TL;DR – has anyone built a big shed lately, either bought online as a kit or DIY’d?

I’m going to put something up in the garden, there’s space for something about 18x13ft, of which part (about 4ft) needs to be a “shed” to store the lawnmower, garden furniture, paint tins, tools, etc and the rest as an office/summerhouse.

Log cabins seem to be the expensive option, but also seem to be prone to the ‘logs’ warping. And only realistic as a kit as DIYing all those notches would take a while. Approximate cost about £5k.

The other option is the ‘shed’ type construction where you build a stud wall then clad it. Approximate cost about £2.5k. Also available as a kit, but also DIY’able. I suppose a bonus would be that the £2.5k saved Vs the log cabin pays for a lot of overspecing on the frames (if fully DIY) and insulation/boarding.

The space is quite shaded, against the fence on two sides, with a few ~20ft trees around it. So isn’t going to have to deal with driving rain, but could potentially be considered “damp” as it’s not going to get huge amounts of direct sunlight. Base will be a concrete slab.

Would using SIP’s work for you? Goes up quickly, really good insulation too.

https://www.sipsdirect.co.uk/product-category/panels/

Check out what’s allowed under permitted development, planning regs etc.

I’ve been looking at this. I think your figures are way under current costs unless you are only talking about the walls. SIP + Plaster + Cladding or self build a frame, Insulate + Plasterboard + Plaster + Cladding seem to be the best value for money. But you wont get anything of a decent size for £5k. Closer to £10k by the time its done. A kit can be more than that and doesn’t include everything.

I built my shed in my folks garden for not a lot. reclaimed timbers, a few bits “left over” from site jobs.

joists mounted on stainless m10 bolts that were anchored into the slab . means it doesn’t contact the ground.

simple stud wall and gramble pitched roof…. clad with featherboard and tin respectively. loads of Kingspan offcuts from site work stuffed between the joists and in the walls. maybe the odd window and sheet of plasterboard went missing from sites in Essex around that time. who knows.

cost around £500, albeit nigh on 20 years ago. bloody thing is still standing.

Log cabin looks the part, but really thats about it. No real advantage over a shed.

Would using SIP’s work for you? Goes up quickly, really good insulation too.

I can kind of see how they work if the factory cuts them to size and sells a kit. But I can’t really see how it would be cost/time/skill effective if you then have to build the frame, doors, windows, eaves etc anyway?

Check out what’s allowed under permitted development, planning regs etc.

Yep we’re well within those.

I’ve been looking at this. I think your figures are way under current costs unless you are only talking about the walls

They’ve definitely jumped ~20% in the past 3 months but that’s the current price, e.g. £4300 for the log cabin, plus some extras and the storage option:

https://dunsterhouse.co.uk/premiumplus-lantera-w4-5m-x-d3-5m

Interior finish on either option would just be either paint the log cabin or cladding on the inside of the shed. I don’t really want to have to deal with all the cracking that would be an inevitable consequence of plaster (although I suppose taper edge boards and just skim the joints might be more forgiving of being in a wooden structure).

If you dont have access to building sites to burgalarise then this site is a good steer on costs of SIP kits.

https://supersips.uk.com/product-category/studio-kits

The costs on top are, the base, windows, plastering, flooring etc etc. My mate just built one for £8k with some of the wood recycled from something else. With price hikes and nothing to start with i’m thinking £10k gets you a decent sized garden room you would be happy to use as an office etc.

I assembled a log cabin about 9 years ago. It is roughly 5m x 3m with a slight indent on one of the long sides to allow for a porch area. I put it up myself, including putting shingles on the roof. However I was deliberately taking my time and could have put it up in 2 days if I had pulled my finger out.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process – it’s like lego for adults. If we move house again I will be looking for another opportunity to do another one. I had a couple of problems with warped logs but the kit included spares and I think there was only one that was actually unusable.

I insulated under the floor and the roof and had it wired for lights and power. It has lasted really well and still looks very good. I would not hesitate to get another one. I followed the advice to get the thickest logs we could afford and I think that’s paid off over the long term.

I couldn’t get an 8×10 shed with the aesthetic we wanted (ie doesn’t look like a shed – we look directly out at it at the end of the garden) when I looked into this last year.   We got a cabin from Tuin which I built myself over the course of a couple of days (not none stop), plus more time to paint inside and out.  It’s a pretty easy process as long as you take time to get the base level and square.  The most time consuming part (aside from painting the bugger) was the roof (a lot of nailing to the rafters and nailing down of shingles).  Now painted it looks much nicer than an equivalent sized shed and feels much more solid too.

Shed and log cabin are the same thing, but depending on your own social standing, you’ll refer to it as either a shed or log cabin…log cabin if there is a family called Jones nearby. 😉

Now painted it looks much nicer than an equivalent sized shed and feels much more solid too.

…is the cabin somewhere behind the blue shed!? 🤣

ie doesn’t look like a shed

i hate to break it to you…

Looks a lot less like a shed than what else was available in 8×10 😛

of which part (about 4ft)

Good luck with that bit.

By the time you put the lawnmower and paint tins in there, another 17 cu m of junk will mysteriously have been found and will need to go in that bit too.

Just added an ‘extension’ to our summer house – tight space, 2.2m by 1.2m but it means I get my ‘shed office’ back ! Son’s filled my garage and shedoffice with car parts, so that’s going in the storage shed. Built from scratch for about £300, but it’s not a posh log cabin shed, just overlap timber.

By the time you put the lawnmower and paint tins in there, another 17 cu m of junk will mysteriously have been found and will need to go in that bit too.

I’m aware of this phenomenon, this “shed” is intended to buy back both the space originally allocated for hanging bikes in the garage (currently occupied by the garden shredder, pump and assorted garden furniture), the garage racking that was for car tools and is currently full of paint, and the conservatory, which just seems to be filled with stuff that shouldn’t be stored indirect sunlight at 50C, and thus is now rubbish.

Once finished I’m going to work on it’s sister project “the loft”.

We looked – crikey – nearly 15 years ago when we moved her. Had the concrete base done for a stable that was never built before we bought it. Poked and prodded a number of ‘log cabin’ options including the ones close to Afan. The really good ones were very expensive and the cheap ones were not very good!

I have no DIY skills at all. We ended up with a local company putting up the shell (it’s pretty big 30×14 I think divided into workshop/office) and my friends rallied round to do all the insulation, painting etc. Think it was 7k but that’s not really relevant anymore.

Not the best quality but with care (ext paint most years), just had the cheap plasterboard in workshop replaced with tongue and groove. Defo glad we went to town insulating floor/walls/roof.

Lawnmower etc still lives in second very down at heel shed. Not having that in my bike workshop!

Pic of two mates performing emergency roof repairs/miracles after the original roof was stripped in the Feb 2020 storms. Thankfully didn’t get too wet inside. Should have really replaced the roof before! Wooden buildings defo need maintenance!

Would using SIP’s work for you? Goes up quickly, really good insulation too.

https://www.sipsdirect.co.uk/product-category/panels/

Thats a fair price. 2x11mm at ‘8×4’ osb boards would be about £55 and about £40 for that much eps. Plus gluing obviously.