Where to start?

Okay, so you need a shed, but you’ve literally no idea how the whole process works; sound about right? Well, don’t sweat it. We get this every year. This page will hopefully make things very easy for you. We’ll break down what you need to know and what you’ll need to have ready – and if something doesn’t apply to you, just skip over it. Once you reach the end, you’re ready to order your new shed!

Here we will look at:

• Your location
• Access to your garden
• Your base
• Self-assembly or supply-and-fit?
• Lead Times
• Payment
• What to expect after you purchase your shed

 

Your location

If you are in Dublin, Meath, Wicklow, Louth, Kildare or Westmeath, you can skip this section. 

At Sheds Direct Ireland, we can get a steel shed to any county in Ireland. This can be flat-packed or assembled by our steel shed assembly team. However, our Heavy Duty Sheds and our Wooden Sheds are limited to Dublin and surrounding counties. Why is this?

Well, our Wooden Sheds are made to order and then fitted by our Wooden Team. As such, they only have the capacity to serve these counties. This may change in the future, but as-is, wooden sheds are only available from us in Dublin, Meath, Wicklow, Louth, Kildare, Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny and Westmeath. 

Our Heavy Duty sheds are ENORMOUS when flat-packed, as they are made in complete sections rather than panels. They go with our largest van which serves the local area. They are only available in Dublin, Meath, Wicklow, Louth, Kildare and Westmeath. That said, if you have a vehicle big enough, you can come to us and collect a heavy duty shed from us (just make sure to get in touch to arrange collection before arriving!)

Now that you know what is available to you, let’s look at access to your garden. 

 

Access to your Garden

If you have full, easy access to your back garden with no height restriction, you can skip this section. 

Your selection of sheds will be impacted by the access to your back garden. For this section, we’ll assume that you don’t have side-gate access, but you have access from the front-door to the back door. 

Steel Sheds: All of our flat-packed steel sheds can go through a house. If you have a full clean run through your home, the team will be able to take the boxes straight through. If you have a tight and twisty route through your home, the team may need to take parts from the boxes in your house and then carry them through. 

Wooden Sheds: Wooden Sheds up to 8ft x 6ft will be able to go through a house with a full clean run. Anything larger than this size will need the ‘cut-down service’. This means that at the time of making your bespoke shed, the team make it in smaller pieces, so that it can be brought through your house. The cut-down service does not affect the integrity or appearance of the shed in any way, however there is a cost to this service. 

Heavy Duty Sheds: These sheds need full access with no restrictions to height. They cannot go through a house, nor can the be taken over a neighbour’s wall. 

 

Your Base

If you have a complete, solid and level base (e.g. concrete, tarmac, hardcore stone) you can skip this section. 

The base of the shed is perhaps the most important part of shed preparation. Sheds can’t be build on grass, muck or uneven surfaces. You should not be surprised to learn that these bases are wholly unsuitable:

 

So what can you use for a base for a shed?

Steel Sheds: Steel sheds require a solid level base. Concrete, Tarmac, Paving Stones or our Shed Base are all suitable. The base needs to be complete the whole way through – patchy blocks or incomplete bases are useless. Read our guide to good and bad shed bases if you’re unsure. 

Wooden Sheds: Wooden Sheds all go up on blocks. They need to be raised by 4″ solid blocks; You can see how many blocks you’ll need for you wooden shed here. Wooden sheds can’t be flush to the ground (grass or concrete) as they will just rot prematurely from the base up, when they are in constant contact with the damp grass/concrete. 

Heavy Duty Sheds: Our shed bases are not suitable, but other solid, level bases like concrete, hardcore stone or tarmac are perfect (provided that they’re solid and level). 

Your base is of the utmost importance. If you’re not sure about your base, get in touch with us. We are happy for you to send on photos of your base to review. We’ll let you know if they’re suitable or not; just take enough photos and from as many angles as possible!

 

Self-Assembly or supply and fit?

If you have built one of these sheds before or if you have *considerable* experience with large-flatpacked builds, you can skip this section. 

First off, all of our wooden sheds are built-to-order, they come with assembly included in the price and we do not offer them flat-packed. However, at Sheds Direct Ireland we offer our steel sheds flat-packed – or with supply and fit. You can save approximately 30% of the overall cost if you decide to assemble the shed yourself.

HOWEVER, I’d say that approximately 90% of our bad reviews on Trustpilot and Google are from people who tried, failed and then mangled their shed in an attempt at self-assembly. Personally, I don’t think it’s worth the savings unless you are 100% sure that you know what you’re doing. 

We’ve a guide on whether you should self-assemble or not, but the crux of it comes down to:

• Will you be able to read and make sense of the instructions?
• Will you take out all the parts at the start and check them off before doing anything else?
• Are you really patient?
• Do you have at least 2 able-bodied people to hand?
• Do you have 4-10 hours set aside to assemble your shed? 

If you answered yes to all these, you should be fine to self-assemble. Just remember that we are a family-run business. We don’t offer 24-7 support for self-assembly on the sheds. If you’re stuck on a Sunday evening, we won’t be in a position to help until Monday morning at the earliest. 

 

Lead Times

If you are in no rush, you can skip this section.

Lead times will vary depending on the time of the year. There has been lots of fluctuation with times of demand over the years, so everything I’m about to say is merely a best guesstimate; I’m not Mystic Meg for shed demand, unfortunately. 

March-August would be the busiest half of the year for sheds, so you could expect to wait at least 2 weeks for a shed during this time, with a realistic lead time of 4-5 weeks during May-June. This can change drastically – following the release of a new shed or if some big influencer gives us a shout out, for example. 

From September-February, things are considerably less busy. It’d be rare, but i’ve seen cases where someone ordered a steel shed for assembly on a Monday and had it in their garden by Friday. 

Top Tip: Be super sound to our sales staff when you’re ordering during peak-season. Some days can be frantic in store, but you’d be amazed at how lucky people become with open spots on cancellation lists when they’re really nice and pleasant to the staff here. It’s just one of those things in the universe that we can’t explain, really.

 

Payment

I guess you could skip this bit if you’re Scrooge McDuck, but we’re just gonna look at payment options, here.

Flat-packed sales If you want to order a flat-packed shed, payment must be made in full before it can be dispatched. Why? Well the shed often goes with a third-party courier and they can’t accept cash on our behalf. 

Steel Sheds with Assembly Steel sheds with assembly can be paid in full or you can leave a deposit and pay the rest on the day of assembly. The shed must be paid in full before the team begin installation. You can pay in full online here, or if you just want to leave a deposit, you’ll need to call our sales team at 01 864 4247

Wooden Sheds A 12% deposit is taken on all wooden sheds before assembly, both online and in-store. The wooden team will then touch base with you in the weeks before assembly to confirm the shed details and to take the rest of the payment. 

Cheques / Bank Transfers Sheds that are paid for by cheque or bank transfer will not be dispatched or places on our assembly list until payment is received by our finance team. Once they receive this payment, they will notify the sales team to complete the sale; the sales team do not have access to the payments account to check if it the payment has gone through yet.

 

 

What to expect after purchasing your shed

I wouldn’t recommend skipping this bit! 

 

We’ve a pdf that shows exactly what to expect after you purchase your shed from us here. It’s definitely worth your time; it’s only two pages and only one will apply to you (either flat-packed or assembly)

Alright, so you’ve literally just ordered your shed and you’re wondering what happens now. Let’s break it down.

Steel Sheds – Flatpacked. If you’ve ordered a flat-packed shed online, you’ll get an instant confirmation of your order. You’ll get a follow up order from our web-sales team once they process the order. If you order on Saturday night, don’t expect this til mid-morning on Monday.

The shed will then be sent out with a courier and they’ll be in touch before arrival of the shed. This is often a third-party courier service and they will only be able to offer curb-side delivery and they won’t be able to take it through your house. 

Steel Sheds – Assembled. If you order online, the sales team will be in touch with a date after they process your order. They’ll suggest a date, but this can be changed around. Due to our team having routes, they may not to be able to guarantee specific dates at short notice. 

Wooden Sheds. We only take 12% deposits on wooden sheds. The Wooden Sheds will be touch in the weeks before assembly to confirm details and to take the remainder of the payment.

 

Still need answers?

We’ve tried to cover everything and anything that might come up before you buy a shed. If we’ve missed something, let us know; we’ll answer your question and add the details for others here, 

Don’y forget you can call us at 01 864 4247 to have your questions answered too, or you can use the livechat feature to message us through Whatsapp.