Adrian wrote:
On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:36:05 +0100, "Roger Cain" wrote:
"Adrian" wrote

The item is question is a Yardmaster 17' x 10ft metal shed...

Oh. I've got a smaller Yardmaster model and have had no trouble.

13'x10' in my case.

Did you get the pack of plastic washers which are supposed to go on
each self-tap? These have kept the water out for me.

The washers didn't seem to be all that a good a solution - large
plastic washer, larger oval hole in the metal sheet and a panhead
selftapper.... not really wonderful engineering (IMHO)

Mine mostly worked OK. I have had one leak in the roof which used to
only occur in very bad weather, but now seems to have stopped (perhaps a
lucky bird-turd over the screw head? :-) )

Didn't help that about 20% of the holes that should have been punched
through the longitudinal rails and the roof panels had only been
mildy threatened, rather than being punched through g

I had a few of those, but with only mild persuasion the screws will go
through un-punched metal as well as punched, so it wasn't a big problem.

As with all flat packs you need to read and appreciate the
instructions first.

Did that - read them - didn't appreciate them all that much g

I agree they're a little daunting at first glance, but followed
carefully I found them entirely accurate and didn't have any major problems.

Had to co-opt the wife when it came to lifting the roof on.

The two of us worked on it together... ...didn't seem fair to have
all the fun myself g

I had two mates with me, one an able assistant and one whose sole job
was to fit hundreds of plastic washers onto hundreds of screws :-). If
he hadn't been there, and if it were an option they offered, I'd have
gladly paid £20 for Yardmaster to do that bit for me.

Might be an idea to seal the base frame onto the concrete/flag base
with mastic before screwing down to prevent water seepage.

I sat mine on a timber base, and fitted a skirt of dpm under the
bottom edge of the side panels to deflect that water away. That bit
worked g

I tried to seal the frame to the base with spandy-foam. It helped, but
wasn't entirely successful. I've since laid DPM on the floor inside,
with a four-inch skirt up the walls, and put down OSB on top. Feels very
dry in there now, though not being able to screw anything to the floor
has been a bit limiting in fitting benches etc.

Apart from these wrinkles I have no reason not to buy one again.

I did get the feeling that the smaller sheds _might_ work better -
just this larger unit involved too many 'bits' and is altogether too
flimsy.

Mine's not that much smaller than yours, and as a structure it doesn't
seem flimsy to me. Individual parts sometimes seem a bit thin, but put
together they support each other and it feels solid enough. Of course,
I've since boarded the inside (to prevent me accidentally denting it by
throwing stuff around) but it wasn't bad before.

The doors are very floppy, and not helped by the fact that
the hinges seemd to be just mild steel - so they've rusted badly....

This seems different. Mine has sliding doors rather than hinged. There I
have had to make improvements - the doors were sturdy enough against
wind and weather, but not against human attack. The original steel is
now more like a thin cladding over a substantial wooden structure. Of
course you could still open up the walls with a tin-opener, but it's
only intended to resist casual kicking at the doors rather than a
well-thought-out attack.

I usppose it was 'only' 1000 euro (about 800 quid) - but I'm sure I
could have built in timber for the same price - and ended up with a
better result....

Mine was (IIRC) about £350 for the basic structure. It was a replacement
for a couple of badly-rotted wooden sheds, so having something that's
impervious to that was a big selling point - and I wasn't aware of the
potential downsides at the time.

Pete