How close can shed be to house?

[Mgmny]

Hello!

My city only requires building permits for sheds up to 200sqft. My HOA limits sheds to 150 sqft. So, I am going to build a 150 sqft shed, pending wife approval.

Based on my lot, The best places for my shed are as close to the side of my house as possible or right behind my house. Normally, I would just follow building code on these things, but because building code doesn't apply (or rather, isn't being called into question) by my city under 200sqft build, are there any practical problems with building my shed 1-2 inches away from my house? I can only imagine the problem is that i couldn't get back there if something went wrong, but who cares - it's 2" away from my house - what could go wrong that i need to fix?

In a perfect world, I would have them touching, but have the shed free-standing so it's not considered an addition which WOULD require building permits.

What are thoughts? Is this a dumb idea?

[Fishindude]

Unless the shed will be easily moveable in one piece, I would leave enough space between buildings so that you can get to the outside walls of each.
Too close together and the gap will be a trash / dirt collector.

[Mgmny]

Unless the shed will be easily moveable in one piece, I would leave enough space between buildings so that you can get to the outside walls of each.
Too close together and the gap will be a trash / dirt collector.

Well, if I select the side of my house, half of it would be built into a hill that would probably be about 6 feet from the ground to the top of the soil, so not easily moveable. Also probably not an easy shed to make, so this might be a non-starter to begin with.

[Taran Wanderer]

I’ve been thinking of doing something similar. I would leave at least 3 feet between house and shed. This allows for ease of maintenance, cleaning, and at least some fire separation between the two. The 3 feet doesn’t have to be useless.  It could be used for storage of something that is bulky and low value like firewood, or with the addition of a locked chain link gate on each end, things like ladders or kayaks or something. Need to do maintenance? Just move the big stuff temporarily.

My other idea for the gap space is an outdoor shower. I’ve wanted one since showering in a friend’s parents’ backyard shower in college, except in my own outdoor shower I won’t have his oddball mom checking me out...

[lthenderson]

Assuming you are building the typical shed with studs and siding, building it a couple inches from your house means on one side you are going to have to start with the (pre-painted) siding and adding the studs later because you won't be able to get on the other side to fasten it. Assuming you can get it built, you are always going to be trying to get leaves and other debris that get caught in the small crack out so it doesn't rot both the house and shed siding.

I would either attach it to the house or leave enough room to work on either the house or shed at a future date.

[Frankies Girl]

Moisture (so rot), dirt, trash, and critters can get into that space. And treating for termites or other bad things will be really hard.

I would make it at least a few feet apart so you can walk between, clean and inspect.

[JLee]

I have a shed like that - a few inches away from a detached garage. It looks like a pre-built unit that was dropped in place by the previous owner. It needs a new roof now and it's so close to the garage that I can't re-roof 1/4 of it...

[I'm a red panda]

Quite a few house in my neighborhood have sheds just a few inches (or less) from the houses.
The reason, our HOA limits sheds to 60 square feet. People who want bigger sheds, often double or triple the allowable size, back them up to the house in hopes of disguising them as part of the house.

[Mgmny]

Ok looks like consensus is that I should not put it so close to the house. Understood.

[Sibley]

Make sure you can get a ladder between them, then climb the ladder and do work. Otherwise, you're going to have a headache when you're trying to replace the siding with no access. Or similar.

[Mgmny]

that's a fair point. If i don't put the shed next to the house like i originally thought it could go, I am basically stuck with the corner of the shed abutting the corner of the house, but that only leaves me with a max width of 8ft until the shed runs into my fence gate. I'm thinking 8ft isn't very wide....

I may need to rethink this.