Of all of the things I have seen that deteriorate wooden garden sheds moisture has to be the number one culprit. With a few simple steps most all of these drainage and moisture related problems can be resolved and allow for wooden garden sheds to last for years and years to come. Just remember that moisture is a big natural enemy of any wood product or material.

LOCATION OF WHERE YOU PLACE YOUR WOODEN GARDEN SHED – I know it sounds simple enough but I have seen many wooden garden sheds placed in low spots on the property. Unless you intend to build your wooden garden shed up this should not be your choice of location for your garden shed. Try to find a spot for the garden shed where water is not collecting in the first place. With a few other techniques picking the right location will make solving the remaining moisture issues easy.

USE GUTTERS ON YOUR WOODEN GARDEN SHED – I had to learn this lesson the hard way. The amount of moisture that will come off of your wooden garden shed will surprise you. Then if the moisture/rain water splashes on the ground nearby it will splatter up on your siding and start to deteriorate the siding over time or discolor the siding. By putting gutters on your wooden garden shed you can channel the water to the collection point and then get it away from the wood members of the floor or the post supports you have in the ground.

USE RAINBARRELS AS THE COLLECTION SYSTEM FOR YOUR GUTTERS – Today many rain barrels are manufactured which allow you to tie your drains from your gutter into rain barrels which collect all of the moisture for further use in the garden. Most of these barrels have spouts to allow you to get the water out of the bottom by simple gravity. Kits can also be purchased which allow you to drain the water into a drip irrigation system to water plants around the garden shed. Additionally, you can even buy solar powered pumps which pump the water out of the rain barrel to the plants, shrubs, or trees you want to water or into a drip irrigation system. Using rain barrels to collect the moisture and then using it is about as green as you can get. We all know we need to conserve fresh water supplies. Using solar powered pumps also conserves electricity which conserves our natural resources.

USING GRAVEL PADS FOR YOUR WOODEN GARDEN SHEDS –If you place your wooden garden shed on a gravel pad make sure you build the pad up in elevation enough to allow any surface water to work itself away from the pad for the garden shed. This will help a lot and with the use of rain barrels and gutters should solve many moisture related problems associated with your wooden garden shed. Even if you are using a concrete slab you will still want to use gutters and a rain collection system to keep the rain coming off the shed from collecting under the wooden flooring members of your garden shed.

SLOPE OF YOUR ROOF – If one side of the area where you want to place your shed drains the water away from the shed with great regularity then consider sloping your roof of your shed in a manner that will get the water to shed to this side of the shed. On some sheds I have built I used a completely sloped roof system to accomplish this and therefore had no peaks in my roof. The shed still looked great and you can find many proven garden shed plans that will have this type of a roof system to help you with your drainage issues.