Alba Texas is a small town located between Mineola and Emory on highway 69 in East Texas. Like most of the towns in East Texas, Alba is, at it’s root, agricultural and rural in nature.

Alba is on the edge of Rains and Wood counties, and sits close to the Rains and Wood sides of Lake Fork.

Alba Texas is also the home of Ben’s Barns.

Ben’s Barns

Ben’s Barns serves the area around Rains county and it’s surrounding counties including Wood, Hopkins, Hunt, and Van Zandt, and cities and towns including Alba, Emory, Mineola, Lone Oak, Point, Canton, Edgewood, Sulphur Springs, Greenvile, and others along and adjacent to highway 69 and highway 19.

Ben’s Barns offers high quality buildings and great service at fair prices, and they have a rent to own program for those who choose to use this option for purchases.

Call: 903-269-8130 for more information.
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One of the best, but least emphasized aspects of what we have come to call portable storage sheds is that they are portable. Portable storage buildings offer move ability. They offer the ability to move them from one place to another, should the need arise to do so.

Most of these buildings begin life at a factory type setting where they can be built in quantities that allow the price to be kept at a reasonable level, and are then transported either to a dealers lot, or directly to your back yard. That is not to say that they can not be built on site, but that is not the normal course of action.

When you order a storage building, it will be deliverd to your site, set up, and leveled. If you ever decide to move it, one of the best ways to go about it would be to call the people who sold it to you. Most dealers will provide this service for a reasonable price.

Of course, they would also be happy to sell you another portable storage building to replace the one you have now, and if you are selling your home, having a portable storage shed on the property should help to increase the price, or at the very least, add an extra incentive to purchase.

Portability and affordability are hallmarks of the storage building industry, as well as functionality, and versatility. Call us today at 903.504.3938 to learn how one of these great storage sheds can help you.

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It’s about time for a good spring cleaning! What better way to clean out the stuff in your closet, bedroom, or garage than to provide yourself with a little outdoor storage space?

You want to move a lot of things out temporarily, and you want to move a lot of things out permanently, but where are you going to put all those things! Just about the time you get down to some serious cleaning, and get the boxes of photographs and all the old vinyl records with all the cardboard jackets out onto the lawn, the sky begins to cloud up, and it starts to rain! That’s no way to treat those pictures of grandma, and the entire Beatles collection!

You need a plan! That plan should begin with a place to store the things you need to move out for long term storage, and a place to move the things you want to store in the short term.

Start with a new outdoor storage building or storage shed, decide what you want to pack permanently, and move it into place first. Now take the things you want to store until the carpets are cleaned, and pack them away closer to the entry of your building. That way, you won’t have to sort through the whole building to get them back into your home after everything is clean as a whistle.

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Why We Need Storage Sheds

Why do we need storage sheds and utility buildings? The obvious reason is to store things, but there are other reasons as well. These little buildings, and some are not so little, are very versitle, and the only limit to how they can be used, or what they can be used for, is the mind.

Some common reasons

• If you are having to move things out of the way to get your car inside the garage on a rainy day.

• If you can not hang your coat in the closet because it is packed head high with boxes and small appliances.

• If local officials are considering re zoning your area as a warehouse district because of your garage.

• If you are paying someone else to keep your stuff stored in a public storage or self storage facility.

• If you are driving across town to pick things up and take them back.

There are many other reasons why getting some extra enclosed space might be to your advantage.

• Economics may play a part in the increased public need for storage. A decade or two of fairly strong economic growth has made it easier for us to accumulate more tools, equipment, and toys than we can use in a given day, and having a place to put them becomes an issue. Economic downturns such as the one we are experiencing at the time I am writing this may make down sizing necessary, and consequently, the need for some place to store some of the the things accumulated during easier times arises.

• Those of us who are “baby boomers” are starting to reach retirement age, and retiree’s tend to down size. Who can blame them? After decades of hard work, who wants to spend all their spare time maintaining a large home when there is a world to explore? we will be needing some extra space to store our rock and roll collections, and to park the “Harley”!

• If you have lawn and garden equipment, you probably need a place to keep it out of the weather in order to preserve it’s longevity. The same is true for recreational vehicles and equipment. to make a long story short, just about everyone needs a little storage space from time to time, and the need seems to be growing.

People need space for other purposes. I could leave that to your imagination, but here are a few ideas you might consider:

• People who are involved in small business ventures often choose to work out of their homes, and there are a lot of documents, a lot of pieces of equipment, and a lot of items to ship. There is even a need for office space once the spare room or bedroom office is outgrown.

• The great electronics boom has provided us with all sorts of games and other electronic toys, and some people use utility buildings as game rooms, or TV rooms.

• Gym fees keep rising, and home exercise equipment often sits collecting dust and spider webs due to lack of space to operate this equipment.

• Hobby and craft work, home wood shops, and small equipment maintenance all take up space, and a lot of it is moving from our already crowded garages into some type of utility building.

There are literally thousands of possible uses, and I am sure you have your own list.

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How To Buy Storage Buildings

In today’s economic climate, everyone wants to get the best bang for their buck. Renting storage space in a public storage facility is not going to provide that bang! Money spent on renting storage space is money you will never see again, and you have nothing to look forward to but more rent, and nothing to show for it in the end. If you have reached that point in your thinking, it is time to use that mental energy on deciding what size and type of building you need to buy, where to buy it, where to place it, and how to finance it. The following information will help you through the process.

The purpose of your storage building

Decide exactly what the purpose of the building will be. Will it be a workshop, an office, a play room, or just used for storage? Will it serve multiple purposes? Knowing what your long term plans are will help with the decisions you will need to make throughout the selection process.

The size of your storage building

Decide how much space you will need in order to reach your goal. If your goal is to store a certain number of boxes for a certain amount of time, and then use the building for a tool shed, you should figure the number of cubic feet of space you will need, and base your decision on that figure. Remember to add aisle space into the equation so that you can get from front to back.  A note to the wise, always add 10 to 20 percent, you will be glad you did.

If your goal is long term storage, of course, the same things apply about the number of cubic feet. If your goal is to have a workshop, the number and type of tools and equipment, and the space to safely use them should be considered. Again, adding 10 to 20 percent for expansion is a good idea. I have never known anyone to say, I wish I had gotten less space!

The placement of your storage building

Decide where you want to place your building. If you already know the size you need, available placement space may help you to determine the buildings configuration. What I mean is this: If you have decided that you need 200 square feet of floor space, but a 10 x 20 building is too long for the space you have available, perhaps a 14 x 16 building would fit into the available space more readily.  There is always a solution. Have the building placed in a position so that it will not interfere with normal lawn maintenance activities. You will want to give some thought to how this new addition to your lawn will effect, and be effected by your irrigation system, and make the needed adjustments. You wouldn’t want your building placed on top of your irrigation heads. This should not be a major problem if the building can be placed between the irrigation rows. The heads adjacent to the building can be adjusted to compensate for the new addition after the building is in place.

Accessories for your storage building

Decide what extras you will need. This is a function of the buildings purpose. Do you need to add a workbench to the building? If you plan to work in the building during the heat of summer, or the cold of winter will you need insulation to moderate the temperature? How about ventilation, or a cutout for an air conditioning unit? Will you need extra space above floor level such as a loft? How about extra shelves? Planning on storing and maintaining power mowers or all terrain vehicles, you might need a roll up door, and a ramp. Tailor these things to suit your needs, and you will be able to make a better decision.

Your storage building type

Decide the type of building you will need. This is also a function of the purpose of the building. If your goal is a small tea room for your Japanese garden, you might want to get a small wooden structure that will weather naturally. For almost all other applications, the more weather resistant the materials, the better.

Storage building materials

Composite shingled roofs look great, for a while, but they will need to be replaced regularly over the years. The same is true of wood siding. Steel clad buildings seem to weather more gracefully, and as a result, stay functional for a longer period of time.

When choosing a building the longevity should be taken into account as a part of the value. Maintenance costs should also be considered. If the building is going to last half as long, before needing to be replaced, and during that short life, add to the over all cost per year by $500.00, the value has decreased. If that cheap wooden structure with the shingled roof you picked up for $1500.00 dollars costs you $500.00 per year to maintain, and only lasts for a quarter of the time that the $3000.00 building, your bargain is not really a bargain. Materials matter!

Shopping for your storage building electronically

Go shopping. You don’t have to climb into the car and drive all over town to start this. You can do it from the comfort of your own home. Search the Internet for buildings like the one you know you will need. Search locally by adding the name of your location. For instance, if you live in a town known as “Example”, search for “storage buildings Example My State”. Don’t add commas between the words. that will cause the search engine to serve up results for storage buildings, and results for Example, and results for My State, all separately. Look through the results of your search. There should be at least some results for businesses close to your area. click on the results, and see if they have what you are looking for. Continue to click on the results until you have the results you are looking for, even if it takes several pages of results to find what you need. Collect the phone numbers and addresses of the most promising dealers. If at first you don’t succeed, try a different search for a different group of words.

There is also the good old fashioned phone book. Use it to find local dealers, and call about details. You are already armed with the facts about what you need!

Shopping for your storage building in person

Now, hop in the car, and take a look at the buildings that you have discovered. There is a good chance that exactly what you are looking for, is setting somewhere on a local lot! If it is not, many dealers can have one custom made for you in short order. In most cases, you will not be charged much, if any, above what the
building would cost if it were already setting on a lot.

What if they don’t have the building I need?

Even if the building you need is not on a lot, one can be built to your specifications. Most dealers and suppliers will be happy to do this for you. They will have some questions, which you will already know the answers to. Tell them what you need, and they will probably go to a book which will start with a basic building in the size that you are looking for. Then they will start to add the accessories that you need. Just about anything you might want should be available, from ramps, to extra blocking, work benches, peg boards, shelves, lofts, insulation, extra windows, roll up doors, or standard doors should be available. Add the ones you want in whatever combination you desire, and you should be in business.

Financing your storage building

There are several options where financing your building is concerned. There is of course, cash. There is bank financing, either the financing that you work out, or the financing processed through the company you are dealing with through another financial institution. There is the option to rent to own offered by some companies, and even a few other options that vary a lot throughout the industry.

Rent to own

Rent to own is a viable option for those who want to own a building without all the hassles of regular financing. Rent to own payments are usually pretty close to the amount you would pay for an equivalent amount of space in a public storage facility, the major differences being that with rent to own, you will own the building, and you won’t have to take trips across town to get to your stored goodies, both of which save you money.

How to buy a storage building How to use a storage building. How to maintain a storage building Where to buy storage buildings

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Storage Buildings Rent Home Owners

If you have single family dwellings for lease, we have an income boosting idea for you. Buy a portable storage building to add to your rental property, and offer it to your future renters for a small fee. You will probably be more likely to get and keep the renters you want if you make life more convenient for them, you can charge a little more to cover the cost, and, if you ever decide to sell the property, the value will be higher.

When most people are choosing a place to rent, one of their major concerns is where to put the extra things they have, or how to store a few things during the unpacking process. Just imagine how much of an encouragement it would be to find that the place they are thinking of renting already has that available! It could make the difference between getting that great renter, or having them move on down the rental road.

While you are thinking about it, think about those things that are left behind after someone moves out. If you are having to pay for storage space in a public facility, wouldn’t it be smarter to have a facility of your own to hold those items?

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How to prepare for your storage building

Okay, you have shopped around, and found a great deal on a great product, and you have closed the deal. That is great! Congratulations! Now what? Well, there is not a lot that you need to do to prepare for the delivery, but there are a few things you should, and could do.

• Be certain of your location. Make sure that you let the delivery men know exactly where you want your building to be placed. Stepping off the area, and marking it would give you a better idea about the area.

• Be sure that there are no obstructions, such as low hanging limbs or communication wires which might get in the way.

• Make certain that you have an area laid out which will leave enough space for your mower to get around without hanging up.

• If your irrigation system leaves the area where you want your building off loaded a little wet, you might want to shut it down for a day or two prior to delivery just to be sure that no damage is done to your lawn.

If you have any other suggestions, we would love to hear from you in our comment section.

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Public Storage or Private Storage? Beating the high cost of public storage.

Storage and financial crisis

In the wake of our recent financial disasters, an already enormous public storage industry has grown beyond imagination. Much of the overflow from down sizing after the mortgage fiasco ends up packed away somewhere inside a small mini storage facility, awaiting the time when the financial situation avails the public of new opportunities. the beneficiaries of this economic decline are those who have the capacity to provide space for self storage.

Boomers

Adding to the growing mini storage boom, are the original “boomers” themselves, “baby boomers” that is. Those of us who were born during that age of extreme population growth, are reaching an age where retirement is available, and to many of us, the thought of spending our new found free time and energy maintaining large homes and properties after our children are all moved out is not all that appealing. We were already a mobile generation, and being tied down was never one of our favorite pastimes. Lookout kids, grandma and grandpa will be hitting the streets! The content of all those large homes will have to be put somewhere, and much of it will end up in a storage building.

Our Stuff

There are a lot of other reasons why storage business is booming these days. A decade or so of relatively strong economic growth has caused and allowed for strong production. We have more stuff! We have so much stuff in fact, that we don’t have a place to put it all! Last years gadgets are outdated, heck, last months gadgets are outdated, and we don’t always want to let go of them.

We are spending more yearly on storage than many countries produce in a year! The problem is, that outside of preserving the things we store, we are not gaining anything in the process, and all of those products that we store are losing value the longer they are stored. It is pretty easy to store a thousand dollars worth of goods in a place that will end up costing us a thousand dollars every year.

The answer

What then is the answer? well, for one thing, we could stop renting and start buying our storage space. At least when it is paid for, we will still have something to show for the money spent. Buying your own building as opposed to renting self storage or mini storage from a public storage facility is a much more rational choice. Most storage building suppliers offer financing through lending agencies and banks, as well as rent to own programs which will give you as much, or more space for storage as the public storage units, at about the same monthly cost, and in the end, you own your own private storage, and will not have to pay for storage space again!

If you rent your home, or apartment, there are still better options than the perpetual self storage offered by the public storage industry. You can read about them on this site.

If you are considering renting storage space, or the purchase of a storage building in East Texas, email us at james@storagebuildingblog.com.

Read these related posts for more information:

• Public Storage or Private Storage?
• Mini Storage Maxi Cost | The Large Cost of Small Storage
• Storage Buildings For Home and Apartment Renters
• Thinking Outside the Box | The Self Storage Rental Box
• Self Storage East Texas | Why You Should Buy

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Storage Buildings For Home and Apartment Renters

What if someone needs storage, but lives in a rented apartment? This is a great question! The short answer is this: everyone knows someone who has a home and land. This is usually a family member or a close friend. Ask them if you could buy a building and have it placed on there property. Sure, you will not gain all the advantages of having the building placed conveniently at your own doorstep, but at least you won’t be throwing your money down a rent hole!

If you rent a home, other than an apartment, your landlord might be willing to allow you to have a building placed in your rented back yard. Talk to them about it. In such cases, a “landlord lien waiver” will probably be required. Your building supplier will be able to supply one for you, along with instructions.

Either way, renting to own, or buying outright, makes more sense than paying a hundred a month for several years to store a thousand dollars worth of material.

Read these related posts for more information:

• Public Storage or Private Storage?
• Mini Storage Maxi Cost | The Large Cost of Small Storage
• Storage Buildings For Home and Apartment Renters
• Thinking Outside the Box | The Self Storage Rental Box

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Storage Buildings and Carports Winona Texas

The 9 communities which make up the wider Winona area, are established in what was once the heart of the rose growing business in East Texas. Native Americans, Settlers, and even many of the Prisoners of War held there in the Civil War found the area inviting, and made it their home.

if you live in the Winona area, and need a storage building, give us a call, we will be glad to help.

Winona, TX

City of Winona

Winona, Texas – Wikipedia

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