Yes - this can be a problem - expanded polystyrene insulation gripfixed to the inside surface can fix this.
If it's one of the 'packs flat into a succession of boxes' ones that you're thinking of - my advice would be 'don't'. We bought one a couple of years ago and it was a complete pain to assemble, and I'll be taking it down next year to replace it with a timber shed..
HTH Adrian
We have a small one, maybe 6 x 4 which is used for the mower, garden tools, chairs etc. Nobody spends any time inside, but I've never noticed any condensation & garden tols don't seem to rust.
I'm thinking about buying a metal shed, what are people views, I have heard that there damp, with condensation running down the sides ?? is this true
Thanks
I can understand it would be a pain to assemble, but why you taking it down ??? Is it no good ????
It's a long story.......
The item is question is a Yardmaster 17' x 10ft metal shed... Came packed in three 6ft long boxes. Because of this, there were a multitude of bits of bent metal that had to be joined together with self-tapping screws. Diabolical instructions, illegible paper labels identifying the parts, half the screws were missing (found this out while fitting the roof - had to go shopping for new screws while it peed with rain !).
Once it's all together, it's not very strong, and the roof leaked at every self-tapping screw - needed mastic gooped on top of each screw.
Outside cladding seems to be made from recycled beer cans - not very strong - very easily dented.
Taking it down because it's too flimsy, looks awful, still leaks (even after the masticing) and I can build a better one myself out of old-fashioned treewood with a torch-on felt roof. At the time - we'd just moved house to a new place with no outbuildings - so we were desperate for storage space. Would have been better to take a little longer and custom-build a timber shed..... you live & learn !
In short - don;t go there ! Adrian
Reckon on half a day to assemble, needs careful reading of the instructions and pictures and difficult by oneself !
Good value tho' and useful for storage of garden tools etc.
My "workshop" is a 10'x15' Yardmaster and I'm happy with it - but only after significant modification. The condensation issue is very real - when I first put it up it used to drip with damp (though the fact that it started raining before the roof was finished meant that it had a fair bit of moisture inside to start with). That's totally sorted now since I clad the roof with 1" polystyrene and boarded the floor and the first 4 feet of the walls with OSB - feels really dry in there. This wasn't cheap, and if I'd originally factored it in I might have gone for a wooden shed in the first place.
Pete
Oh. I've got a smaller Yardmaster model and have had no trouble. Did you get the pack of plastic washers which are supposed to go on each self-tap? These have kept the water out for me.
As with all flat packs you need to read and appreciate the instructions first. Had to co-opt the wife when it came to lifting the roof on. Might be an idea to seal the base frame onto the concrete/flag base with mastic before screwing down to prevent water seepage. Definitely fit gutters to avoid any chance of the above.
Apart from these wrinkles I have no reason not to buy one again.
Yes - got _lots_ of them - it was just the self-tappers they forgot to include ! The washers didn't seem to be all that a good a solution - large plastic washer, larger oval hole in the metal sheet and a panhead selftapper.... not really wonderful engineering (IMHO)
Didn't help that about 20% of the holes that should have been punched through the longitudinal rails and the roof panels had only been mildy threatened, rather than being punched through
Did that - read them - didn't appreciate them all that much
The two of us worked on it together... ...didn't seem fair to have all the fun myself
I sat mine on a timber base, and fitted a skirt of dpm under the bottom edge of the side panels to deflect that water away. That bit worked
I did get the feeling that the smaller sheds _might_ work better - just this larger unit involved too many 'bits' and is altogether too flimsy. The doors are very floppy, and not helped by the fact that the hinges seemd to be just mild steel - so they've rusted badly....
I usppose it was 'only' 1000 euro (about 800 quid) - but I'm sure I could have built in timber for the same price - and ended up with a better result....
...we'll see next year !
Anybody want a 2nd-hand tin shed ?
Adrian West Cork, Ireland
noname pretended :
Yes, very much so.
Made very much worse if they are not installed on a solid and water proof base, or you put wet things into them.
Mine mostly worked OK. I have had one leak in the roof which used to only occur in very bad weather, but now seems to have stopped (perhaps a lucky bird-turd over the screw head? :-) )
I had a few of those, but with only mild persuasion the screws will go through un-punched metal as well as punched, so it wasn't a big problem.
I agree they're a little daunting at first glance, but followed carefully I found them entirely accurate and didn't have any major problems.
I had two mates with me, one an able assistant and one whose sole job was to fit hundreds of plastic washers onto hundreds of screws :-). If he hadn't been there, and if it were an option they offered, I'd have gladly paid £20 for Yardmaster to do that bit for me.
I tried to seal the frame to the base with spandy-foam. It helped, but wasn't entirely successful. I've since laid DPM on the floor inside, with a four-inch skirt up the walls, and put down OSB on top. Feels very dry in there now, though not being able to screw anything to the floor has been a bit limiting in fitting benches etc.
Mine's not that much smaller than yours, and as a structure it doesn't seem flimsy to me. Individual parts sometimes seem a bit thin, but put together they support each other and it feels solid enough. Of course, I've since boarded the inside (to prevent me accidentally denting it by throwing stuff around) but it wasn't bad before.
This seems different. Mine has sliding doors rather than hinged. There I have had to make improvements - the doors were sturdy enough against wind and weather, but not against human attack. The original steel is now more like a thin cladding over a substantial wooden structure. Of course you could still open up the walls with a tin-opener, but it's only intended to resist casual kicking at the doors rather than a well-thought-out attack.
Mine was (IIRC) about £350 for the basic structure. It was a replacement for a couple of badly-rotted wooden sheds, so having something that's impervious to that was a big selling point - and I wasn't aware of the potential downsides at the time.
Pete
I am happy with mine. The only most difficult part was assembling the roof, then getting it on top of the walls. I mounted mine on a concrete base and put sealant on the inside between the concrete and the bottom of the walls before fixing the sliding doors. As I assembled it I thought it rather frail, especially the doors, but once fully assembled it was fine. No rain or snow getting in, as regards condensation non yet but it is admittedly early days.
Ensure you put a proper concrete base in with a damp proof membrane. Also a little ventilation at the top to keep air flow. With that I haven't had any problems.
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