Garden sheds are one of those things that are are often neglected, but they require at least some minimal maintenance or you will soon be faced with a falling down garden shed that you will have to decide whether it is worth repairing or not. I would guess that a good shed should last a minimum of 10 years, maybe even double before requiring a major fix-up. Poorly built structures could start deteriorating much quicker than that.

When faced with a aged and decrepit garden shed the question is “Do I replace my shed or rebuild my old shed”. There are pros and cons to both approaches. The answer depends on your budget, your taste, and your ability to swing a hammer.

I had to answer these questions for two separate sheds this year – my own tiny falling down pine board lean to shed, and my mothers lovely large cottage style split roof design which had a severe water problem. My mothers shed was actually quite an easy decision. Her shed was quite large, so it would have been quite expensive to replace. Also, it didn’t actually look in bad shape, except for the holes in the roof and floor. As it turns out, I got away pretty lucky. I did have to entirely replace both roofs, but thankfully there was vapour barrier between the plywood floor and the joists, so I only needed to put down a new plywood floor. The cost for materials was about $550.

My little lean to shed involved a bit more decision making. The roof was in equally bad shape, the items inside the shed were wetter than outside. Also, the floor had all but evaporated, leaving the sills on the ground, and they were rotting out now as well. I thought I could lift it and put a new floor underneath but this idea would certainly not work once I discovered the rot at the bottom of the studs.

First we decided to cost the materials to rebuild the same size shed, with a cute exterior siding that would give it at least a little character. It priced out at over $500. We decided that perhaps that was too much to spend on a shed as small as ours, so we started looking into other options. We did find one great deal on a pre-built demo model 8′x8′ shed, but in the end it would have required extra shipping costs, taking down part of the fence to get it in the backyard, and it wouldn’t fit in the old location. We also looked for smaller kits, but quickly discovered that we simply hated the flimsy metal or resin options, and they were more expensive to boot.

After thinking for a bit more, we decided that perhaps with a bit of extra work, we could save money and also save the old character, by recycling the siding, and building the structure new. As it turns out, this was quite a bit of work, but we saved over 50% on the original material estimate, and we ended up with a brand new old shed, which won’t start sagging for many more years. We are both quite pleased with the final look, especially saving the old aged board and batten siding.

Both of these sheds required some thought as to whether repairing or replacing was the best solution, and in both cases we ended up saving the sheds, and saving money as well. In both these cases the sheds were already perfectly suited for their purposes, and they also had exactly the right character to match the century old homes they belonged to. In our case, repairing was the right solution, even though one was almost falling down, we still decided the pros outweighed the cons. You’ll have to figure out what the important factors are in your decision before deciding whether your old shed will stay or be replaced.