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Garden Sheds Need more outdoor storage space?

Wooden garden shed

Sheds are invaluable in the garden, they area quick and easy way of stowing away tools and belongings that are not very clean and keeping them safe and dry. They are also very useful as a workspace under cover where mess is not a problem, whether for potting up plants or various workshop jobs.

Shape

Two shapes are commonly available, Apex sheds that come to a point in the middle, like the traditional house shape and Pent roof sheds that have a roof that slopes from one high side to the other lower side. In general apex sheds are cheaper and pent sheds have more head-room. Apex sheds have the door on the end while pent sheds tend to have the door in the wider side. Pent roof sheds allow for a workbench at the higher side and use the lower side for storage of tools etc. an arrangement that is not really possible in an apex.

Materials

The most popular material for sheds as they blend sympathetically into the garden more so than any other material, especially as the wood weathers with age. Softwood is most commonly used for sheds as it is cheaper. It will always be treated with preservative though pressure-treated wood is best as the preservative has been forced into the wood rather than painted on the outside, but is not easy to find in sheds.

An advantage of the wooden shed is that the wood can be easily stained in any one of a whole host of shades to blend in or become a feature of the garden. Stained wood is subtle in a way that any other painted surface never can be. Wooden sheds need treating with preservative on a regular basis - every few years - to keep them going.

Cladding:

"Weatherboard" is the cheapest and least weather proof, it is like the overlapping slats in a fence on edge so that the rain runs down the outside. As the boards are simply overlapped they can warp and knots in the wood often fall out. Sometimes known as rustic-cladding or similar.

Tongue and Groove planking is better as the planks are held in place at their top and bottom edges making a more weather-proof finish and usually a finer planed finish too.

Shiplap is better again, it is a version of tongue and groove planking where there is a rebate at the top of each plank so that each plank fits under the overlapping edge of the plank above it, a design that keeps water out better.

Whatever the type, it is always useful to line a wooden shed with water-proof building paper from a builders merchant to keep the weather out even better and make the atmosphere in the shed less damp so protecting tools from rusting.

A good practical choice as a material for sheds, steel and aluminium are both very durable particularly if they have been treated during manufacture to be resistant to corrosion. They are usually completely maintenance free, though are less popular due to their appearance. Whereas most people are happy for a wooden shed to be seen, metal sheds are less visually attractive and are probably better when hidden. Many metal sheds are therefore very small and are more tool-stores, like a large outdoor cupboard, than a traditional walk-in shed.

View all metal garden sheds

Another good zero maintenance option. Plastic is generally used for smaller sheds and also for large outdoor tool  storage boxes rather than for the larger buildings. Very easy to assemble being useable almost directly out of the box, but unsympathetic in a garden setting in the same way that metal sheds are.

Plastic storage boxes are ideal if you have one of those awkward areas down the side of your house that is useless for just about any other purpose, and is too small to fit a traditional walk-in shed.

Plastic still suffers from being broken down by the UV rays in sunlight and with the colour fading. It's far better than it used to be but will still deteriorate over time. Placed in a shady and hidden region of the garden however, this will not be a problem as if in the shadow, sunlight won't weaken the structure, again ideal for down the side of the house.

Plastic garden sheds

Sheds need to be on a good foundation, though not necessarily as substantial a foundation as is sometimes thought. A large solid concrete slab will of course be excellent, but is a considerable amount of effort to mix and lay the concrete required for even a modest shed. If you decide on this route, then the slab should be at least 100mm - 4" thick. Generally the larger the shed and the more it used as somewhere to work - walking in and out regularly, the more substantial the base needs to be.

Wooden sheds always come with a wooden floor, usually consisting of tongue and groove boards held together with battens, these will come into contact with the ground and no matter how well soaked in preservative they are, they will rot if placed directly on the soil and so need something to keep them off the soil.  The purpose of a shed base is to provide a level platform for the shed so it can be erected properly and to keep the wood away from damp soil. If anything it is useful to have the shed base standing slightly proud - half to an inch will do - of the surrounding soil.

Perfectly adequate for the majority of purposes for simple storage sheds up to about 8ft x 6ft is a base of paving slabs laid dry onto levelled soil.

1/ Mark out the area of the shed, strip off the turf if there is any and smooth out the the soil as well as you can.

2/ Lay a string line along 2 edges of the shed and place the first slab in the corner, level it using a spirit level for most purposes, soil is perfectly adequate to level the slabs except if your shed is being placed somewhere fairly damp or perhaps low lying.

If you want a more stable and solid base or if the area is damp or low lying, a dry sand and cement mix of 8 parts builders sand to 1 part cement could be laid as a bed below the slabs to a depth of about 2 inches. This will also make it easier to level the area and to ensure the slabs are horizontal above it as the sand-cement is easier to move around than soil and settles less.

3/ Lay the next slab against the long edge and level it with the first using the spirit level. Continue until the first row are all laid, then start on the second.

4/ Put the wooden shed base on your slab base and build the shed. I'd always give the underside of the base a really good couple of coats of preservative before it goes down as you'll probably never see it again.

You can get by with less than a complete covering of slabs, as long as you have the full length of the battens that hold together the floor supported  - I have a shed in the garden that houses my mower and bags of compost, it had precisely this kind of base laid 10 years ago and is still as good now as it was when first erected. The shed itself will keep the base dry.

Q. How do I lay a base for a small garden shed I have just bought?

A. Follow the instructions for laying a patio if you want the best foundation. Just lay slabs on soil if a simple basic base will do for a small storage shed. The main thing is to keep the wood dry and off the soil.

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Once you have your shed, you will want to use it properly