Garden Sheds: How Do You Treat Yours?

Once you have erected your garden shed it is important to maintain it correctly. If treated and maintained correctly you should enjoy your shed for many years.

Apart from the floor joists, sheds are usually supplied completely untreated. It is strongly recommended that you treat your shed within 2 weeks of installation. When treating your shed, bear in mind that colours may appear slightly different due to the individual qualities of timber.

When applying treatment to sheds, it is important that you stipple it into the corners and log slots as this will help prevent moisture from seeping in.

When choosing your treatment ensure that it is suitable for use on planed wood, and not for sawn timber.

Aftercare

Appearance of gaps

Timber is a natural product and thus will vary with changes in humidity and changes in temperature. When the weather becomes extremely dry, small cracks may well appear between the boards.

These cracks between boards will disappear when the weather normalizes. Small cracks that are formed after a long drought period cannot be avoided; however, they do not affect the static load bearing capacity of the shed.

If gaps begin to appear between the boards of then it’s quite possible that the storm braces have been fitted too tightly. The first thing to do in this case is to loosen off the bolts of the storm braces to see if this allows the shed to settle back into position.

If problems persist with gaps appearing between logs and loosening the storm braces does not resolve the problem, you can try placing a block of wood into the ends of the logs and using a mallet, hit them back into place gently.

Gaps will also likely appear between the boards if you restrict the movement of the boards in anyway. It is strongly advised that you do not install any fixtures that will restrict the movement of the shed.

Other problems

Roofing felt is liable to some movement with changes of temperature that can quite often result in a rippling effect. Do not be alarmed as this is perfectly normal and will not reduce the quality of the roofing felt.

Also, doors and windows will expand and contract with changes in humidity and changes in temperature. To minimise the risk of any problems occurring, ensure that all of the sheds windows and doors are treated using an appropriate product. It may be necessary to adjust the screws holding the shed in place from time to time.