Shed Tongue and Groove Wall Thickness

[okeydokey]

The time has come to retire my garden shed it was a 2nd hand purchase, started life as an aviary and modified it has served me well.
I will end up with a 12x8 shed maybe Dutch barn shape. I have just started research (price comes into this) and I have noticed most generically use 12mm T+G only a few are 15mm or thicker.
12mm seems a bit flimsy what have others found please?

 

[Bingy man]

No disrespect but imo I think 12 mm is just too thin for anything other than keeping the mower and the garden tools in . If I was building my workshop it would be 18 mm ply minimum with the tongue and groove or cladding on the outside of the ply ..

 

[Eshmiel]

No disrespect but imo I think 12 mm is just too thin for anything other than keeping the mower and the garden tools in . If I was building my workshop it would be 18 mm ply minimum with the tongue and groove or cladding on the outside of the ply ..

That's my experience too. A WW shed needs to be more like a house room than a garden shed, ideally with two skins and insulation between them. Mine, before I became restricted to a one car garage built-in to the house, had a "half-log" outer skin of T&G'd 30mm thick boards, an inner T&G 15mm skin and a 2 inch gap between them filled with a breathable insulation stuff. The floor and ceilings were also double-walled and insulated, with a floor covering on top of the two skins suitable for standing on for long periods. Also double glazing in door and windows.

This was quickly heated by not much (even halogen light bulbs were enough) and never seemed to allow damp sufficient to induce tool-rust. It could also be cooler than outside in summer, as well as easily heated in winter.

Thin single skin garden shed style huts allow anything in them to rust in no time. And they eat heat yet still remain bluddy freezin'.

 

[okeydokey]

Thanks folks
It just need to be a garden shed not a pukka workshop so maybe 15mm if sensible priced will be the answer - sheds, until you look around are more expensive than you would think
https://dunsterhouse.co.uk/garden-s...1Ijp7IjU1ODk5IjoxfSwiNjYwNiI6eyIzOTU2NCI6MX19

 

[TRITON]

12mm would be fine, but 16mm far better, but only as a 2nd layer after cladding the entire frame in OSB.
Inside, you fit the insulation, then a vapour barrier, before cladding the inside with more osb or gyproc

 

[Spectric]

12mm T+G only a few are 15mm or thicker.

There are other ways rather than using T&G. You could use vertical boards with furing strips over the joints, the Americans call it vertical siding. Another method that I used was simply 25mm treated planks where you start at the bottom and work up allowing each one to overlap the last by 40mm. You then use pieces at the corners to close the gaps and the board fixings I used were these

from here

https://tradefixdirect.com/p/spax-d...LysBfCJRdtLNKfzhaeCpnhdzF6bJRIp2xpXny7zUdiK0A

 

[Bingy man]

Thanks folks
It just need to be a garden shed not a pukka workshop so maybe 15mm if sensible priced will be the answer - sheds, until you look around are more expensive than you would think
https://dunsterhouse.co.uk/garden-s...1Ijp7IjU1ODk5IjoxfSwiNjYwNiI6eyIzOTU2NCI6MX19

The shed manufacturers have been promoted by the likes of ground force. DIY sos , the trend for man caves , garden rooms , bars etc so cost for these are at an all time high, a 6 x 4 shed is around £200 for a flimsy thin walled affair. I could do better with feather edge fence panels. Steel sheds aren’t much better and plastic are similar. Composite are worth looking at but equally expensive. If you could get a load of exterior plywood sheets ( 8x4 ) and enough 3x2 timber you can easily knock up a garden type shed . A slab base will keep the cost down as folk having garden makeovers or new drives will often want to give away the old 3 x2 // 2x2 slabs for free if you collect them . Looked after it will last years .. I took 1 down last week 30 + years old -neglected and unloved but who ever built it used cheap felt on the outside and the only rot was inside in the corners due to the roof leaking ..

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Replaced a decaying 6x4 shed following a house move last year with a 10x6. After a bit of research with reasonable longevity in mind:

• frame - mine was 38x50mm - bigger costs more but avoid cheap 34x34 as sold by (say) B&Q
• decent premium roofing felt - it is easily replaced if it fails, but you don't really want to be doing this after just a couple of years (as I found out in my last house)
• ensure floor is included if required - mine is 18mm - lots of 12mm which to me seems insubstantial
• cladding - mine is 12mm T&G - I would go no thinner than this (a few mm more would be better). Some sold with as little as 6mm will fall apart at the first sign of serious weather
• many companies offer an erection service to an existing base - worth paying for unless you have help in moving large panels. It took two guys, obviously familiar with the job, to unload, erect, put on roofing felt, fit doors approx 90 minutes. You can DIY if you want!

Only problem I have had since last year is that having given the erected shed a couple of coats of preservative, the cladding dried out and shrank slightly leaving some uncoated "lines" between the planks - easily resolved with some dry weather.

 

[okeydokey]

Thank you Terry very helpful.

 

[curryjunkie]

No disrespect but imo I think 12 mm is just too thin for anything other than keeping the mower and the garden tools in . If I was building my workshop it would be 18 mm ply minimum with the tongue and groove or cladding on the outside of the ply ..

When I built mine I looked at the price and quality of the cladding, and went for box profile steel cladding on counterbattens, same with the roof, then insulated and lined the inside with ply, yes it worked out more expensive, but it's maintenance free and will last decades, Tin comes in a range of colours as well, I added a good PVC half glazed front door and frame I got from some window guys cheap as it had scratches on it, really for the secure locking system than the look of it.

 

[fezman]

When i moved to this place 24 years ago, I made my shed. CLS frame and 12mm T&G. It lasted 17 years or so.
I replaced it with a "Security" shed from a local manufacturer. It has treated frame approx 50x50 and 19mm T&G cladding. I went to many shed places whilst researching what to buy and the one thing I realised a lot of them were doing, was to use decking oil as the stain. I did this with my new shed and it is still like new. I used liberon decking oil.