A garden shed is the best place to store a lot of things, including your large, expensive garden machinery.
As such, you don’t really want it filling up with condensation and potentially ruining electrics or making things mouldy! How to stop condensation in my garden shed? We are here to tell you the best ways to do this!
How To Stop Condensation In My Garden Shed?
Condensation in your garden shed is the worst, isn’t it? Chances are this is the place where you store your largest and most expensive equipment, which you really don’t want to be ruined by moisture.
Preventing condensation getting into your garden shed is the first step towards dealing with this problem.
But how to stop condensation arriving in the first place? Let’s have a look into the ways that this can be done:
- Keep the inside dry. Keeping the interior of your shed dry is the best way to battle condensation.
- Cover the floor. Sheds leach warmth from the floor, especially if they are placed on bare ground. Use an old rug, or even sheets, to prevent some of this heat loss.
- Provide ventilation. To prevent your shed from “sweating”, it will need to be ventilated properly, ideally at the building stage.
- Insulate the shed well. Providing good insulation will help to prevent condensation better than most other methods.
- Use a dehumidifier. If all else fails, one of these handy little gadgets will suck the moisture out of the air, preventing condensation.
What Is The Best Material To Line A Shed With?
Insulating your shed is key in the fight against condensation. But what is the best material to use? Let’s find out!
- The stone based mineral fibre insulation is fire resistant and thermally efficient, making it a great choice for insulating your shed.
- PIR boards. These are rigid foam boards, commonly used for insulation and provide good thermal properties.
- Sheep fleece. An all natural substance, this stuff is great for insulation as it keeps it warm in winter and cool in summer. Watch out for the smell though!
- Bubble wrap. This is a cheap option for insulating a shed quickly, and it can work wonders at keeping your shed a good temperature and the condensation out.
- These sheets of strong, rigid plaster should be applied over any insulating material, and will really help to keep the moisture out.
- We’re not suggesting you line your whole shed with silicone, but this stuff is great for sealing up any cracks.
- The floor can be a terrible culprit for allowing moisture into your shed, so spread out old carpet or rugs on the ground.
- At a pinch, or if you are saving pennies, you can line the walls of your shed with sheets of cardboard to keep the temperature ambient.
Ideally you will be present at the building of your shed, so you can choose the best insulation. If not, at least you can insulate it as best you can.
Keeping your shed protected from the outside elements is key to prevent condensation getting into your shed.
How Do I Keep My Shed Roof From Sweating?
A shed “sweating” generally comes from excessive humidity which gathers on the underside of your shed roof.
This is caused by the outside temperature of the shed being cooler than the inside of it, and condensation can form particularly easily on metal sheds, or those with a hard conducive outer exterior.
Many sheds have a metal outer layer, or at the very least a metal roof – corrugated iron is a great option for shed roofing.
However, this material can cause issues with condensation and sweating, which in turn can cause issues for anything stored in your shed.
- Having ventilation holes can help to sort this problem. Letting the air in and out can prevent condensation forming and dripping down onto your shed contents.
- A lower pitched roof causes less condensation problems, as it can prevent any condensation running down the roof onto the stored contents.
- Raising the shed off the ground can really help with condensation issues, as this prevents the water evaporating up from the ground.
- Insulating your shed is a great idea for many reasons, not least being that it prevents so much of a problem from condensation.
- You can add an anti condensation layer to the underside of your shed roof, to help deal with the problem that condensation is causing you.
This video has some useful ideas on how you can insulate your shed roof to prevent it from sweating:
How Do I Stop Condensation In My Insulated Shed?
If your shed is already insulated, you may be surprised to see those tell tale drops of condensation dripping down your walls.
This happens when the outside temperature is colder than the air inside your shed; however it is not completely unavoidable!
There are ways that you can stop condensation, even in a shed that is already insulated:
- Seal up any leaks. Preventing the temperature drop is key, so make sure there is no way that the outside temperatures can get into your insulated shed.
- Allow ventilation. Letting in the air is actually a really useful way of stopping your shed from becoming ruined with condensation, so make sure there is air flow.
- Insulate it. If you have inherited a shed without insulation, get some of that in there as quickly as you can!
- Add a dehumidifier. If you have tried all the above methods and you still have condensation issues, consider using a dehumidifier to suck the moisture out of the air.
Final Words
Condensation can be a real problem, especially in a shed that cannot breathe. If you know the best ways to insulate your shed, you can prevent that tricky condensation problem.
Have a look through our suggestions, and hopefully you can discover ways to stop that becoming a problem once and for all. Looking for more help with you shed? Here is our guide on how to move it.
