Do bad smells come your way when you open your garden shed? Then you should act urgently. After all, this is a sign that you are ventilating incorrectly.
A garden house is much more than just a storage room for garden tools, bicycles, etc. Here you can make yourself really comfortable, celebrate and even spend the night. Provided you keep a few important points in mind. Because only if you ventilate the garden house properly will you be able to enjoy it for a long time. If you don't pay attention here, you could quickly experience an unpleasant surprise.
The biggest enemy in the garden house: moisture
Whoever opens the doors of the garden shed in spring usually takes their breath away. Because rising damp creates a musty room climate in the garden house during the winter. And as if that weren't enough, the humidity also affects everything stored in the garden shed. Of course, the garden house itself is not spared either. Because if you don't air it properly during the cold and wet season, you shouldn't be surprised about mold growth, unsightly discolouration and moisture damage. It's actually not that difficult to ventilate the garden house properly, protect it from moisture damage and thus prevent the need for a mold remover.
How to ventilate a garden house
❶ Open windows/doors:
Airing is simply the be-all and end-all in a garden shed. No matter whether you use it as a living room or hobby room or just store garden tools and furniture in it. So take care of it and ventilate the garden house regularly. If you stay in it for several hours because you are pursuing your hobby, for example, then you should ventilate the room for about 10 minutes every hour. You should open all windows and doors completely so that air can be exchanged quickly without losing much of the heat. This quick ventilation is important, because you wouldn't believe how much moisture a person produces through breathing and sweating.
If you want to use the garden shed as a store for garden tools, furniture, etc.then it is sufficient if you ventilate the room about three times a week. It is important that you do not place the equipment and furniture too close to the walls of the garden shed so that they can be well ventilated.
If your garden shed only has one door, you should think about retrofitting a skylight. This way you can ventilate the garden shed without having to worry that someone will go in there and maybe even steal something. On top of that, such a skylight also provides a lot more light in the garden house. Best of all, installation is relatively easy. I found instructions for this on steda-online.de, for example. Installation is explained step by step here.
And the whole thing really comes together when the ventilation through the window is automatic. Exactly when the temperature in the garden house is particularly high. The automatic window opener from Einhell is ideal for this:
I found another interesting article on the subject of "proper ventilation" on www.co2online.de. Among other things, you will also learn why airing is better than continuous airing.
❷ Ventilation grille:
Another way to protect the garden house from moisture and thus from mold growth is to install ventilation grilles. Here it makes sense to mount two ventilation grilles on two diagonally opposite sides of the garden house. Once at ground level and once at roof level. In this way, the garden house is optimally ventilated. The installation is also child's play here. You just have to
- mark the size of the ventilation grilles,
- drill a hole in one of the resulting corners,
- saw out the marked openings with a jigsaw or saber saw
- and screw on the ventilation grilles over the cutouts.
This is how you ensure continuous ventilation in your garden shed. A simple yet very effective ventilation option.
» Tip: If your garden house also has a bathroom with a shower, you should think about a bathroom fan. This is especially important if the bathroom has no window.
❸ Solar fan:
You can also install a solar fan (also known as an exhaust fan) on the garden shed. As the name suggests, the solar fan automatically ventilates the garden house in direct sunlight without any electricity from the house. It can be used for both ventilation and exhaust. For this extra twoRotor blades included. Musty smells, condensation and mold don't stand a chance.
The installation of a solar fan is not that difficult. You can easily mount it on the outside wall of your garden shed. You only have to make sure that the photovoltaic cells are pointing upwards so that the sun's rays can be used optimally. The opening for air transport thus points downwards. This prevents rainwater from entering the garden shed.
By the way, the solar cells also work when it's cloudy. The performance of the solar fan is then not as strong as when the sun is shining, but the power is still sufficient to operate the fan for several hours. You can see what a solar fan looks like and how it works at Solarkontor.de, for example.
Conclusion:
Don't wait until a damp climate has spread through the garden shed, causing mould, mold stains and bad odors to spread. Make a lot more provisions and think about ventilation options when planning the tool shed or buying the garden shed.