13 Feb 2018

How Marc Curtis of UK-based Living Unplugged built a panel shed on a budget

Here Marc Curtis, of UK-based Living Unplugged, a team passionate about helping people develop healthier relationships with digital technology and reconnecting them with the world through mindfulness, talks i-build through how he built a panel shed on a budget.

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This project definitely falls under the heading of – ‘how hard can it be?’ I am a great believer in giving things a go and on our blog, Living Unplugged, we regularly write about the importance of engaging in analogue pursuits without fearing the possibility of failure.

When it comes to making stuff in my home and garden, I’m a great advocate of upcycling. I struggle with the prices charged not only for finished products (like wooden planters and sheds) but also the cost of raw materials.

So, when I decided to replace the broken-down old shed at the end of my garden I had two main requirements:

01. It should be large enough for my family’s various interests
02. Where possible, I should source the materials for free.

Having removed the old shed, I was left with a mostly intact concrete slab. The 5 x 3m footprint of the shed was dictated largely by a quantity of wooden pallets I had recently been given by my next-door neighbour. However, this created a base larger than the concrete slab, so I needed to suspend the floor on bricks to accommodate the uneven ground.

This was probably the most time-consuming part of the project. Creating brick supports under each of the corners of the pallets, then mortaring them in place with a strip of damp-proof membrane added to each to stop moisture wicking up into the floor.

Once level (-ish!), I laid 11mm OSB2 over the top and screwed the sheets in place. In retrospect, I should have used thicker OSB3 – but I was on a tight budget!

After a couple of trawls around the local industrial estates, I found enough pallets to make the walls – 22 in all. Building the walls took a couple of hours, and I held them in place with some long screws.

Obviously, this would have been structurally unsound, so I added internal support by inserting lengths of timber – sourced from a timber merchant – inside the pallet gaps. I used longer supports at the front of the shed to create a frame for the roof slope.

Next, I added some joists – again from a timber merchant – and more OSB2 over the top.

In an ideal world, I would have used timber from the pallets to create a shingle roof, but the weather was turning so I used bituminous roofing sheets nailed onto battens over the OSB.

With the shed more weathertight, I turned to the inside. The whole structure was still quite wobbly, but the addition of some OSB sheets screwed directly onto the pallets inside soon gave the shed rigidity.

I also stuffed the space inside the pallets with ROCKWOOL insulation and ran a simple ring of electrical outlets at intervals around the shed before fixing the OSB. I then wrapped the outside with roofing membrane, secured with battens.

Paying close attention to skips and local home improvement projects secured me a couple of old metal-framed windows – they were fairly simple to fit. I cut a hole in a pallet and inserted the window but I still needed one more window to go into the right of the (temporary) door.

For the exterior cladding, I went with recovered pallet wood. I’ve mostly finished the front, and with the help of my 12-year-old son – who has become an excellent pallet deconstructor – I aim to clad the entire shed in the same way.

Lessons learned

Pallets are a great building material for small projects – like planters and kitchen tables – and, due to their regular size, are easy to use for larger projects.

In retrospect, I should have used thicker OSB, and should have used a membrane on the roof – but these are small issues. If you intend to use pallet wood for projects, I recommend buying a pallet tool. Always ask permission before removing pallets from someone’s premises. I’ve found that garden centres are a good source as are industrial estates.

As with any project like this, it will likely never really end. I want the inside space to function as a workshop for me and a studio space for my wife and I plan to build a veranda in front of the shed to catch the evening sun. Maybe even a wood-burning stove for next winter.

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