Ask These Questions BEFORE Buying a Shed For Your Milton Keynes Garden
1/ Will It Suit You?
It’s important before you buy a new garden shed that you do a little legwork to ensure that it will suit you and your needs. … more
2/ Can You See The Building Beforehand?
It’s vitally important to have the opportunity to view any potential building before buying and by doing so YOU can decide whether the price you are paying reflects your expectation of what you feel you will be getting. … more
3/ What Quality Timber is Used
The grade of timber used on many shed and timber buildings accounts for a large amount of the cost, however, this cost is well worth paying if you can buy a building which will stand the test of time. … more
4/ Is Redwood or Whitewood Used?
Essentially most sheds and are made from softwood timber, either redwood or whitewood deal. You will find that decent garden buildings are made using redwood deal and the reason for this is that it is slower growing. … more
5/ Are The Floor and Roofs Made from ‘Proper’ Timber
You will find on most of the cheap sheds that the floors and roofs are made using OSB (oriental strand board), wafer board, chipboard or cheap plywood and this is totally to do with cost. … more
6/ Do You Have The Choice of Size or Style?
You will find that most garden building companies offer a range of set sizes and styles and, whilst, you may find one which ‘will do’ surely it’s better to have a building to suit YOUR needs and your location. … more
7/ Do You Have To Pay Extra For Assembly in Milton Keynes?
It can be quite hard work erecting a garden shed and it’s not everybody’s ‘cup of tea’. And you will find that the cheap building companies claim that it’s easy to build it yourself. But it’s not. … more
8/ How Thick is the Framing?
Crucial to the strength of your new garden building is the size of the timber framing so you need to ensure it’s of a good size. In an ideal world, you should go for at least 2in x 2in (47mm x 47mm) internal vertical frame size. … more
9/ How Tall is Your Proposed New Building?
Before buying always check the height of any building you are interested in and check whether they are INTERNAL or EXTERNAL SIZES, which can vary by up to 6in (150mm) as some companies are a little misleading about this. … more
10/ What Conditions are Attached to Guarantees?
Normally with garden sheds or garden workshops, there will be a standard warranty of at least 12 months, however, you will find some web companies offering 10-year warranties, which sound great. Peace of mind included – that’s got to be good. But like most things ‘if it sounds too good to be true then it usually is’. … more
11/ Are The Buildings Made in the UK or Stockpiled?
When wooden building are made in the UK for each customer the quality can be controlled but if they are shipped in from abroad or stockpiled in open yards then they could be damaged when being moved about. … more
12/ Conclusion and Advice?
It can be quite exciting to buy a new garden shed to share with your family or a timber workshop for your hobby, however, it’s important to ask questions beforehand. By using this guide you can ask the right questions and, by doing so, are likely to be happy with your new building and not to be regretting it and thinking – why did I not check. … more
Hi, I'm Robin Antill, founder of 1st Choice Leisure Buildings, and I use my expertise gained over 44 years in the garden buildings industry to understand that each customer is different. With my manufacturing, retailing and customer service experience my articles help people choose their ideal shed, garden workshop, summerhouse, log cabin or garden office needs to suit their requirement and that is key to satisfaction. And what do I do when I'm not writing? You may find me following Grimsby Town Football Club or riding roller coasters - so plenty of 'ups and downs' in my life.
Don’t Neglect the Garden Shed
This time of year, the British winter, is the time of year where all thoughts to gardening, the garden and your poor garden sheds are put to one side. With the Christmas and New Year festivities behind us and the days starting to get longer, might not seem like it, then your thoughts should be turning back towards your garden and planning for the spring. You would have put all your garden tools, the lawnmower and garden furniture away in your garden shed after cleaning all these items before hand – didn’t you. Oh dear!! Never mind – hopefully there will no lasting damage just a bit more elbow grease required and this can be done in your garden shed away from the cold winter winds. The lawnmower doesn’t need to be used until about March so clean off any caked on grass from the underside and the blade and clean with liberal amounts of soapy water. When dry spray liberal amounts of WD40 all over these areas and the blades.
Same thing would apply to your gardening tools, a good clean will make them that much easier when you do get back into the garden. Garden tables and chairs are mostly made from plastic or UPVC and are quite resilient, just a good clean down and drying off and it should be as good as new. At this time it is always a good time to check over your garden shed for any obvious faults. If any are apparent then all you can do at this time is to clean any dirt off and remove any damaged shed boards. This is not a good time to be re-treating as it’s important that the shed boards are nice and dry so that any dampness is not locked in.
However, the best way to look after your garden shed is to actually use it during the winter according to Saga Insurance. The poll they conducted established that over a quarter (26%) of British gardeners did not plan on using their sheds for protecting plants or for storing garden furniture. 20% said that then intended to just cover the garden furniture to give them some protection and only 10% said they would take any action to protect the barbecue.
Andrew Goodsell of Saga said that it’s false economy not to protect the barbecue as these rust quickly and will need replacing before their time. He further said that even through the British are passionate about our gardens and outside space come Spring many will be ruing not taking preventive active before the Winter. Milton Keynes home owners could end up with large bills to replace these neglected items which could have been protected in their garden shed.
Just by taking few simple steps garden owners could save themselves a great deal of worry and also could make their possessions safe from opportunist thieves. I’m sure that the hundreds of pounds saved by taking action could be spent for better things in the garden, maybe, even a larger garden shed, a replacement shed, potting shed or an extra shed. With these simple steps you can be sure that when Spring comes you will be able to able to get a rosy glow on your face from the warm sunshine rather than the embarrassment of not have done anything.