Metal shed for bike storage

Tec Diver

Hi all, I'm getting a metal shed put in the back garden to replace the old wooden shed that got torn apart by numerous storms. I'm hoping to keep the bike and various tools in it too. I have heard that condensation could be an issue though. There is "non-drip insulation" included. Is this enough, or do I need to fork out a few hundred extra to get full insulation?

Thanks
Eoin

Get In There

I'm in the exact same boat as you OP so will follow this thread with keen interest.

minterno

Hi. I have a metal uninsulated shed and during the winter its always very damp

mossym

metal garage, but a big one. big enough for a car and them some. turbo is set up there permanently. has non drip insulation, and apart from the first week when it was put in first i;ve never had any issue with dampness. we even have the tumble dryer out there and it's not been an issue

doozerie

You may already be aware of this, but that non-drip insulation is, as far as I am aware, just a compound/layer that absorbs the condensation. I’m not sure that it has any insulating benefits as such, and depending on your point of view it’s either very useful, or it just (temporarily?) masks the problem of condensation being present. I’d lean towards the latter opinion, not least because I don’t understand what it “does” with the moisture after having soaked it up (where is it going to escape to?) and I also wonder what happens when it has reached its absorbency limit.

Condensation basically arises when “warm” air hits a “cold” surface - “warm” and “cold” are relative, the water in the air condenses when it hits the dew point. To avoid condensation you can ensure the cold surface never gets down to the dew point (= insulate the walls and ceiling and/or put a heater in the shed) or you can ensure that the warm air escapes before it has a change to condense (= ventilation). Typically you’ll need a combination/balance of both.

So any room/shed will suffer from condensation if you get the balance wrong, whether it is heavily insulated, well heated, and/or well ventilated. The reason that uninsulated metal sheds are so readily associated with condensation must be because steel is a rubbish insulator/great conductor of heat, I guess, the inner wall of the shed is going to be pretty much the same temperature as outside unless it is insulated, so it reaches the dew point faster than some other materials. And also, the steel won’t absorb the condensation so it it may build up to the point that it’ll run down the walls and ceiling eventually. It’ll do that with a wooden or block built shed eventually too though, if you get the balance wrong, it’ll just take longer to get to that stage.

So I reckon your cheapest and simplest option with a steel shed is to ensure it is ventilated adequately. If you removed the walls entirely you wouldn’t get condensation, the trick is to find the right combination of wall plus ventilation holes to suit your purposes

For info, I recently had a heavily insulated steel shed installed, on top of an insulated foundation. Concrete dries slowly and the insulated shed retains heat very well, so for the first day or two before I installed a dehumidifier (to speed up the drying of the concrete foundation) there was a moderate amount of condensation on the inner walls and ceiling. The (industrial) dehumidifier eliminated that completely, unsurprisingly, I took the dehumidifier out after 2 weeks (of running 24 hours every day), and with a small heater in there set to its lowest/anti-frost setting there has been not even a hint of condensation. This is not a shed for bike storage, it’s basically an outdoor room, but it shows that with good insulation, some ventilation (only from where air leaks in in my case, there is no actual vent in my shed), and a source of modest heat inside, a steel “shed” is not the condensation magnet that people might expect.

mossym

that pretty much mirrors my own experience. i left the concrete base(also insulated) down for 6 or 8 weeks before the shed went on top. the shed has good ventilation, vents on both sides. i've got an old laptop (used while on the turbo), and other electronics out there, and no issues with damp. the key is the combo of insulation and ventilation

The tax man

I've Kingspan insulation on the walls and roof of my shed. It's well ventilated and experienced similar to the others. Brief condensation as the concrete dried out but since then it's been bone dry.