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Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

imkylelambert.com

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Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#21

Post by swader999 »

Johnny555 wrote: post #16
sailfast wrote: post #6

Looks like a great setup! $20K still seems like a lot to get some mosquito bites walking through the yard to work. Lack of plumbing, coffee, etc (some of those are fixable of course) is a bit of a turnoff but perhaps the walk is part of the charm. I find that with kids mostly in school and knowing the rules the exterior space isn’t a requirement, but I don’t have a ton of meetings these days so YMMV. Mostly this is c…

The Coffee issue is easy to solve, just bring a pitcher of water with you in the morning to pour into the coffee maker - it's what I did when my home office was in a spare room above the garage. The walk from his back yard to the indoor bathroom is probably shorter than the walk he'd have in any office.

Its gross but a pee bottle is what I'd do.

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#22

Post by dalyons »

eysquared wrote: post #15
dalyons wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you just put heat tape on the roof? These sheds have small roofs, shouldn’t be prohibitive

Heat tape isn't very effective with storms dropping multiple feet of wet snow in under 24 hours (or in general).

well it just has to stop significant buildup over multiple days right? IDK, seems pretty effective here in tahoe where ive seen it applied on parts of peoples houses

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#23

Post by beezlebroxxxxxx »

enraged_camel wrote: post #18

Maybe it's just me but it blows my mind that this tiny thing cost $20k. I wish building stuff in the West wasn't so expensive.

A lot of that cost is labour. Look at all the spots it says "contracted" in the breakdown. If you can do a lot of the work yourself, then you can save a lot of $$$, but it's a tradeoff of course. (They also could have saved quite a bit by just having a window unit AC, but that's up to them.)

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#24

Post by niwtsol »

eysquared wrote: post #15
dalyons wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you just put heat tape on the roof? These sheds have small roofs, shouldn’t be prohibitive

Heat tape isn't very effective with storms dropping multiple feet of wet snow in under 24 hours (or in general).

woof, where are you located, coastal/northern Canada?

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#25

Post by jtbaker »

eysquared wrote: post #10

Im jealous of the Tuff Shed or prebuilt being an option. Where I live we have incredibly high snow loads, so any structure ends up needing to be custom built to meet our requirements (even out buildings). I've found plenty of pre-fab units that claim to handle "high snow loads" that will not meet code where I am. I'm still planning on building out an office/studio, but it will be a much larger investment despite bein…

Sounds like Tahoe.

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#26

Post by rocketpastsix »

swader999 wrote: post #21
Johnny555 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Coffee issue is easy to solve, just bring a pitcher of water with you in the morning to pour into the coffee maker - it's what I did when my home office was in a spare room above the garage. The walk from his back yard to the indoor bathroom is probably shorter than the walk he'd have in any office.

Its gross but a pee bottle is what I'd do.

that feels pretty excessive

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#28

Post by 1970-01-01 »

Not a great idea for those in snowy areas of the USA. A short burst of snow storms and now to get to work you're dealing with typical access problems such as frozen doors, shoveling, ice, and cleaning up the melt or adding some small mudroom to get in and out during the day. Also, watching your kids play and build a snowman right in front of your window while you sit in a meeting would feel like torture.

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#29

Post by cucumber3732842 »

eysquared wrote: post #10

Im jealous of the Tuff Shed or prebuilt being an option. Where I live we have incredibly high snow loads, so any structure ends up needing to be custom built to meet our requirements (even out buildings). I've found plenty of pre-fab units that claim to handle "high snow loads" that will not meet code where I am. I'm still planning on building out an office/studio, but it will be a much larger investment despite bein…

This is a problem with the people and ideology that are concentrated in your jurisdiction and the resulting rules that come of that. Even the snootiest "Barack Obama is my neighbor" zip codes have permitting and code exemptions for various sorts of small sheds.

Structurally a wet fart will hold up plenty of snow when we're talking spans on the order of 10ft. A garden shed that can literally roll away in a tornado is only a few hundred dollars of material different from one that can't.

Of course Tuff Shed (or anyone else) isn't gonna make a special product line for one town in CO or wherever that wants to de-facto outlaw the construction of shed by people less than a certain wealth level. Those people can have their stuff built from scratch at great cost. Of the dozen lost sales they were likely some of the most problematic anyway.

Re: Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown

#30

Post by dalyons »

dalyons wrote: post #22
eysquared wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heat tape isn't very effective with storms dropping multiple feet of wet snow in under 24 hours (or in general).

well it just has to stop significant buildup over multiple days right? IDK, seems pretty effective here in tahoe where ive seen it applied on parts of peoples houses

also idk, tons of people up here have regular sheds for various purposes and they seem to survive just fine
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