Are concrete garages any good? The solid truth (with a dash of humour)

Yes — concrete garages are genuinely good. They're tough, they shrug off British weather, they need very little looking after, and a standard building is installed in around a day. They're not perfect: once installed they're not going anywhere, and a bare one wins no beauty contests. Here's the honest picture.

Very. A sectional concrete garage is the hard nut of the outbuilding world — panels of reinforced concrete that don't rot, don't rust and don't mind what the sky throws at them. Wind, rain, snow, the neighbour's football: it takes the lot without complaint.

We've been manufacturing them in our Bradford factory for more than 45 years, and buildings we installed decades ago are still standing and still doing their job. Every new building carries a 10-year structural guarantee, but in practice they last far longer than that.

Parking the car is only the start. Concrete garages make excellent workshops, home gyms, storage for everything the loft rejected, and — with a bit of insulation — hobby rooms you can use all winter. Man cave, she shed, teenage band containment unit: the building doesn't judge.

Because they're sectional, you can also pick the shape that suits the job: apex or pent roof, single or double, or an Extra-Height building if you're storing a campervan or need headroom for racking.

Barely any — this is where concrete quietly wins. There's no timber to treat every spring and no panels to repaint if you choose the uPVC-trimmed option, which keeps upkeep close to zero. Clear the gutters occasionally, and that's most of the job list.

If your ideal relationship with an outbuilding is 'I ignore it and it's fine', a concrete garage is your building.

Honesty time. First: once a concrete garage is installed, it's installed — it isn't portable, so pick the spot carefully because it's not going anywhere. Second: a plain concrete finish is more practical than pretty. Plenty of owners are perfectly happy with that; if not, render, paint and planting can transform one. Third: it needs a flat, level concrete base to sit on — that's not a flaw so much as a requirement, and it's a service we provide.

For secure, durable, low-maintenance space at a sensible price, yes — they're hard to beat. Nucrete supplies around 1,100 buildings a year, every price includes VAT, delivery and installation, and most garages are up in around a day. The verdict from 45+ years of making them: solid. In every sense.