About Shed Index
Shed Index exists because manufacturers publish a snow load rating in pounds per square foot, and almost nobody tells you what your county actually gets. Putting those two numbers next to each other is the whole idea.
Who runs this
Shed Index is an independent site, published and maintained by one person rather than a company. It is not owned by, affiliated with, or sponsored by any shed manufacturer or retailer. No manufacturer has ever paid to be listed here, and none can.
You can reach us at our contact page.
Where the figures come from
Every number on this site is either taken from a public source or copied from the manufacturer's own listing, and it carries the date a human last checked it. That date is real. It is not the day the page was generated.
- Ground snow loads come from state building code adoption documents, which publish tables by county or jurisdiction. Each county page names its own source and check date. We do not use the ASCE 7 Hazard Tool: its output is licensed and redistributing it is not permitted.
- County geography and the ZIP crosswalk come from US Census Bureau files — the 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file and the 2023 Gazetteer — which are works of the federal government and in the public domain.
- Shed specifications — dimensions, material, whether a floor or anchors are included, and the rated snow load where one is published — are read from the manufacturer's listing and recorded with the date they were read.
What we will not do
A comparison site earns trust by what it refuses to publish as much as by what it publishes.
- We will not guess a snow load rating. Where a manufacturer does not publish one, the page says so. "Not published" is not the same as a low rating, and filling the gap with a plausible number would be the single most damaging thing this site could do.
- We do not show prices. A price we could not refresh at least daily would be wrong more often than right, so there are none.
- We do not invent ratings or reviews. Where a star rating appears it carries the count behind it and the date it was read. Review prose belongs to the people who wrote it and is not reproduced here.
- We do not use images we have no right to. Product imagery is self-hosted and credited, or it is absent.
Coverage, honestly
The ZIP-to-county lookup covers the whole United States. The verified snow load figures do not yet — they are being added state by state, and the number of counties carrying a checked figure is still small.
If your county is not covered, the tool tells you that it is not covered. It will not show you a number it has not verified. That is the difference between "we have not checked Los Angeles County yet" and "not found", and it is worth the extra work to keep the two distinct.
How the site is paid for
Two ways, both disclosed on every page that uses them.
Affiliate links. Shed Index is a participant in the Amazon Associates programme and earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this site. The commission is paid by Amazon, not by you, and the price you pay is the same either way.
Advertising. Pages carry ads served by Google. What those ads set on your device, and how to turn personalised advertising off, is covered in the privacy policy.
Neither affects which products are listed, how they are ordered, or what is said about them. The specifications table is the same table whether a product is bought or not.