Under Deck Shed Construction

[Coach1310]

Good day. I am in desperate need of more storage space. With a two stall garage and no where to expand it, I have decided to create a shed under my deck. Has anyone on here had experience doing this? There are others in surrounding neighborhoods that I have seen and a few online ideas, but I figured I would check with the great folks here. The requirements for me are that it is weatherproof so a system to run rain out that is coming through the deck above and it has to look nice(not my requirement ) . Anyone done one? Have pictures? The good vs. bad? I really don't want to use the yard space by just building a small storage shed in the yard either.

Thanks for any info.

[pikestabber]

I'm an "amateur" carpenter in the truest sense of the word, so I won't offer up any ideas at this point, but a few more details will certainly help those who do have the experience to respond to you. Primarily, is this a standard deck with 2'-3' of crawl space underneath that you want to jam some extra stuff under to keep dry, or is this a second story deck with 10' of clearance and a walkout door from the basement...is it fully open or is it partially covered from the elements in any way? You get my point. What are the dimensions and how is it situated? That will help get you a better set of answers I think. Wishing you the best of luck with your undertaking!

[Coach1310]

The deck is on the average split level house. I would say clearance underneath is 7 feet or so. I am looking to put a door on it wide enough to fit push mower, snowblower, etc.

[LightningBG]

I would look into under deck drainage systems first. Some of the systems have to be done before the deck boards are on, some after. The ones I've seen aren't cheap though. Once that is dealt with or at least figured out, then move onto the actual wall construction planning.

[Bobby Bass]

Picture is worth a thousand words applies here. Do you have room between supports and posts to slide a building under the deck or are you going to have to build it there.. Putting a roof on the shed under the deck might be a problem. Have you thought about buying one of the plastic storage buildings from the box store guys and slide it under? Light weight and waterproof.

[aanderud]

I have a walkout basement, so my deck had about 8 or 8.5 feet of clearance under it. I had a fairly large chunk of "unusable" patio space under the deck off to one side. I threw one of those plastic sheds ('lifetime' brand from Lowes) under it and it works great. I think the shed is like 7 x 8 or so, so not huge. It was what fit on the cement pad.

I wouldn't necessarily buy one of those plastic sheds for somewhere out in the middle of the yard, because they require very precise leveling (probably more-so than a wood shed built on-site) for everything to 'click' together properly, and they aren't all that heavy duty. But for under the deck where I know it's not going to be in gale-force winds nor will it have tons of snow load on top, and where I already had a cement pad made, it does just fine.

You should be able to find a lower-height model if you are interested in going this route, to fit under your 7 foot tall deck.