Whoo-wee, it is blowing a GALE out there! Will your timber building survive a storm like the fierce hoolies we’ve seen lately?
We get it. No one wants a Wizard of Oz situation happening in their back garden. If you buy a garden shed, garage or garden room, the last thing you want is to see it flying past your window, airborne and off over the rainbow.
And over the past few years, we’ve seen more than our fair share of big beltin’ storms in Scotland. Climate change means that this situation isn’t likely to improve any time soon. So are garden sheds going to become historical artefacts that no one can have anymore because the wind is just too mental?
Calm down, Sheddies! No one is taking your timber buildings. Not on our watch!
How to prevent storm damage to a shed
Kieran recently received an email from a customer who decided not to proceed with their G&M project. After the recent storm, they were concerned that a garden building wouldn’t be suitable for their garden at all, due to the risk of future storms.
If you’ve ever felt this way we understand your concern – you don’t want the garden building you’ve invested in to fly away or get severely damaged in bad weather. But don’t lose hope for your garden-building dreams, Sheddies! There are plenty of steps you can take to ensure your garden building is sturdy enough to survive a storm, starting with buying a high-quality structure.
If you’re imagining a flimsy wooden affair when you picture a garden shed, rest assured a G&M is nothing like that. All of our timber buildings are designed to be seriously stable. We’ve been putting up buildings in Scotland long enough to know they have to be! Just ask our Delivery Team – our sheds are heavy.
Cladding Thickness 19mm
Cladding thickness is essential for a solid shed. We recommend a minimum of 16mm for shed cladding. Anything thinner than this in Scotland isn’t going to cut it and will make a rather flimsy structure.
At G&M, our Sheds use 19mm thick cladding. Some cheaper sheds have cladding as thin as 6mm, which is definitely not strong enough to withstand a storm. Cladding this thin will likely let in water and is at risk of being damaged in strong winds – it’ll be a pile of sticks in no time.
Redwood tongue & groove weatherboard
We use redwood rather than whitewood for our sheds for its superior performance, which includes the strength it gives the shed. The tongue & groove weatherboard cladding profile also works to keep water out. The interlocking joints slot together rather than overlapping – creating a tight, stable structure. The curve of the cladding allows for rain to easily run off – crucial in a storm.
Framing
Our sheds feature 70mm x 45mm C24-Graded pressure-treated framing. The framing of your shed is very important – it’s like the bones of your shed. High quality and heavy framing, ensure your shed stays solid even in strong winds.
Roofing
Each of our Sheds comes with a steel box profile roof as standard. Previously we used felt roofs on our sheds, but this wasn’t as long-lasting and reliable as our buildings.
A felt roof might be fine for a smaller shed but if you want ultimate protection – you’ll want a steel roof. The cheaper the shed it’s likely the lighter the felt will be. Light felt won’t last very long and can be easily damaged – leaving your shed open to water ingress issues. A steel box profile roof offers ultimate protection. In the case of a storm, you can imagine that a felt roof is much more likely to be ripped off in winds than a steel roof.
So, if you want to safeguard your shed from storm damage – I’d always recommend searching for one with a steel roof.
The 3-Tier Workshop
If you want a shed but are worried it won’t be able to withstand the bad weather in your area, I’d like to introduce you to our 3-Tier Workshop. The 3-Tier Workshop features layered walls with an air cavity, which makes it completely watertight.
Layered Construction
Our standard sheds are single-skinned buildings. Even though they’re extremely solid, the 3-Tier Workshop offers superior performance, staying watertight. The layered construction of the 3-Tier Workshop also makes it very heavy; it’s very unlikely that the wind will take a G&M 3-Tier Workshop anywhere in a storm.
uPVC Windows and Doors
These offer added protection against wind and rain. The weight of these units also contributes to the weight of your shed, making sure it stays held down.
Our 3-Tier Workshop features a uPVC Fully Clad Door and a uPVC Horizontal Opening Window. These offer added protection against wind and rain, as well as plenty of security. The weight of the uPVC units contributes to the overall weight of the building, helping it stay held down.
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How to prevent storm damage to a Garage
These are not just big sheds! This may be the case for other timber building companies, but here at G&M, we build our Garages to their own unique specification, designed to withstand the Scottish conditions.
Specification
Just like our 3-Tier Workshops, our Garages have a 3-Tier layered construction to keep them watertight. They also come in larger sizes and are built taller than our sheds. They’re serious structures.
Framing
Our Garages use 95mm x 45mm C-24 Graded Framing. This is the same quality of timber used in new-build homes, and it makes your Garage extremely stable. You probably wouldn’t expect your house to go flying away in a bad storm, and it’s the same for our Garages.
Cladding
Our standard Garages feature a 19mm tongue and groove, tanalised Redwood weatherboard.
We also have our Close Board and Strap Garages, which feature rough-sawn boards and close board and strap cladding. The Close Board and Strap Garage has a 5-Tier wall construction, making it the heaviest building we offer. The picture below is a small cross-section of the wall construction, which I struggled to pick up, so it’s very unlikely one of these will get airborne.
Roofing
All of our Garages come with steel box profile roofing as standard. Their steel roofs keep them well-protected against any falling debris. Here’s an example below. These customers had a tree fall on their garage roof and were very pleased that the only damage caused was superficial and that their Garage stayed structurally sound. Despite the chaos of the storm, they knew they could rely on their G&M buildings.
Size
This is the Garage we have on display in our Show Area. It’s 6m x 4m. As you can imagine, a building of this weight and size isn’t going to be blown away into your neighbour’s garden.
How to prevent storm damage to a Garden Room
Last, but not least, come our Garden Rooms. We offer two types of garden rooms – Radiata Garden Rooms and Blackstone Garden Rooms.
Radiata Specification
Our Radiatas have a 4-Layer wall structure with the same framing size as our Sheds 70mm x 45mm. Plus, they feature innovative Radiata Pine ThermoWood Cladding – this stuff is very durable.
Our Radiatas come with aluminium double-glazed windows and doors. These units add to the weight of the building but also protect the garden room, keeping it watertight and staying strong against winds.
Roofing
Depending on which model of Radiata Garden Room you choose, it will come with a Steel Box Profile roof or Isola shingles. The Isola shingles are very durable. We specifically source them from Norway because we need the high quality and lifespan that they offer. If you live at the top of Scotland, where the weather is particularly nasty, this is the only time when we would advise getting either model with steel box profile roofing instead of the shingles. This will ensure your building is well protected from wind, rain and anything that may fall on it in a storm. We’ve installed our buildings in extremely exposed areas and take this into account while planning your delivery.
Will A Blackstone Garden Room Survive A Storm?
Our BGRs have a 5-Tier wall structure. They feature the same framing as our Garages, 95mm x 45mm C-24 pressure-treated framing. These buildings are fully compliant with Building Standards legislation – meaning they’re as structurally sound as a house! Again, one of these is not going to blow away.
Each BGR has a steel box profile roof, providing it with plenty of protection. BGRs also tend to be larger buildings, going up to 30m² in size.
What else can damage my building in a storm?
If large items are blowing around during a storm, they can hit and damage your building. The best way to prevent this is to make sure that anything in your garden that’s likely to be blown around is carefully secured or stored inside. Your beautiful wrought-iron bench won’t go clattering through your garden room’s double-glazing if it’s inside the building.
If you have any ornaments, play equipment, furniture or planters that are small enough to be blown around, but heavy enough to cause damage to anything they hit, make sure that these are housed inside or anchored to something sturdy before a storm starts.
Prevent storm damage to your garden building
While you can take responsibility for your own garden and its contents, the nature of storm debris means that it’s not always possible to protect against this. In extremely high winds, branches and even trees can come crashing down around your building.
But if you’ve invested in a solid, reliable building that’s built to a top-quality specification, you can coorie doon when the weather gets wild, safe in the knowledge that while your neighbour’s B&Q bargain might go crashing down the road, your garden building will stand firm!
- If any recent storms have left you in need of a new garden building, book a consultation with our sales team today; they’d be happy to discuss your project with you.
- Or, if you’d like to see our sturdy buildings in person, visit our Show Area in Errol, where we have Sheds, Garden Rooms, Workshops and Garages on display.
