How Much Does It Cost to Build a Shed?

Shed Cost Per Square Foot

Per-square-foot pricing is the fastest way to ballpark a shed budget before you commit to a size or build method. If you're buying the lumber and swinging the hammer yourself, expect $20–$40 per square foot for a basic storage shed — pressure-treated floor framing, stud walls, OSB or plywood sheathing, T1-11 or LP SmartSide siding, and asphalt shingles. Add insulation, drywall or paneled interior walls, upgraded windows, and a finished floor and you're in the $40–$65 per square foot range, which is typical for backyard offices, workshops, and she-sheds.

Prefab kits land in the middle at $35–$60 per square foot depending on whether assembly is included, while a professional custom build runs $60–$150 per square foot once you fold in labor, permits, site prep, and contractor overhead.

One quirk of shed pricing that surprises many first-time builders: the cost per square foot drops as the shed gets bigger. Every shed — no matter the size — needs a door, at least one window, roof trusses or rafters, corner trim, and a foundation. Those fixed costs get spread across more floor area on a larger build. An 8×8 shed averages around $30 per square foot in DIY materials, while a 20×20 shed averages closer to $24 per square foot at the midpoint — and the gap widens at the low end, where a bare-bones 400 sq ft shed can come in under $17 per square foot. If you're on the fence between two sizes, the bigger shed almost always delivers more storage per dollar.

Shed Cost by Size

Here's what each common shed size typically costs in DIY materials and what it's best suited for. Want the itemized lumber list behind these numbers? We've pre-calculated the structural shell for every size: 8×8, 8×10, 10×12, 12×16, 16×20, and 20×20. The shell (framing, sheathing, roofing, siding, and door) typically accounts for half to three-quarters of the totals below — the rest is fasteners, felt, drip edge, trim, paint, and the inevitable extras.

8×8 (64 sq ft) — $1,300–$2,800: The classic garden shed. It comfortably holds a lawn mower, string trimmer, garden tools, and a few bags of soil or fertilizer, but you'll outgrow it quickly if you also want bikes or a workbench. At this size, most municipalities don't require a permit, which keeps the total project cost close to the materials price.

10×12 (120 sq ft) — $2,000–$4,500: The most popular shed size in America, and for good reason. It fits a riding mower plus wall-mounted tool storage, or a small workshop with a bench along one wall. It's also the size most prefab manufacturers optimize for, so if you later compare a kit against your DIY estimate, you'll have plenty of price points to check against.

12×16 (192 sq ft) — $3,200–$7,000: A serious workshop or hobby space. There's room for stationary tools (table saw, drill press), lumber storage, and a full workbench. This size often sits right at the permit threshold in many jurisdictions, so check local rules before finalizing dimensions — sometimes shrinking to 12×16 from a larger plan (or vice versa) changes the paperwork required.

20×20 (400 sq ft) — $6,500–$13,000: Effectively a detached one-car-garage-sized building. People use these as full workshops, studios, home gyms, or small barns. At this scale you'll almost certainly need a permit, an engineered foundation, and possibly a site plan, and the framing starts to resemble house construction — bigger headers, more substantial roof structure, and real wind bracing.

For an exact material list for your dimensions — down to the number of studs, sheets of sheathing, and bundles of shingles — run your shed size through our shed calculator.

DIY vs Prefab Kit vs Professional

The build method you choose matters as much as the size. Here's the honest trade-off between the three paths:

DIY from lumber (cheapest, slowest): Building from raw lumber saves 50–60% compared to hiring a contractor for the same shed. You pay only for materials and your own time — typically 2–4 weekends for a first-time builder working on a 10×12. You'll need a circular saw, drill, level, framing square, and ideally a nail gun (rentable for $30–$50 per day). The risks are real but manageable: mistakes in the floor frame or roof cuts can waste lumber, and a shed that isn't square fights you at every step. If you can build a deck, you can build a shed.

Prefab kit (middle ground): Kits ship with pre-cut lumber, panelized walls, hardware, and step-by-step instructions. A 10×12 kit runs $4,000–$7,500 delivered, and many retailers include or offer assembly for $500–$1,500 more. You give up customization — window placement, wall height, and siding options are limited — but you eliminate cut lists, material runs, and most of the measure-twice anxiety. Assembly usually takes 1–2 days with two people. Kits split the difference on price and effort, which is exactly why they're popular.

Professional custom build (most expensive, least effort): A contractor-built 10×12 runs $8,000–$15,000, but that number buys more than labor. The pro pulls the permit, handles inspections, warranties the workmanship (typically 1–5 years), and builds to code with proper hurricane ties, flashing, and drainage details that DIYers often skip. If your shed will have electrical, plumbing, or will sit on a sloped site, professional help pays for itself in avoided rework. Custom builds also let you match your house's siding and roofing exactly, which matters for resale.

Foundation Costs

Every shed needs something solid underneath it, and the foundation is the most commonly under-budgeted line item. Your three main options:

• Gravel pad ($300–$1,200): The workhorse shed foundation. A 4–6 inch bed of compacted crushed stone inside a timber frame drains well, levels easily, and works for sheds up to about 200 sq ft. It's also the most DIY-friendly option — a weekend with a shovel, a hand tamper, and a few tons of gravel. Estimate your stone needs with our gravel calculator.
• Concrete slab ($700–$2,000 for a 10×12): The premium option. A 4-inch slab gives you a permanent, rot-proof, pest-proof floor that doubles as the shed floor itself — saving you the cost of floor framing and plywood. It's required in many areas for sheds with electrical service and strongly recommended for heavy workshop equipment. Price out the pour with our concrete calculator.
• Concrete piers or deck blocks ($150–$600): The budget option for small sheds and sloped sites. Precast deck blocks or poured piers support the floor frame at its corners and midpoints. Piers handle slopes that would require expensive grading for a pad or slab, but they leave the underside of the shed open to moisture and critters unless you skirt it.

As a rule of thumb: gravel for storage sheds, slab for workshops, piers for slopes and tight budgets.

What Drives Shed Costs Up

Two sheds with the same footprint can differ in price by 2x or more. These are the variables that move the number:

• Size: The biggest single factor. Doubling the footprint roughly doubles material cost, even though the per-square-foot rate improves slightly.
• Roof style: A simple gable roof is the cheapest to frame. Gambrel (barn-style) roofs add 10–20% in materials but gain loft storage. Hip roofs and saltbox designs add complexity and cut waste, pushing labor and material costs up 15–30%.
• Siding choice: T1-11 plywood siding is the budget baseline. LP SmartSide adds 20–40%, vinyl siding requires separate sheathing underneath, and fiber cement or cedar can double your wall costs.
• Windows and doors: Each window adds $50–$300 in materials plus framing time. Upgrading from a homemade plywood door to a prehung steel door adds $200–$500. A roll-up or double door for mower access adds $300–$800.
• Electrical: Running power to a shed costs $500–$3,000 depending on distance from the panel, whether the run is trenched underground, and how many circuits you need. This almost always triggers a permit.
• Permits: Budget $50–$200 for a shed permit. Most areas require one for sheds over roughly 200 sq ft, and many draw the line lower — 120 sq ft is a common threshold. Any electrical or plumbing work typically requires a permit regardless of shed size.
• Site prep on slopes: A level site costs almost nothing to prepare. A sloped site needs cut-and-fill grading, a retaining timber, or a pier foundation — add $300–$2,000 depending on how much earth has to move.

How to Save Money Building a Shed

• Build in the fall: Lumber prices typically dip in late fall as construction season winds down and demand drops. Buying your material package in October or November instead of May can save 10–20% on the exact same shopping list.
• Stick to standard dimensions: Sheet goods come in 4×8 ft panels, so sheds sized in 8-foot increments (8×8, 8×12, 12×16) minimize cuts and waste. An 11×13 shed uses nearly the same number of plywood sheets as a 12×16 but throws away the offcuts.
• Use T1-11 siding: T1-11 is structural, meaning it doubles as both sheathing and siding in one layer. Skipping a separate OSB sheathing layer saves $300–$700 on a mid-size shed and cuts a full day off the build.
• Source reclaimed windows and doors: Habitat for Humanity ReStores, architectural salvage yards, and online marketplaces are full of $20–$50 windows and solid doors pulled from remodels. Frame your openings to fit what you find, rather than buying new to fit a plan.
• Do the foundation yourself: A gravel pad is well within reach for any DIYer and saves $300–$800 versus hiring it out. Even if you hire out the shed build itself, self-performing the pad trims the contractor's bill.