How to build a shed

We live off-grid and off-road. It's lovely most of the time, we are surrounded by green loveliness, bees buzz everywhere and instead of traffic all we hear is the tranquil sound of rushing water in the lock by our house. It does have its drawbacks though. First getting anything here that is bulky is a real pain and a major logistical nightmare, secondly it is really hard to get workman to come and do stuff. We have to do everything ourselves from scratch. And we are not experts! But we do learn from our mistakes and we're happy to pass it on. What we've learnt, not the mistakes!!!

We've come to the point where we need to sort out our storage issues and we really thought a shed would come in handy. Of course, nobody is going to deliver a shed so we've set out to build our own from scratch. Here are some points to consider, which sadly we didn't and ended up wasting time and almost having to start right over again.

Choosing a site carefully for your shed is important. Our initial idea was silly because we wouldn't have been able to prune the trees behind it and so had to move it further out. You might also want to check there are no cables etc under the ground where you want to site your shed.

Hard standing that is even really is a must. We thought we'd get away with a site with existing concrete, but really it had cracked and was slightly subsided. Another no, no! We excavated soil anew and laid paving on top of a concrete/sand mix.

This next point seems obvious I suppose, but we are amateurs! Have all the tools and equipment your going to need out and ready to hand - pozidrive screwdriver, drill with the right drill bits, a saw, and brushes for the preservative.

If it's your first attempt keep it simple and use reliable blueprints - it's much easier than trying to work it out for yourself especially if they come with step-by-step instructions. I did dream of little gabled windows with flowers and one day when we're more experienced we will go for that! But we found a really basic blue print was easy to follow and let's be honest at the end of the day it will still store stuff.

Pre-cut timber is necessary. We used recycled timber for the floor, but found that our local timber merchant was willing to cut pieces for us from the blueprints we gave him - all we had to do then was follow the step-by-step instructions.

Roof felting should be laid horizontally starting on the lower edges and working towards the centre. The centre piece should overlap the outer strips evenly. Then make sure you tack at regularly spaced intervals to avoid lifting.

I hope you find some of our tips for building a garden shed from scratch useful.  I'm almost ready to move my gardening stuff in.  I also want an old wicker chair with a comfy cushion so I can hide when it rains, it will be my chair of comtemplation.  Shed Heaven!