In message , Andy Hall
writes
On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 20:36:15 +0100, Andrew McKay
wrote:

Thanks to an excellent suggestion by Andy (Hall) I now have a fairly
good idea of the garden shed I'm looking to invest in - it's the
Malvern Bewdley Apex 8x6 or something close to it:

http://tinyurl.com/l53z

Berkshire Buildings (http://www.berkshirebuildings.ltd.uk/) have a
special deal on at the moment for this shed - £380 including delivery
and erection. Looking around the web that seems like a fair deal.

It's getting towards the end of the season, I guess - that seems like
a reasonable deal as you say.

Yeah sounds fair to me, we paid 400 and a bit for a 10x6 a few years
ago.


My previous experience of garden sheds is limited, and I am concerned
that being a wooden shed it will get damp in winter, which wouldn't be
good for garden tools, bicycles and what have you.

You could insulate it inside.
This would make it feasible to use something like a small greenhouse
tubular heater with a thermostat to keep it dry.


We have garden hand tools in ours I can't say I've noticed any ill
effects on them. I know store be in the garage, but I once built a
little shed-let to store a bike for a couple of years - it didn't seem
to suffer any rusting etc. in those years - on modern bikes there isn't
actually that much that does rust really anyway. I think as long as it
is weathertight, off the ground and with a modicum of ventilation (not
hard with a shed...) then things are fine

My initial thoughts are to have this shed installed on top of paving
slabs -
On top of
the paving slabs would be wooden bearers which have been treated, then
the shed on top of those.

I did this for a lean-to shed that I made myself about 10 years ago.

I did similar, with the bearers resting on some concrete blocks. Has
lasted well so far

Once the shed is up I would then be tempted to give it a damn good
dose of creosote substitute on the outside, so as to repel water. Not
sure if this is appropriate or not - I'm always suspicious of
pre-treated fencing and tend to take the attitude that you can't throw
too much preserver at something which is going to be open to all the
elements.

I would tend to do the same and would use a solvent based product like
Cuprinol.


Yeah, I think the 'treatment' they give to sheds in next to worthless,
they all seem to recommend further treatment on site anyway. I used a
solvent based Cuprinol preserver, possibly the 'Decorative wood
Preserver' certainly the water-based ones aren't any use from the
preservative POV. I used a green one to go with the rest of the garden
woodwork - the colour has worn well and the shed hasn't rotted away yet
:-) If I had had the chance I would have treated the underside of the
floor

We also painted the inside of the shed white (with emulsion paint). It's
a much lighter and more pleasant place because of this.

If I was buying a shed again, I would try to erect it myself, even if I
paid the same price as for erecting. The quality of the shed was fine
(in terms of garden sheds anyway) but the erection let it down. Nothing
major, but little niggles - things easier to sort out than go to the
effort of getting them back to sort it. I

And on the topic of felt, the stuff they used was of fairly cheap
quality. And a couple of years later part came off in the wind. Next
time I would cover it with a better quality felt over the top to prempt
this. - because of course if the felt is going to go it will do it in
the middle of a wet winter period of course......
--
Chris French, Leeds