Buying a shed for the first time

[Miichael]

I've been looking at a shed for my allotment, but as even a cheap shed is a fair outlay I don't want to buy something that isn't going to last. Any experience or reccomendations would be appreciated!

The main things I have been considering:

Cladding - average seems to be about 7mm, but this seems very thin. Is it worth spending another £100 or so for 12mm?

Pressure or dip treated? Pressure treated sheds seem to have thinner walls (not seen anything over 7mm), but presume pressure treated lasts longer?

Is wood even the best option?

Any brands to avoid?

Or websites to buy from avoid? Wilkos and B&Q seem to sell the same sheds as others for a higher price, so have ruled them out, but perhaps customer service is worth considering too?

Anything I've missed out on?

I don't want to spend a fortune!

This is my first post here btw, hullo!

[veggiechicken]

Hi Miichael and welcome to the Vine
I can't advise you on the shed question, sorry, but I'm sure someone will be along soon, who knows what they're talking about (or maybe not)

[katkatkat]

Just posting so I can follow this and don't know how else to do that.

I potentially will be needing to buy a new shed as the one I've inherited has a lean to it so interested in the answers to your questions.

[mrsbusy]

Hi and well done on first post. A brand new shiny shed....lucky you. I only aspire to Freecycle. Good luck with your project....my only words of wisdom would be don't forget to factor in the cost of the base which can be surprisingly expensive and tricky to get right. ie level and square - we are just putting up a freebee greenhouse but have spent some £60 on blocks and sand just to do a perimeter footing for a 8x8 and much adjusting of levels even tho the site looked pretty flat. Thanks to mrbusy for being good at that.

[Cadalot]

Hi Miichael welcome to the vine

OK my first plot I got a BillyHo ridge shed, cheap feather edge shed, its 5 years old and doing well, but it would not survive on my second allotment (more vandalism & high winds) where I went for a Tiger pent shed and you get more room inside with a pent and I went for T&G Shiplap as more sturdy and vandal proof.

IMHO the Tiger Pent shed is a much better product than the BillyOH but I am comparing two different cladding options and styles.

I bought both with the internal Lock & Key but you can get those for about £3-4 on ebay as you can see I put a bench in at mid height to strengthen the door frame so that if little darlings try and break in then it will resist them more.

I screwed it together rather than nailed it in addition to the bolts frame to base and roof to walls using small metal clips. It's worth making sure you have some weight in the shed otherwise they end up like my brother in laws

Photos below is Mill Green the Billy Ho and once the little house on the prairie extension was added and it received a lick of paint. The Pent shed at my second allotment, and by brother-in-laws after storm Katrina. Don't be fooled into thinking the BillyHo is tall my wife is very short and I have to duck to get into it which is another reason I went for the pent second time around.

Check out my diary and there are photos of the paving slab base etc. I did also give the timber base / floor a couple of coats of preservative before erection as you are never going to be able to get under there again and in my experience of wooden sheds it's the battens in contact with the concrete that rot first.

The floor liner in the Pent shed is a sheet of corex which makes sweeping up any mud off your boots that gets in easy and protects the wooden floor

[Bigmallly]

If it's for the allotment, why not have a bash at a pallet shed................p.s welcome to the Jungle:

Simple Reclaimed Pallet Shed

[Guest]

Hi and welcome to the vine

If you are any good at woodwork I would say build ya own. I am not, so I got a shed from Tiger sheds Garden Sheds and Garden Buildings | Tiger Sheds after reading recommendations on here. I think they are the best of your basic sheds about i.e when it arrives you won't go wow this is fantastic but at the same time you won't be saying OMG what a flimsy piece of ****!

[Miichael]

Thank you everyone for your replies!

mrsbusy - I've looked at Freecycle and EBay, but am limited by a very small car. And in my experience, flat pack stuff that has been disassembled never goes back up quite right or strongly. A bad experience with an IKEA bed was the last straw for me! Although I Feel I'd seen something free or very cheap I would have been tempted, but I'd rather spend more money than waste £100 (the going rate for a disassembled, pre-owned shed around me it seems).

Bigmally - I've seen these but the regs for my allotment forbid homemade sheds. Some people might be able to make one out of pallets that would pass inspection but I suspect not me!

Cadalot - Thank you, this was really useful. Had been looking at BillyOh sheds so glad to have been warned off. Had not seen Tigersheds though, they seem very good. Is it worth getting the the t&g shiplap over the standard cladding, in your opinion? It is quite a bit more expensive but I'd rather stretch and spend more on something that will last. None of their sheds appear pressure treated, not a problem in your opinion? I don't mind giving it a fresh coat every year but would do that with any option.

Many thanks all. Any other opinions gratefully received. Especially makes to look at/avoid. And any experience with plastic sheds would be good to hear, too.

[bario1]

Personally I would never pay new shed prices for something that's at the mercy of vandals and arsonists! Your local Gumtr** will have cheap second hand sheds coming up regularly if you don't mind disassembling and reassembling it?

Doh! Just saw OP's last post!

[burnie]

Couple of things about sheds treatment, when it says pressure treatment, do you know what that entails? You might think it involves forcing the liquid into the wood under pressure to give a better protection. Wrong, it means it's thin stuff that's been sprayed on with a pressure spray gun, the liquid hits the wood under little or no pressure what so ever and is probably the worst way to protect wood. Sure some will soak into the wood, but the word "pressure" is perhaps not quite what it might seem.
Secondly the current crop of timber protectors are at best only going to slow down the decomposition of the wood a bit, they will not work like oil based creosote used to do.

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

For my "Twopence Worth" I got my allotment shed given by a colleague who was upgrading his pending his retirement and was in fairly good nick to be honest.

I personally didn't want to go out and invest money on a nice shiny new one to then be put on a plot notorious for little monsters and vandals.

Another thing worth considering is the base, I came up with the conclusion that if I ran off to my local scaffolders, purchased a few lengths as well as the brackets they use when they erect this stuff, knocked four cut down posts approx 3ft into the ground at all four corners, them made a level sqaure frame to these, then drilled holes in the base of the shed, fed ubolts around the scaffold poles through the holes, thus bolting the shed to the frame, meaning in theory the shed is not actually sat on the wet floor aiding rotting, and gives a little ventilation under the shed too.

Plus I was putting 3 ton of shingle around it too to hide the little gap.

And that baby ain't going anywhere!

Oh! And welcome from me also.

[ESBkevin]

If you get a 'thin walled' or second hand shed you can add sheets of ply or OSB inside to stiffen it up and give better security. In the end getting into a locked shed just involves different levels of brute force, you can but dissuade.
If your shed attracts attention it might not be the best one to have from a security point of view.
I built one from pallets although I disassembled them and cut the planks to fit a new frame. Modern wood preservers are poor, so sometimes an old shed that once had creosote on it lasts longer than a brand new offering. Some people use old engine oil watered down with some dirty diesel to preserve sheds, but it is toxic to the soil if you spill it and to any plants in might contact.

[Katnap]

I got mine as an ex-display model from B&Q for I think just over half price. Only thing was I had to take it down myself and cart it away but B&Q also do a hourly van rental.

[Muddy_Boots]

Whatever you erect one thing is certain, unless what you are storing in it weighs a ton you need to at least have the shed on a slab/concrete base and the shed should be anchored down. Either that or when Doris's mate comes along it will be blown over or ... destroyed like 2 unfortunates in our lotties.

[Cadalot]

Something like this after storm Kate Alans Allotment: Storm Katie & Sheds