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Allotment Shed
17/11/07
Allotment Shed
I should have been blogging all this while I went but I haven’t really got the idea of this yet. Anywho, I’ve more or less finished my shed. It’s on my allotment and I made it entirely from wood salvaged from pallets and packing crates. I happened to have the nails and roofing felt and the six slabs it’s sitting on so the only things i had to buy were the hinges and catch (£20) and some poppy and magnolia paint. I haven’t quite finished painting it and it’s raining now so I’ll post a finsihed picture some time later.
I got the pallets and packing crates free. Some pallets have a deposit on them so you should always ask, but the electrical wholesaler next to my work unit was happy for me to take these away and my firm were good enough to lend me their trailer. The packing crate was great because it was over six feet long and made the floor and the corner posts. It was from the water board and they were just about to cut it up and put it in a skip - one had already gone in which was such a shame as it is excellent timber.
Getting the pallets and crate apart is something of an art. If it’s just two planks nailed to each other they’ll usually come apart without much difficulty but long ring-shank nails in the corners of pallets are almost impossible. A crowbar is essential - a claw hammer doesn’t have the leverage - and you need to use some packing or the wood will twist and split. The long planks from the crate did an excellent job for the floor as they were long and seven eighths of an inch think, though some got a bit split in the dismantling so I had to scarf a few bits in and rip off the ragged edges from a couple. Ripping with a panel saw isn’t easy, especially when it’s raining and the wood is wet, but it’s satisfying to look back on the effort now the job’s done.
The bearers were from dismantled pallets and the six paving slabs just sit on the earth which is just tamped and leveled.
Assembling the corner posts was fun without a spare pair of hands, but once the temporary bracing was in place they stayed where they were OK. The corners are just made from a couple of five-by-one planks butt nailed together.
The frame is all made from five-by-one. Two-by-two would have been my choice but actually by the time it’s all braced it’s really rigid. In truth it’s significantly over-engineered.
A simple pent roof was the obvious design but at four feet wide I just didn’t have any timber long enough to give any kind of overhang so I put an apex roof on. I’m pleased I did because I love how it looks. I thought I’d need some kind of tie beams on the rafters but actually the sarking dissipates all of the spreading forces so I can stand up in the shed with my hands above my head and not touch the roof!
I’d tried to design a pointy bit for the end of the ridge to keep the devil from sitting on the roof, but it looked silly so I later cut it off.
Because it’s clad with all different widths and thicknesses of pallets wood which, allowing for damaged ends, dismantle in lengths mostly less than three feet long, cladding the shed was going to be a challenge. Rather than try to find matching widths and thicknesses to butt up together I clad the shed in panels which could be spanned with a single slat. Some of the panels were only about a foot wide and that way I was able to use the wood quite efficiently with only the shortest bits going to waste. Mixing the widths and thicknesses makes some of the cladding kick out a bit but because it’s lapped it’s still quite water tight and I rather like the random effect.
The little porch roof is more for show but it does shelter the door a bit, especially at the top where the rain might drive in. The door took a bit of time to build. It’s a frame of four-by-one clad with butted planks. The fancy pattern braces the frame and lets the rain run out to the sides rather than drive through the door. It’s quite heavy so it’s held on with three hinges. There’s no bolt because I don’t plan on locking it - if someone’s going to nick my kettle they’re going to do it whether I lock the shed or not so I’d just as soon they didn’t damage my shed while they’re at it. And in any event, I’d be very unlucky to get broken into because Wash Common is a really safe area.
The roof is waterproofed with roofing underlay. It’s not the proper felt with the granite chips because I used what I had but I do have some felt adhesive so if I buy a bag of granite chippings I could actually stick them on. I think they help keep the UV from degrading the bitumen so it might be worth doing.
The shed has a coat of magnolia emulsion and I’ve picked out the door, fascia and soffits in poppy, but it needs another coat to look good and now Winter’s here I don’t know when I’ll be able to do that.
In all it’s taken me five weeks to build and has cost me £40. I love it. I wouldn’t have a bought shed if you paid me. It’s very environmentally-friendly because the pallets just go to land-fill and it’s a wonderful bit of self-expression, but not everyone can afford the 100+ hours it took to build so it’s probably not for everyone.
7 comments
Thanks. I know what you mean. I built myself a nice garden shed a while back which cost me about £300 for the timber, etc; it was more expensive than the cheapest B&Q/Wickes shed I could buy but for a shed of the quality of the one I built I'd have had to pay £500. If you can afford the time then the pallet-shed is a good option being very cheap, green and mostly good quality if you're a bit picky with the pallets - they use all sorts of timber and it's not all necessarily durable.
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