Garden Gyms: Why Shed Floors Fail
You buy a Peloton. You buy the weights. You put them in a summerhouse. Six months later, the floor is bowing. Here is why you need a structural floor.
The Peloton Problem
It happens every January.
You commit to the fitness kick. The Peloton arrives. The dumbbells get delivered.
But you don't want the noise in the spare room. So, the kit goes down to the summerhouse.
It works for a week.
Then the floor starts to give.
You pick up the pace on the treadmill, and the whole shack vibrates. The windows rattle. You drop a deadlift bar and it feels sketchy—like you're going straight through the timber.
Give it a month, and the door starts sticking. The frame has twisted.
Be Honest: It's a Shed
The bike isn't the issue. The building is.
Most garden rooms are designed to hold a couple of rattan chairs and a lawnmower.
The floor is usually 18mm chipboard on thin joists. It isn't engineered for a 150kg machine plus a running adult.
It bows. It sags. Eventually, it snaps.
The SIPs Solution
This is why we use SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels).
No loose timber frames. We use a solid composite sandwich.
Rigid insulation glued between two sheets of structural board. It acts like a solid slab. It doesn't flex.
The "Jump Test"
The difference is stiffness.
In a normal shed, do a burpee and the coffee mugs shake on the shelf.
In our studios, the floor feels like concrete. Jump, drop weights, sprint—the building doesn't move.
The Rust Factor
There is another reason sheds make bad gyms: Sweat.
You are breathing heavy. You are sweating.
In a single-skin wooden shed, that moisture hits the cold walls and turns to water. By March, your expensive weights are covered in surface rust. The room smells musty.
Our studios are wrapped in Tyvek membranes. They breathe like a modern house. They stay dry.
Do It Once
If you are spending £2,000 on a bike, don't put it in a £500 shed.
Training at 6am in February is hard enough. You don't want to be shivering on a floor that bounces like a trampoline.
Stop by the office at 17 Tweedale Road, Bournemouth, or call 07723 388218.
