ALDI Gardenline Garden Bike Shed

Great little shed – Bought from ALDI (2019) after pricing similar sheds from Bunnings. Was sceptical after seeing other poor reviews but I can’t fault this little piece. The instructions were simple to understand and while it took an afternoon to assemble, it certainly wasn’t difficult. The only quirk is that the outdoor lock is secured by small screws which could be undone with a screwdriver, so will be changing these out for rivets.

If you are not skilled in general construction you may wish to consider employing a builder – Not my words - the above advice is inside the package in the instructions. It should have been in massive letters on the outside of the box as a warning to anyone expecting something like an Ikea flatpack. The components are more like a collection of raw materials than a kit. The construction involves drilling, riveting and a considerable amount of work.

poorly designed very flimsy – spent almost the entire weekend assembling this product from poorly illustrated plans. 200 self drilling screws and multiple rivets. End result did not look like the illustrations on the box - multiple screws in the face panels due to additional bracing which needs to be screwed into position and then screws removed and replace from opposite side! End result is a flimsy shed which I thoroughly expect to collapse in the next strong wind.

Aldi Garden Bike Shed, adequate at best (sold again in 2018) – Too Flimsy Sheets: Once started found that the gauge of the sheet metal was a bit flimsy. When I was driving the self-drilling self-tapping metal screws into the corrugated sheet-metal sides not only was there a risk of the sheet metal buckling from pressing the drill to get the screw to cut into the metal but also once the screw was in two layers of metal it couldn't lock in and just kept spinning around because the thin metal just stripped the "thread". This stripping even happened with the most gentle drill/screwdriver setting. The result of this was that the screws often partly come out if you moved the resultant assembly. The only time the screws actually grabbed and locked in was when there would be at least three layers of metal that you screwed into which was only about 20% of the overall job.

Directions Weren't That Good:

Okay apart from the sheets being too thin, the next problem was to continue with the project as I had invested so much time so far with the slab and all and I was way outside the 60 day satisfaction period. I hoped for the best and continued with the installation guide.

An annoying problem with the guide was that they mixed up the way they drew the front and back sides of the corrugated sheets. This was confusing and in one or two situations you didn't exactly know what you were looking at and thus how exactly to proceed. The only option was to guess what you were looking at and hope you made the right guess. A few times I found I had to pull things apart and try the other way.

The main structural elements in the shed were channels where the metal sheets were attached. These channels were often made up of smaller channels joined and screwed together. This was an intersting design element and seemed to work. One major channel was the one at the front of the shed at the bottom, the gates were above it. Assembling this channel was frustrating because the diagrams in the guide really didn't give enough detail as to the orientation of the individual components and which section slotted into which. This resulted in me unscrewing and redoing this assembly until I could get all the channel components as well as the sides of the front panels being able to slot into each other. I did attempt to get advice from the manufacturer's support line, but more on that later.

Another issue with the guide was there were contradictory graphics on how many locking-plates were required on the front face of the shed. One graphic showed one but another showed two, if you read the parts list it said that only one was required.

Resultant Stages of Construction:

This is what you should do: read the guide in detail, then read it again, then probably again. Then go through all the parts in the pack, probably best to spread them all out across your large yard and then match each part against the part listing in the guide and check if there are any discrepancies. Well that would be the ideal approach if you were doing this for the second time. The first time you read up what you need to start and then commence putting the different panel sides together until the time to start joining these panel sides together into the shed. So all went well till there was a problem in that the front panels couldn't be assembled because the parts didn't fit into each other. There wasn't enough information in the guide to explain what went wrong. I had the contact the manufacturer to work it out. It was down to the channel at the front of the shed, the bit that sits under the front doors.

Contacting the Support Line:

Well I contacted the support phone number and explained the problem. I was told someone who knew these things would get back to me. I didn't exactly know what was wrong except that the components couldn't be joined together to make the front of the shed. The slots for the side panels were too narrow to fit them into the channel. I suggested some possible solutions in my message. The resultant advice was an agreement that my suggestions were correct. I wasn't an expert but I had a lot of hands-on time witth the problem. My suggestions when tested turned out to be wrong and I was still stumped. I finally worked out the proper steps to the assembly and identified that there should have been an extra step in the guide. I contacted support again to explain that I was frustrated with the guide but that I had worked out what to do and offered to explain what I had found. They never replied.

Conclusion:

The sheets used to make up the sides are a bit too thin, so thin that you risk buckling them even when you try to drill into them with the provided screws.

The self-tapping self-drilling screws don't tighten when drilled into the sheets as they simply keep spinning around because the sheets are so thin they just strip the thread. The screws often just partly slip out as they really don't grip into the thin sheets. They only grip when you have more than two layers of metal that you are attaching.

The guide is 95% complete but the last bit is up to your guesswork, which in practice is pretty well make or break. You can use a bit of trial and error but guidance from the support team may not really help, they didn't help me. And the support team didn't really want to know what was missing from their assembly manual. Quite disappointing.

The 2018 Product Looks the Same as The 2017 Product:

The weight is the same 38kg and the dimensions are the same 2.25m x 0.78m x 1.305m

How I Feel Some Months After Assembly:

The way the lid closes over the sides isn't very smooth, the lid is nearly the same size as the sides and almost doesn't cover them instead just clashing against them - you can close the lid but you just need to manually push things around a bit and the lid fits over the sides. The front lip of the lid when closed sags a bit in the middle because the channel that gives it rigidity is made up of a number of smaller channels screwed together but the result isn't quite rigid enough. This isn't a real problem but it just doesn't look as good as it should. The shed could be a bit more rigid (the sheets could be thicker) but when you screw the sides onto the slab (components aren't supplied in the kit) the whole thing feels solid enough. The front doors are difficult to hang true because you would need to assemble them while they're virtical - which isn't specified in the guide. So even though the doors aren't perfectly oriented vertically the result isn't too bad.

So you have to fight the thinness of the materials and somewhat inadequate guidebook and a company that only cares up to a point, and you get a shed that if your trial and error solutions to assembly dead-ends work out you have a cost effective shed that will do the job for a fair bit less than a shed from Bunnings.

The shed's support line is run by Durabuilt Products, Albury NSW, this company also runs Easy Shed, that's not to say they sell this product through their company.