Reviews
Part of Prefab studio sheds: six quote comparison criteria
Which prefab studio shed options only make sense at the factory
Factory options you cannot add later, options better bought locally, and the prefab upgrades that quietly improve a studio every day you use it.
What to take away
- Buy anything structural or hidden at the factory. Buy anything visible and replaceable locally.
- Prefab studio shed options that only make sense at the factory include wall depth, insulation, wiring chases, blocking and heat pump provision.
- Deeper walls and better glazing are the two options that pay back for the life of the building.
- Overhang depth is the most undervalued option on a prefab order sheet.
- Interior air quality in a new, tight unit deserves a decision rather than an assumption.
The factory-only rule for hidden and structural options
If an option will sit behind cladding, inside a wall or under the floor, order it from the factory. Once the unit is built, opening it up costs more than the option would have. Studio Shed in Louisville, Colorado, Modern-Shed in Seattle, Washington, and Summerwood Products in Ontario, Canada, all ask for those choices before panels are cut.
Factory or buy locally?
Behind cladding, inside a wall, under floor?
Order from the factory
Buy it locally
If it is a light fitting, a blind, a shelf or a floor covering, buy it locally. Factory finish options are usually priced at retail and are rarely better than what you can source yourself.
Factory-only options from Studio Shed, Modern-Shed, Tuff Shed, Summerwood and Cedarshed
At least five suppliers put these choices on the order sheet before production. Studio Shed sells panelized backyard studios from Louisville, Colorado. Its configurator sets wall, window, electrical and HVAC details before the kit is cut. Modern-Shed in Seattle, Washington, builds modular studio panels with insulation and wiring chases inside them.
Tuff Shed, based in Denver, Colorado, sells factory-built Premier Pro Studio and Studio buildings nationwide. Summerwood Products in Ontario, Canada, mills studio kits with wall thickness and glazing to order. Cedarshed in British Columbia, Canada, sells cedar studio kits with insulation and electrical rough-in specified at order.
Jamaica Cottage Shop in Vermont and Sheds Unlimited in Gap, Pennsylvania, also install insulation and electrical rough-in before delivery. Those named choices are hard to copy later because the wall cavity closes.
Factory-only options
Why it pays back
- Deeper wall with more insulation
- Comfort and running cost, permanently
- Better glazing package
- Heat, glare, sound and condensation
- Larger roof overhang
- Protects door and cladding for decades
- Factory electrical rough in
- Cleaner routing, fewer surface conduits
- Provision for a heat pump
- Correct penetration and mounting
- Blocking in the walls
- Shelves, monitors, cabinets anywhere
- Low-emission panel and finish package
- Air quality in a tight new unit
Can you add it later?
- Deeper wall with more insulation
- No
- Better glazing package
- Expensive
- Larger roof overhang
- Difficult
- Factory electrical rough in
- Awkward
- Provision for a heat pump
- Possible but untidy
- Blocking in the walls
- No
- Low-emission panel and finish package
- No
Options that usually are not worth it
- Premium interior cladding on a standard wall build. The wall matters more than its surface.
- Extra windows beyond the daylight you need, especially on the sun side.
- Factory supplied furniture, which is rarely sized for how you actually work.
- Decorative exterior trim with no overhang to protect it.
- Skylights in hot climates, unless shaded from outside.
Which of those is genuinely a waste depends on where you build, because climate moves several of them from optional to necessary.
New and tight means air quality is a decision
A newly built, well sealed unit contains a lot of new material at once: engineered wood panels, adhesives, flooring, sealants and finishes. Emissions are highest when everything is new and fall over time. Formaldehyde is one of the substances associated with wood based panel products. OSHA maintains a page on formaldehyde exposure and its health effects.
Ask what panel products and finishes are used and whether lower emitting options are offered. Ventilate the unit thoroughly for the first weeks, ideally with the heating running to speed the process.
Then keep a working ventilation path rather than relying on opening a door. A monitor is one of the small trials worth running while the unit is new, mainly as a prompt to ventilate.
Controls are worth a moment of thought
Factory option lists increasingly include connected thermostats and monitoring. Some of it is genuinely useful for a building you are not in all day: scheduling, freeze protection, and knowing whether the heat was left on.
The wider version is the Department of Energy's work on grid interactive efficient buildings, where controls let a building shift when it uses energy rather than only how much.
For a single small studio, keep it simple. A reliable schedule and a temperature and humidity log will tell you more than a complicated system you stop checking.
Order the options in the right sequence
Structural and hidden options are decided at order. Finish and equipment can wait. Confirm what each supplier includes as standard before comparing option prices, using the supplier comparison approach, and remember that every option becomes something to look after, which is what the first year upkeep plan is for.
