Should You Buy A Kit Shed?

Do You Buy A Kit Shed?

As you browse the massive amount of literature on today's big "Encyclopaedia Of knowledge" the Internet, you can be put off from the whole decision process because your shell-shocked brain can feel overloaded. That is the reason I hope that my site helps you with this as I break things down in decision sized small quantities.

Now a very definitive decision, that has to be made early, is whether to purchase a ready made shed, which is quick(ish) to install but has no flexibility ( What You See IS What You Get) or buy a Kit Shed which may suit your purpose better.

Now nobody can make that decision for you (unless you have a close friend who has already bought a Kit Shed) but maybe the following thoughts will help.

There are definitely Pros and Cons (nothing of course to do with sex workers, or those people behind bars)

let us get the bad bits out of the way first.

CONS.

1.
Are you capable of reading and understanding plans, diagrams and instructions.
Now before you instantly say YES, please think on who the supplier is, what country they live in, and most important, IN WHICH COUNTRY IS THE SHED KIT MADE.

In this life, there is nothing like personal experience. As a past designer for certain major international companies, I have at times struggled with assembling something because, let us say "The translation of the instructions into some form of English by the manufacturing company" has not been good. Now I do know that there are sometimes no direct translation between languages, but I have seen whole pieces of instructions missing or misleading.

I know how difficult it can be to do this translation as I once in 1985 had to translate some engineering work from French to Swedish backed by English and I only understood English. The Translation Dictionaries worked overtime. (The only thing I think I remember about that was that on mechanical design drawings The word PLUG in English, as in sump plug or coolant plug, means TAMPON in French. The mind boggled at the thoughts of using a Tampax or similar to stop the oil coming out of the sump in the car).

2.
Do you have the tools to assemble the kit, or do you have to buy or borrow more.

3.
Is there anything else you need on top of the initial kit such as A FLOOR.

I can imagine many people purcahsing a kit and the finding that they never thought of buying one with a floor supplied. Putting it on a piece of muddy ground may not be your particular intention.

4.
Do you need help assembling it.

There are often times when an "extra pair of hands" are required. As an inspector and designer/checker I have seen many cases of very simple things designed in such a way that assembly by one person is impossible. Also think about the weight of parts. The nice looking shed will not be much good to you if you have given yourself a hernia.

PROS

1.

It can be much cheaper

This may mean that you can build a larger more suitable shed for the same price as a smaller ready-made shed.

2.

You may have flexibility of design, for example window or door position, height, width, shape.

This can be important at times where the location postion has restrictions to accessibility.

3.

It may be easy to adapt or extend it at a later date

This can be an important factor as your life, hobbies, family circumstances or finaces change.

4.

It is precut before delivery

If you decide to buid your own shed from your own design, just think of the time involved, first of all getting the raw materials, finding room to store them, cutting it to suit, disposing of the waste. Yes all of that and that is before you start assembling your shed.

5.

It comes with a plan.

Again, if you aredesigning from scratch, unless you are an experieced designer, you have to get some sort of guidelines to work from, especially for material types and quantities required.


So there we have it. A difficult decision, but as it happens Mr Experience strikes again. I once buit a shed from a very large used Workmans Site Hut made of wood. (I was employed by a Construction Company who assembled and dissasembled these as needed around their sites.) It was designed in sections so that each part had a flooring piece oppsite wall panels and two roofing sections that leaned in toward each other like a house roof. This meant that the units could be any length by just adding another section. At one end, there was a door section/panel and at plain section/panel and at the other end two plain section/panels. It all bolted together

I used one third of it as a very large Lean-To type shed against my Garage wall. It had opening windows like a house, plenty of height (I am 6feet and 2 incheds tall with broad shoulders) and room to have a full size workbench in (Also purchased from my workplace with a heavy vice on it. With the haevy wood floor panels it was also warmer on the feet than concrete in winter.

Well that is it for today. I hope that this has helped.

Bye for now

Robin