Everyone sells you a shed. Nobody builds you one.
Kit sheds get delivered and assembled. Mine gets framed on your site, the same way a house does — just smaller.
The difference isn't the box. It's what it sits on and how it's put together.
Carpenter-built (mine)
- Framed on your site, sized to what you actually need
- Foundation matched to the ground it's going on, not a default
- One trade, start to finish — same person who quotes it
Kit or prefab (the alternative)
- Standard sizes, built off-site
- Delivered and set down, not framed into the ground
- Handoff between the seller and whoever sets it up
Around here, a shed usually means one of two things: a kit somebody drops off and bolts together, or a delivered building set down on your property. Both get you a shed. Neither one gets framed for your ground, your site, your load. That's the gap this page exists to fill.
What you're actually paying for
A shed looks like the simplest thing I build — four walls and a roof, no house to tie into. It isn't. The same ground-movement and moisture physics that fail a deck or a porch apply here too, just with your mower and your tools inside instead of a patio set.
You can't see what's under a shed once it's finished. So here's what goes into mine before the walls go up.
The build-up, top to bottom
tap a layer
Four parts. You'll only ever see one of them again.
Grade / frost line
Part 01
Foundation
A shed that sits on the ground instead of being built for it moves with the ground — heaves in spring, settles unevenly, racks the walls out of square over a few winters.
What I use
Confirmed on your visit — I'll walk you through the exact foundation approach for your shed.
Where it goes wrong
A shed set straight on grade or on undersized footings doesn't fail on day one. The door starts sticking, then the walls stop being square.
Part 02
Framing
Spacing and sizing decide whether a shed feels solid in ten years or starts to flex the first time it's loaded with tools and shelving.
What I use
Confirmed on your visit — I'll walk you through the exact framing approach for your shed.
Where it goes wrong
Undersized framing doesn't show itself right away. Shelving gets added, the floor starts to give, and by the time it's noticeable the fix means opening the thing back up.
Part 03
Envelope and roof
Siding and roofing are the parts you look at from the driveway — but what's under them decides whether the shed still sheds water in year eight.
What I use
Confirmed on your visit — I'll walk you through the exact siding and roofing approach for your shed. Board-and-batten siding and a gambrel roof both appear in real, finished, photographed work — but that's what's been observed on one job, not confirmed yet as a standard offer.
Where it goes wrong
Same as the roof on any structure — a seam that's covered instead of built to shed water fails quietly, from the inside, long before it shows outside.
Part 04
Doors and hardware
A shed door gets opened more than almost anything else on the property. Hardware that isn't sized for the door sags first and binds second.
What I use
Confirmed on your visit — I'll walk you through the exact door and hardware approach for your shed.
Where it goes wrong
A door hung without enough support drops at the corner. It still opens. It just doesn't close right anymore.
Sheds don't usually fail at the walls. They fail at the ground and the joints.
What gives out first
- A floor that sits too close to the ground, holding moisture underneath instead of shedding it
- Footings or a base that wasn't taken below the frost line, where climate calls for it
- Door hardware that wasn't sized for the door, sagging at the corner over time
- Siding or trim left unsealed, greying and opening seams to water
What I do about it
- Foundation matched to the ground and the load, not a default box on blocks
- Framing sized to what the shed actually needs to carry
- Doors and hardware set up to take daily use without sagging
What a shed from me includes
The drawing first
You see the size, the layout and the number before anything is cut.
Delivery and haul
Van and trailer are mine. Materials arrive and the old structure, if there is one, leaves.
One trade throughout
Same person who quoted it is the person building it.
Permits
Whether your shed needs one comes down to size — a lot of sheds fall right on the line, and it's worth knowing before you pick a size. I'll walk you through it on the visit.
“The time goes into the parts you don't see. You keep them anyway.”
Custom builds over 120 sqft
That’s the size Jeremy positions himself for on custom work — the range where a shed stops being a catalog decision and starts being a building.
A shed that’s already standing
One shed on the site right now is real and finished — a barn-style build in West End Peterborough, gambrel roof, board-and-batten siding, later modified with a storage addition. See it on the projects page.
Start with the visit.
I'll come look at the spot, tell you what it needs, and you'll know more about your own yard either way. No charge, no obligation.