I've got a garden shed with an engine, gearbox, a lot of tools etc. Had a leaky roof but im pretty sure ive addressed that and has stayed dry in the summer at least. I'm working away at the moment and only get home one weekend a month so my biggest fear is that after a good storm, water has found its way in and made everything orange. I've thought of putting a small heater on timer for 30min/day to keep everything dry. But also reckon it could attract condensation as it goes hot/cold. Thoughts?
Go to your local pound shop etc and buy some moisture traps,bang a few of those in there.
Work really well
30 minutes a day is unlikely to raise a shed by many degrees, certainly not enough to dry things out. I've found a bit of ventilation is far
better to remove moisture, although obviously it's a balance between ventilation and letting water in.
I think lifting everything up a few inches would also help, I do find anything that's actually on the floor does get damp. My shed is a wooden
base on top of slabs so I can't see a reason why they do get damp, but they do. I'd put the large things on palettes or similar, tools on
shelves etc.
Hi,
I would pack the engine, gearbox, etc. in large trash bags, the heavy-duty ones, the ones you use for stones and rubbles. Seal them hermetically with
packing or silver tape.
Worked fine for me when I left my personal stuffs in my brother's garage for 10 years while I was living abroad.
Hope that will help 
Ice cream tub with an inch or so of salt works well to absorb water
Spray stuff with oil/wax or similar. Wrap in plastic, with dehumidifier bags inside.
Great idea on the moisture traps. I didn't even know they existed! Have just picked up 8 of them.
quote:
Originally posted by luke2152
Great idea on the moisture traps. I didn't even know they existed! Have just picked up 8 of them.
Know and share the problem. Having converted my integral garage into another bedroom I had to decant most of my stuff to a shed. The roof of which leaks and has been replaced. It's still damp as hell in there and metal goes rusty very fast. I've more or less given up on it now. I may pull the shed down and try something different.
A bit of Googling suggests that moisture traps might use Calcium Chloride to absorb moisture
This site sells 25kg for £25 + postage. I wonder if it might do the job:
https://www.allianceonline.co.uk/swcc0025.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwi7DtBRCLARIsAGCJWBo0jdsibAOSzVPM0Hl_MZRklbb-VP2EEiJQ-3XMzx902bs8aSY5rEEaAuBCEALw_wcB
Looks like you might improvise a big water trap with 25Kg of calcium Chloride
My shed is well insulated and has an old pc running my CCTV server. Stays a nice constant temperature all winter, with no condensation issues. Does get rather warm in the summer though!
Have a look on facebook/ebay for chinese diesel heaters (they are cheap copies of Eberspacher). I had one heating my garage when I was testing it before putting it in my campervan. Very good dry heat & cheap to run
You will never keep anything from going rusty if the shed leaks in water and condensation
And if irc space heaters, although create heat also cause immense condensation, so one of those will not work
steve
Correct - You definitely don't want to use a space heater as they do give out a lot of moisture whereas the diesel heaters don't
[Edited on 23/10/19 by iant88]
I’ve used cat litter in a sock in a few of my toolbox drawers that have the more expensive tools in them. Larger metal parts I’ve coated in oil. Both methods seem to work ok for me until I had a drier workshop.
Moisture in sheds is variable due to temperature, and the water content of air. The dew point is variable and even a sealed bag can deposit water from
the air in it.
Old skool way was and is to wrap metal items in an oily rag and wrap that but let it breath, you only have to check it now and then.
One of the best ways to stop damp in either a shed or garage is to increase the ventilation while keeping the rain out. I dry large quantities of firewood in my garage and replaced the bottom of the garage door with wooden louvres and metal mesh on the eve's. Yip it can get draughty but nothing rusts and the car dries very quickly after being out of the in the rain. If I could be bothered I could put shutters on the door...