A small wooden shed alone in a wide green meadow under a blue sky

Shed articles by topic

Costs, bases and foundations, materials, sizes and storage ideas, each written for a first shed on a budget, with prices in pounds and sizes in feet and metres.

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Shed costs

What a shed costs once the base, delivery and a lock are in the sum, and where a tight budget can save.

How much does a garden shed cost?
The shed, base, delivery, lock and preserver, line by line.
Guide
Build or buy: the sums for an 8x6 ft shed
Flat-pack price against timber, fixings and your weekends.
Guide
The costs people forget
Delivery to the back garden, felt, a padlock and a second coat.
Checklist

A timber shed with a small porch, flower pots on its steps and a greenhouse beside it

Bases and foundations

The base decides how long the shed lasts. Start with gravel if your ground is firm and the shed is 10x8 ft or smaller.

Step-by-step gravel shed foundation

Seven steps, a materials list and a cost table for an 8x6 ft base you can build in a weekend.

Paving slab shed base
Slabs on a sand and cement bed, for sheds up to 8x6 ft.
Guide
Concrete base: when it is worth it
Workshops, heavy log cabins and anything bolted down.
Guide
Plastic grid bases on soft ground
Interlocking grids filled with gravel, and where they fail.
Guide
Bearers and air under the floor
Why a shed floor should never sit flat on the ground.
Explainer

How the articles are written

Each article answers one question a first-time shed owner types into a search box, then gives the measurements, the materials and the cost, so you can close the page and start.

Shed materials

Timber, metal and plastic each fail in their own way. These articles say how, and what the upkeep costs you each year.

A grey timber shed with a shingle roof and an open doorway, in long grass

Compare shiplap, overlap and loglap

Board thickness, how each sheds rain and which needs preserver most.

A corrugated metal shed with its door shut, against a brick wall

Keep a metal shed dry

Condensation, anchoring and a floor kit for galvanised steel sheds.

A small timber hut clad in wooden shingles, set in a fenced garden

Choose a roof covering

Felt, shingles or rubber sheet, and how long each lasts.

Shed sizes

Measure what goes in before you choose. Common sizes and what they hold:

6x4 ft, 1.8 x 1.2 m
Hand tools, a small mower and the garden chairs.
8x6 ft, 2.4 x 1.8 m
A mower, two bikes, tools on the walls.
10x8 ft, 3.0 x 2.4 m
All of that, plus a potting bench under the window.
12x8 ft, 3.6 x 2.4 m
A small workshop with a bench along one wall.

A row of timber sheds of different sizes on an allotment, a wheelbarrow in front

Shed storage ideas

Walls and the space over the door hold more than the floor. Three articles on fitting it all in: hanging long tools, one deep shelf, a fold-down potting bench.