Topic: shed

[ACE]

We lost quite a few sheds in the last big blow. One lady was going to buy one and have it erected, I nearly fell over when she told me they were going to charge over £700 to put up a £300 shed. I told her just buy the shed I would put it up for her. There was already a good foundation where the old one had stood. She insisted on paying me, so I told her a bottle of something nice would cover it. It was a good quality shed so it zipped together a treat. Two and a half hours and it was up. Next day another hour felting it. Job done. A bottle of Grouse was sent around with a thankyou card, inside the card Five new twenty pound notes. My activity was noticed by another couple of plot holders and could I do the same for them please. I have never purchased a new shed for an allotment, always looked for one that needs taken away free. I like the ramshackle look on allotments with their assortment of make do and mend sheds. It also looks like the old skip divers have also gone with all the ready made cold frames and clean bamboo all over the site. Are you still allowed to cut willow and hazel for beansticks or does that come under the same law as the removal of wild plants etc.

[Paulh]

There's definitely a careful cost / benefit analysis in taking over an old shed. You can quickly spend almost as much as a new shed would cost and take twice as long to finish the job!

[gray1720]

Two and a half hours and it was up.

Have you tried Viagra, ACE?
(straight out of his joke book!)

I certainly wouldn't buy a 2nd hand shed without looking very carefully - I inherited one with my house, and the first time I pulled the lawnmower out of it I pulled the front off! I did get another five years out of it, but it turned out to be even more rotten than I thought when I took it down, didn't get much re-usable out of it at all. On the other hand, sod paying two and a half times the cost of the shed to put it up - that's daylight robbery!

[Beersmith]

I certainly wouldn't buy a 2nd hand shed without looking very carefully

I agree.  When I first got my current main plot I had a choice of two.  I picked the one with an old shed.  It looked in poor condition but I thought it might go a couple of seasons.  A few weeks in and working hard one morning it started to rain heavily.  I went in the shed and a minute later was back out.  I was getting wetter inside than out!

It was a huge waste of time.  It was rotted through. It remained upright because of bits of angle iron driven about three feet into the ground. I had to knock it down and clear the waste at the nearest tip as our plot bans bonfires for most of the year.  Trip after trip in a small car.  Lots of broken glass, rusty nails, and (inexplicably) barbed wire.

I never regretted choosing that plot.  Good position and good soil.  But that shed cost me days and days of hard work that I would have preferred to spend growing.  Digging out the angle iron took a whole day in itself. 

Old sheds    can be really really evil.

[Paulh]

There's a Stephen King novel there ...

[Tiny Clanger]

We got an old shed - dismantle and take away. needed a bit of repair but with some new bits and a jet wash its doing the job well.  On a slab base ( properly acquired form skips and old drives), held down ( we get sever gales on occasion) by expansion bolts. seriously heavy duty floor and finished off with two old kitchen wall cupboards in the back corners and an old piece of kitchen worktop across.  I had ideas of using it for tea and coffee ( I have the double burner and calor for it) but my husband has now filled it so full with "absolutely necessary" items, I can't reach that space.