Two shapes are commonly available, Apex garden sheds that come to a point in the middle, like the traditional house shape and Pent roof sheds that have a roof that slopes from one high side to the other lower side. Apex roofs generally have more headroom in the middle than the pent design which usually have the door and window at the higher side. A sensible arrangement with the pent design is to have a workbench at the higher side and use the lower side for storage of tools.

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Build your own garden shed - Materials

Wood is the most popular material to build your own garden shed as it blends into the garden more so than any other material, especially as the wood weathers with age. Softwood is most commonly used to build your own garden shed as it is cheaper. It should always be treated with preservative with pressure-treated wood best as the preservative has been forced into the wood rather than painted on the outside.

An advantage of the wooden garden sheds is that the wood can be easily stained in any one of a whole host of shades to blend in or become a feature of the garden. Stained wood is subtle in a way that any other painted surface never can be. Wooden garden sheds need treating with preservative on a regular basis - every few years - to keep them going.

Cladding or weatherboard is the cheapest and least weather proof way to build your own garden shed. It is like the overlapping slats in a fence on edge so the rain runs down the outside. As the boards are simply overlapped they can warp and knots in the wood often fall out. Sometimes known as rustic-cladding or similar.

Tongue and Groove planking is better to build your own garden shed as the planks are held in place at their top and bottom edges making a more weather-proof finish and usually a finer planed finish too.

Shiplap is the best to build your own garden shed. It is a version of tongue and groove planking where there is a rebate at the top of each plank so that each plank fits under the overlapping edge of the plank above it, a design that keeps water out better.

Metal is a good practical choice to build your own garden shed with steel and aluminium both very durable particularly if they have been treated during manufacture to be resistant to corrosion. They are usually completely maintenance free, though are less popular due to their appearance. Whereas most people are happy for wooden garden sheds to be seen, metal sheds are less visually attractive and are probably better when hidden. Many metal sheds are therefore very small and are more tool-stores, like a large outdoor cupboard, than a traditional walk-in garden sheds.

Plastic is another good zero maintenance option to build your own garden shed. Plastic is generally used for smaller garden sheds and also for large outdoor tool storage boxes rather than for the larger buildings. Very easy to assemble being useable almost directly out of the box, but unsympathetic in a garden setting in the same way that metal sheds are.

Plastic storage boxes are ideal if you have one of those awkward areas down the side of your house that is useless for just about any other purpose and is too small to fit a traditional walk-in garden sheds.

Plastic still suffers from being broken down by the UV rays in sunlight and with the colour fading. It's far better than it used to be but will still deteriorate over time. Placed in a shady and hidden region of the garden however, this will not be a problem as if in the shadow, sunlight won't weaken the structure, again ideal for down the side of the house.

Build your own garden shed - Bases

Garden sheds need to be on a good foundation, though not necessarily as substantial a foundation as if often thought. A concrete slab will of course be excellent, but is a considerable amount of effort to mix and lay the concrete required for even a modest shed. If you decide on this route, then the slab should be at least 100mm - 4" thick. Generally the larger the shed and the more it used as somewhere to work, the more substantial the base needs to be.

Wooden garden sheds always come with a wooden floor, usually consisting of tongue and groove boards held together with battens, these will come into contact with the ground and no matter how well soaked in preservative they are, they will rot if placed directly on the soil and so need something to keep them off the soil.

Perfectly adequate for the majority of purposes is a base of paving slabs to build your own garden shed laid onto levelled soil.

1/ Mark out the area of the shed, strip off the turf if there is any and smooth out the the soil as well as you can.

2/ Lay a string line along 2 edges of the shed and place the first slab in the corner, level it using a spirit level. You can use the 5 blobs of mortar technique to get it right and even a hardcore base if you want, though for most purposes, soil is perfectly adequate to level the slabs.

3/ Lay the next slab against the long edge and level it with the first using the spirit level. Continue until the first row are all laid, then start on the second.

4/ Drop the wooden base on your slab base and build the garden sheds. I'd always give the underside of the base a really good couple of coats of preservative before it goes down as you'll probably never see it again.

You could even get by with less than a complete covering of slabs, as long as you have the full length of the battens that hold together the floor supported, that should be adequate. The shed itself will keep the base dry.

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