How to Buy a Garden Shed Online in the UK: Sizing, Bases and Rules

Measure the route before you measure the garden

Most shed regrets begin at the side gate. Before you open a single listing, walk the delivery route with a tape measure and be honest about it.

Flat-packed panels are still big, heavy and awkward. Check the width of your side gate, any steps or tight corners, overhanging branches, and whether a pallet can sit somewhere without blocking a neighbour's drive or the pavement. On a terraced street, think about where a lorry can actually stop.

If the route doesn't work, no amount of clever cladding will save you. Measure the narrowest gap, write the number down, and treat it as a hard limit.

Read the listing like a surveyor

Which dimensions are actually being quoted

A shed sold as a certain size is often quoting the roof, not the floor. Look for internal floor dimensions, eaves height and ridge height separately. Ridge height matters for planning, eaves height matters for where you can stand up, and floor size decides whether the lawnmower fits.

Also check the door opening, not just the door. Plenty of people have bought a shed that the mower can't get into.

Cladding, framing and floors

• Overlap: the budget option. Sheds water well enough, feels flimsy, moves in the wind.
• Tongue and groove or shiplap: tighter, sturdier, holds up better over the years.
• Loglap: chunky and smart, heavier, usually dearer.

Then look at the framing. Thicker uprights mean a shed that stays square. A thin frame twists, and once it twists the door never closes properly again.

The floor is where cheap sheds fail first. A solid sheet floor on widely spaced joists will sag under a mower and a bag of compost. Look for proper floor joists and boards that butt together rather than float.

Roof, treatment and ventilation

Roof coverings run from mineral felt, which is fine but worth inspecting after a stormy winter, through rubber membranes to metal. Whatever you choose, ask how the roof is fixed down. Wind is the enemy here, not rain.

Treatment matters in a damp climate. Pressure-treated timber lasts. Dip-treated timber needs redoing regularly, so factor in a tin of preserver and a free afternoon.

Leave a ventilation gap. A sealed shed in a British winter turns into a condensation chamber, and everything inside goes mouldy.

The base is the build

A shed sits on whatever you put under it, and that's usually where the trouble starts.

• Concrete: the most solid option and the most work.
• Paving slabs on a proper bed: perfectly good if they're level and not rocking.
• Timber bearers on a membrane: quick, keeps the floor off wet ground, needs the ground beneath cleared and drained.

Don't sit it directly on grass or soil. Don't drop it in the boggiest corner of the garden because that's the only space left. Add a slight fall so water runs away from the door.

Finally, anchor it. A shed is a sail. On an exposed site, or anywhere near a coast, ground anchors are not optional.

Planning rules, in plain English

Most garden sheds fall under permitted development, which means no application — provided you stay inside the rules.

The main ones: outbuildings usually can't sit forward of the front of the house, height limits tighten if the shed is close to a boundary, and there's a cap on how much of the land around the original house can be covered. Flats, maisonettes, listed buildings and some properties in conservation areas lose these rights altogether.

Planning is devolved, so the rules in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland aren't identical to England's. If you're unsure, ring your council's planning department and describe what you want to build. Ten minutes on the phone saves an enormous amount of grief.

If you rent, check your tenancy agreement. If you own leasehold, check the lease.

Delivery day

Find out whether the shed arrives kerbside or gets carried to the garden. Those are very different days. Kerbside means you and a willing friend are doing the lifting.

Someone needs to be in. Clear the route, move the car, and have a dry, flat spot ready for the panels.

Before you sign anything, count the pieces against the delivery note and inspect the panels. Photograph any damage and write it on the paperwork, rather than accepting a cheerful "just sign here". Once the lorry has gone, arguing about a cracked panel gets much harder.

If it turns up damaged, wrong or not as described

Online orders come with a cooling-off period — fourteen days for most things, though made-to-measure buildings can be excluded. That's your right to change your mind, not a favour from the seller.

Separately, goods have to be as described, of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose. Damage in transit is the seller's problem, not yours. So is a shed that arrives noticeably smaller or thinner than the listing promised.

Keep the packaging until you're sure. Photograph everything. Put your complaint in writing and be specific about what's wrong and what you want done about it.

The pre-purchase checklist

• Route measured, including the narrowest gap
• Internal floor size, eaves height and door opening checked
• Framing thickness and floor construction understood
• Roof covering and fixing method confirmed
• Treatment type noted, plus the upkeep it needs
• Base planned and prepared before delivery
• Anchors bought
• Delivery arrangement confirmed: kerbside or garden
• Returns position understood for a large, heavy item

A shed is one of the few online purchases you can't squash back into a box and post. Get the measuring and the base right and it'll outlast the fence. Get them wrong and you'll be writing a review nobody wants to read.