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I want a 6' x 4' shed (approx) and, having average DIY skills, I thought it might be nice to make one. Question is, is it cheaper (better) to make one or buy a cheap one from B&Q?
If making is better, anyone have a decent plan they'd like to share?
I think it's unlikely that you'll be able to buy all the bits you need to build your shed (at retail prices) cheaper than B&Q can supply you one for.
That said, I imagine the satisfaction of building one, rather than bolting one together is much higher.
it won't be cheaper, but it will be better.
it won’t be cheaper, but it will be better.
This. You won't be able to buy cheap enough materials to match a pre-built shed so you'll spend the price of a pre-built shed on the materials and end up with one that's twice as good.
For a 6x4 just buy one. It'll be cheaper and take a fraction of the time to build.
I got one of the Forest ones off eBay before summer. Managed to get it when they had a 10% off offer when paying by paypal so brought it down to £224
It went toegher very easily, but the mistake i made was that i stacked it in the garden for a few weeks whilst i sorted the base and the like. Sadly some of the timbers for the roof warped so it required a bit of fettling to get it all to work and fit together, but got there in the end.
Reckon it took about 2-3hrs in total to assemble it
DIY kit, but making the roof boards more water-resistant will help a lot - OSB boards with roof waterproofer / tape the seams and maybe some better quality felt
Definitely build, I ordered a 'Quality, heavy duty' shed online for a not inconsiderable sum of pounds. It was garbage and lots of parts were already broken/warped.
For less than the cost of that shed, I got all the materials (including the insulation) and built it myself, Considerably stronger than anything I saw online.
My shed came from the internet, it was about £225 for an 8x6 with floor etc. Its adequate but certainly not solid (the timber used for the sides is very thin). The base and roof are fine though.
Tigersheds, good quality and I doubt you will be able to make one cheaper.
Mate bought one from beastsheds, seems much better than the usual thin rubbish (and I helped him put together an absolutely awful cheap one years ago).
Else build if you can and you want something to last. This playhouse was about £300 in materials including 2 sheets of OSB and felt for the roof, and 16mm treated shiplap to clad it in. A good chunk of that was nice decking for the floor, which you wouldn't need for a shed. I was comparing with the shed that came with the house and literally everything on it is twice the thickness.
Tigersheds, good quality and I doubt you will be able to make one cheaper.
I got a new shed recently from them and would second this. I ticked all of the boxes for heavy duty frame, pressure treated etc. so it would last and I wasn't disappointed at all - it's a cracking thing. I helped the delivery driver to carry it into the back garden and it nearly killed me. When we checked the shipping note, it apparently weighed just under 1000kg!
Went up in a single evening without any problems and we (well, my wife anyway) are very happy with it. Not the cheapest thing, but it would have cost me 70% of the cost just to source the materials, so I have no complaints.
Reputable local shed builder?
I needed a 10 x 8 but with a twist - build in log store down one side. Local lad happy to build what we wanted and deliver and install.
Very happy.
Keep an eye on used ones on Ebay - there are occasionally ones worth buying, although may be less so for smaller sizes. I've just got a 6m x 6m one for £500 - quite old but zero rot. Putting in a base though, that's another matter...
I built my own and even though I say it myself it is pretty well built... What I mean is I took a lot of time and pretty much over engineered a lot of it. A pro would have done it quicker and cheaper but I doubt better. I would do it in a lot less time in future if I was to do another. It was great fun.
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/help-constructing-my-summer-house-jib-hidden-door/
Dear god whatever you do dont buy a cheap shed. Nothing fits, the wood is paper thin, urgh just horrible.
Surfer - that looks fantastic,well done. Although i would reckon that it doesnt really fall in to the cheap category? I love the colour of cedar,just not the price.
Buy a container 🙂
Thanks for the tiger shed suggestion! We are just talking about the next phase of our house project, we have a lovely insulated powered summer house which is well past it’s best so I want to replace it with a storage shed of decent quality! They look fab!
built my own, best thing ive ever done. great sense of achievement as ive no previous experience, just advice from here and a couple of days help from a good mate.....
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/inspired-by-shed-threads-do-you-think-its-possible-for/
now also built a corner unit and small table from pallets.....
<p>Buy a container</p>
<p>Cheap option that is not. A one way 20' box ended up costing my old man about £2700 once the delivery and VAT were added and that was cheaper than a lot of places. Second hand market is full of chancers and at the mercy of the markets.</p>
Cheap option that is not. A one way 20′ box ended up costing my old man about £2700 once the delivery and VAT were added and that was cheaper than a lot of places. Second hand market is full of chancers and at the mercy of the markets.
Depends where you look 🙂
Do a search on modular buildings.
If it's just too chuck rakes and garden tat in, a cheap one will do. Anywhere you might spend more than ten seconds in and keep anything you're vaguely precious about would probably warrant a self build. Extra cost is your time*.
* I have no facts to back this up, I only bought roof sheets and fixings as the rest just grows on trees and is freely available to me .
Another vote for tiger sheds here!
<p>Depends where you look </p><p>Do a search on modular buildings.</p>
<p>Going to have to be more specific than that given first search showed anything north of £8k. Unless you mean the self assembly "containers" from £1k +VAT</p><p>I was talking about a proper intermodal container.</p>
just transport of a container will be more than your average shed unless you live next door and he can just hiab drop it into your garden.....
not to mention them looking shit , being not very secure, being noisy to open and loving to condensate in our uk climate.
watched a program on container modular homes once ..... when all was said and done the owner/builder said it was a shit idea and he could have done better without the containers - i tend to agree with him having spent a few months living in one on the deck of a rig in Equatorial Guinea.