Is my garden shed saveable?

Miss_Ratty

So here's the deal...we moved into a lovely house with a great garden shed at the bottom of the garden, or so I thought. The shed leaks and the floor and some of the woodwork is mouldy as heck. We moved in November so haven't had a chance to properly assess it with all the crappy weather. A few weeks ago some idiot tried to break into it, and broke some few inches off the bottom of the door, so that will definitely need repairing.

What i'm wondering, is with the mould etc. is it just a case of waiting until dry weather to see how bad it is, and replace the bad bits? The main structure seems ok, just the rest is pretty knackered. Being a reduce, reuse, recycle kind of person, I'd prefer to fix it if I can, but I don't know how cost effective this will be. I'd say the shed is probably a good ten years old, very well used!

Anyone considered or taken on a similar quest? Did you end up having to buy new? Were shed bits, e.g. wood suitable, new doors, easy to come by? How easy is it to sort? Its probably not too helpful without pictures, but given the weather and constant darkness its difficult to take ones that will show how good/bad it is...

valk_scot

Well.....without seeing it it's difficult to give advice. However if you're reasonably competant at woodwork it's probably worth trying to refurbish it. First things first though, can you make it watertight, perhaps by lashing a tarp or plastic sheeting over the roof. That would stop it decaying further and then if we get some dry weather you can let it dry out a bit and assess the damage. If the mould is worse than a bit of surface mildew then the timbers are probably rotten and it won't be worth saving. However I've seen some really terrible allotment sheds that have been in a terminal state of decay but have still been useful for years, with a few running repairs.

lindseykim13

My lotty shed has a part rotten roof and floor-still it stores my stuff until it falls down!

madjackslam

Firstly, it's surprising how damp and mouldy even a "dry" shed can get in winter. So I would be inclined to leave it until spring/summer.

Secondly, as valk_scot says, get a tarpaulin or similar onto it as a temporary fix, then prioritise repairing the roof.

We had three sheds when we moved in, and two of them had dodgy roofs. I've successfully repaired them, although it took time owing to my hapless DIY skills. Definitely worth salvaging if you can...

fwor

It does really depend on whether it is a good quality shed or not. The very cheapest are literally stapled together, and use as little wood as possible.

If it's a cheap one it can often be hard to find anything solid enough to screw or nail repair panels into, as the staples rust away pretty quickly.

forgotmyname

Wait for a week of dry weather, Then get a screwdriver and see if you can push all the way through. Its wood anything can be replaced or fixed.

wellused

Depends how smart you want it to look when you have fixed it, I have just received a shed for my allotment which hasn't got a roof or floor but no doubt for a small sum it can be fixed into a shed worthy of an allotment, if however I wanted a shed for my garden I wouldn't consider fixing this shed but prefer to spend some money on a new or better quality second hand one.:)

Miss_Ratty

Thanks so much everyone. The shed seems as though it would have been a fairly expensive one, and its quite old but still standing! Hopefully we'll have some dry weather soon and we can properly clear it out and assess the damage. New sheds just seem so expensive, and because its so old and established I'd like to be able to save it. If i get a chance I'll put some pics up. X