Garden sheds 'used as a retreat'

19:05:20 4th May 2010

Garden sheds are mostly used for fun and as a retreat from the stresses of modern life, suggests a blogger who mainly writes about sheds.

Andrew Wilcox, who prefers to be known as Uncle Wilco, claims that garden sheds are being used as garden offices, converted into pubs for friends to visit and for storage.

Shed security can be improved by buying a good lock and getting the "electronic gizmos attached to the shed", Uncle Wilco said.

He said: "A lot of people use them for fun. They are used for storage but mostly people use them for fun."

Uncle Wilco added that people can spend very little on a shed or spend a large amount of money on a log cabin, depending on what the outdoor building is wanted for.

These comments come in the run-up to National Shed Week which starts on July 5th, and will provide shed owners with a chance to win £1000 from the sponsor Cuprinol Sprayable.

Cuprinol Sprayable revealed on April 30th that three quarters (77 per cent) of men in the UK own a shed, with the average man spending over a week every year in residence.

Almost half of the people polled admitted to spending a whole day in the garden shed and about a fifth saying they have slept in the shed, sometimes following a row with a partner.

Find out more information about garden sheds.