GARDEN SHEDS, GARDEN DESIGN and BUILDING A SHED

Planning and building garden sheds

Garden sheds can be a good addition to your garden if planned and designed carefully. A garden shed is useful in many ways - for example it gives extra storage space and helps with garden upkeep. You can store almost anything like lawnmowers, shovels and other gardening items to make your garden look neat and well organized.

Wooden garden storage box or cabinet or a wooden shed provides a great way to store tools and other stuff like paint, solvents, boxes of seeds, pots, fencing materials etc, that have to be put somewhere, and you don't want them in the house!

New innovative garden sheds are prefabricated, portable and easy to install. Prefabricated garden buildings come in a range of prices from low to high depending on specification. A simple shed can start at well under two hundred pounds.

There are various points that you should take into consideration while building and maintaining your own garden shed or prefabricated garden building.

Tips for building a garden shed

It would cost less if you plan to build a garden shed from scratch, meanwhile this allows you to choose from wide variety of options available like sheeting, roofing, lumber, fasteners and so on.

Shed kits come with easy to follow instructions, make sure you read those carefully and have all the required tools with you. Go for good quality material if you want a durable garden shed. Often expensive high quality materials with are a better long term choice.

You will also need two people so get a friend involved with offers of free food and drink! Or just pay him or her. Physical strength is needed for these jobs.

And don't forget safety considerations for building work, as well as the actual structure.

Take inspiration from this painted beach shed

Shed materials

The most common material that people prefer is wood, others are plastic and metal. Examine the sample garden sheds at garden centres and DITY stores, stores then determine how these sheds would stand against hot and cold conditions.

Garden shed base and floor should be preferably of concrete or cement as it provides more stability in wet weather conditions. Low cost sheds have ply floors, marine ply is weather proof.

Above: Secure shed to hold mini-golf equipment - on a concrete foundation base

Shed shapes

There are two basic shape designs for a garden shed: flat roof or pent and ridge roof or apex shapes.

In an apex shape you get ridged roof in the middle of the shed, like on a normal house.

The pent shape has the roof inclined from higher to lower edge, like on an extension with a flat roof.

Apex design has a main room in the middle and pent shape design has doors and windows on the high side. Use any of these designs according to your garden and home's shape so that the shed blends well into the surroundings.

Pent or flat roof shed design is a lot cheaper, as you are building half the roof structure comaped to a ridged or apex design.

Wooden garden sheds

Wooden sheds looks more natural and artistic than plastic or metal. You can select from hardwood or softwood but softwood with preservatives added is better. Cladding and Weatherboard are fairly good selection as they are cheaper and come with weather proof guarantee.

These wooden sheds are very practical and equally appealing. You can choose a large or small garden shed and then stain or paint it to match with the overall appearance of your home. Moreover, wood itself gives a natural tone so decorating a wooden shed with flower baskets, metal art, pots and lights is indeed amusing.

You can also search online for garden shed websites, compare prices and if you like you can order one to be delivered right to your door. They will ship the shed but in this case you have to rely entirely on pictures and descriptions. Plenty of research, thoughtful considerations, planning and designing with some effort can result in a great looking garden shed to fulfill loads of your household needs!