Shed for New Mule 610?

[TerryR]

My wife just bought a Mule 610 to help her get up and down the hill between the house and the garden, go to the mailbox, etc. Space is very limited near the house. The two-car garage already full and the parking area is needed for turnaround space for visitors, deliveries, etc.

I'm thinking about building or buying a small shed for it - about 8' wide and 10' long, which will accommodate it's length and leave room on the side to dismount. The only location we've found is in the woods to the right of the garage - see below.


Access would be by a trail through the woods that we'll let the Mule create. It would take off about on the right of where this photo was taken, as that's the only place where the bank is low enough to get up without major excavation. That means there is no vehicle access to the site, though it's only about 50' along the garage if one backs a truck up to the bank to unload supplies.

I'm thinking of building a gravel pad and putting a building on that. I've found one supplier who is willing to deliver it's prefab wooden sheds in panels and erect on site. We want the appearance to reasonably match the house and garage, so a metal shed isn't inviting. The supplier I've talked to uses LP SmartSide panels with vertical groves that is similar to the wood siding and can be stained to match.

Anyone have any better solutions to suggest before we commit to this one?

 

[kevin37b]

A nicely done enclosed lean to on the garage , enclosed ? Also a nice mini roll up garage door instead of wood barn doors . Is this guy up front , have you looked him in the eye ? Hard to tell but I think a structure with access to the garage would be nice , beautiful place . If he can do panels you had ought to be able to get creative , and bigger is better ! Just more money .

 

[TerryR]

Thanks, Kevin,

You really can't see it because of a poorly placed ROPS upright in the photo, but the grade on the right side of the garage is about 4 feet above the garage floor. The eve of the garage roof is about 4 ft off the ground on that side. And the hill slopes down to the garage, so the floor of the building will be at about 6 ft. above the garage. It would be nice to add on to the right side of the garage, but that would require major excavation.

Adding on the left side would totally hide the house, which we are not willing to do. So our current plan is to access it by a trail through the woods and enter from the uphill side.

 

[rgr33]

I have a prefab shed
like the one you describe. They are made locally here, and you can dress them up as much as you want, the price rising accordingly. Mine had a 7 year warranty, after about 8 years, the door started to sag, they came out and fixed it at no charge. Other than that, it has been great.
The only thing I would question, is the gravel floor. That, combined with all the trees you have in the area, makes for a pretty humid storage condition. I tried to get away with gravel floor in my barn, and after one winter, there was noticable rust on my bike and tractor from the humidity coming through the gravel floor. Concrete would be best, but even a solid wood floor would work better than gravel. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[TerryR]

Thanks. I hadn't thought of that. It's a valid concern. I'm still thinking about a wood floor. I wonder if a layer of plastic under or in the gravel would help if we stay with the gravel?

 

[TerryR]

Difficulties with making the site in the woods work have forced a re-design. Too many large trees we don't want to cut to get decent access in and out of the building, plus the issue of maintaining an unimproved trail on slopes.

New plan is to move it off the far left side of the parking area which is only barely visible on the left side of the photo. Access is easy right off the parking area. The only issue is that area is a fill with a substantial bank. The building would overhang that bank, which means the end of the building would be about 4 ft. above the ground, but I think that's doable. And it means a wood floor with good air circulation under it, which should help with the humidity concern.

 

[Milo]

As small as it is I would pour concrete over a heavy plastic moisture barrier as moisture will migrate through concrete. If just doing gravel for the floor I'm not so sure? Any water/moisture that gets on it will stop at the plastic rather than soaking into the soil underneath. Also even the heaviest plastic will likely be penetrated over time from weight rolling across the gravel on top of it.
Nice choice BTW I liked my 610 probably more than my current Polaris Ranger as far as build quality and 4wd operation.

 

[TerryR]

I suspect you are right Milo. But as I posted since, I've changed the plan because of access issues with my original site. The new location will have only the front edge of the building in contact with the ground and the back 4' above the ground. I plan on using a wood floor because of that.

 

[timswi]

I got one of those pre fabbed sheds last fall...A budget version that I upgraded with PT floor framing and marine plywood floor and some other minor things...Keep my very heavy ZT mower in one side and my Polaris quad on the other...no problems thus far..Has the same siding that you mentioned. Like that but it has some kind of trim that resembles the siding and I question it's life expectancy..We'll see on that. Either way, nothing fatal.

Mine is sitting on a packed limestone pad. My issue was a down slope next to my garage. 20+ ton to level.

 

[TerryR]

In case anyone comes across this old thread, this is what I ended up building:



It's 8 ft. wide by 12 ft. deep, built off the edge of my parking area. The back is about four feet off the ground due to the slope off the parking area. I built it to match the style of the house and garage since it's in front of both. I built the whole thing except I hired the roof sheeting and shingling - I'm too old to climb up on an 8/12 roof with no decent place to put the ladders because of the slope.

It works great, but is a little snug. I didn't want it too big and kept those dimensions to avoid waste of the sheet goods. Wouldn't have hurt to make it a foot wider and a foot or too longer in case someone wants to house a bigger vehicle in it.