Sectional Buildings at a Glance
Construction: Modular pre-built timber panels in quality redwood deal · Sizes: Standard and bespoke sizes available up to 28x16 · Glazing: Toughened glass as standard · Floors: Solid wooden floors · Styles: Apex, pent, reverse-apex and transverse designs.
Uses: Garden workshop, secure storage, hobby room, garden room or multipurpose workspace · Insulation: Full insulation options available · Installation: Free professional installation included · Doors: Single and double-door options available · Finishes: Colour paint options available · Customisation: Bespoke sizes, layouts, doors and windows available · See before you buy: Sectional buildings on display at our Surrey show site near Guildford and Woking.
Need advice? Our experienced team can help with building size, layout, insulation, doors, windows, base requirements and installation before you order.
View More Timber Workshop Images
Click on images below to see larger versions of garden workshops
Click on images below to see larger versions of garden workshops
Click on images below to see larger versions of garden workshops
Click on images below to see larger versions of combination garden workshops with shed or extra rooms
Click on image below to see larger versions of insulated workshops (Opens new page)
Options To choose from a large range of colours and make your new
garden workshop special.
Which Sectional Garden Building Is Right for You?
One of the advantages of sectional garden buildings is the amount of choice they give you. Our ranges extend from practical heavy-duty workshops to larger buildings which can be adapted for hobbies, crafts, machinery, storage or more comfortable multi-purpose use. The Diamond Barnham is particularly strong where value, workshop space and size choice matter. Portsmouth provides a robust pressure-treated alternative; Southampton and Fareham offer greater flexibility for workshop and hobby use. At the same time, the Platinum Winchester is the range I would look at where maximum size, specification and bespoke layout are the priorities.
Diamond Barnham Sectional Workshops
If your priority is a good, practical workshop for DIY, tools, machinery or substantial storage, the Diamond Barnham is an excellent place to start. It is available in a particularly wide selection of sizes. It gives you the useful working space many people want from traditional sectional sheds without automatically paying for features intended for a garden room. For somebody wanting a straightforward working building, I would always compare the Barnham before moving further up the ranges.
Portsmouth Sectional Buildings
The Portsmouth is worth considering when you want a robust pressure-treated timber workshop with a strong practical specification. It sits comfortably between a traditional workshop shed and some of our more highly configurable ranges. If the building is principally going to accommodate tools, equipment, benches and storage, rather than being furnished as a leisure room, its specification can make very good sense.
Southampton and Fareham Sectional Garden Buildings
Southampton and Fareham are the ranges I would consider when the building has to do more than one job. You may want a serious workshop but also somewhere for hobbies, crafts or other activities. With choices covering doors, windows, layouts, finishes, and full insulation options, these buildings can be adapted much more closely to how you intend to use the space. If insulation is important because you expect to spend longer periods inside, also look at our dedicated insulated garden workshops.
Platinum Winchester Sectional Buildings
The Platinum Winchester is where I would start if you want one of our largest and most configurable timber buildings. It can be used as a substantial workshop, hobby building, studio or multi-purpose garden room, with considerable scope to tailor the specification. It is not necessarily the right choice simply because it offers more options; the important thing is deciding which of those options you will genuinely use.
What Is a Sectional Building?
A sectional building is made from individual framed timber panels manufactured before delivery and joined together when the building is installed. This is a tried and tested method of constructing timber garden buildings and allows manufacturers to offer a wide choice of sizes and configurations without having to construct the entire building piece by piece in your garden.
The great advantage is flexibility. Depending on the range, doors and windows can often be positioned to suit the garden and how you intend to work inside. Larger sectional buildings can accommodate workbenches, machinery, shelving and storage while still leaving useful floor space. You can also divide or adapt them to create different working areas.
Whether you call them sectional sheds, workshops or sectional garden buildings, I would concentrate less on the name and more on the actual construction. Look at the timber, framing, floor, roof, doors, windows and overall specification. Occasionally people search for terms such as buildings sectional in construction. Still, the principle is simple: the building is manufactured in strong, manageable sections that are assembled on site.
My Experience With Sectional Sheds and Garden Buildings Goes Back to 1979
I’m Robin Antill, founder of 1st Choice Leisure Buildings. I left school at 15 and eventually found my way into the garden building industry. In 1979 I started my own business trading as Marina Sheds, manufacturing and selling timber garden buildings. That gave me practical experience at the sharp end of the business and taught me very quickly that two buildings which look similar in a photograph can be very different when you inspect how they have actually been made.
I sold Marina Sheds in 1990. Unfortunately, I did not ultimately receive all the money agreed for that sale, but that experience certainly did not end my involvement with garden buildings.
By 1992 we had expanded beyond sheds to include summerhouses, garages, garden rooms and log cabins. As the range had become much broader, we changed the business name to Titan Garden Buildings. That same year, my son Craig joined me after studying carpentry at Guildford College from 1990. His carpentry training combined well with the practical manufacturing, selling and business experience I had accumulated since 1979.
Craig and I continued developing Titan Garden Buildings until we sold the business in 1998. In 2000, we decided on a different approach. Rather than manufacture or be tied to a single range, we wanted to retail carefully selected quality garden buildings from different manufacturers. That decision led to the formation of 1st Choice Leisure Buildings.
Today Craig runs the day-to-day business, and I am here to support him as required. Between us, we have spent many years looking at how sheds, workshops, and other timber buildings are designed, manufactured, sold, and installed. That experience is important to me because when I recommend one building over another, I want there to be a practical reason for doing so.
Choosing a Sectional Building for the Job You Actually Need It to Do
After all these years in the garden building industry, one thing I would encourage you not to do is choose purely from the photograph. First decide what you will actually do inside the building. A workshop containing machinery and workbenches has very different requirements from somewhere used mainly for garden storage, while a building where you expect to spend several hours at a time may justify insulation and a higher internal specification.
Think about the overall floor area, but also consider where the doors need to be. A badly positioned door can waste a surprising amount of workshop space. Consider natural light, where benches or machinery will stand, whether you need double doors for larger equipment, and whether shelving or partitions will be useful. If you are still planning how the working space will be arranged, our garden workshop ideas guide covers practical layouts and different ways to use a workshop.
For a working workshop, strength and practicality normally come before decoration. If you are creating a hobby room or multi-purpose building, you may put greater emphasis on insulation, internal lining, glazing and appearance. This is why I do not believe there is one sectional building which is automatically the best for everybody.
Why the Base Matters With Sectional Buildings
A good building needs a good base. Whatever sectional workshop you choose, it needs to be installed onto a suitably prepared, firm and level base. Getting this right before installation helps the building sit correctly and allows doors and panels to perform as intended. Our garden workshop base guide explains the main foundation options and preparation considerations. If you are unsure about the groundwork or preparation required, please speak to us before your building arrives rather than trying to fix a base problem afterwards.
See Our Sectional Buildings Before You Buy
Something I have believed for many years is that people should have the opportunity to see what they are spending their money on. Photographs are useful, but they cannot properly show you how substantial a floor feels, how a door closes, the thickness and finish of the timber or how different workshop specifications compare alongside one another.
That is why I strongly recommend visiting our garden building display site in Surrey if you possibly can. We are between Guildford and Woking and have a large collection of garden buildings on display, including representative workshop models. You can look at the construction for yourself and speak to people who understand the products rather than relying purely on online photographs and descriptions.
Sectional Buildings – My Final Advice
The best sectional building is not automatically the largest or most expensive one. For a practical heavy-duty workshop, I would start by looking at the Diamond Barnham. If pressure-treated construction is important, consider the Portsmouth. For workshop space combined with hobbies, crafts or more regular use, look closely at Southampton and Fareham. Where you need a particularly large, configurable or bespoke building, the Platinum Winchester deserves serious consideration.
Most importantly, buy the specification that suits what you are actually going to do inside. After working with garden buildings since 1979, I still believe good advice, a sensible specification and the opportunity to inspect the quality before buying are worth far more than choosing a building simply because the photograph looks attractive or the headline price is low.
If you are still deciding between different types of workshop, compare our complete range of garden workshops. If you are unsure about the size, layout, doors, windows, insulation or specification you need, use our garden workshop online quote form and tell us what you have in mind. Craig, the team, or I can help you work through the options.
Robin Antill
Founder, 1st Choice Leisure Buildings
From £2789
