Tuff Shed Raleigh-Durham

We had a good experience with Tuff Shed designing and building our garage that will be used as an art studio. Any issue that arose was dealt with. There were some delays but that's not necessarily anyone's fault. Overall we are glad we chose tuff shed as it was the most affordable solution. We also went directly to the building in Morrisville, NC to customize a design and worked with Nick who really made the entire process simple and straightforward.

I recently had Tuff Shed install a 12x16 Premier series barn style shed in my back yard (yes it is red). Warning - this review is on the long side, so if your just interested in ratings stop here. If you do read on, hopefully it will help provide you some usable information In your decision and build process.

I had visited a number of shed places around the Triangle area and Oxford, and did some google searches and visited the Fall Home and Garden show. In general there were 3 options: deliver a completely pre-built shed (max 12’ height due to transportation highway restrictions), stick build it on site, or build the components off site and assemble it on site. Since I wanted a barn-style shed at least 13’ tall, I eliminated the completely pre-built shed companies.

The next decision was on choice of materials for the shed. I really liked the LP wood products, such as the ProStruct Smart Finish flooring and Silvertech Heat barrier roof and wall sheeting. This limited the choice to a few builders.

One builder in Garner had really great reviews across the board and built a really nice shed. The Tuff Shed reviews I read were mostly unfavorable, particularly for communication and service. As far as I could tell, the main remaining differences were in the build materials. The Garner builder used treated wood joists on 12” centers on skids and 5/8” flooring, and the Tuff Shed folks for the series I bought used galvanized joists on 24” centers on blocks as needed and 3/4” flooring. The Tuff Shed folks had steel framed doors and their shed had a really nice locking mechanism with heavier duty hardware. In the decision process I gave the service and quality reviews edge to the Garner builder and the edge to the Tuff Shed builder on the joists and door materials

When I first visited Tuff Shed in the early fall, I met the sales guy who said it was his last day there, and he acknowledged that there were previous problems with the management there and I detected that maybe there was a culture issue also, but new management was coming in. I waited about a month and then re-visited the new sales person, Garrett, who said that he and the new manager were there. I told him what I was after, and my concerns about the previous reviews. He said they were making changes. I told him, that good or bad if I chose them I would write a fair review based on communication, responsiveness, build quality, and service. I had both builders provide quotes. The Tuff Shed quote was a little higher, but decided I really wanted the galvanized steel joists and those wonderful doors, so I prepared to sign up. Garrett called me a little later and told me about a special end of year discount on some options I wanted (thank you Garrett for that) so I signed the deal and paid the up-front 50%.

Since I live in the county in a “donut hole” surrounded by the city of Cary, and I am on a well and septic tank I had to get both a Wake County Environment permit and a Cary Building permit. In Cary, if any dimension of your shed is more than 12’ wide x 12’ long x 12’ high, you have to get a building permit. You may also need homeowner association approval regardless of your shed size. Plan for 4-6 weeks for the permit process

Once I had the permits I talked to Shallon to schedule the build date and chose the one she recommended where their ace builders (Alex and Ruslan), both from Russia would do the job. Everything ran totally to schedule, and these guys put on the most amazing building spectacle I ever saw, both working together to do the whole thing in 6 hours. There were a few follow-up items, like replacing a SilverTech panel that was gashed during transport and putting the final coat of paint on since it was only 45 degrees on the day of the install. The inside crew came out the next week and finished the job (Matt, Josh, and Jeremy). Erica did a fine job guiding me through the final close out. It appears the new general manager, Dave whom I never met, has turned the Company around. Yes, I would use these again.

Thanks to the staff at Tuff Shed in Cary, NC. I appreciate the time spent working on getting the required paperwork for the install of my shed. I was especially pleased with Eric and Adam for installation of the shed. They are very professional and answered all my concerns. I will request them as installer for my next shed.