A lot of people would love to have a shed but just don’t know how to build a shed and can’t afford to buy a good shed from a manufacturer. Well, having been in a similar situation myself, here are a few surefire money saving tips on how to build a shed without breaking the bank.
Let me say up front that the biggest saving you can make is NOT to hire a professional carpenter or builder to build it for you! Although it may seem a challenge, it’s not that complicated and you don’t need to be a master craftsman to build one. If you can put pieces of a puzzle together, follow instructions, make the effort to study plans and understand what they mean, , then you can definitely build a shed on your own. Of course – it will be easier if you can build it with a friend who is also a keen DIYer.
First you will need to learn some basic techniques for measuring and marking out, cutting timber to size (without losing our fingers!), hammering nails without bending them or smashing your thumb and drilling holes accurately without breaking the drill bits.
The experience of learning how to build a shed will be very rewarding. Just give it your best shot. You don’t want to waste money on building a shed that is bigger than you need or build one that is too small and has to be replaced. Keep the following things in mind to reduce costs:
- Spend time learning the basic carpentry techniques, or else you will waste a lot of time and money by breaking tools and having to replace materials that you have managed to destroy!
- Decide what sort of shed you want to build, where it will be located, what you are going to use it for and how large it needs to be. This will determine how much light you need, how sturdy, what type of foundations you need, how secure and how well insulated it needs to be.
- Now go and visit some of your local shed suppliers and see what they have that fits the bill. Take lots of photos, both inside and out and learn how they are constructed. Get the brochures as these can contain really helpful information on how to build a shed, materials used, dimensions etc. This will help increase your knowledge of sheds and refine your thinking on what you want your shed to be like.
- Now you need a set of plans for our shed. Search the internet for shed plans. There are a number of suppliers that sell plans, but first look for free shed plans. If you don’t find any at first, don’t give up. It can take hours for research but there are a number of free plans available if you look hard enough. Try and use free plans where possible and avoid paying for plans unless there is no alternative.
- Keep the overall structure of the shed as simple as possible. Nice large glass windows may look great but they are expensive, and unless you are going to use your shed as an office or summer house, could be an unnecessary expense. Plastic or Perspex windows are a lot cheaper than glass and just as functional.
- Only pick the materials that you really need. Top grade timber with no flaws and knots looks wonderful, but is very expensive. Buy the less attractive, cheaper grades, as long as it is just are strong and durable, why spend more?
The above is just a small selection of money saving tips on how to build a shed. If you are already a bit of a DIY person, then building a shed should be relatively straight forward.
Sheds don’t have to be very expensive. Do some more research on the Internet and you will come across lots more ideas on how to build a shed without compromising on quality. Finally, I might also add, that if you want a shed quickly and cheaply, there are many cheap shed lits available from the Internet and local garden centres. Once the foundations are down, these pre-fabricated shed kits can be assembled in under a day, with a the help of a friend and require only basic DIY skills.
