The owners who walked through the shed designer this week want the shed to match their house: asphalt shingles, and horizontal lap siding painted like their HardieBoard. They also want to spend about $2,000. So we made siding, roofing, the door and the windows choices in the design search, and asked what each one costs.
One shed, every siding. The shed is an 8x12 with its ridge along the 8 ft side and a ridge board. The door is in an eave wall with two 18 x 23 windows opposite, the walls are as low as the door allows, and the roof is 6/12. All prices are the tool's Home Depot listings seen on 2026-10-29, materials only, before tax:
| Siding | Total |
|---|---|
| LP SmartSide 3/8" panels | $2,793.67 |
| T1-11 panels | $2,835.41 |
| Vinyl over OSB | $2,883.78 |
| LP SmartSide 7/16" panels | $3,052.59 |
| Fiber cement lap over OSB, painted | $3,185.40 |
| Board and batten over OSB | $5,048.54 |
Lap siding costs more for two reasons. Panel siding is its own sheathing, while lap siding needs OSB under it. Fiber cement planks also cost more per square foot. Together they add $350 over T1-11 on this shed. Board and batten comes out high because the boards the tool prices are primed finger-joint 1x8s at $89.18 for a box of three. That is $2,229.50 of boards on its own. A builder would likely use cheaper rough-sawn boards, so that line is worth a second look before anyone believes it.
The rest of the shell.
- Metal roof: $87.57 more than shingles on the same shed.
- 32" prehung steel door: $297.58 more than the door built on site from the siding.
- 48" double shed doors: $334.05 more than the site-built door.
What the search does with it. In a 4,000-design search with nothing fixed, the cheapest passing shed under 100 sq ft was $2,375.05, in LP SmartSide with a metal roof. With the siding fixed to fiber cement lap and the roof to shingles, the cheapest was $2,677.02. So matching the house costs about $300 at the bottom of the range. No design on either front used a prehung door: none gives more storage or a better looks score than the site-built one, so paying more for it never helps.
All of this is materials only. Labour, tax and delivery are separate, and store prices move. The tool's structural checks are not engineering, and it is not code-checked.