Shed of the year 2024, Sponsored by 
The Garden Tool Shed is 7ft by 5ft in order to best fit into a particular corner of the garden. It was assembled from new in August 2009.
For the base, 2 off 7 ft and 2 off 6 ft long 4 in. by 4 in. pressure treated fence posts were bought. The 7 ft posts were 83" long and the 6ft posts were shortened to 60". The four timber posts were joined with overlapping half lap joints. The cut ends were brushed with wood preservative. To prepare the ground the timber base's rectangular outline was marked on the ground and a 4 in. deep and 8 in. wide trench was dug from under the outline. The corner of the garden was not level but sloping up to the top left corner where the trench had to be dug deeper in order to level out the bottom of the trench. Two bags of pea gravel were poured evenly into the trench and hoed to make the gravel surface level. The four 4"*4" posts were each carefully placed onto the gravel, checked to be level and square and fastened together with 2 off 3 1/2 in. countersunk screws through each half lap joint to make a timber foundation 83 ins.long by by 60 ins wide. The 7ft by 5ft shed from Elbec's Oxford Apex Shed Range has a 81 1/4 in. by 57 1/2 in. footprint. Other 7*5 sheds have different footprints. The walls are 1/2 shiplap on a 1 1/4" by 1 3/4" frame construction and the floor and roof are made with tongue and groove. It was ordered without external treatment and was delivered as a ready to assemble multi-component flat pack, with short assembly instructions. Firstly, The underside of the floor was brushed with wood preservative, the raised ground within the rectangular foundation was dug out to below the top of the timbers and the floor was laid onto the base. Then, the front, back and two sides were painted with two coats of wood preservative (Sadolin Shed and Fence Protection (Golden Glow)). The back, non window side section, window side section and front section were placed in turn onto the floor onto the floor, ensuring a tight rectangular fit with previously installed adjacent sections and then fastened to its neighbouring sections with galvanised nails. The two roof sections were each 90" by 36". Their upper and lower sides were brushed with wood preservative. Three 98" lengths were cut from the 39.37" wide roll of roofing felt. A 108"long remnant was left. over. A piece of felt with a 4" overlap at each end was nailed onto each the roof sections with 3" of felt doubled over and nailed to the bottom edge of each section as a gutter drip. The roof overhangs 4 1/2" all round so the shed had to be moved over the foundation for the roof to fit between some pre-existing garden posts. Good job the floor wasn't yet nailed down. The two felted roof sections were lifted into postion over the four shed sides and the third piece of felt was laid along the roof ridge and nailed overlapping the pre-fitted felt. With the shed and roof sitting squarely the front, back and sides were nailed to the floor using 3" nails. The 2 pieces of 3mm glass were fitted and fixed and the 4 corner fillets and the 4 barge boards were nailed in place. The inside walls and floor of the shed were brushed with Blackfriars Wood Preservative (Clear). The shed came with lock and key.
