Leaking Wooden Sheds

Leaking Wooden Sheds: What do I do?

You’ve got a Wooden Shed and it’s leaking. Oh no! This is not ideal, but it’s not unsolvable. Today we’re going to look at all the reasons it may be leaking and give you advice on how to get it sorted.

 

New Shed Leaking

 

Okay, let’s start with one of the most common complaints during the Winter – a brand new wooden shed appears to be leaking. I say appear, because in a lot of the calls we get from customers with this issue, they haven’t actually seen a leak or identified where it’s coming from. They’ve just seen ‘wet patches’ or felt ‘dampness’ on the walls or floors.

Wooden sheds that were assembled on a wet and rainy day may have gotten a little damp during the build. They will need time to dry out. During the Summer months, this isn’t really an issue. The Summer heat will dry up that timber pretty quickly, usually a couple of days. However, if your shed was assembled during the Winter months, this wood may need some extra time to dry out. We usually recommend up to a fortnight if the weather is particularly poor.

How to solve: Relax! It’ll sort itself out in a week or so. If you really want to, you can plonk in one of those moisture-catchers to speed up the process. While you can also introduce a heater into the shed, we’d advise caution, as leaving an unattended heater in a wooden structure can be pretty potentially (and obviously) quite dangerous.

 

Rustic Wood

Rustic wood is made with thin boards that overlap. As such, there is a high probability that you will experience damp internal walls during inclement weather. We’ve got a note on every wooden shed page stating as much:

Rustic Wooden Sheds are basic sheds. The wood is thin and porous and they cannot be lined even when pressure treated. We do not recommend storing anything of value or which could be damaged by damp in a rustic shed.

So while the shed itself is not leaking, because of how it is constructed, it allows moisture into the inside of the shed on occasion which may give the appearance of a leak after-the-fact. If you’re looking for a bone-dry shed, do not get a Rustic Wood finish.

 

“It’s not these! I saw an actual leak!”

In the unlikely event that you’ve actually seen the leak in your brand new shed, just call us. We’ll get that remedied right away.

 

Turn Buttons

Tangentially related, but on a new Wooden shed it’s strongly recommended that you use the ‘Turn Buttons’ for the first few months. Turn buttons are designed to keep the door in place (they don’t provide any extra security). This will prevent the door from expanding as the wood settles, which in turn can prevent leaks from coming in at the door.

 

Old Roof Leaking

Wooden sheds can last ages. We all know someone with a clapped out wooden shed in the back garden. In fact, that person might even be you. People can generally tolerate sheds with holes, visual damages and general ‘lookit-the-state-of-it-ness’ provided that it doesn’t leak. So, what do you need to do when it’s popped a leak? Let’s see.

Felt Roofs

If you’ve a shed that is either:

1. Older than 8 years
2. Underneath a tree
3. Frequented by the angry cats in your area

Chances are that you’ll need to get the felt repaired or replaced sometime soon. Felt is a great option for wooden sheds. It’s pretty rugged, inexpensive and if you plan on being in your shed a lot, it’s not very noisy when it rains. However, it doesn’t have a great lifespan – especially if it’s under a tree. These felt roofs are usually the first thing to go in a shed. However, they are fully replaceable.

Our Wooden Team can offer a roof repair – however, due to increased workloads and long leadtimes currently, it’s not something that they’re actively advertising. You can most likley find someone local to repair your roof in well under half the time. Google ‘Mineral Felt Roof Repairs near me‘ or ‘Flat Roof Repairs near me‘, to get you on your way to repairing it.

Steel Roofs

Steel Roofs tend not to leak, unless they’ve been damaged and/or corroded by sea-air. For the latter, we recommended replacing the steel roof with a felt one (see above), as steel tends not to hold up too well to salt-rich environments. For structurally damaged roofs, it would usually be advised to repair the affected panel. Again, this is something that our team technically can do, but our lead times would be quite long indeed and you could probably get it sorted for less with someone who deals exclusively with roofs.

 

Summary

So as you can see, dealing with a leaky roof is pretty simple; especially if it’s not a leak at all. If you’ve any questions about this, get in touch with us. If you’re looking for more to read, why not check out the Pros and Cons of getting a Steel Roof on a Wooden Shed.