Last fall we purchased a 12' x 20' x 8' plastc canvas garage from TSC to store our lawn and garden equipment in.
It was hurridly constructed just before the first snowfall on a somewhat level piece of ground and anchored down in sand so I was worried that it wouldn't survive the winter and spring winds.
As winter starrted I was worried about the buildup of snow on the roof but I needed to remove it only a couple of times over the winter. The slick plastic and wind took care of most of it and the sun on the dark color took care of the rest. Only a couple of ice storms caused me to worry enough to bother cleaning it off with a broom from the inside, a couple of taps to loosen it up and it slid right off. The white interior made it plenty light enough inside and I was surprised at how warm it was inside out of the elements. The tubular steel frame gave enough to withstand the 60-70 mph winds and somehow the four 30" tie down auger/spikes held it all down in the sand..
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| The ratchet down straps were nice too. |
What really surprised me was that the plastic zippers for the doors on each end held up to all of that abuse. My neighbor has had one of these up for the last 8 years and the only thing he has done to it was to add a vent kit to it. He says they retain dampness inside if you don't. They make a few different models of these Garage-In-A-Box things and one even has windows. We are planing on moving ours this summer and setting it on a foudation. So all in all I think it was well worth the $250 sale price.
My old Assistant Cub Scout Leader and lifelong friend commented on it the other day and said it was a shame we didn't have one of these when we were camping. It sure would have been nice. It would make a nice hunting camp too. You could erect bunks and a stove inside and still have all kinds of room.
We were even considering making pens inside for small animals like goats. This thing has a lot of potential.
4 comments:
I'm impressed! I've seen similar and always poo pooed them because we have 60-70 mph winds just about every day each Spring. Tarps get shredded in short order and everything else gets blown away. We also tend to get over a foot of snow several times each winter and sometimes that snow is heavy and wet.
But you've piqued my interest now. I don't think I would house goats because they tend to chew everything, but using it for chicken or llama housing might be useful.
Was that one of your chickens helping you read the instructions in that first photo? :D
~Lisa
Hi Lisa: Yes my chickens have better eyesight so I always have them read for me, saves time looking for my glasses too. And if I was to put goat pens inside I would definately make sure they couldn't reach the canvas. I am not sure how well it would stand up to daily strong winds. But if precautions were taken during setup and contact points were covered with a few layers of duct tape it would probably help save wear and tear to the canvas. And locknuts and larger washers would be a plus too, when constructing the frame. Check out the neighbors and see if anyone has one standing for any length of time.
I have often wondered about these. We need a place to just get our own butts out of the weather sometimes!
Warren: I wrote this blog with you in mind. The only drawback I can forsee is that it's dark color absorbs the sun's heat making it very warm inside during the day. I now understand why my neighbor reccomended installing the optional vents.
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