Shed Designer prices a whole shed order at Home Depot and at Lowe's. On the default 8x12, Home Depot had a listing for 48 of the 49 lines and Lowe's for 36. The old summary ranked the stores by "these lines at one store" and carried each missing line at the other store's price. Its bottom line read as "Lowe's is the cheapest single store, by $145". The owner asked the obvious question: is Lowe's cheaper, or is it just missing things?
The comparison now uses only the lines both stores list. We also went looking for the missing prices the same way the existing ones were found: search-engine copies of the store's own pages, each with its link and its age. We found 7 more Lowe's lines (2x4 and 2x10 at 14 ft, treated 2x6 at 16 ft, 4x9 T1-11, the 14x21 shed window, flashing tape) and Home Depot's Z-flashing.
| Default 8x12 | Before | After sourcing |
|---|---|---|
| Home Depot lines | 48 of 49 | 49 of 49 |
| Lowe's lines | 36 of 49 | 43 of 49 |
| Lines both list | 35 | 43 |
| Home Depot, those lines | $2,264.57 | $2,628.69 |
| Lowe's, those lines | $2,120.48 | $2,497.16 |
Lowe's is still lower like for like, by $131.53. That margin is less solid than it looks, because the lines behind it are not equally sound:
- Four louvered gable vents account for $54.40. The Lowe's price is a plastic vent from category-page copies 643 to 1,790 days old.
- The roof underlayment accounts for $44.02. The Lowe's price was read from the product's reviews page.
- Fifty-eight 8 ft 2x4s account for $31.32. That is Lowe's 35-or-more bulk price.
Going the other way, Home Depot is cheaper on shingles ($26.04), the hand tamper ($12.73) and the starter strip ($10.72). The summary now says how many compared prices come from page copies over a year old: 10 of the Lowe's prices and none of Home Depot's.
Six Lowe's lines are still missing: 4x10 T1-11, a solid concrete block, the Simpson VPA2 connector, subfloor adhesive, deck screws and shims. Some of those have a Lowe's page, but either no price showed in any copy we found, or the only one was years old or for a different pack. Each is named on the page and on a list for a person to check in a browser. None is filled with a guess. The tool also no longer offers Menards, at the owner's request; it had 11 listings, too few to price a whole order.
Lowe's hides its prices until you pick a store and refuses automated reads, so every Lowe's figure here is a copy, not a live price. Follow each link to check today's price at your own store. Compare stores in Shed Designer.