How Much It Cost Us to Turn Part of a Shed Into a Home Gym

The biggest expense was creating the room

So, how much did it cost? Our known costs come to roughly $14,000, plus the mirrors and dumbbells we added over time.

The gym equipment was not actually the biggest part of our budget. The building work was.

We spent approximately $10,000 on trades, which covered the framing, insulation, plastering, painting and electrical work required to turn part of the existing shed into a finished room.

For us, this was worth doing properly. We live some distance from the closest gym and have a young family, so having somewhere at home where we can exercise makes it much easier to actually use it.

Custom window: about $1,500

One of the things that made the biggest difference to the finished room was installing a larger custom window. That cost approximately $1,500.

It brought much more natural light into the space and gave us a view outside, which helped make the room feel less like part of a shed and more like somewhere we actually wanted to spend time.

If we were doing the project again, this is something I would still spend the money on.

Flooring

The existing concrete slab was in good condition, so we did not need to install a new structural floor.

For the exercise area we added a Miramat Mega (paid link). At the time of writing, the Miramat Mega has a standard retail price of around $289, although sale prices vary.

We wanted something large enough for floor exercises and weights rather than a standard narrow yoga mat.

Mirrors: about $30 to $100 each

The mirrors were one of the cheaper parts of the project but made a surprisingly big difference.

We paid between approximately $30 and $100 per mirror, depending on their size. Using several mirrors rather than having custom gym mirrors made helped keep this part of the budget relatively low.

They also bounce light around the room and make the relatively compact gym feel larger.

The equipment

We did not fill the room with commercial gym equipment. We chose a relatively small collection of things we knew we would use.

Our treadmill is a NordicTrack T7 Series. At the time of writing, comparable current pricing is around $1,500 on sale, although treadmill prices can vary considerably depending on promotions.

We also use the SPOR ALL IN 1 Workout Bench. It is currently around $319 and has worked particularly well in a smaller home gym because one piece of equipment can be used in a number of different ways.

My husband mainly uses the darker PROIRON adjustable dumbbell (paid link) and the heavier PROIRON 8 kg neoprene dumbbell pair (paid link), while I use the lighter PROIRON neoprene dumbbell pairs (paid link). We built up the different weights over time, which is why I have not included a precise dumbbell figure in the overall project cost.

Our smaller equipment includes a Manduka PRO Yoga Mat (paid link), Manduka foam yoga blocks (paid link) and an Everfit vibration plate (paid link). We keep the weights together on a Bongkim dumbbell rack (paid link). These were also added gradually as we worked out what we would actually use.

So what did our home gym actually cost?

Our approximate costs were:

That puts the known cost at approximately $13,600, before adding our mirrors and dumbbells. Realistically, I think of it as roughly a $14,000 home gym project.

That is not cheap. But there is an important distinction. Most of that money did not go into gym equipment. It went into converting part of an existing shed into an insulated, plastered, painted and electrically fitted room with a large custom window.

If we had already had a finished room available, the cost of creating the actual gym would have been dramatically lower.

• Building work: $10,000
• Custom window: $1,500
• Miramat Mega: around $289
• SPOR workout bench: around $319
• NordicTrack treadmill: around $1,500 at current sale pricing
• Mirrors: $30 to $100 each
• Dumbbells: purchased gradually over time

Was it worth it?

For us, yes.

The reason we built the gym in the first place was practical. We have a young family and live some distance from the nearest gym. Having the equipment at home removes a lot of the effort involved in finding time to exercise.

It has also become one of those projects where spending money on the room itself was just as important as spending money on equipment.

The insulation, natural light, mirrors and finished walls are what turned it from a corner of a shed into a space we genuinely enjoy using.

And because the concrete slab and shed already existed, we were able to work with what we had rather than build an entirely new structure.

Read How We Turned Part of a Shed Into a Home Gym for the full story of how we approached the room.