How to Choose the Right Timber for Your Garden Shed Build?

So, you’ve decided to build your own timber garden shed, but where do you start? Trust us, we know the feeling, but it’s not as daunting as it seems.

The first thing you need to do is design your shed. Once you’ve mapped out your design, it’s time to grab your materials.

In this quick guide, we’re going to take you through the ideal materials for the different parts of your garden shed, as well as where you can find them.

Already know what you need? Perfect. Check out our timber products or get in touch to get started.

Why Build Your Own Timber Garden Shed?

In case you’re umming and ahhing about whether building your own shed, rather than buying a pre-packaged one, is the right move, let us very quickly put your mind at rest. The two main advantages to building your own are:

• Cost – Part of the cost of buying a pre-packaged shed is to cover the design and assembly that goes into your out-of-the-box solution. No question, it’ll make your life easier, but for a price. Building your own from scratch will save you a good chunk of change that you can put to good use elsewhere.
• Design – Pre-packaged sheds only go together one way, and that’s the way someone else designed them. How is a designer half the world away supposed to know what layout and space you need? When you build your own shed, you can construct it just how you like.

Structural Materials and Foundations

First things first, what wood should you use for the foundations and structure of your shed? Well, as you can imagine, you need something sturdy, easy to work with and long-lasting.

Enter C16/24 graded construction timber. Carefully kiln-dried for maximum stability and strength, this high-grade sawn timber is ideal for all kinds of construction projects, offering the perfect base material for structures of any size.

Easy to work and primed for treatment for even greater longevity, we’d recommend construction timber for your foundations and framework. We stock C16/24 grade timber in lengths of 2.4 to 6 m and thicknesses of 50 x 100 mm to 75 x 225 mm and can even cut your materials to size so you can get straight to building.

Roofing

Next on your list of timber to build a garden shed should probably be roofing – nobody likes getting rained on after all.

Roofing materials should be lightweight, water resistant and durable, keeping the weather out while not adding too much weight to the top of your shed. There are a couple of materials available that suit this description, including marine plywood, moisture-resistant MDF and even some cladding boards, if you want a slatted roof, but the most popular is oriented strand board (OSB).

Known as OSB3, this material is made of compressed layers of wood particles and offers superb damp and humidity resistance as well as outstanding strength without too much weight, making it the perfect roofing material.

A roof made of OSB3 boards coated in roofing felt is a perfect cost-effective, long-lasting solution used in all kinds of construction projects and even in many pre-packaged sheds.

Cladding

With your structure, foundations and roof sorted, it’s time to consider your outer layer which needs to be durable but also give the fit and finish you want to help your timber garden shed blend with the rest of your outdoor design.

For external use, we stock a selection of pressure-treated cladding boards, each offering a different final look and with prices starting as low as £1.44 per 1.5 m. You can choose from a selection of fitting styles including shiplap, tongue and groove or simple feather edge for a more rustic look.

All of our external-use boards are pressure treated to withstand the weather, but regular re-treating with paint or spray-on products will help extend its lifespans dramatically.

Getting Your Materials

Once you’ve picked the right materials for your shed, it’s time to get shopping! At Timber Yard Direct Products, we stock all the garden shed timber you need to bring your dream design to life.

If you’re still not sure what you need, don’t stress. Give our expert team a call on 02476 581 904 or drop into our Coventry HQ with your design, and we’ll help you find all the materials and tools you need to get building your timber garden shed right away.