The shed advice you’d get over the garden fence.
Whether to build or buy, which materials last, what size you’ll actually fill and how to lay a base that stays level. Straight answers for first-timers who are handy, but not in the trade.
What people ask us most
8 × 6 ftfootprint
7 ftto the ridge
Felt roof: checkeach spring
Base: 4 incompacted stone
Five questions decide every shed.
Answer these in order and most of the hard decisions make themselves. Each topic gathers our guides, checklists and worked examples.
What will it really cost?
Kit price, base, delivery, paint and the bits nobody lists. Budget once, not three times.
Costs
Get the ground right
Gravel, slab or grid, and how to keep it level for decades.
Bases & foundations
Wood, metal or resin
What lasts, what rots and what needs a weekend every year.
Materials
How big is big enough?
Measure your stuff, then add room to turn around.
Sizes
Fit more in, find it fast
Walls, hooks and shelves that earn their space.
Storage ideasRead this before you buy a shed.
The Shed Review Guide is the checklist we wish we’d had: how to size it, what to look for in a listing, which base to lay and how to keep the budget honest.
- A build-or-buy decision sheet you can fill in
- A scorecard for comparing any two sheds side by side
- A one-page budget planner, base included
New this season
- 01New · Bases
Step-by-step gravel shed foundation
- 02Costs · in the workshop
How much does a shed cost? A plain-English breakdown
- 03Materials · in the workshop
Wood, metal or resin: which shed lasts longest?
- 04Sizes · in the workshop
What size shed do I need? Measure your stuff first
A neighbour, not a salesman.
We’re reader-supported. Here’s exactly what that means for the advice you get.
Answer first, links second
Every article answers the question you searched for before it mentions a product. Often the honest answer is “you don’t need to buy anything”.
Costs you can check
Prices are shown as ranges with the date we checked them, and labelled as estimates. Local prices vary, so we show the working.
Picks are clearly marked
Affiliate links are labelled where they appear. A commission never decides what we recommend, or whether we recommend anything at all.