One of the benefits of living in the countryside is snuggling down with a hot cup of chocolate and a crackling fire on a cold winter’s night. Chuck a few logs on and warm up your toes after a brisk dog walk in the wet – there is nothing better.
But since we moved in, we have been using a garden shed to keep our logs dry and its practically falling down. It’s so wonky the door doesn’t shut properly, and so rotten that there are holes in the walls big enough for Kayto to walk through. Not ideal for storing something that needs to stay relatively dry.
We had a look around online and in garden centres and even facebook marketplace (one our new favourite places to find bargains) and they were either plastic and horrible, or really expensive. Like… £450 for a small wooden hut… It’s going to be storing logs, not faberge eggs. So I decided to make one, and in the immortal words of Jeremy Clarkson; How hard can it be?
Well actually, while it was a bit of effort, not too hard at all. I’m quite happy with how it came out!
It’s built from 2 very large and very heavy pallets for the base and walls, and another almost complete pallet for the roof. Its topped with a sheet of chipboard and some roofing felt to make it waterproof-ish and I’ve clad the backside so it doesn’t look so bad for the neighbours.
I was very lucky and the pallets I found were just the right size to squeeze into the gap we had available beside the kitchen window. This posed its own challenge however, as there was not enough space to build it and get access all the way around before turning it and slotting it into place. This meant I had to build it in sections working from the inside. The only bit i could get to was the rear, and even then I only had 400mm of width to work in and had to take a ladder with me to climb out afterwards.
I finished it in 1 and a half days and last night it rained fairly consistently so its had a test and works nicely. If I was doing it again, I may have designed it a little smaller so it could have been built and given access all the way around. This would have meant i could have clad the sides. As it is, the sides are not clad so rain can get in there, but because its very closely sandwiched between the house and the garden wall, I doubt too much will get in. I think I also need a bit of instruction on fitting roofing felt, but its flat and neat-ish and drains well to the rear of the store, so it is functional. Oh, and I also didn’t measure twice with the last bit of wood, so its slightly short. I put this down to being tired at the end of the day and it starting to go dark so i was rushing to finish. Lesson learned.
Now we have a place for the logs and the pallets are made of such chunky bits of wood, they aren’t going ANYWHERE for a long time. This morning we had our first truckload of wood and it just gobbled it up with loads of room to spare.
