Building a Shed from Recycled Wood
Dave Hamilton, author of Grow Your Food for Free and The Self-Sufficient-ish Bible sets out to build his shed using recycled scraps. It may not win Shed of the Year but it’s a a perfect little hideout-cum-storage area for his allotment plot. What’s more, as the example above demonstrates, you can create you’re very own Grand Design on a tight budget.
BUILDING A SHED FROM SCRAP
Building a shed from scrap can be a worthwhile alternative to buying second hand or new. A scrap shed is much more individual and can be made to fit your needs. A neighbour of mine once made a fantastic bike shed from a bunch of old pallets. It looked just as good as anything you might buy in the shops, if not better. It was built to be the perfect size for two bikes in his small urban garden, and after a lick of wood preserver and a felt roof, it looked right at home in his Victorian terrace garden.MY SCRAP SHED
A few years ago I built a shed from scrap on my allotment in Bristol. I am still in touch with the people who took over the allotment and by all accounts it is still standing! I’ve included how I made mine as a guideline. Since I built my shed there have been a large number of blueprints posted on the Internet. From experience I have found that the main thing to remember when building any structure is to always put in cross-beams, and triangles are a much stronger shape than either a square or rectangle.Step-by-Step Photographic Guide
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the base I found 2 pallets that didn’t have any gaps between the slots.
An alternative would be some good quality marine ply or a couple of old
doors. The pallets made a perfect base, which I rasid on some
breeze-blocks to prevent any moisture rotting the shed.
Onto the base I attached scaffolding planks using strong outdoor screws – these acted as a support for the uprights.
I
then attached uprights at each corner with an extra one for the
doorway. These were all reinforced with a diagonal support. The roof
beams were attached to the four uprights facing downwards at an angle
towards the front to allow rainwater to run off.
4.
Once the shell of the shed had been made I could begin to clad it.
Again, I found some pallets without gaps between the slats. You could
remove them from the pallet and use them to clad the shed.
5.
I then put on the roof, attaching old corrugated plastic to the beams.
The plastic was cut to size using garden shears, and in hindsight they
were not ideal for the job. Next time I would consider making a green
roof for my shed (check out my book Grow Your Food For Free) or using
marine ply and roofing felt.
6. Once the roof was on, the door was put into place.
7. Once the door was in place I began to set the shed up for my tools by nailing a number of hooks around the inside.
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