Amish Storage Sheds and Detached Car Garage Designs are Getting Bigger and Better

November 1, 2016 - We used to talk about "little red barns" in the Amish storage shed industry and it was that small barn that was the icon of the industry. But times have changed, says marketing manager for Sheds Unlimited of Lancaster County, PA. Today, Amish storage sheds and detached car garages come in many more shapes and styles than their "red barn" predecessors and those changes are which have been customer driven are now driving growth for builders on the front lines.

In 1989 Steve Stoltzfus Sr was looking for work for a few of his sons. He began by working for a local storage shed company and soon saw an opportunity to start his own storage shed company in Lancaster PA alongside his sons. It was in on the home family farm that Steve and his five sons produced their first "little red barns," as they were called back in that day and the family business has continued to grow substantially year over year since that time.

Further south in Russelville, KY in the same year, another father was looking for work for his sons on the family farm. He built a small shop and also began producing basic storage sheds on the farm while continuing to milk cows in-between. For both fathers, farming was still in their blood. The storage shed builders in PA and KY were simply seeking for a means to supplement their income.

But times were changing and so was the shed business. For Sheds Unlimited, demand for storage sheds in PA, NJ, NY, MD and DE continued to climb. Slowly the business grew to include a few employees outside of the family of boys. When the family built a 5,000 square foot shop on the home Lancaster County farm, the storage shed business became a staple part of their family. Some of the boys would rise in the morning to milk the cows, others would head to the storage shed shop to begin producing the simple sheds of the time.

In time, both families decided that the future lay in their storage shed companies and both sold their cows and pushed further into building storage sheds for the growing demand in their areas.

It wasn't long until Sheds Unlimited in Lancaster County began producing one, two and three car garages. The smaller one car garages were built to transport on a trailer and deliver to locations within about 150 miles of their storage shed business in Lancaster County, PA. But then came the demand for bigger and better garages and Sheds Unlimited began to accommodate.

Two and three car garages were soon being erected on concrete pads in New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Delaware as well as Pennsylvania. Before long someone requested attic space in the garage and again they created a special design for that customer. Later there were more and more customized requests from their growing list of storage shed and detached garage customers thus contributing to their growing list of options. When a customer requested a two-story shed with a subfloor, another door was opened and another shed collection born.

The new two story sheds and garages were developed into a line of Legacy Two Story structures and a crane was purchased to set them in place. At the same time multiple car garages grew in size and features all throughout.

Storage Sheds were also changing. First it was the Classic Storage Sheds with wider overhangs and a steeper roof pitch and then the Premier Garden Sheds known as the Cadillac of storage sheds in Pennsylvania complete with a very steep roof pitch and some lovely designs that made it necessary to design a custom trailer to deliver the buildings.

Overholt and Sons in Kentucky was also looking for new and better designs. And since Lancaster County is known as the headquarters of all things portable storage sheds, it was there that he found his inspiration to build a similar line called, for good reason, "The Lancaster."

Both companies show the growing demand for new storage shed designs all across the United States that have added substantially to the market growth of Amish storage sheds and detached car garages. In Lancaster County, another recent addition has been Modern Sheds and Studios by Sheds Unlimited as well as Tiny Houses and even portable office structures that can be delivered as turn key units.

Where is this going? Marketing direct at Sheds Unlimited says "who knows, our customers have often driven the changes in our development of new lines and we expect that to continue." Many of the lines present on the website of Sheds Unlimited are special features and storage shed designs requested by customers throughout the years. And who knows what they will ask for next.

But for now, a robust online presence, combined with new storage shed designs have led to growth both in PA and in KY.