By Dean Sensui, Star-Bulletin
Isaac Lui added vents to his shed in Kaimuki.Garden sheds usually come in two types: One is made of high-impact plastic, the other of stressed-steel panels like the one shown here.Steel storage sheds are distinguished by their roof lines:Flat (very little head room, but inexpensive); gable (single peak, some head room); or gambrel (three roof peaks like an old-fashioned barn, plenty of head room and strength, but the most expensive.
Foundation: Shed can be put right on lawn, but this is not recommended or ground will wick moisture in the steel which will make it vulnerable to rusting sooner. Foundation kits can be purchased.
They're a simple solution
By Burl Burlingame
to household eyesores
Star-BulletinIN 1941, with the war in Europe raging and the Pacific getting kind of smolder-y, the U.S. Navy thought it would be a good time to go into the architecture business. You never know when you might have to put up a community overnight. The Navy engineers at Quonset Point, R.I., put their heads together. What they came up with was the Quonset hut, which used preformed steel-sheet panels that bolted together, and had a characteristic ribbing that gave the steel structural strength without actually having any structure.
The descendents of the mighty Quonset hut are the humble garden sheds that dot many a backyard in Hawaii. These buildings are used to store tools, shelter lawn mowers, keep the rain off the pigeons, warehouse fertilizer, provide excess storage or any other concept that the homeowner comes up with, but they all have the design ideals of the original Quonset in mind -- they are modular, portable, easily assembled, light-weight, inexpensive and don't require a crew of contractors underfoot.
In some neighborhood plans, such as Malama O Manoa's suggestions for Manoa Valley, these types of sheds are recommended because they remove clutter from the garage front of the property and put it out of sight.
Garden sheds generally come in two types these days. One is a kind of closet or chifforobe made of metal or high-impact plastic "resin" that is designed primarily to shelter yard tools and perhaps a lawn mower from the weather. Rubbermaid dominates this field.
At Eagle Hardware, the Rubbermaid Horizontal Storage Shed (32 cubic feet) is $229.99, and the Rubbermaid Vertical Storage Shed (52 cubic feet) is $229. At Sears, the Highboy Storage Shed is $259.99, comes fully assembled and has shelves built in. Just buy it and plop it down. A Sears horizontal storage shed that opens at the top and front (5 by 4 by 2.5 feet) is $159.99.
The others are essentially small buildings of stressed-steel panels and can be large enough to house a small car. These are distinguished by their roof lines: Flat (very little headroom, but inexpensive); gable (single peak, some headroom); or gambrel (three roof peaks like an old-fashioned barn, plenty of headroom and strength, but also the most expensive). The steel may come coated with enamel paint or a vinyl. This last is more expensive, but adds considerably to the strength and life of the structure. This type of shed is generally manufactured by Arrow.
By Dean Sensui, Star-Bulletin
Donald Sylvester's shed in Kailua.
The buildings come as kits, packed flat in a box. Except for a few models, none have a foundation. This is up to the homeowner, who can elect to built it right atop the grass if he chooses, but that's not a good idea. The ground will wick moisture into the thin steel, and it will begin rusting sooner rather than later.Arrow sells separate foundation kits, consisting of hot-dipped galvanized steel beams that bolt together, offering a self-squaring pad. The homeowner can prop it up on concrete pedestals or bricks and cover the floor with plywood panels, or place bricks and sand in-between the steel runners, or use the steel framework as a mold for a concrete pour.
At Sears, the Arrow foundation kits are $79.99 for the 10 by 8 or 9 feet and $89.99 for the 10-by-13-foot model.
Whatever the method of creating a foundation, it's a good idea to anchor it to the ground, as the light buildings have a tendency to take off in a strong wind. Arrow makes a corner corkscrew attachment for that purpose, or the homeowner can dig strengthening columns when pouring the cement.
Do you need a building permit to put one of these up?
If the area covered by the pour is less than 120 square feet -- say, a 10-by-12-foot building -- and it is on a single-family dwelling property, then no, you don't. According to the Permits Department at the City's Building Safety Division, you also have to respect whatever setbacks your neighborhood is zoned for. If it's five feet from the property line, don't build over that line.
If, however, the shed is constructed as an attachment to the house, you'll need a building permit to prove that it isn't blocking any fire exits or utility accesses.
These sheds are truly single-wall construction, and will heat up like a solar oven. They can be insulated or vented with a little ingenuity, but make sure you don't create leaks. On the other hand, sustained heat over 130 degrees will kill all insects or other varmints. Your choice.
They are also dark. For the shallower models, it doesn't make a difference, but really deep sheds might need some sort of passive lighting system, perhaps from transparent panels or from rechargeable solar-cell walkway lights so that there's no need to run electricity to the building.
The most popular shed is one of the smallest. The aptly named Arrow "Garden Shed" is 8 by 3 feet and has a simple tilted flat roof, and the steel foundation is part of the kit. It also comes with shelves and tool racks as part of the package.
Special to the Star-Bulletin
Rubbermaid offers 6 types of storage sheds
starting at $119.99.
Garden House experimented with various types of outdoor sheds before settling solely on the Garden Shed as its sole off-the-shelf shed. "Plenty of room for a full-sized lawn mower," said Garden House's Steve Oda. "We like this one. It's not too big and it doesn't stick out. And it comes with a floor foundation; you just have to cut plywood for the floor. There's more room than you think. We laugh about it -- if the wife pitches us out, there's a place to stay!"The Garden Shed at Garden House is $295. At Eagle Hardware it's $249.
Donald Sylvester of Kailua bought a Garden Shed three months ago when his daughter "evicted him" from the family garage so there'd be more room for hula practice. "It's a big-time space saver, and I like the fact that it has a built-in lock," said Sylvester. "I keep some mechanical tools and all my garden tools in there. With all these big rains we've been having in Kailua, I thought it might leak, but no, it's real water-tight."
The Lui family, also of Kailua, recently replaced their large gambrel-roof storage shed. "The old one just got kind of too rusted and and junk," said Suzanne Lui. "But it lasted 18 years or so. The only problem is that it comes with about 600 screws to put it together. You really have to like using a screwdriver to build one of these things. And we had to cut ventilation holes because it got too hot."
No wonder, then, that Sears' "special value" High Gambrel 10-by-8-foot for $329.99 comes with a cordless electric screwdriver.
Arrow-made structures available at Eagle Hardware include the "Newburgh" (8 by 6 by 5 feet, gable roof) for $229.99, the "Concord" (10 by 8 by 7 feet, gambrel roof) for $339.99 or a larger model (10 by 14 by 7 feet) for $509.99. The "Sheridan" (10 by 8 by 7 feet), made of premium vinyl coated steel, is $449.99.
At Sears, some similar sheds (they appear to be licensed Arrow manufacture) are in stock and others can be special-ordered. Sizes include gambrels, 10 by 9 feet for $419.99, 10 by 13 feet for $629.99, 10 by 8 feet for $369.99; and a gable model, 8 by 6 feet for $214.99.
