Hey all,
My wife took on an allotment recently. Not long after, she decided she wanted a shed.
We looked into buying a pre-made one but I decided I would build her one to keep costs down and and to really keep costs down, I decided to use pallets.
Our local builders merchants has mountains of discarded pallets; they pay to get rid of them so they were more than happy to let me help myself.
I did have to invest some time dismantling them. I sped things up by investing in a pallet pry bar and learned which pallets come apart with the minimum effort. (They are the ones where the slats are nailed onto lengths of 4x2. The typical pallet which has the wood blocks on the corners are very tough to dismantle, I stay away from them.)
Needless to say, I'm now a ninja at dismantling and de-nailing pallets.
I did use brand new treated 4x2 for the base and frame of the walls since that same builders merchant had a special offer on which meant it was cheaper to buy new than second hand.
I chamfered the horizontal slats on my table saw to a 45degree bevel so they fitted together and let the rain water run out. There is a plastic membrane behind the horizontal slats and another layer of wooden pallet paneling on the inside.
The front door was second hand from a local reclamation place and the porch hand rail came from a neighbor who was having her decking replaced. It wasn't in the original shed plan but it does fit in quite well.
The outside is treated with two coats of screwfix no nonsense wood preserver, I'm curious to see how well that performs.
A friend who had their kitchen done has donated me their old cupboards and worktop which I'm going to install inside next.
All in all, I'm very pleased with how it turned out.
My wife took on an allotment recently. Not long after, she decided she wanted a shed.
We looked into buying a pre-made one but I decided I would build her one to keep costs down and and to really keep costs down, I decided to use pallets.
Our local builders merchants has mountains of discarded pallets; they pay to get rid of them so they were more than happy to let me help myself.
I did have to invest some time dismantling them. I sped things up by investing in a pallet pry bar and learned which pallets come apart with the minimum effort. (They are the ones where the slats are nailed onto lengths of 4x2. The typical pallet which has the wood blocks on the corners are very tough to dismantle, I stay away from them.)
Needless to say, I'm now a ninja at dismantling and de-nailing pallets.
I did use brand new treated 4x2 for the base and frame of the walls since that same builders merchant had a special offer on which meant it was cheaper to buy new than second hand.
I chamfered the horizontal slats on my table saw to a 45degree bevel so they fitted together and let the rain water run out. There is a plastic membrane behind the horizontal slats and another layer of wooden pallet paneling on the inside.
The front door was second hand from a local reclamation place and the porch hand rail came from a neighbor who was having her decking replaced. It wasn't in the original shed plan but it does fit in quite well.
The outside is treated with two coats of screwfix no nonsense wood preserver, I'm curious to see how well that performs.
A friend who had their kitchen done has donated me their old cupboards and worktop which I'm going to install inside next.
All in all, I'm very pleased with how it turned out.
