Outdoor Living
Decks, patios, covered outdoor rooms, and pergolas built for Seattle weather — designed to extend your home's living space outside.
View serviceSheds & Backyard Structures
Sheds that outlast the kit from the big-box lot
Custom sheds, garden buildings, and backyard offices built on real foundations in Seattle and King County — sized, sited, and detailed to keep what's inside dry.
5 out of 5 stars
We'd priced out a prefab kit and a full DADU and neither one was right — one was junk and the other was a mortgage. Marco walked the yard, measured the setbacks, and showed us we could get a real insulated office at 190 square feet without a construction permit. Four weeks later I have a heated room with a window wall and my dining table back. It's the best money we've spent on this house.
Dana R.
Magnolia
- Custom storage sheds
- Site-built sheds sized to your yard and your setbacks rather than to whatever a kit happens to come in. Real framing, a proper roof assembly with overhangs, and a door wide enough for the mower and the wheelbarrow to actually get through it.
- Garden & potting sheds
- Windowed garden buildings with daylight, bench space, hooks and shelving where you need them, and cross-ventilation so tools and bulbs don't sit in damp air all winter. Dutch doors and glazed gable ends are popular here for good reason.
- Backyard offices & studios
- Insulated, wired, drywalled, and heated detached rooms for working from home, recording, or making things. We run permitted power from the house and size a mini-split so the room is comfortable in February, not just in August.
- Workshops & bike storage
- Secure outbuildings with wide or double doors, a real work surface, dedicated circuits and outlets where the tools are, and solid hardware. We plan the door swing and the approach path so getting equipment in and out isn't a wrestling match.
- Foundations & site prep
- Gravel pads, concrete piers, and slabs sized for the structure, the soil, and the slope. This is the part that decides whether a shed is standing straight and dry in twenty years, and it's the part almost every failed shed we replace got wrong.
- Shed repair & re-roof
- Not every outbuilding needs replacing. We repair rot at the base, re-frame sagging roofs, install new roofing and flashing, re-side, and re-hang doors that haven't closed properly in years — and we'll tell you honestly when a rebuild is the better spend.
Ready to saddle up?
Get a free estimate and consultation today.
Featured Previous Work
Magnolia Backyard Shed Studio
A 190-square-foot insulated backyard studio in Magnolia with cedar siding, a full-height window wall, and permitted power — a working office that stays under Seattle's shed exemption.
Their Story
Two people working from home in a three-bedroom house, sharing a dining table as a desk, with a leaning prefab shed rotting into the back fence.
Removed the failing prefab shed and built a 190-square-foot insulated studio on concrete piers — under the 200 sq ft threshold so no construction permit was required — with permitted power, a mini-split, and a window wall facing the garden.
Read full case study
Overview
- Timeline
- 4 weeks
- Completed
- May 2026
- Location
- Magnolia
Our Process
Consultation & Site Visit
We review your goals, space, and budget and answer initial questions.
Estimate & Scope Review
You receive a clear, written estimate with defined scope and expectations.
Build Phase
We coordinate trades, manage permits if required, and keep the site clean and organized.
Final Walkthrough
We review details with you and make sure everything is completed properly.
Frequently asked questions
Can't find the answer you're looking for? Give us a call .
- Do I need a permit to build a shed in Seattle?
- Often not for the structure itself. Seattle generally exempts small detached accessory buildings from a construction permit when they're under roughly 200 square feet, low enough to meet the height limit, and have no plumbing. Exempt does not mean unregulated, though — the shed still has to satisfy zoning: setbacks from property lines, rear-yard coverage, and total lot coverage. Power to the shed needs its own electrical permit. We confirm the current rules with SDCI for your address before we design anything.
- What's the difference between a shed and a DADU?
- A shed is an accessory structure for storage or hobby use. A DADU — a detached accessory dwelling unit, sometimes called a backyard cottage — is a legal residence with a kitchen, a bathroom, and its own permit path, and it can be rented. If you want a place to sleep, cook, or rent out, you want a DADU, not a shed. We build both, and we'll tell you plainly which one your goal actually requires.
- Can a backyard office have heat, power, and internet?
- Yes, and most of the ones we build do. We insulate the floor, walls, and roof, run a permitted electrical circuit from the house, add a mini-split or wall heater, and pull data or set up a mesh point. That's the difference between a room you use in January and a room you use in July. Adding plumbing changes the permit path significantly — worth discussing early.
- What kind of foundation does a shed need?
- It depends on the size, the soil, and what's going inside. A compacted gravel pad with pressure-treated skids is plenty for a light garden shed. Concrete piers work well on sloped or soft lots. A slab makes sense for a workshop with heavy equipment. What never works here is setting a building directly on dirt or a few patio pavers — that's the single most common reason the sheds we're asked to replace rotted out.
- How long does a custom shed take to build?
- A straightforward storage or garden shed is typically 1–2 weeks on site once the pad is ready. An insulated, wired, and finished backyard office generally runs 3–5 weeks. If the design needs a permit or an electrical permit, add review time before the start date — we schedule around it rather than around it surprising you.
- Why not just buy a prefab shed kit?
- For pure low-cost storage, a kit can be the right call and we'll say so. The trade-offs show up over time: thin sheathing, stapled roofing, no real foundation, and no flashing where the roof meets the walls. In this climate that combination usually means visible rot in well under a decade. A site-built shed costs more up front, gets a proper foundation and roof detail, and can actually match your house.
- What materials hold up best for a Seattle shed?
- The roof matters more than anything else — a real roofing assembly with proper underlayment, drip edge, and enough overhang to keep water off the walls. From there: pressure-treated framing anywhere near grade, cedar or fiber-cement siding, and galvanized or stainless fasteners. Ventilation is the quiet one people skip, and it's what keeps a closed-up shed from growing mold on everything stored inside.
- Can you match the shed to my house?
- Yes, and we recommend it. Matching the roof pitch, siding profile, trim details, and paint color makes the shed read as part of the property instead of an object parked in the yard. It's a small design decision that has an outsized effect on how the finished yard looks — and on resale.
Related outdoor living services
Homeowners planning this usually look at these too — and they're cheaper to build at the same time than to add later.
Deck Building
Custom deck design and construction across Seattle and King County — composite, cedar, and multi-level decks built on engineered footings, permitted, and detailed to survive Pacific Northwest rain.
View serviceWe built our business on clear communication and quality work
Home remodeling works best when expectations are clear and communication is consistent. We focus on being responsive, transparent about scope and pricing, and respectful of your home from start to finish — so there are no surprises along the way.
Clear, upfront estimates
You'll receive a detailed estimate that outlines scope, materials, and next steps, so you know exactly what to expect before work begins.
Licensed, insured, and code-compliant
All work is performed by a licensed and insured general contractor and built to meet current codes and local requirements.
Clean, professional job sites
We work in occupied homes and condos and take care to keep the site organized, safe, and respectful of your space.
Seattle's Trusted Residential Contractor
Your No-Nonsense Partner in Exceptional Construction. Licensed & Insured.