Starting a small shed making business

[datadiyer]

Hi Everyone,

Hope someone can give me their thoughts on a Shed Building business I would like to setup. I basically want to start small and build good quality sheds with hopefully little overheads. My thoughts are to have all timber delivered to customer’s home and build in situ which will keep costs down. I’m designing a quality built shed (all shiplap tanalised timber) in Google Sketchup and I’d also like to stand out from a couple of similar local companies by offering insulation in the shed. There is also a company nearby dealing in mismatched windows. I enjoy working with wood am fortunately financially secure so I don’t need to make a lot of money, perhaps £100 per shed? I will also include option to build a base (concrete or timber). I’ve roughly priced up materials for my idea but not sure if it’s feasible. I know the bigger companies buy in bulk so not sure there'd be room for little 'ol me. Would anyone hazard a guess on how much discount I could achieve at trade price? As I don’t have trade account at the moment I can’t price up properly.

-Is £100 profit per shed realistic?
-Is it feasible to have materials delivered to customer direct?
-Are trade prices that much cheaper than usual price?
-Would it be worth adding double glazed windows for extra security, would it be a clincher for people to buy?
-What type of insurance would I need?
-Any obvious hurdles to overcome with my plan?
-Am I in dreamland with this idea?

Thanks in advance for anyone’s thoughts.
Kind Regards.

 

[Burnerman]

Purely my own thoughts, for what they are worth.....
Aim to make £140 per day - as a round figure. Half that for fun (and what about the tax man?)
Could you prefabricate the panels at home? (Transport issues to the site, but much more comfortable than working in the rain) but its certainly possible for the materials to be delivered to the site (if the punter doesn't mind).
Cost out a typical shed, say 8' x 6' and look at the total. Don't forget the roof covering and door security. Will people pay that much when you can buy absolute crap for £150, that will look good for at least 6 months by which time the punter will have forgotten?
How will you tackle the shed base....will you do it yourself or get someone else to do that?
As for security, there are many easy ways to get in without double glazing....ship lap is pretty feeble.
Feed back with what you think.
John

 

[OwainDIYer]

A lot of customers may not have space to receive timber deliveries - or be willing to wait in for deliveries. Who's responsible if they sign for incorrect or damaged timber? They may also not have assembly space or be willing to have noise and mess of woodworking in the garden.

You will need public liability and product liability insurance. You will need business insurance for your vehicles, and you will need to inform your house insurer that you're carrying on a business from home and storing goods, as even with timber delivery to site you'll still be storing fastenings, parts, tools etc. You'll also need a waste carrying licence and commercial waste disposal facilities to remove waste from customer's sites.

I think the 'premium quality' shed market is probably fairly well catered for by the garden building manufacturers who have computerised machine woodworking shops and bulk-buying and marketing power.

You might look at East European timber building manufacturers looking for local sales agents / assemblers for their kits.

 

[big-all]

the timber will cost about 40% more than a bought shed compleate
yes it will be better quality but will take perhaps 2 days for 6x8ft shed
any bigger is a 2 person job
how many sheds have you actually built from scratch ??

 

[datadiyer]

Purely my own thoughts, for what they are worth.....
Aim to make £140 per day - as a round figure. Half that for fun (and what about the tax man?)
Could you prefabricate the panels at home? (Transport issues to the site, but much more comfortable than working in the rain) but its certainly possible for the materials to be delivered to the site (if the punter doesn't mind).
Cost out a typical shed, say 8' x 6' and look at the total. Don't forget the roof covering and door security. Will people pay that much when you can buy absolute crap for £150, that will look good for at least 6 months by which time the punter will have forgotten?
How will you tackle the shed base....will you do it yourself or get someone else to do that?
As for security, there are many easy ways to get in without double glazing....ship lap is pretty feeble.
Feed back with what you think.
John

Thank John,
I could prefab panels at home, and yes it would be far better than working in the rain. I think maybe to be camparable in price to the big guys, I don't think £140 is realistic (hope i'm wrong). I don't particularly think the ones at wickes, B&Q etc are cheap, bloody expensive for what they are. I could build a concrete base for them if required, this would be quite a big outlay for customer. As for double glazing, that could possibly be a selling point if I can get them cheap enough. If someone had the choice of cheap double glazing over perspex for a comparable price, should be a clincher? Think i'll have to do some ringing around to price this up properly.

 

[datadiyer]

A lot of customers may not have space to receive timber deliveries - or be willing to wait in for deliveries. Who's responsible if they sign for incorrect or damaged timber? They may also not have assembly space or be willing to have noise and mess of woodworking in the garden.

You will need public liability and product liability insurance. You will need business insurance for your vehicles, and you will need to inform your house insurer that you're carrying on a business from home and storing goods, as even with timber delivery to site you'll still be storing fastenings, parts, tools etc. You'll also need a waste carrying licence and commercial waste disposal facilities to remove waste from customer's sites.

I think the 'premium quality' shed market is probably fairly well catered for by the garden building manufacturers who have computerised machine woodworking shops and bulk-buying and marketing power.

You might look at East European timber building manufacturers looking for local sales agents / assemblers for their kits.

Thanks Owain,
I initially thought that turning up at an arranged delivery time to take delivery personally, but having seeing comments from others, probably best and easier to prefab panels at home ready to bolt together on site. I knew about liability insurance and waste carryting licence, didn't know about vehicle & house insurance though so thank you for that. As I said to others, it would come down to cost at the end of the day. Need to price up as accurately as I can. Thanks again.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Have you considered making playhouses for children - doting parents may be less price-sensitive than people wanting a shed for t'garden. More scope for imaginative and interesting work and a higher standard of finish.

 

[datadiyer]

Thanks Owain,

Yes, i've certainly considerd playhouses. I guessed though that it woud be more time consuming as each one would probably need to be made bespoke. Not a huge problem though as time isn't of the essence, so long as I had a few designs which could be altered to cust needs. Only thing is, I have been looking at safety regulations on play equipment. I need to look more in depth at these regulations to see if they were applicable to my situation and if it's feasable if they were.
Thanks again.

 

[ntb]

I have my doubts over the feasibility of this. A shed is a mass produced commodity item. There are good and bad ones but it is still just a weatherproof wooden box to store things in. Having given some thought to this myself I've concluded that the only way it could possibly work economically is through scale at the low end or custom build with big margins at the high end - and that's not sheds, it's garden buildings. If you go that route there will be a requirement for electrics and in some cases plumbing as well as insulation.

 

[Bosswhite]

One also has to be aware of Planning Regulations,
a shed is a shed, a garden building is a building, this can also apply to bespoke children's playhouses situated in a garden.

 

[Burnerman]

How about bespoke garden furniture....benches, tables, pergolas and so on? Again though, you are in a hugely competitive market flooded by the Orient, but your overheads would be much lower.
John

 

[big-all]

i am assuming you have missed my post above or ruled it out as not important
another point
if you are building a shed you also need to think about who will level the site and form a base for the shed to sit on ??
most people would expect a "hand made individual building" to include from naked ground to fully watertight with finished roof covering and possibly guttering and water butt

 

[datadiyer]

i am assuming you have missed my post above or ruled it out as not important
another point
if you are building a shed you also need to think about who will level the site and form a base for the shed to sit on ??
most people would expect a "hand made individual building" to include from naked ground to fully watertight with finished roof covering and possibly guttering and water butt

Hi Big-all,
Sorry about not replying to your post. I've had so many replies (mostly negative to my idea) and all taken on board. I understand the complete works required to provide 'finished' product, and I think you're right in that it is more labour intensive for a one man band. Have to disagree on the 40% more cost of a purchased one, I could be wrong though as i've only priced it up roughly. Given all the additional works it would probably be some way off my calculations. I still think it's a viable business, although i'm not naive in overlooking all the experienced advice on here. Past few days I have been looking at other more feasible options. I have looked into making feather-edge fence panels. I can source feather-edge 1.8m @ £0.84p, but not sure if it's worth it profit wise. I've also been looking into making kiddies beds instead. I have built one for my son which I was quite proud of. I also made it to fit into an alcove so as to make use of a wasted 14" of alcove space (I hope the pics explain this). Given my new bed idea though, I would have to look into the required safety regulations to conform to. Thanks again for your's and everyone elses feedback, much appreicated.

 

[big-all]

cracking job bet your proud
yes alcove beds will work i have installed several where the matress will fit but the frame will not
because matresses vary so much in size you must always source the matress first before even starting the frame

 

[datadiyer]

cracking job bet your proud
yes alcove beds will work i have installed several where the matress will fit but the frame will not
because matresses vary so much in size you must always source the matress first before even starting the frame

Thanks big-all,
Yes, way over-engineered but still proud, although I didn't have the chance to give it a nice sanded down finish and varnish as my son was too eager to sleep in it before I could open the tin of varnish! Good point about the mattresses. I had the mattress for this from his old bed so had measurements to hand. Would have to explain this to customer that not all mattresses will fit depending on size of alcove. Thanks again.