.
• Then the material. Steel for the most ground per dollar, resin for no maintenance, cedar for the look. The cost table shows every metal shed here well below every resin one per square foot, which is a wider gap than most people expect.
• Then find a second pair of hands. Business Insider is blunt about it: "assembly is generally a two-person job. If you don't have anyone to help you or just don't want to build your shed yourself, consider buying a model that comes with professional installation." Its own build of the Keter Manor ran about four hours, and Bob Vila lists "Involved assembly; may require two people" against its upgrade pick. Price the help before you price the shed.
• Then the ratings, if your winter needs them. Prefer a brand that publishes a snow figure and be ready to hunt for it, because neither of the two makers here that publish one puts it on the product page.
• Then the paperwork. Bob Vila's guide notes that many cities require a permit for any single dimension over 12 feet, and that communities set their own rules on size and distance from property lines. Check before you buy, not after it arrives on a pallet.

What has to happen before the shed arrives?

Ground work, and more of it than the box suggests. Bob Vila's FAQ sets the threshold: sheds about 8 feet by 6 feet and smaller "do not require a foundation and can use a base that consists of either treated wood or crushed stone", while larger sheds want poured concrete or blocks. Four of our seven picks are bigger than that.

A crushed stone base is the usual answer in a garden, and it is not tipping gravel on grass. You strip the turf off a rectangle a foot wider than the shed on every side, dig down enough to hold the stone, cut the pad dead level, and often trench a shallow line for a timber or paver edge. Our how to level a yard guide covers getting a pad flat, and if the shed is replacing a bed, how to build a raised garden bed covers moving that.

That first job is a spade job, not a shovel job: slicing a clean vertical edge for the footing trench and lifting turf off the pad in sheets is what a digging spade is shaped for. We make double patented digging spades, and the D-handle garden spade is the one we would take to a shed pad.

Once it is up, two things are worth keeping out of it. Firewood wants open air on a rack rather than a sealed shed where it cannot dry, and if what you actually want is somewhere to grow rather than somewhere to store, a greenhouse kit does a completely different job. What does go in first, in most yards, is the autumn pile: our fall yard cleanup tools guide covers that half.

Frequently asked questions

What type of storage shed lasts the longest?

On published warranty terms, steel. Arrow states a 12 Year Limited warranty on its own page, against 10 years from Rubbermaid and Suncast, and no published term at all from Lifetime, Keter or Yardenaler. Bob Vila's guide rates wood the best at carrying snow and wind, but notes it rots and attracts insects, while metal resists weather and dents easily.

Is it cheaper to buy or build a storage shed?

Against a steel kit, no. Nobody buys lumber, sheathing, roofing and fixings that cheaply. Against the resin and cedar kits, building can win on money, because framing lumber and siding cost less than a moulded kit. You pay for it in weekends and in a saw you may not own.

Do I need a permit for a storage shed?

That depends entirely on where you live, and it is a question for your building department rather than a buying guide. Bob Vila's FAQ notes that many cities and states require a permit once any single dimension goes over 12 feet, and that communities also set rules on how close a shed can sit to a property line. Homeowners associations add their own.

Which is better, Suncast or Keter?

Different jobs rather than better or worse, but Suncast publishes far more on its own site: a door opening, an interior size and a 10 Year Limited Warranty for both the vertical cabinet and the Tremont. Keter publishes nothing on its own site for either Keter here, no warranty and no ratings, and dimensions only on the Amazon listings, though Business Insider reports ten years on the Manor. On the job itself, the Suncast vertical is a cabinet you stand a rake in and the Keter Manor is a walk-up shed with nearly six times the capacity for well under twice the price, and it is the one three of our four sources recommend.

Do storage sheds come with floors?

Some do and the listing is the only place to check. Of our picks, the Lifetime states an HDPE floor and the Rubbermaid says "With Floor" in its own title, and Business Insider reports durable flooring on the Keter Manor. The Arrow states none, and the Patiowell in the section above says plainly that you build the base yourself. A steel shed's price advantage shrinks once you cost the pad it needs.

What size storage shed do most people need?

Eight by ten is the common answer and it is a reasonable one, because the two picks at that size both clear a riding mower through the door and still leave a wall for shelves. If nothing you own has wheels, you need a fraction of it: the Suncast vertical takes a wall of long-handled tools in under six square feet of ground.

The bottom line

Buy the Lifetime 8 ft by 10 ft if you want a walk-in shed that tells you what its roof carries. Buy the Arrow Classic 10 ft by 8 ft if you want the same mower through a door three tenths of an inch wider for less than half the price, and you will build the base yourself. If you can stretch past our price ceiling, read the Tremont entry first.

And measure the door before you spend anything. In this category the floor is never the thing that stops you.