Shed painting in Cambridge, summerhouses included
Our decorators carry out shed painting across Cambridge, along with summerhouses, garden offices and log cabins. We clean and prepare the timber, then paint or stain the cladding, doors, window frames, corner trims and fascia boards, and the inside too if you want it done.
Fences and gates are on our main shed and fence painting page. This page is about garden buildings, which have more surfaces, more joinery and more ways for water to get in than a fence.
Sheds, summerhouses and log cabins each need their own approach
Sheds
Most sheds are clad in shiplap or tongue-and-groove boards. The finish has to be brushed into the lip of every board, where a quick roller pass leaves bare lines that soon go grey. Spraying can work on a large shed in an open garden, followed by brushing, but only where drift onto plants and next door can be controlled.
Summerhouse painting
A summerhouse is closer to a small room. It has more glazing, double doors, decorative trims, and often a lined interior that people want painted as well. Window frames and door edges are prepared and finished like house joinery, glass is protected, and hinges and locks are masked. Inside, a light colour makes the most of the space.
Log cabin painting and staining
Log cabins are built from thick interlocking timbers that swell and shrink with the seasons. A rigid, thick paint film can crack along the joints as the logs move, so a flexible, microporous stain or paint made for log buildings is the usual choice. Bare new logs normally need a preservative base coat before any colour.
Getting round all four sides
The back of a shed is the side nobody sees and the one that usually rots first. Many sheds are tucked within a few centimetres of a fence or hedge, which makes the back impossible to reach with a brush. Graham will check at the visit. Sometimes the shed can be moved forward, which is worth arranging before we start, and sometimes the back has to be left.
Trellis, climbers, water butts and log stores against the walls need clearing. If we are painting inside, shelves and the walls behind them should be emptied so we can reach the boards.
Preparing garden building timber
Green algae and dirt are cleaned off, with an anti-fungal wash where the timber suits it, and the building is left to dry. Flaking paint is scraped and sanded, and raised grain and splinters are sanded smooth. Knots that bleed resin are sealed, and soft or split boards are pointed out so our carpenter can replace them before painting.
What is already on the timber matters. A shed treated years ago with an oily preserver may not accept a water-based paint until it has weathered or been cleaned down, so we check compatibility on a small area first. A brand-new shed should be checked for any factory treatment and the coating maker's advice followed.
Colours and finishes for garden buildings
Opaque paint gives a garden building a solid, even colour. Stain lets the grain show, which suits cedar and good-quality timber. For a western red cedar summerhouse, some owners prefer a clear or tinted oil over paint, and our staining and varnishing work covers that kind of finish.
Dark colours look smart, but a dark summerhouse in full sun gets warmer inside, and the timber moves more as it heats and cools. Doors and window frames in a contrasting colour, perhaps matching the house trim, make even a plain shed look finished. A shed painted at the same time as the garden fence can be matched or deliberately contrasted.
What sets the price of painting a shed
- Size of the building and the type of cladding
- Number of windows, doors and trims
- Inside as well as outside
- Condition of the timber and any board replacements
- Access round the back and sides
- Paint or stain, and the colour change
From the first visit to the finished building
Call or WhatsApp and Graham will come and look at the building, inside and out, before sending a written quotation by email. One customer whose house we decorated wrote on Checkatrade that the job ran "through to refurbishing the shed, external cedar cladding and the decking." You can read more on our reviews page.
We paint garden buildings across the area, including Comberton and Fulbourn. We tidy up at the end of each day and walk round the finished building with you, and you don't pay until you're happy with it.
