Exploring Different Styles and Designs of Timber Cladding for Garden Buildings

The Concise Guide to Timber Cladding on Garden Buildings: Avoid These Common Pitfalls

How thick is the cladding on your chosen wooden sheds?

1/ The thickness of the cladding (planks of wood) is a major factor to take into account. On some of the cheap sheds, the walls are only 6mm (1/4 inch) thick. That is less than the thickness of a pencil. To give an idea of how strong (or should I say weak) that is then take a pencil and try to break it. You will find it breaks very easily. Combined with the very thin framing this cannot be good in anything except the short term.

Nominal or Actual thickness on sheds?

2/ Another thing to beware of it is how the thickness is measured. A great many companies display the sizes of their cladding and framing as NOMINAL sizes which are larger than the ACTUAL size. Nominal size is the size of the plank of timber before is taken into the factory and planed into shiplap or T&G. This can make the timber appear thicker than it really is.

Redwood or cheaper whitewood on timber sheds?

3/ Our Diamond and Platinum Buildings are made using European Redwood deal, not the cheap white wood used on (putting it politely) the cheap sheds available. Redwood is more expensive than whitewood but tends to have tighter grain that the fast-growing white wood and tends to have a waxy feel to the bare wood whereas whitewood is very dry and porous. Any knots present in redwood are normally more stable than white wood. Whitewood has lots of tiny finger size knots which can drop out easily.

All our Garden Sheds and Workshops are –

On ALL our pages we display either the FINISHED size or both NOMINAL and FINISHED so there is no confusion as to the size of timber supplied. We use redwood deal on all our Diamond and Platinum sheds and the thickness of all the timber is quite substantial.

Click on any of the following links for more important things to consider before buying!

Read About Quality of Timber Which Should Be Used

Read About What you MUST know about Garden Sheds Floors & Roofs

Read About Range of Styles and Sizes from 1st Choice Garden Sheds and Buildings

Read About Delivery and Assembly Options

Read About Glass and Windows

Not from Lilliput ?? Then Read About Height and Doors

Read About What you MUST Know about Guarantees and Where your Building will be Made

Written By Robin - Expert in Garden Buildings For 44 Years.
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.