Good advice, cda. For the record, I did exactly that, (check with the city) before I was even given the kit. And the guy I talked to on the phone from the local code office was pretty much the stereotypical municipal bureaucrat. It was fairly clear from the beginning that he didn't care what I was asking, and wasn't interested in any explanation about what I was asking, because he kept repeating what seemed to me to be a cookie-cutter, stock, pre-determined answer. He acted like I was trying to build the Biltmore Castle, and not some dinky little shed kit. Sort of like the way tech-support people from the Philippines are clearly reading a set of steps out of a manual when you call on the phone to ask why your printer isn't working. Or, dare I say it, how people are responding here, not caring what was really being asked, but instead responding to what they wanted to respond.
What I'm doing here, is trying to get some understanding as to how the codes apply to this particular situation, and to this specific case, because it simply doesn't appear that they do. There is almost no case-specific information, and what there is seems to be maddeningly imprecise. To the naysayers who keep telling me to get a contractor, believe it or not, when you get awarded a PhD, you pretty much already know how to read and write. If I wanted or needed a contractor, I'd get one. You, cda, are the only one who appears to have actually read what I wrote. Bonus points for you. You didn't need to know which hand I use to open a door, because I asked about doorknobs.
One example which comes to mind is Chapter 19, Section 321.1 where it merely says "buildings shall... conform to this code commensurate with the fire and life hazard incidental to their occupancy" And then goes on to list several utility-type structures, while explaining nothing. There is another place (1907.1, general Minimum Slab Provisions) where it says slabs must be 3.5" minimum, and then goes on to give an exception about not requiring a vapor barrier for "garages, utility buildings, or unheated facilities." That's what I'm doing here, constructing an unheated utility building. There is nothing else specific about unheated, unplumbed, utility buildings. This is what I am trying to flesh out here. There is limited, contradictory, or nonexistent information.
I promised I wouldn't grade, but if I had tasked a student to write about the building codes for sheds, and the IBS is what they turned in, I would give a very low mark, because the IBC explains nothing. It does not tell me what I need to know. It presumes that all structures are alike. I am going to build a simple storage shed. I will keep rakes and shovels and an electric lawn mower in it. I might store my fly-tying materials in it. My wife will probably want to store her wreath-making materials in it. There is no "fire and life hazard" involved, because it isn't ever going to be "occupied" by anyone. No human being will ever spend more than 20 minutes at a time in it, unless they can't find the gimcrack they're looking for. If it ever catches fire, it will be because someone intentionally set it ablaze, or it was struck by lightning. I may want, a year from now, to run electricity to it so I can put a light in it, and maybe an outlet to allow for plugging the cord in so as to not have to run an extra 50 feet of extension cord. That will change the equation somewhat, but that's a year away. It's a pre-cut kit tool storage shed, not the Waldorf-Astoria. Hundreds of them have been built all over the country, without civilization coming to a screeching halt.
Let me explain a bit further:
Last year, before the Pandemic closed everything down, I saw some builders putting up a new house on an empty lot a few doors down. As I drove by, I decided to observe what they were doing, because I knew it was far more than I was going to be doing, and I might learn something. (That is what life is all about. Taking every possible opportunity to learn new things.) The entire house was being built on what looked to me to be a solid slab with 2x4 forms, no gravel, no plastic vapor barrier, and no deep-edge footings. I walked over there a few days later, before they poured the concrete (happened to be a Sunday, and no one was on site) and looked around at what they'd done, and it was in fact, 2x4 forms, no gravel bed, no deep-edge footing dug out around the perimeter, and what I later found out was #10 mesh (thick wire fencing-type material with 6" spaces) sitting up on dobbies inside the forms, and that was all. They poured concrete the next day, Monday, and when I got home from work, there was a brand new slab with various pipes sticking up out of it. It's going to be a 3 bedroom 2 bath house, by my estimate over 1500 square feet, and it was being built on a plain 3.5" thick slab. The house isn't quite finished now, although the walls are up and the roof is on, but it isn't ready for sale yet. Meanwhile, the local building code office seems to be telling me I have to have half-inch rebar, 16" deep-edge footings, 6" of gravel base, 6mil vapor barrier, and who knows what other kinds of overkill on a 120 sq ft tool shed with no plumbing, no bedrooms, no baths, no kitchen, and no living spaces at all! Do you see the reason for my incredulity? What exists in the real world, across the street from me and a few doors down, does not match what I was told on the phone.
I hope that those of you who keep telling me to hire a contractor, can see that I'm not interested in contractors or building techniques, but that I am trying to learn about applications of codes in a way that make sense. I could not care less about contractors, because I already know how to nail 2x4s together. I can read and understand the instructions that came with the kit. I know how to operate the tools necessary, and have built similar, smaller sheds (from scratch, without kits) several times already. I know how to do the actual construction. If I didn't, I would have gone to a construction forum, not a code one. I want to learn about the codes, how to navigate them, how to find what I need in them, and where what I need is. When I get ready to do the electrical, a year from now, I will go to an electrical forum, not one for roofing. I know how to do carpentry. What I don't know is, where in the IBC does it physically show what needs to be done to build a simple, unheated, unplumbed, little bitty utility tool shed. I want to know why the actual home being built nearby seems to have lesser requirements than does my pre-cut, manufactured kit. Something does not compute here. I'm building a shed, not Fort Knox. This is what I am trying to understand. I don't know how to make it any more plain that I am not asking about building techniques. I don't need to ask about that. I already know how to do it. Working in the construction trade is how I put myself through graduate school. There are three apartment complexes, two shopping centers, and several residences I helped build in the town where I went to grad school. But you all didn't need to know that. That's why I said I had limited knowledge. The limited knowledge I have is about codes, not framing or roofing. What really needed to have happened, would have been that the questions I asked were the ones that were answered. Now I have to sit here and watch everyone get upset and attack me because I dared to ask for specific answers to specific questions, and get put down for having to explain that most responders answered what they wanted to answer, without actually answering what was asked. Nobody needs to know what color of car you're going to buy, when you ask about drivers licenses.
Hope this helps.