Summerhouse with Side Shed

Buying Guide

If you’re looking for the best Summerhouse with side shed, the comparison table shows five of the top buildings available in the UK currently with key details for easy reference. The prices range from £900 to just over £3000.

The first question you need to be able to answer is “What style of summerhouse do you want?”, you can split the available styles into three broad categories:

• Contemporary style with a flat roof
• Traditional log cabin style with classic apex roof
• Corner summer houses

At first glance there are some very similar looking buildings. To discern which represent a sound investment we will look a little deeper.

If you already have a good idea, feel free to skip this and refer to the table above. If there’s nothing there that ticks your boxes, at the end of the buying guide are some other options.

Design Features To Think About

Double doors are a common feature for summer houses since when they allow you to fully appreciate your garden from within.

Concertina doors are a step up and only found on the contemporary style buildings with pent roofs (pent = flat inclined roof). They require a solid frame to prevent the weight from gradually warping the frame. They are a great way to open up the building to your garden.

Padlock, Mortice or Rim lock. What you intend to store will determine how secure your building needs to be. A mortice lock is integrated into the door and is more secure than a rim lock, which can be forced. A padlock is a mild deterrent, depending on the quality, it makes sense to spend more than £5 if you’re going to be storing expensive garden equipment in the side shed.

Frame thickness goes a long way to determining the rigidity of the structure and is indicative of the overall build quality. All things being equal thicker is usually better.

Headroom is an important consideration for some, the Oren Swinley has a tall ceiling at 262cm, with an eaves height of 218cm (7 foot 2 inches) the tallest we’ve found. This is a good choice with thick log cabin style walls and a solid floor, it’s, at the higher end of the price range.

Tongue & Groove floor; this is a feature on all of top 5 compared above. The standard thickness is 12mm, although the log cabin style summer houses tend to be thicker at 18mm or 19mm. Some of the cheaper buildings on the market will economise in this area and use an OSB sheet, this can deteriorate more quickly than other materials if exposed to lots of damp.

Pressure treatment, this is a process which forces preservative into the wood at high pressure and imbues resistance to rot and weathering, thereby ensuring a longer life. It’s costly and is generally reserved for premium buildings, but has the great advantage of minimising ongoing maintenance. The Champion summer house (shown below) is pressure treated.

Big Side Shed or Small Side Shed?

Combining two buildings into one is a smart way to keep your outdoor space organised. Side sheds are typically located on the side of the building, with a few located at the rear.

Retailers don’t always explicitly state the size of the side stores so an educated guess is sometimes required. The width tends to around 4 foot with the length dependent on whether the shed is on the side or rear.

The Greenway Alice has the largest store of those in the top five, 123cm x 231cm and has a strong frame and mortice lock to keep things secure. If you’re looking for an even larger store, the Palmako Emma has a side store measuring 122cm x 330cm, this is a substantial building with thick logs and a charming alpine style which wouldn’t be out of place in the Swiss mountains.

The smallest store in the list belongs to the Nordic style Oren, with a large cupboard on the outside back corner.

Take Advantage of a Neglected Corner

If you have a sunny corner in your garden which doesn’t see much use, you could consider a corner summer house with a side shed… There are four of note on the market at the moment. One of which we’ve highlighted as being great value is the Adley Chelsea.

There is also a version of this without the side shed which we’ve covered in our in depth Adley Chclsea review.

There are two premium options which are similar in cost, the Oren Swinley and the Shire Villandry. The Villandry has large windows on two sides and large double doors, it’s slightly let down by the inclusion of a solid sheet roof. The Oren Swinley is a well built summerhouse with a very good spec so gets the nod from us.

Another option in the economy bracket is the BillyOh Penton. This didn’t make our top 5 since recent reviews of Billyoh have been hit and miss. You should probably only consider this if your DIY skills are up to scratch.

Final Review Thoughts

Having a ready-made storage area included in your summerhouse is a great way to enjoy your garden and keep it organised at the same time. It’s a straightforward way to solve a common problem and saves you buying multiple buildings or garden storage boxes.

Be aware that all of these buildings require a firm base, so you’ll need to consider that before you start the build in earnest. Most garden buildings have a lead time of several weeks so you won’t rushed.

Other Summer Houses with Side Sheds we considered

These are some other buildings we looked at, but which got squeezed out of our top 5.