Cheapest way to build a lean-to

I was thinking of a wooden frame with some corrugated plastic roof panels, but I’d like to keep the rain from blowing in the sides. Is there some sort of product I don’t know about that would function as siding for a frame? I could get a tarp and staple it to the frame but I’m a bit concerned about it flapping in the wind, especially if I had a flap arrangement for access.

Ideas?

I made one on the side of the garage using cheap stuff from B&Q because it was easiest.

1″ batton to make a frame.

Coruscated pitch board for the walls with some corrugated plastic panels for the windows screwed to that.

Aluminium tar tape flashing to seal it against the wall.

I haven’t put a door/flap on mine as it is closed at one end so the wind and rain doesn’t try and blow into it. I will put up some photos if you want.

I built one between fence and house (well 2 actually, but one was a bit more fancy with a proper roof and nice cladding…)

The cheap one uses fence posts bolted to the ground, the fence forms the exterior wall, the house the interior, I then reused a shed gate and made a second gate out of old decking.

The roof is a couple of sheets of marine ply with left over shingles attached.  Soffits were spare wood from a pallet, and then it has a shed guttering kit.  Bit between the gate / fence and the roof is old decking repurposed.

Total cost was less than a few hundred, most expensive bits being a decent lock and the bolt down things for the fence posts.  Also had some proper exterior paint left over from a past project so it looks pretty good overall.

It was actually very easy to do once I stopped faffing about with planning it and just got on with it

Is there some sort of product I don’t know about that would function as siding for a frame?

How big is it?  T&G boards?

Is there some sort of product I don’t know about that would function as siding for a frame?

A door.

It’s going to be about.. 6×4 or something with opening needed on the long side.

What the heck is coruscated pitch board?

6 x 4 is bog-standard size for a shed. You may find it easier and cheaper to buy one of those and forget the lean-to bit.

i grabbed prefabbed lean to greenhouse, from robert dyas i think, for less than 300, couple of years ago, bit larger than what you mentioned..

however i worked out i couldn’t buy the materials and time to DIY completely

that being said, did take multiple coats of treatment, and the plastic pane retention is crap, but it was a fine solution for me

coruscated

I imagine… corrugated

https://www.roofingmegastore.co.uk/roofing-categories/corrugated-sheets.html

You can use it for walls too…

Realistically anything bodged together will end up rotting and/or needing constant fettling. Just get some treated weatherboard and make tongue& groove sides

If you didn’t want to use fencing panels for the long side (I presume this is what you are trying to work out how to cover up) then use the cladding of your choice, from shiplap nailed through to more fancy systems.  For the nicer lean too I had a low brick wall on the external side and topped with a plastic and ally cladding system like you see on many houses (from eurocell).  This is more expensive and faffy than just using fence panels

Making your own door is really easy out of pallet wood / old decking.  And old decking is pretty thick so it makes for a pretty strong door too

@DT78 fancy sharing any pics of the cheap one? I want to do essentially the same thing but haven’t got around to working out exactly how yet.

6 x 4 is bog-standard size for a shed. You may find it easier and cheaper to buy one of those and forget the lean-to bit.

Yeah but I’ve had many sheds and they were all absolutely shit and rotted away in no time. And they cost a ridiculous amount for what they are. Also the site is not level so that would need addressing, whereas a lean-to I build can slope.

use the cladding of your choice, from shiplap nailed through to more fancy systems

Yeah that is what I am investigating – what my choice of cladding should be.

Its nowt special, will see if I can work out how to upload pics.  Its is currently rammed full of random bit of wood that will come in useful sometime in the future…. yes, its true, as the lean too they are in is nearly all built from stuff I had horded.

The original gate was pretty knackered and I was going to make a new one but its been fine now for several years. For the decking gate its formed out of pallet wood, screw old decking to it and then trim it with a straight edge.  The decking was already treated so just needed to paint the cut ends.

It may not look pretty but this is tucked around the back of the house where the wheeliebins are stored so it just needs to be functional.

Its pretty low I think 2.2m on the boundary to stick within planning.  I was lucky with the house design as it has a course of bricks jutting out so I could run the roof under than course and its watertight, even without sealent.  If it was just a flat wall you would probably need to cut in a run of lead – which I had expected to do but didn’t have to.

Rafters are major overkill as I had a load of chunky timber left over and I wanted to overbuild it as I needed to be on the roof to nail the shingles on

This is what I used on the lean to that could be seen and I wanted to look nice:

Coastline Composite Cladding for Exteriors

You can get the horrible looking white pvc stuff much cheaper.

Its quite an easy system to fit, my site restrictions are what made it a faff.  Still a lot slower than just using an existing fence line, or new panels screwed to uprights

I’m fortunate in a way that I have a little out of the way corner of the garden behind the house, enclosed left and rear by house walls and right by the fence. Opening is fairly narrow so some kind of vaguely decent door is going to be all that’s seen.

Biggest problem for me is all the gutter down pipes and two soil pipes I’ll have to work around, plus the fact I can only access from one end.

I’ve had a series of cheap lean to’s out the back. Got a bit carried away with the rebuild…

That ^^ is what I want to do for the patio roof, some day in the future. Is it a kit?

What the heck is coruscated pitch board?

A flamboyant but also scathingly critical cladding material that cries all the way to the bank

Attempt at photos for budget lean to…. nothing as flash as that above!  This is mostly recycled / hoarded stuff.  Cost was minimal, took 2-3 days in spurts.  All done from my side of the fence to not aggravate the neighbour…

https://flic.kr/p/2qqCBCu

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That’s awesome thanks!

I need to do something to protect a sea kayak from the weather. It’s in a narrow gap between a stone garage and a boundary wall/fence. The dressed stone finish on the garage means it’s not straight forward to create a good frame for a mini car-port style cover for my limited DIY skills.

Anyone know of any good design ideas websites to peruse?

Is it a kit?

unfortunately not… scope/budget creep is in full force.

If I were building something simple, I’d use polycarbonate sheets rather than corrugated plastic. It gets really brittle and shitty pretty quickly.

Engineer as much pitch as you can, makes it easier to get watertight.

Elshamilo, I just have a cover over my kayak, not a sea one so smaller than yours and therefore easier to find one to fit i expect, just a typical canvas bag type thing. I’m not fussed about it getting wet, it really isn’t waterproof any more, but it does keep the UV off which is it’s main purpose and its fine for that. It’s also not snail-proof, always have to remove quite a few whenever I take it off. Anyway, IME no fancy lean to required, just a bag. However, mine was £200 off eBay, if you’ve got a couple of grands worth of fancy one you may which to go the whole hog

@andrewh – thanks. I  need to build a little cradle to get it off the floor away from slugs and spiders (probably impossible anyway). It’s currently sat on some old bike tyres on top of bits of pallets wedged in the gap but covered with a large tarp. I was thinking of a little roof to keep the worst off it but it’s just an old plastic boat we got from a relative. My appetite for building something half decent will probably go once winter kicks in.

Sounds like mine, it’s balanced between two raised beds…

Cheapest would be to use old pallets. They’re about 4 foot wide so dimension one is pre-made. Fill in the gaps with more reclaimed pallet and cover with roofing felt.

My log store is pallet base and sides with the base raised on bricks to prevent it sitting in puddles and rotting.

The lean to up there ^ looks way smarter and more like a proper shed.

Construction of fencing timber frame with fence board or OSB walls / roof and roofing felt on the roof would probably be a good cost / solidity compromise.

Depends what you need, cheapo log store or workshop to escape the world for half the winter.

If OP doesn’t want totally weather sealed but just mostly weather proofed, have a look at the wind breaks or gale breaks used on agricultural livestock sheds. I’ve also seen it used on timber and log stores.

Basically a mesh, it keeps a fair bit of rain out but allows enough airflow to dry what gets through.

Guessing you could make your own scaled down version with skip netting, think that is my plan for the relocated firewood shed at home.

You’ll not find cattle storm breakers very cheap. We looked at using them at the ski club for snow fencing and rapidly decided against it

Cheapest I’ve found for scraggy fencing & garden supplies recently has been B&M of all places. The stores where they’ve taken over old homebases have garden centres with some absolutely bargainous fencing, greenhouse kits and sheeting.

If you can be arsed processing it then Gumtree and Facebook for old sheds and pallets. Otherwise stump up because NOTHING is cheap now.