How to Build Your Own Shed

We needed a shed to move our yard equipment and some storage boxes out of the garage. This shed fits the purpose admirably. Features that attracted us wer 1) two sets of doors, sky lights, and vinyl construction.
I wanted the two sets of doors to maximize use of the storage area. I have all the lawn equipment (lawn mower, pressure washer, wheel barrow, and garden tools) spread across the end with the doors. This allows me to have access to all the equipment just by opening the doors and I do not have to leave a path through them to get to the other side of the shed. The side entry doors allow me to enter that end. The skylights and windows let in natural light and provide plenty of illumination. The vinyl construction was key as I did not want to worry about maintenance of wood or metal in our Florida weather. One feature I wasn’t aware of but like is that the doors actually latch together. The left door has stops at the top and bottom which help lock it into place while the right door handle has a latching feature which allows it to latch to the left hand door (both sets).
The instructions were very detailed. As others point out there are a couple of key items (doors) which you need to pay attention to when doing the construction. I received the boxes on a Tuesday (two large 8 ft long boxes totaling 560 lbs) with plans of erecting the shed on the weekend. After looking at the instructions I discovered there were several sections where sub assemblies could be put together ahead of time (trusses, door handles, skylights). I put these together by myself during the week so that when my son-in-law came on Saturday, all we would have to do is put up the shed. The hardware (in most cases) for a particular step is actually packaged together in smaller plastic bags. This made it very easy to do some of the steps. As others have noted, the markings on the plastic bags do not match the item descriptions in the instructions so it takes some time to figure out which bag of parts (especially if there is only screws and washers in the bag) go with which step. However, all of the major assemblies (door handles) were easy to distinguish. There were no issues on quantity of screws, etc.
Once the subassemblies were put together and the flooring assembled (also done prior to putting up shed) it took my son-in-law and I about 3 1/2 hours to put the shed up. I had a concrete slab poured specifically for the shed so did not have any leveling issues. Nothing was too difficult and since most steps are repetitive, once you do it the first time, the rest go a lot faster.
One issue with parts. The end doors use two 79 inch hinge poles and the side doors use 74 inch hinge poles. The set I received had four 74 inch poles and no 79 inch poles. I called the customer service number on the back of the instruction guide, explained the situation to the rep and Lifetime shipped to two poles to me immediately. I called on Thursday and received the two poles on Tuesday.
To get 5 stars I would recommend the markings on the parts bags or instruction manual be be updated to accurately reference each other. Also, some more time should be spent when picking the parts for boxing. This would have caught the hinge pole issue. Plus, there was a duplicate bag of parts for one section which was not needed.
The shed has been in use for a couple of weeks now with no problems.

Initially I was hesitant to purchase this shed with the negative reviews I read on Amazon. I did a little more research and found many exceptional reviews on this particular model. I don’t know why Amazon allows customers to post negative reviews when their reviews pertain to a different shed. One of the negative reviews even states that this is not the same shed they purchased. This particular customer put negative reviews on every Lifetime shed even though they had a bad experience with one model. I am suggesting in-depth research before you spend this kind of money.

Anyway, I purchased this shed last spring. I waited to review this shed until I made it through a harsh Utah winter. I am glad to report I had no issues. I had several feet of wet snow on the roof and I experience no roof collapse, no leaking or any other weather related issue.

The shed is time consuming to build (8 hours) but assembly was pretty straight forward. My husband and I managed this task over a weekend. Did I mention that this is a very attractive shed? Most sheds I looked into were ugly and distracting. This shed is an inviting addition to my yard. I have received many compliments on it.

Having the second door is what ultimately sold me on this model. We are able to drive our lawn tractor in one side and out the other. Since I do a lot of our yard care, I really appreciate amenities that make the job a little easier.

This is a great shed that has a 10 year warranty but I plan on having much longer that that.

We like the shed fine, but putting it together was a chore. The directions for the smaller parts are very vague – pretty much only pictures – and the part numbers don’t match what is on the packages. Also, since the shed is 10′ wide adn 8′ deep, when the directions stated “while you are facing the shed”, we stood facing the ‘front’ door opening with the 2 windows to put up the left and right corners. However, when all the panels were not fitting properly, we realized that when the directions read, “facing the shed”, they meant facing the side door, not the other door. Once we got that worked out, it all went together fairly well. The panels were difficult to snap in to place on a few sections. The shed does appear a little larger in the online photos, and actually measures 9′ 6″ x 7’8′ on the inside. We put done a concrete foundation for it, which we would strongly recommend. The side doors need some adjusting to close correctly, but all in all we are pleased with it. It suits our needs well. It just seems a little over-priced. The nice surprise it that is has 2 skylights, not just one as we had anticipated. We would recommend the shed.

The shed is nice enough and works once built, but Lifetime makes the process so much harder than it has to be. To start, the directions use no words only pictures, usually this is sufficient, but not always. Compounding this, with a couple of exceptions, the plastic parts aren’t labeled- they have part numbers, but these numbers don’t correspond the the labels in the directions. This had led to some head scratching moments especially with the door assembly. The other annoyance was snapping the walls into the floor was a pain- it took almost an hour of cajoling, hammering with a dead head mallet and otherwise forcing the walls to snap in (eventually a hammer claw pulling the hole on the floor while inserting the wall did the trick) for something that should have taken a few minutes.

Overall, I’m satisfied with the shed, but if lifetime decided to actually use some sentences in their direction (i.e. actual directions) I would give this five starts. I’m sure there are efficiencies gained by being able to ship one pack of directions regardless of language, but it does make the process harder.

My neighbor has this same shed and I was very impressed with the structure and durability. My husband and decided this would be great place to store our children’s outside toys. When we received the product we were missing one part so I called their customer service department. The rep was very helpful and apologetic and said they would get the part out to us right away. We received the part within a few days. Now we have a great place to put the toys when they are not in use.

This shed is working well for me. I built it on an existing deck, made a mistake in one of the middle floor panels so had to modify to make the door hinge fit. Had to go see a product by lifetime to see how the roof goes on. I modified the instructions and attached one roof panel to the rafter so we didn’t have two separate items overhead. If you can follow lego instructions you’ll do great. The doors tend to unlatch as the temperature changes in the morning so use the padlock holes.

I was looking for a nice looking shed and this one look really very good. Good quality and nice clean look. You must put it on even ground and its a pain to put it together, not as easy as you would think, but end result is very nice.

The size, structures and design are very good for storage shed to my house even we have a small back yard.
It was not easy to assemble it from the beginning, but the instruction was very well written for me.
Only my concern is about the rainy season. Does it keep dry inside or leak inside, because there are connection holes in the bottom and there is no sealing for windows?
I need more instruction what to do if it is leak.
Thank you.