Every serious gardener needs a shed. Just like every serious DIYer needs a drill.
There’s simply no more efficient and convenient way of storing gardening equipment and tools.
Also, a shed can serve as a place to do woodworking, for running a business or escaping from the family for a little while!
Still, many gardeners and amateur carpenters put off building a shed in their yard because they consider the task to be too difficult and they will make mistakes, or are afraid that the shed will not be stable enough to withstand adverse weather conditions and the strains of storage.
So how do you build a shed that will withstand the stresses of the environment?
The truth is that almost anyone can build a garden shed for themselves, either alone or with a little help, and it doesn’t have to be a very complex project, if you know a few handy tricks and the essential steps to doing the job right.
So here are some of the essential steps to ensure that a garden shed will serve you for a long time:
Make a Coherent Plan
Before you start the actual building process, you have to understand the fundamental difference between a sturdy shed and one that tends to break down over time.
The ones that stay standing almost always have had a solid foundation which was laid at the planning stages of the shed building process – it isn’t rocket science and the plans may be relatively simple, but the fact remains that only with careful and thorough planning the best results can be achieved.
Consider how big a budget you can allocate to the project so that you don’t have to cut corners and compromise on quality later on, then start thinking about the potential sites for the shed in your yard, the materials you could use, as well as the blueprints that you’ll use for the actual construction process.
You can find many free shed blueprints online that should be more than sufficient for your needs (try here, here, here and here).
Select the Right Spot
When you go through the planning process and want to start implementing the plans you laid out, the next step is narrowing down the potential shed locations into the spot that it will be best suited for.
While you might have a few options that could be suitable for a shed, only one of them is truly right – there are certain factors that need to be considered before making the decision.
Firstly, you have to make sure that the location is as even as possible, because it’s essential for the sheds stability and longevity. Of course, you might not always have the ideal spot initially, but doing the work to make it more even is important.
Consider Materials Options
When you’ve got the location of the shed ready, you can go forward and buy the materials required for your shed.
As you were looking over the blueprints of the sheds, you probably noticed that while there were multiple materials options, most of the sheds are wood-based. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to opt for a wooden shed as well, but this choice is so popular for a reason.
The metal shed is the sturdiest possible option, while the plastic sheds are the cheaper option, but wooden sheds are not very expensive either, and they are durable enough to compete with metal sheds.
You should also consider that a wooden shed will likely look best in your garden.
This article is written and provided by Jeremy who works with All Sheds- a Shepparton (Australia) based registered building practitioner. He likes to share his articles with like-minded people.
