When John and I moved houses in 2022, we left behind a brand new metal shed at our old house and inherited a very old, rotten wooden one here at our new house. The classic barn-shaped structure was sweet as could be, and boasted both electrical and a window with a collapsible built-in fan, but the wood siding and roof were in rough shape. We contemplated keeping the shed and replacing the worn-out materials, but we came to realize that we just didn’t need a shed at this house thanks to all of the new storage we had and our garage. So, knowing that it was something we were eventually going to get rid of, we sort of sadly let the weather start the demolition for us.

It sat like this for nearly three years as we focused on other areas of our new-to-us home (and dealt with some personal hardships behind the scenes, like three of our pets passing away and my health scare). Rain and snow managed to rot away a lot of the wood and caused a large hole to form in the roof before we finally decided that it was time to say goodbye to the shed for good. If you remember, we installed our own hardscape patio this past spring, and we wanted to have a cleaner view of the yard while sitting outside.

John and my dad did the demo on their own while I documented everything for the blog. I did take down the doors, though, which felt so good! I had been wanting to do that for years. After getting the doors down, the guys worked on emptying out the contents of the shed. I kept a few treasures left behind by the original homeowners, like a well-loved bristle work brush and wood notepad, and I also squirreled away some of the crown moulding that had been stored in the shed over time. Most of the stuff packed inside, though, ended up in the trash since it was all compromised by water damage. Next, Dad and I disconnected the power from the basement up at the house and John got the window out, then the real work could get started.

The first step in actually demoing the structure was getting the roof off. It’s generally best to work from the top down when removing a shed from your property, so John stood on a ladder and used a metal bar to loosen the shingles from underneath so he could expose the wood panels, and then they pried each panel off and tipped it onto the dirt below. By the way, they laid down tarps beforehand on either side of the shed to make small debris clean-up a little easier.

After the roof came down, they pried off all of the siding, and it was around this time that the shed became pretty fluid and wobbly. The roof and siding provided most of the rigid structure, so with those gone, the framing was able to literally be pushed to the ground with a few solid shoves from behind. Then it was just a matter of breaking all of that up with saws plus a crowbar and hammer.

John had recently bought a secondhand trailer off Facebook Marketplace, so we used that and his truck bed to haul all of the shed parts and trash to the landfill. It took three trips, if I remember correctly. Before putting any pieces of wood, siding, or roof on the trailer, John used a hammer to tamp down or bend over any exposed nails to avoid damage and injury. That’s a pretty key tip if you do this yourself! It only takes a couple of extra minutes and can really save you a lot of hassle and pain later on.

And that brings us to present day. The plan at this point is to remove all of the loose bricks that were left behind, we’ll even out the dirt, and then seed it all so that we can get the area back to grass. Already, though, the view from our patio is much improved. You can see the patio off in the distance in the photo above. I’m so looking forward to sitting out on the hardscape by the chiminea on a brisk fall day with views of a healthy green lawn stretching out before us. It was bittersweet to take down a shed that I could tell was once so loved, but it was simply time for it to go. Now, we’ll be able to enjoy the back yard the way we want to, so I think it all worked out in the end. What about you? Would you have kept the shed?

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