I’ve just moved house and I no longer have a garage.

What I do have is a fairly large wooden shed which is far bigger than it needs to be, which is nice.

I’ve got room to set up my turbo in there abs I want to deck it out eventually as a proper ‘pain cave’ but I’ve never had a shed before so I’ve got some concerns.

Main one is the damp. It’s watertight, but it feels damp in there, there’s no obvious condensation and there’s plenty of ventilation. We had some boxes in there when we moved in and they’ve gone soft so I’m concerned about the equipment. Is my smart turbo going to die in there?

Is there anything I can do to improve the situation? Is insulation the answer? Or will I need to suck it up and buy a fancy room with double glazing and central heating.

Power is from an extension lead to a garden socket so no permanent power yet.

Any advice gratefully received

This time of year isn’t the best for damp/cold anyway. Could be lack of heating – it’s why houses that have stood empty for a while feel damp. Insulation will certainly help, doesn’t need to be OTT so long as you don’t block up the ventilation.

Stick a small heater in there and let it run for a few weeks. Doesn’t have to make it a sauna, just get things warm enough to “push the damp out” via a temperature gradient.

I’d be concerned about your biological equipment first and foremost, training in a damp room – ie your lungs and breathing in moulds.

It doesn’t sound like it’s too bad, if there are no leaks and it’s well-ventilated, so it might not take too much to get it dry. But needs sorting out before doing any regular training there IMHO.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/dimplex-ecot2ft-wall-mounted-tubular-heater-80w-713-x-81mm/1796f

Mate of mine uses something like this in his woodworking shed to stop all his tools going rusty over winter – might help long-term?

Definitely get yourself a remote control plug socket to use with your fan.

That way you can knock the fan on once you warm up rather than having it blasting on you from the start when it will be freezing. You can get them from Wilkos, Ebay, Amazon etc for a few quid.

Whats going on under the floor?

The damp feeling will be down to ventilation, cut a couple of vent grilles into the side that gets the most wind,, that should cure it.

A good tip is to put down a floor made form those compressed EAV foam interlocking tiles, but cut them when they’re at house room temp and leave a bit of a gap round the edges, sheds get really warm in the summer.

Under the floor is a good question. It’s on battens so not on the floor, but as far as I can tell nothing else. If insulation is the key to keeping everything safe from moisture then I’ll do the floor too with a membrane down under some thick carpet or something.

It’s not that cold in there, had my first go on the turbo this morning and was happy in a hoody until I’d warmed up, maybe 5 mins. After that I was boiling.

I don’t want to spend too much DIYing it, it wouldn’t take long to get to the point of having a new insulated job installed by professionals and I have very little in the way of manual skills. I can put a curtain rail up but that’s pushing the limits of my manly abilities

I have a small gas fire in my garage size wooden workshop which works well and warms the whole space up even on the lowest setting, the biggest thing that made a difference in mine was a foam matted floor, the walls are double skinned but not properly insulated.Nothing gets damp and tools don’t rust.

My home gym is an 8 x 12 ft summer house, I’ve used that silver bubble wrap on the walls and polystyrene panels in the roof, the floor has those knobbly rubber horse mats. There is a vent at either end and I use a little fan heater periodically through my workout (resistance training only.)I’ve been using the gym like this for nearly six years and there is no rust on any of my dumbells/barbells, it get’s warm in the summer, but not unusable.