Steel Shed Assembly

So, you’ve picked your shed and having read our guide on self-assembly, you’ve decided that you want the Sheds Direct Ireland team to assemble it for you. That’s everything done, right? Shed goes up, everyone’s happy and we all live happily ever after, yeah? Well, sort of. Today we’re looking at what the Sheds Direct Ireland steel shed assembly option includes – and arguably more importantly, what it doesn’t.

Remember, at present we only offer Steel Shed assembly in the highlighted counties below:

 

Now, rather than jump straight into it, we’ll instead start with the one thing that we require from you:

 

A solid level base is required

The only thing that we require you to have ready is a solid, level base (though if you can offer the steel shed assembly team a cuppa, I’m sure that wouldn’t go amiss either). You can see what your base should look like over on our post ‘Good Bases for Steel Sheds’ and you can see how I got one when I threw myself into ‘laying a slab base for a Steel Shed’. This is vital. We don’t offer a base laying service ourselves, so this must be done ahead of time. If you’re getting concrete poured, it will need to be fully set before the team can begin construction.

If you don’t have an appropriate base, our Assembly Team may have no other option but to walk away from the job. For your sake and ours, we cannot lay a shed onto an inappropriate foundation. It’d only cause grief for you and all your lovely stored items down the line, so it’s vital that you have an appropriate solid, level base in place. If the team do need to cancel on you, we will only be able to book you in for assembly once we have confirmation that your base is ready.

Right – on to what we can offer you.

 

Steel Shed Assembly

When people have a go at assembling a flat-packed shed, they will be surprised (read: angered) to learn that it’s taking a lot longer than expected. We’ve had people who’ve spent at least two full weekends piecing together a Steel Cottage Shed. If you want the hassle-free life, getting our guys to assemble it is the obvious choice. They’ll piece our largest sheds together in no more than 3 hours, usually – and obviously do the smaller ones quicker again.

 

But it’s *just* shed assembly

So the main thing to note about shed assembly is that it’s just that – the assembly of the shed. The team won’t be in a position to assemble shelving units, carts or any other purchases that were made at the time of order. This makes sense – if you only pay for shed assembly, you’ll only get the shed assembly! Our assembly teams regularly have 5-6 assemblies per day, so to avoid delays and make sure they get to everyone, they are not in a position to assemble extra pieces for you.

 

Plywood floor is included

The vast majority of our steel units come with an internal plywood floor as part of the assembly price. Our team will bring the plywood, cut it to size and affix it down for you. Once the team are done, you’ll have a kitted out interior to you shed. The ply that we use 18mm SmartPly which is robust and suitable as use as an internal floor. As most of our metal sheds have internal floor frames, the floor being in place removes a trip hazard, as well as giving you a nice flat surface inside the shed.

 

 

 

Plastic wrap & screw caps

Our Steel Sheds come with Plastic wrap laid onto the panels, to prevent them becoming damaged in transit. This plastic is left on by our steel shed assembly team and many people choose to remove this themselves after the team have been. Leaving them on or taking them off is entirely up to the customer and the removal is purely optional. However you must be aware that our team will not remove the plastic wrap from the sheds. If you choose to remove it, we would advise starting from the bottom and pulling up. We do not recommend taking any sharp objects to the wrap as you may damage the sheets underneath. It’s worth noting that on our Premium Range of Steel Sheds, the plastic may give the appearance of the shed being scratched, but once the plastic wrap is removed, you’ll have a sleeker looking shed in front of you!

 

 

The screw-caps are a similar case. These are are again wholly optional to apply and the team will leave a bag of these cap-coverings for you in the shed should you wish to apply them yourself. Their application (or non-application) does not affect the shed in any manner. The plastic caps just cover the tips of the screws.

 

Bolting the shed down

With the exception of our Woodgrain Sheds, our Steel Sheds do not necessarily need to be bolted down. Once they’re assembled correctly and filled with stored goods, they’re generally good to go. The Woodgrains are light however and as such they do need the extra support; however the rest of our steel shed range are generally fine in most scenarios. If you’re thinking of placing your shed in an exposed garden/field or if you’re in an area that experiences high winds (coastal areas, for example) you will need to bolt your shed.

Our assembly team cannot bolt down sheds for a multitude of reasons, but the obvious ones are insurance and health & safety. Our team cannot guarantee that there aren’t main lines or electrical wires underneath your base, so they’re reluctant to be jamming bolts in them for fear of a different type of bolt. Similarly, damage caused to anything as a result of bolting is not a risk that we are willing to take, given that in the vast majority of cases, the shed does not need to be bolted.

 

Assembly is weather permitting

As you might imagine, we don’t send our assembly team out to work in certain weather conditions. Holding onto steel panels during electrical storms is fairly obvious reason for cancellation, but the main reason for cancellation can annoy some people; high winds are the main reason for us having to cancel a steel shed assembly. Our team can and have worked in snow, heavy rainfall and more besides without issue, but trying to assemble a shed in high winds is near impossible; beside it’s also lethally dangerous. Large, galvanised, sharp-edged panels of steel being flung like high powered frisbees could lead to serious injury.

‘Buh if yizzer cancellin’ sheds cozza d’wind in Ireland, yiz must be never fittin’ sheds!’ is something we’ve heard a few times, but it’s just not true. We like our fitters to have the right amount of fingers, arms and heads on them, so we will only cancel steel shed assemblies when we absolutely have to do so.

 

Electrical work etc.

It should be no surprise that our fitters cannot modify, move or add any electrical appliances, wires or fuse-boxes into your shed. They are not registered electricians. Non registered electricians are liable for up to €3,000 fines from Safe Electric if they undertake illegal electrical activity in Ireland. The fines are mostly besides the point though – you don’t want someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing wiring up a steel shed with wires. You don’t need a weaponised garden shed in your back garden, either.

On this note, it is important that you do not have any contractors/builders etc on site while our team are assembling. The reasons for this are twofold – one, to allow our assembly team to build their shed without impediment, but also to prevent financial loss to you. As stated above, our assembly is weather permitting; our fitters can’t work in high winds, but this high wind might not be an issue for electricians, plumbers etc. If our fitters cannot attend, you most likely will still be charged by the other contractors for their time. As such, we advise that you do not have any other people present at the time of assembly for your own sake; we cannot accept any responsibility for any financial loss caused by cancellation of assembly.

 

Arrival Times

Our fitting team will call 30 minutes before arrival. We cannot give precise times due to the nature of assembly services; A previous assembly may be cancelled minutes before arrival, the delivery van can get stuck in traffic, a delivery may take substantially more time than expected due to adverse weather etc. As such, our assembly team can only notify you of their arrival 30 minutes before arrival.

 

Summary

If you want Sheds Direct Ireland’s Steel Shed Assembly Team to come out to you and put the shed up, we can do that. We can’t bolt it down, place on the screw caps, remove the plastic wrap, wire it up, insulate it or anything else to that end, however. This post should outline everything you need to know, but if you have any questions having read it, call us at 01 864 4247, email us at sales at shedsdirectireland.com., or message us over on Facebook.