Improvised shed?

[JustinFun]

Our next door neighbour has a big pile of unwanted fence panels. I'm thinking of asking for a few of them to make a shed for our allotment. Does this sound practical?

I was thinking of putting together a wooden frame (raised off the ground on bricks) and then screwing the panels to that. Possibly using pallets for flooring, or alternatively some loft-flooring chipboard we've got lying around. I'd build the door frame in to the original wood frame, but I'd need to think about any possible way of getting windows in. I'd need to buy something for the roof as well.

Any thoughts?

[MKG]

Eminently practical - but not very weatherproof. So, it depends upon what you actually want the shed for.

[john4703]

I'd be careful of the chipboard for flooring as it does not cope at all well with wet or even damp for long periods. It seems to break down and become a pile of sawdust is it stays wet for long.

[Sky]

If you can do it for nothing then it's worth a go isn't it?

[snapdragon]

for our little leftovers shed we put a section of perspex / acrylic sheet into the roof to allow light in, and added a triangular section in the end where the 'pent' roof goes up, which saved cutting the wood to shape for the angle of the roof

we made it against the garden and house wall, so only needed two sides and a roof, made from pallets and leftovers from a neighbours featherboard fencing (and a lot of swearing) but it has become log and garden tool store

[colhut]

I think it is a brilliantly practical idea. Don't use chipboard though, it won't last at all unless you can keep it totally dry. Make sure you put the fence panels facing outwards (otherwise the slats will channel the rain in rather than out !

[Martin]

you can probably find a window in a skip, or at a boot sale, and for roofing, nick the boating idea of "boot topping" - make a wooden roof of some sort - paint thickly with gloss paint, then when it's still wet, whack on a canvas cover (chunk of old tent will do fine) - it should stick quite well to the tacky paint surface - use a block of wood or roller to make sure it's well stuck, then whack more gloss paint on the top..........
Makes a really good waterproof layer, far better than cheap felt, and was widely used on boats for hatch covers etc.....

[yugogypsy]

Go for it!

We built our chicken coop out of pallet wood and used camper windows so we can control ventilation.

Next project is a pole structure with a roof to cover my Mercedes van/potting shed.

And we were just given some lovely used lumber to build our new woodshed.

Lois

[JustinFun]

Great! Thanks for all the good ideas everyone! I'll let you know how it goes - probably a project for late summer when there's less to do in the allotment.