Re: Bulletproof shed

That's an interesting idea, but would involve throwing away about half the wood that's already been purchased. The plastic panels (tongue and groove, actually) would cost about £1500. Currently not-in-stock.

One solution is to cancel the current shed order and buy one made of cedar, which will last 20 years (indeed a great deal longer) without maintenance.

The neighbours, perfectly reasonably, want a nice continuous fence to look at, so #1 needs to find a solution that works within that constraint.

In message <10p0uu1$33gui$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 12:11:45 on Fri, 13 Mar

Not possible, I'm afraid.

The back of the shed would be continuous all the way between the back of the garden to the rear-most bit of their house (a brick-built extension), and very likely more picturesque than the average fence.

My shed, when built 70 years ago was going to be placed close to a wall. the rear was clad with good quality roofing felt. This was replaced when it was dismantled and moved to a new location 45 years ago. the rear is still in pristine condition, but other parts have needed maintenance over the years.

J.O.I how big is this shed? ICBW and would have to look it up but though generally* sheds under a certain height don’t need planning ,over a certain floor area they need to be set back from a neighbours fence or building by a distance possibly 1m as a precaution against fire spreading. I suppose the logic is that a bigger shed may be used as a workshop with some tasks involving heating things up.

Setting back from a wooden fence isn’t a bad idea if you have the space as more than shed and then house has been burn’t when a neighbours barbecue has set fire to the fence and quickly runs along and sets adjoining sheds alight . Revisiting the cladding idea , why not clad the back in galvanised iron or plain flat zinc or Aluminium sheet to keep the rain off, those old tin tabernacles lasted years.

GH

Roland, Roland, you are being RATIONAL™.

In today's political climate people understand that if they whine and moan enough someone somewhere may give them a free gobstopper.

Build your portakabin and paint it purple and yellow.

And if they want to hide it with a fence,, let them

In message snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>, at 12:46:23 on Fri, 13 Mar 2026, Marland snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.co.uk> remarked:

It's half the size that would require floor area PP, and unsurprisingly all the supplier's products are less than 2.5m tall.

Well, to your eye. I think No.2 is not being outrageous. Not sure I'd like the back of someone's shed forming part of an otherwise continuous boundary fence. It'd look awkward to me - break up the height, materials, colour etc. And it might cause bother if No.2 wants to grow something against the boundary.

Anyway, sounds like it's not worth getting inside No.2's head. Either step in from the boundary, or (as you suggest) create a durable shed.

I'm assuming it's within permitted development - typically less than 2.4m and

In message <10p2hhd$3rkch$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 02:35:25 on Sat, 14 Mar

The boundary of their rear garden currently comprises three sections of completely different fencing. To the rear is an old picket fence overlooking some waste ground, to one side is a new metal-sheeting fence, and the other side is the falling-down traditional wooden fence.

The new shed (or as the suppliers grandly call it, a "log cabin") would replace the entire length of the latter, from the picket fence to the corner of their brick-built extension (which is about a third of their original garden area, and half of the depth of the boundary between the two houses).

Yes, the height is permitted, the shed manufacturing company would be insane not to make then like that. Ditto the shed's footprint. In terms of garden area, about 20%

Not requires.

Would that mean 28mm or 40mm tongue and groove spruce sides, interlocked at the corners with maybe 100mm extending out from the walls, and the roof extending maybe 200mm from the wall? If so, black roofing felt might not be a good idea.

Well, you're selling the shed-as-fence idea to me. But as I say, probably best not getting too far inside the head of No.2.

In message <10p3dd8$4ug3$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 10:31:05 on Sat, 14 Mar

That's the kind of thing, although I don't have the exact measurements to hand.

Which bits of the spec give rise to that worry?

It will be hard to cover the corners, and at least in the North West the exposed end grain and the cutouts for the interlock would be the most important to protect. If the roof overhang is more than an inch it might be possible to reach around for maintenance. In summer the outside of the wood might heat up and dry out quickly, at least until there are some gaps made by the differential expansion.

OoI, how do you interlock T&G at corners?

websearch for images of log cabin asembly, or for example ...

In message <10p625b$ulqo$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 10:37:33 on Sun, 15 Mar

The corners are however accessible from the sides. It's only the majority of the back which is potentially inaccessible.

In message <10p6mpj$17iaq$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 16:29:42 on Sun, 15 Mar

Yes, that's the sort of thing (although from a different supplier).

Ah OK, yes - if it's purpose built and routed. I was thinking T&G cladding and boards and the like.

If the shed footprint is greater than 2.4m then it is an outbuilding rather than a shed and it would need planning permission.

If it is a typical shed shape, bigger front to back than side to side, then rotating the planned replacement shed 90 degrees would take the same garden area but leave a maintenance gap between shed and fence.