Sheds and Green houses

[jansman]

I would also advise standing any wooden building on bearers.My dad always did,and the firm my daughter works for insist on the same.The Summerhouse was put on 3" tanalised posts.This allows for airflow and vermin control.The Company will not offer any guarantee if the customer refuses bearers.

[grenfell]

We have a pretty decent supplier close to us , good prices and can be made to whatever shape and size you want. We brought another recently for the house we rent out and as usual my wife went in with a wad of cash and wouldn't hand it over 'till we got a chunk knocked off. She's done that with every one we've brought from them so I'd advise asking . We also opted for having the shed tanilised , more expensive but should last a lot longer and it's sitting on bricks with a dpm as well on a large concrete slab. If I have a criticism it's one that can be levelled at virtually every shed I've seen and that it's sold with the roof covered in shed felt which has a limited lifespan . Generally when I recover a shed I use the thicker 38-40 kg a roll top or cap sheet.
I've also built a few of my own sheds which does mean that you can build them to your own specs although if you have to buy the materials you'll never match the price of a dedicated shed supplier.
I did once buy a metal shed as a quick fix when we first moved in the house and I too found condensation was a problem but put a layer of insulation on top covered with corrugated bitumen sheeting and it's been bone dry for the last decade. I've never owned a plastic shed so can't comment on the condensation issue but I have removed a few and have noticed the plastic deteriorates and becomes brittle.
I have just been clearing some rubbish from a house and spoke to the neighbours. They told me that the old boy who used to live there ( dead now) had a row of greenhouses going all the way down the fairly large garden which I said sounded impressive. "Oh no " the neighbour said " they were built out of old doors , pallets , bits of glass and plastic and any Crap he could lay his hands on. Looked a right mess" . Ok so it didn't cause any real arguments but is perhaps a cautionary tale as some might take umbrage with living next door to a "shanty town" .

[Yorkshire Andy]

I built my own I laid a solid base of dry mix concrete over dpc viscrine (SPL) then bedded reclaimed flag stones on it. .


Watered well for 2 months the flags are solid as the moisture activated the cement.

I then used 2x2 tantalised batterns to make the base this was screwed to the slabs after first sticking the mastic framing tape they use on caravans to keep the frame off the floor by a few mm and provide a waterproof seal.

Then I built each wall out of 20mm log lap and erected the 4 walls (each plank was individually " painted" twice before assembly. First it was sprayed in a very hot dry summers day then brush coated a few days before assembly paying special attention to the tongue and grooves. )

http://www.diy.com/departments/ronseal- ... GwodNecBSQ


As I assembled each plank had a thin bead of contractors panel adhesive sealent squeezed into each groove to aid water proofing and strength also glued to the frame before been screwed with decking screws and nailed with galvanised oval nails top and bottom ....

Roof is 11mm tg on a 2x2 rafter set up covered with torch on felt

Guttering and decent door furniture finished the job

Probably £250 on wood..

And £100 on fixings and hinges. Less the locks

Felt was £35 a roll

.

[Yorkshire Andy]

PS in the bottom PIC that's not daylight between the walls and roof its 12v led strip

[featherstick]

Shed tips:

- Go for the biggest you can afford
- Go for the extra thickness and treatment, if offered.
- Build a 6-inch hard standing to the same footprint of the shed if possible - this is so that drips from the eaves splash onto the platform and not the bottom of the shed
- Consider beefing up security: replace hinge screws with carriage bolts, bolt on an extra lock, and perhaps add another hidden deadlock or dropbar, if you can.
- Get some lighting!

[shocker]

Andy, great post, thanks !

I am about to embark on a shed build of a parallelogram shape, necessary to utilise space in my little garden and any hands on info is golden.

I plan to build the panels out at my folks place where I have space and a compressor to run air tools, using tanalised timber throughout. I have sourced 2"x1" for the framing that can be doubled up at the corners and other points needing extra strength, and feather lap for the facing. In the past my father made commercial cat kennels and still has some of the tooling, like air nailers and a large over arm circular saw bench, which should make things easier.

Done this way, as a pre-fab, I should be able to make each panel as health and wealth dictate. Then its trailer or roofrack to move the panels to my place in the sequence needed for the final build, on with the roof and 240 power in. Straighforward, yes. Easy? Maybe not so much...

One thing that Im glad to see everyone make clear is that site preparation is vital. I know that, back in the day, my father would refuse to put his kennels up if he wasnt satisfied with the base that the customer had provided. I shall be working from the ground up, making sure of a good base, DPC and air flow gap, before laying down the pre-fabbed floor panel. Then the walls and roof - windows I have yet to decide on.

Im finding it very helpful to see and hear how others have gone about this because there is always something to learn.

[featherstick]

Do build a hard-standing. Andy's post is good but he has compromised his shed by having it directly on the slabs. Raindrops from the eaves will splash directly back onto the bottom panel, eventually rotting it. A pal of mine has a lovely big shed at the bottom of his garden which is rotting for this reason. Guttering can mitigate some of the issue, of course.

[shocker]

I did once buy a metal shed as a quick fix when we first moved in the house and I too found condensation was a problem but put a layer of insulation on top covered with corrugated bitumen sheeting and it's been bone dry for the last decade.

Grenf, could you possibly give us a bit more detail on that bit of magic? Getting a metal shed to a non-sweating state is truly impressive!

some might take umbrage with living next door to a "shanty town" .

Yes, there have been comments where I am now...its a good thing I havnt got ALL my kit here. At my last place I had two sheds, a workshop and a cage for all my gas welding bottles. Not to mention the drive-under vehicle work bay, tyre storage, compressor and air lines. On a static caravan site.

In hindsight, its not surprising that they werent sad to see me go.

[gamekeeper752]

Currently building a friends work shed we have just laid the cement base.In our case there will not be a wooded floor as she wishes to bolt her wood-turning machines directly to the floor.We are sealing the shed to the base with fibre rubber stuff to prevent water seep and we have a large all round overhang on the roof with gutters so the roof water goes to the barrels.As mentioned by others, there is enough room to get round the back to repaint paint.

On my own sheds I built cement bases for all three as well as one for my larger green house but my smaller greenhouse is on slabs, over a weed suppressing layer

As I go about my local area I look for building projects being done by other people and I have been able to source all my guttering by asking if I can have the old bits out the skips it might not look pretty but does the trick.

By the way you describe you garden I assume there is a south facing fence somewhere on your boundary can you put a greenhouse there somewhere.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Do build a hard-standing. Andy's post is good but he has compromised his shed by having it directly on the slabs. Raindrops from the eaves will splash directly back onto the bottom panel, eventually rotting it. A pal of mine has a lovely big shed at the bottom of his garden which is rotting for this reason. Guttering can mitigate some of the issue, of course.

Ahh but you can't see the back and sides as they stand now

First thing to go on sheds usually is the floor hence my floor is the slabs

The cladding is about 10mm off the floor and the 2x2 tantalised ground frame will be reasonably simple to replace


The front is level with the edge of the hard standing. With a slight overhang to shelter my flood lamps so no splash up

The back and left side are on the edge and the ground round is chipped slate to allow sokeaway / splash defection / no mud splashing up with a 12" gap between the hedge / conifers which are restrained from the fence by reed screening keeping the worst of the driving rain off it



The back has the guttering,

The right now has my wood store lean too storage box which I'm on with now as I run out of time and weather last summer

Its not perfect but its way better than what I could have bought at a shed place for the money


If your putting a base down consider digging a deep hole and concrete a few big chains in i passed a few big volts through the chain low down then used 2 bags of post crete to secure the chain at key points then drill a hole in your floor and pass the chain into the shed.

Motorbike / mowers / tools can then be locked to the chain