Sheds

I wish I was in your position @pete - and to be honest, I really don't think I should be in the position I am in given the amount of dough that I laid out on the pile of junk that I currently have masquerading as a shed.

The problem I have, not to put to fine a point on it, is that I have stuff being slowly destroyed in there - including an oven that is not mine, but belonging to my landlord, and I have nowhere else to put it. I have tried, three times now, to sort the current shed and have not succeeded, and putting my foot through the floor a few weeks ago has somewhat applied further pressure.

I don't have a grand on the hip, and now I am having to take on a new job role as well as losing a shedload (see what I did there ) of overtime, I am essentially a good £7k a year down in earnings, and therefore not likely to be able to save a grand up within a year. Three years, maybe. But, by that time, goodness knows what all will be destroyed.

The only other option I have is to get a massive tarp, affix it to the greenhouse and then tie it taut to one side of the shed, and then maybe lay a bit of OSB or something inside the shed in the hope that it will provide enough support to act as a temporary floor.

 

Here's another idea and forgive me if you have already considered it - why not use self storage? I understand they charge monthly and maybe it may work out cheaper than a shed on credit.

 

Mrs C did look into it when half of the furniture had to be moved out of the living room to make way for the bed to get me home from hospital - those deals that you see at £5 a month or something daft are a bit of a con; in reality, you may well get the first month for that, but then it is a minimum of £60 or so a month, and often much higher. Then there is the inconvenience factor - if I have someone come to help me do something on the car, and I need a tool......... or the same applies to the garden for the lawnmower, scarifier, strimmer, loppers and so on - the inconvenience of having to drive to a self-storage place every weekend would get old very quickly indeed. For context, I saw a shed on that link from @Marley Farley last night that I really like, and it is £24 or so a month - £27 if I upgrade to a rubber roof (not sure of the merits of that though, which leads me to my next questions):

Mineral felt versus tiles (don't know exactly what those tiles are made of) - tiles are suggested as an improvement, but are they?

Mineral felt versus a rubber roof - rubber roof is considerably more expensive, but is said to offer protection for up to 50 years (it would outlive me, and the shed!), is it a worthwhile addition?

There is a suggestion that if a shed is pressure treated, it does not need to be painted - is this right? I assume that if it started to get tatty a few years down the line, we still could paint it and it would only increase the longevity of it?

 

OK - a bit more thinking.....

I am leaning toward this one, in a 12 x 10 format, but has anyone here actually used this company?

I have checked their reviews on TrustPilot and they are very much a mixed bag - some people seem to be delighted, others couldn't see the company far enough, but I wonder how many of the latter are people that have bought a £200 shed and were expecting it to be like the Ritz?

If this shed is as good as it looks to be, then it seems to be considerably better than is being offered by others for the money - not least due to it's higher eave height. However, is it too good to be true?

 

@Fat Controller that does look very nice I have to say and a good price.. Looked at a few reviews and they seem reasonable.. have a read below there may be other reviews elsewhere..
https://www.google.com/search?q=rev...0Sutton%20on%20Trent%2C%20Newark%20NG23%206QX

 

Thanks @Marley Farley - I read through a load of those reviews, but what worried me a bit was the quite polarised reviews; it seems that people either really rave about them, or they absolutely hate them with not much in between. Having said that, I did also have a look at reviews for other sites, and they were equally polarised........ it seems sheds are pretty much a hit and miss affair.

 

I don't do Facebook @Sheal - bit of a dinosaur in that respect, and have seen too many arguments arise from it.

Their 'standard' range has a 10-year anti-rot guarantee, and this one has 15-years, presumably because it is pressure treated. Because it is pressure treated, it (allegedly) doesn't need to be painted, but I may well do that a few years down the line

Our house is actually relatively small - indeed, that shed would be around the same size as our living room, and way bigger than our kitchen; in fact, our kitchen is so small, we have a small utility room outside that houses our freezer, washing machine and tumble dryer. I can no longer get in the loft (well, not much beyond sticking my head in), so that is a storage area gone and our bedroom has space for our bed, wardrobe and chest of drawers and that is it. We have zero space.

Thanks Mike, your assessment is pretty spot on. We have had a good few looks at this (as you can imagine), and the more we look the more we are feeling that our back is against the wall on this one. The hole in the floor is a significant one, and right at the door so difficult to avoid. Throwing a tarp over the roof might help some of the water ingress, but the shed is currently sited so close to the greenhouse we cannot get between the two (BIG mistake) - that would mean that I would have to tarp over both of them to have any effect, thus knackering the greenhouse too, or at least knackering it for use as a greenhouse. And even when covered with a tarp, the protruding base would still be open to water on at least three sides, and I am convinced that is where the bulk of the water is getting in.

At the moment, I have my lawnmower, strimmer etc along with quite a bit of other stuff in the greenhouse as it is mostly dry - positively arid in comparison with the shed.

By the time I buy a big enough tarp of decent quality to last, ropes and fixings to hold it on, then empty the shed and make some sort of repair to the floor, and maybe have another bash with the sealing paint around some of the base..... well, I am going to be a good few quid further in on something that is little more than a pile of scrap. I made a big enough mistake buying this shed, I am extremely reluctant to compound it.

In this case, I may not use the finance provided by the retailer - talking to them reveals that they use a company called Omni Retail Finance, and if you search them the reviews are horrendous (and I mean destroyed credit files, people taking them to the ombudsman and all sorts); I am looking at a small loan, which has been agreed in principle and if the sums come back from them correctly we will have half of it paid by the end of summer. Whilst I am in a bit of a desperate situation, I am not about to batter myself with a stupid finance or loan deal however, so I am awaiting their quote in writing which will be with me in 7-10 days.

That loan, of course, may release me to look elsewhere - but, we have taken quite a shine to this particular shed as it ticks so many boxes (size, shape, eaves height, spec) that we are just not getting from anyone else (so far).