Overheard a guy at Home Depot say 'you don't need a permit for a shed under 200 square feet' and now my whole neighborhood looks sketchy

I was grabbing some lumber last Saturday and this older guy in the parking lot was telling his buddy that rule word for word. I knew right away he was wrong because I looked into this exact thing when I built a 10x12 in my backyard two summers ago. My city in Ohio requires a permit for anything over 100 square feet, plus setbacks from the property line. I ended up paying $120 for the permit and had to dig footings 48 inches deep. That guy probably built his shed two feet from the fence and now half the block has sheds crammed in weird spots. It drives me nuts because one inspection later and you know your building is solid. Has anyone else run into bad advice from people who sound confident but are dead wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

holly_price1d ago

Heard some guy at Lowe's last week telling people they could build treehouses without permits if they called them play structures.

finley_wells661d ago

I mean I actually read something about this on a city planning blog last year, apparently the loophole doesn't work everywhere because some towns have rules against any elevated structure over a certain height even if you call it a play set. It really depends on the local zoning codes though, some places are super strict about anything over like 6 feet off the ground regardless of what you name it. Honestly that guy at Lowe's was probably just talking out of his own experience and not actual law.