Franklin County has grown a lot, and a big share of the houses that came with it have one thing in common: not enough covered space. When people go looking for a fix they usually price a garage addition first, get the number, and then start looking at portable buildings. Here is the honest comparison.
Cost
An attached garage addition means footings, a slab, framing tied into the existing structure, roofing that matches, siding that matches, electrical, a garage door, permits and inspections, plus a contractor’s schedule. It is a real construction project with a real construction price.
A portable building is a finished structure delivered to a gravel pad. Ours start at $1,900 for a C+ Utility 6×8 and $2,762 for a Cardinal Utility 8×8, and even a large shop-size building priced with a wide roll-up door, insulation and an electrical finish-out package lands in a completely different bracket than an addition.
Timeline
Stock buildings typically deliver in 1 to 12 business days. Custom builds run 3 to 6 weeks. An addition is measured in months, and it starts with getting on a contractor’s calendar.
Permits and process
An addition requires permits and inspections, full stop. A portable building on skids may or may not require a permit depending on size and your address, which is worth a phone call to the City of Union or Franklin County before you order. Ask about setbacks at the same time. Either way, the process is dramatically simpler.
Disruption
An addition means your house is a job site: noise, dust, a wall opened up, people in and out for weeks. A building shows up on a truck on a weekday morning and is set the same day.
Where the addition genuinely wins
Be fair about this. An attached garage gives you interior access from the house, which matters in February. It is climate connected to the house. And it is a permanent improvement that appraises as square footage in a way a detached portable building does not.
If you need to walk from the kitchen into the space in your socks, build the addition. If you need covered, dry, secure space to put things and do things, buy the building.
Where the building wins
Cost, speed, simplicity, and flexibility. It can be moved. It can be sold with the house or without it. And it can be exactly what you need rather than a compromise shaped by where the existing roof line lands.
Make it a real space
The gap between a shed and a garage narrows fast when you order it right: a 9 or 10 foot roll-up door, spray foam insulation, and a finish-out package with electrical, flooring and wall coverings. We build up to 16×60. Plumbing we do not do in house, but we will help you find a contractor.
Base and coverage
A level gravel pad about a foot larger than the building on all sides is right for most buildings; concrete is worth it under a vehicle. Every Cardinal building carries our 10 year guarantee covering acts of nature such as storm damage and settling plus our craftsmanship, with a 50 year LP SmartSide siding warranty and a lifetime AdvanTech floor warranty, claims handled by us. Rent-to-own has no credit check, 24 to 60 months, from $75.44 a month, first two months down, no early payoff fee.
Get Started on Your Union Building
You do not have to drive to a lot to get moving. Use our 3D Shed Builder to pick your size, siding, colors, doors, windows and add-ons and see the building take shape on screen. When it looks right, send it to us and we will confirm pricing and a delivery date for Union.
Prefer to talk it through? Call our main office at 618-518-5578. We will walk you through building styles, custom options and rent-to-own and financing, and answer anything on our FAQ page. You can also see what we serve nearby on our location page.
