Wooden Vs Plastic Sheds, Which Should You Choose?

Wooden Vs Plastic Sheds, Which Should You Choose?

A garden shed is essential to storing outside items that wouldn’t be appropriate to store in the house. Do you really want the big blow-up flamingo in your dining room? Or to be sat around grubby lawn furniture during a candlelit dinner? Plastic sheds and wooden sheds both have their own unique advantages and disadvantages which we will explore below.

• Traditional

A wooden shed is the traditional choice. They’re aesthetically pleasing and can be painted in any colour. They’re easy to customise to make them fit in your garden while storing everything you need to store in them. Shelves and hooks can easily be fitted to the walls for additional storage.

• Modern

The plastic shed is the modern choice. They offer easy assembly and are low maintenance. It isn’t as easy to customise a plastic shed, although they come in a range of sizes and colours. Plastic sheds can’t be painted either.

• Appearance

A part from considering how the shed will look in your garden, you’ll need to consider how it will look next year and the year after.

Plastic sheds are virtually no-maintenance. They can be cleaned with regular garden furniture soap, if you’re that way inclined, or never cleaned. Sunlight and the elements will eventually break them down and the entire shed will need to be replaced.

If not maintained properly, a wooden shed will break and warp quickly, ruining the look of the garden and risking the items inside the shed. Wooden sheds need to be repainted every few years and the roof felting needs replacing, otherwise rot will set in. One rotten board is easy to repair, but when rot really sets in or the wood warps badly, the entire shed needs replacing.

• Expense

Wooden sheds cost more to buy and are more expensive to maintain than plastic sheds. Due to the complexity of building a wooden shed, you may need to hire someone to put it up for you as well. Assembling a plastic shed is simple and (unless you have no tools basic tools at all) can usually be done without buying or renting additional tools.

• Condensation

Plastic sheds are prone to condensation, which can lead to mould. It can also ruin gardening tools and bikes with rust. They’ve increased in popularity due to how easy they are to build and maintain but certainly aren’t appropriate for storing pool toys or anything else that gets put away while damp. Some models of plastic garden sheds have an upper loft-like storage area you might be able to put a damp collector in, but with needing to purchase special hooks and shelves, this might be the only way to organise your stuff.

• Pests

You won’t get wasps building a nest or rats eating pet food in a plastic shed. If you’re storing a lot of seeds, they’re easier to protect in a plastic shed.

Choosing a shed depends on your personal needs and how much maintenance you’re willing to put in. Unfortunately, storing certain items isn’t appropriate for plastic sheds.

Guest Article.