If you are feeling ambitious and don’t like the look of prefab sheds you might want to consider designing your own shed. Adding a custom design shed is a great way of enhancing your home and also for keeping tools and garden utensils safe and tidy. As sheds have many uses it is probably a good idea before designing your shed to list all of the uses your shed will undertake. If it is for garden use think about how to store your items for ease of access, if it is as an office think about functionality like electricity, internet access for example. Once you have an idea what you want out of your shed you are ready to design it.
The next thing to consider is the size of the shed. Ideally you want the biggest shed that the space can handle however be careful of a couple of things. Ease of access is important, you may want a big shed but are you willing to compromise other areas of the garden or blocking sunlight to the house? Also if you decide on a large shed think about planning permission. You may have to apply for a permit and extra taxes may be added to your property also. Check with the local council and get acceptable dimensions as you may increase your hassle factor by ten if you don’t.
The third thing to do is choosing the right materials. Personally the one thing I wouldn’t compromise on is the quality of the material. You could cut corners and save some money of cheaper material but you will regret it in the long run. As you are building something that you want to last give it the best chance by getting the best materials you can. There are many things to consider, the type of shed you want, is it going to be metal, plastic or wood? Think about the roofing, do you want it to be plastic, tarred, tiled or even thatched. The beauty of designing your own shed is that you can mix and match, there are no set rules.
The final thing to do is assess the cost. Check on prices of prefab sheds and see what you can get versus what it is going to cost to build. You may find you can get a better quality shed in kit form for what you are planning to build it for. Also factor in your own time and labour costs. You may need to draft in help and is this going to cost you, even if it is mates and they don’t mind being paid in beer and pizzas it is still going to come out of your pocket so keep that in mind.
Building your own shed can be fun and fulfilling at the same time, however if it looks like there are going to be other factors that are going to prevent you having the shed you want then maybe look at kit sheds instead.