I've managed without a shed for a while. Instead I have a lockable plastic chest/box that's big enough to take fork, spade, handtools, watering cans etc.
But the urge for a decent shed is growing (not least cos I can't climb into my locker during showers).
Question is, whether to go for a little 6x4 job or an 8x6 (there are folk on my site with everything but the kitchen sink in theirs!). Bigger shed = smaller cultivatable space!
ANd what about the pros and cons of windows (security vs. propagation space).
Advice welcome.
Alastair
Hi
I have done withough a shed for a year, mostly by hiding in the car with invarably leads me to going home.
I have obtained a 2nd hand shed for £25 which needs a bit of TLC.
Its 6x4 which looks small but i thought that if i got the bigger one i have more chance of leaving something up there i dont want to lose. THe shed when i have finished making it water tight will not be locked and will only contain the bear essentials ( chair, bits of string, sticks, pots etc ) I will not be putting my tools in the shed in stead i will be hiding them in a false bottom :-) the shed will be unlocked so anyone having a quick look will not bother to pull the floor up. But mostly i will be carrying my trustly spade in the car as its quite handy.
In the last 2 break ins sheds that were locked where the only ones damaged. Tools left in raised beds and burried in compost bins where ignored.
I have the shed on a large paved patio i but in during the summer and plan to put a little table there year after next where the table top is herbs :-) The Table will look like a box but will have a hidden drawer for anything else i have no room for in the shed :-)
So the advice is go for the smaller shed and keep the trunk!
L
Sounds a good compromise... I leave a few cheap things in the poly, unlocked(!) but have one of the metal beasts at home. A good shed with lock just seems to attract theives looking for power tools/ strimmers etc they can sell quickly at car boots...
>:(
I was without a shed for the first 3 years I had a plot, what a pain it was with no where to go in between showers. Now I have a 8x6 shed and what a difference, I have all my tools under cover and also enough room to store my 8ft bean canes, also I have a table, chair, lamp,and small store for brew ups. I can now stay down the site all day and even in wet weather I can site instide my shed and just relaxe and what the world go by and also enjoy simply looking at my veg which give me a great deal of please, Mu advise if you haven't got a shed get one soon.
PS My shed was second hand and only cost me £20.00
t
Hi :) Go for the biggest shed you can afford you won't regret it. First thing i did when i got my allotment was to get a shed put up, now i can spend all day up there and not worry about the weather ;D I have a small table and stove and love to sit in there after i have done a spot of digging and eat my bacon sandwiches or eat a bowl of soup.
I also got a shelf running the length of the windows where i will have some seeds germinating as it does get warm in the shed from the sunlight. I have placed chicken wire on the inside of the windows to deter thieves and replaced the screws on the hinges with nuts and bolts as thieves will unscrew the hinges to gain entry.
Quote from: legendaryone on October 06, 2006, 07:45:04
replaced the screws on the hinges with nuts and bolts as thieves will unscrew the hinges to gain entry.
Once my shed was up, No.1 son got glue gun and two big tubes of No More Nails - every join, screw and gap is covered in the stuff! ::)
Thats a good idea, i think i will pinch it ;)
the bigger the better, if you have the space.
we have scaffold poles for security on our which cover the door, and huge bolts through the wood, so that the screws are on the inside so they cant be unscrewed!!!
security at its most.
As of 25 September, I am the proud owner of a shed. It's my little palace! I decided to do without windows as, to me, the only purpose of windows is to give vandals a target. You can get security windows on some sheds but the company supplying mine wanted an extra £25. Don't keep any power tools in mine just in case.
It's now so nice not to have to keep on loading up the car for each lottie trip only to find that you've forgotten something. And then unload it on return home. And no more nagging from OH about cleaning all the mud. bugs and general filth allegedly left in the car after each visit. Mine is 7x5. Thought about a 6x4 but now glad of the extra space. it's suprising how quickly it fills up.
Did anyone see that programme on allotment sheds, where one shed had a false back wall behind which the allotmenteer kept all precious equipment?
Wouldn't mind seeing it again, although frustrating in that we are restricted to totally uniform sheds about 6' x 4' - can't even sit inside it :-[
This may be a daft question, but how do you prevent the sheds from flying away? My allotment is on a steep hill although the bottom part is reasonably flat. Someone has just erected a shed halfway up the hill and I wondered what they anchored it to a) to make it level and b) to stop it being "ripped from it's moorings"?
Helen
The best thing is the weight of stuff inside. I remember one night in 1979, I was living on the St. Austell Moors, and we had the worst gale since 1892. It was gusting 120mph at sea level at St. Ives, and I dread to think what it was doing up where we were. There was a caravan site at the top of the hill. The occupied vans were OK, though they must have had a dreadful night. One was empty, and without the weight, it went over a six-foot hedge, and ended up upside-down in the next field.
I have been looking at sheds this weekend at our local DIY store and I could not believe how poor quality it was.
Granted I was looking at the 6x4 for £100 but even then it was still poor, you might as well nail four cheap fence panels together an put a roof on it.
So i think ill build one instead, at least ill know it won't fall down first gust of wind.
ok, granted mine cost £25 second hand but it was only 2 years old.
I have used more wood to stablelise it!
I am also going to get some expanding foam to spray the gaps to make it a little more water tight.
I have some wood for the floor and some more to double pannel the walls after i have used the spray foam.
I think in a couple of years i will just make my own.
I am so lucky, I inherited my shed it's full of character and very much loved and probably an 8 by 10. It's fantastic for storing anything and everything I need. We just don't seem to suffer from break-ins or vandals although our allotments are always locked and my plot has quite a high fence and the gate's locked too.
We can both sit in our shed, side by side and eat sandwiches, hiding from the showers.
My only problem is that it is so old that it needs some major running repairs, like new windowsills! Not sure I'm capable but am going to have a go ... can't be that difficult surely?
Oh and I'm determined to hold onto it because there is a size restriction now on the new shed that have to be 6 x 4.
The St Austell Moors, Robert? Goss Moor do you mean? I used to drive up and down there to work at one time
I used to go birding on Goss Moor, but I lived a few miles south, at Foxhole, in the middle of the clay tips. There was at one time a plan to build a nuclear power station in the middle of Goss Moor, but they had to abandon it as the site was bottomless bog! I could have told them that, so could anyone who actually knew the place.
Good grief ... I went to school at Foxhole ... what a very small world! My father still owns a farm near there, although he now lives over near Wadebridge.
Mind you that was many moons ago.
A good tip to stop the shed taking off is not to site the door facing into the prevailing wind! I did and it lept over a 4' fence and ended up on its roof on the next plot... another fence cleared and it would have landed on a large 8x12 greenhouse!!!
::)
;D ;D ;D LOL at saddad!!!! That would be my luck!
Quote from: wellingtons on October 11, 2006, 13:42:24
Good grief ... I went to school at Foxhole ... what a very small world! My father still owns a farm near there, although he now lives over near Wadebridge.
Mind you that was many moons ago.
Where's the farm? It's been a long time, but I probably knew it back then.
I went with a greenhouse instead of a shed i have an upright plastic shed. i made a wooden bench for potting seeds and making cups of tea on along one side the other side is were i left my seeds grow then when i plant them outside i grow my toms or melons in there space.
Hi
In about 3 years i want to build my own shed and attached greenhouse.
I want the buildings seperated by covered tunnel.
This may sound grand but i want the shed to be 4x4 and the greenhouse to be about the same with the tunnel being just over a foot between then.
The reason for the gap is to allow wind to channel between the 2 buildings and i plan on using scafolding for the framework outside and then using plastic sheeting for the greenhouse (although perspex if i can find it cheap) and i am hoping to use wood clad brick for the shed space allowing a very very small barrel stove :-) which can be used to heat both spaces the direct heat in the shed and a small water heating system for the greenhouse.
I want to the roof for growing moss hence the scafolding :-)
Its my next christmas project to plan :-)
cambourne7