Sometimes potential clients will ask: Why is it they can find a shed of the same size that they’re looking for, but for far cheaper than what Modern-Shed offers?

This may sound cliché, but at Modern-Shed we hold ourselves to a different standard than many of our competitors.

Modern-Sheds are built with high-quality products and are meant to last three to four decades longer than the typical garden or similar-type shed or structure.

We recently visited the Seattle Home Show to check out what our competitors offer and, quite frankly, the difference is dramatic.

We won’t name names, but one of our competitors, based out of Tukwila, Wash., offers the standard storage and garden sheds you’d typically find at a home improvement or grocery superstore, as well as garages, studios and other structures they claim can be used for weekend retreats.

A standard 10′ by 12′ studio runs out to about $5,600 with paint, seemingly far less expensive  the standard $8,900 base price that we start off with at Modern-Shed.

However, our competitor’s studio not only doesn’t have as many paint and exterior siding options as we do at Modern-Shed, but this competitor also does not offer any interior finishing at all, providing merely the “shell” of the structure and leaving it up to the clients to contract the labor out to complete the inside of their dream studio.

Consequently, this competitor does not use dry-wall, and they do not offer any wall or ceiling liners. Also, the transom windows (which are only available with an upgrade) are not insulated.

Meanwhile at Modern-Shed, our base structures before upgrades include an walls with OSB sheathing, R-30 rigid insulation roof with plywood sheathing, plywood ceiling liner and pre-assembled transom glass units.

We use the highest-grade lumber and framing materials at Modern-Shed to create walls that are straight, not warped, and are a true fit for assemble.

For our floors, we use high-grade ACX plywood instead of OSB so that our floors are compatible with several different flooring types, including ceramic tile, engrained hardwood and carpet. In addition to using nails, we take the extra step to glue our Modern-Shed floor sheathing so that they have a higher strength to withstand whatever you put on top of it (Grand pianos, workout equipment, a bed, etc.) and eliminate floor squeaking down the road.

Visiting with other competing pre-fab manufacturers at the Seattle Home Show, we encountered many of the same issues elaborated here. Every competitor we visited did not offer structures with interior lining, despite boasting that their sheds could also be used as studios, cabins or as a weekend playhouse, and many did not offer as many exterior siding and paint options as we do at Modern-Shed.