Monster Junk Shed Collection and Disposal Service

Help! My shed is falling down

All good things must come to an end, and traditional British wooden garden sheds don’t last forever in our cold damp blustery climate.

Good quality, well maintained sheds can be repaired and coaxed into 20 years or more of faithful service, but when sheds become wobbly, damp, inaccessible or insecure we must think about replacing them. Wind and storms can hasten these decisions when weather damage adds to regular wear and tear. Sometimes we acquire a rickety old shed as part of a wider property and it needs to be addressed before it gets dangerous.

Sheds and outhouses vary in size, shape, and materials. Some still look great after years of use, but begin to leak or lean in an alarming way. Others seem to get battered by a few years of tough love, or develop hard to cure damp or mould problems. Some sheds were born flimsy, and others become less sturdy with age. Letting go of these old friends can be more challenging than you might expect as they are tricky to move and difficult to recycle responsibly.

What's the Situation with your shed?

There is an amazing range of garden storage sheds, greenhouses, home offices and summerhouses to choose from, and many vendors offer installation too. But what they rarely provide is a service to dismantle, remove and recycle your old shed or outbuilding. Here’s what you need to know about how to get a shed taken away…

But first, is the shed full of old junk?

Shed clearance is one of the regular domestic services we offer. Sheds are often stuffed with old tools, gardening equipment, pots and soil, decorating supplies, toys and games, and all manner of other unloved articles covered in dust, cobwebs and the smell of damp. You could get rid of it all with one phone call, and let us take it all away for recycling. Or if you’d rather sort through the stuff, choose a dry day to lay it all out on the lawn and find places to store the things you want to keep. Then you can pile all the junk in a dry place (or back in the shed) for us to clear away when we come for the shed.

How big is your shed? A standard wooden garden shed tends to be 6’x4’ (1.8m x 1.2m) with an apex roof and one hinged door. Large sheds are 8’x6’ (2.4m x 1.8m) or more and can have windows (with or without glass) and dividing walls inside.

What is the shed made of? Most UK garden sheds are made of wood with a felt roof. The wood is usually pine or redwood panels, quite like wooden fencing. Sometimes the wood is something stronger and more waterproof like cedar. These sheds last longer but they are more expensive to buy and to remove (because the waste wood is heavier). The roof is usually pine with a layer of ‘roofing felt’ nailed on, which is a kind of waterproof material that is heavy and trickier to recycle. Metal sheds might be steel or galvanised aluminium, which can be recycled even if it is bent, twisted or a bit rusty. Some shed roofs are made of metal too. You can also get plastic sheds which last quite well, but are harder to recycle when you have finished with them.

Now the hard part, getting rid!

If you have the time and the skills, you could take your shed apart yourself and take the parts to the nearest tip (the local authority recycling centre) yourself. You may be able to dispose of it for free - or rather the cost has been included in the council tax you already pay. If you have a van or trailer (or borrow/hire one to do the job) you are likely to need to get a licence to prove your waste is domestic, not business waste. The rules vary from place to place, so look at your local authority website to make sure.

There is, however, a more convenient solution; get a commercial disposal service to come and take down the shed at a time that suits you. At Monster Junk we send a team of two uniformed and trained professional clearance specialists out to you in a dedicated vehicle. We leave you with a Duty of Care Waste Transfer Note to show you have disposed of your shed responsibly. We’ll take it to be recycled at a professional commercial recycling centre so you can be sure you have done your bit for the planet. Old wood is likely to be turned into chippings or composted, while all the metal fixings, glass windows and metal frames would be recycled and made into new materials to be used again. Any elements that can’t be re-used or recycled may be incinerated or turned into fuel, which is better than putting any of it into landfill.

Whoever you use to collect your shed, you should insist on taking their Environment Agency Waste Carriers License number and ask for a Duty of Care Waste Transfer Note. You can’t use a Man & Van or handyman type service to dispose of waste unless they are regulated by the Environment Agency as a Waste Carrier as well. If you pay someone to take it away and they later fly-tip or dump it illegally, you can be held responsible if you can’t show that you handed it to a licensed responsible waste carrier.