16x10ft workshop arrives in 1 week and I’ve not sorted this yet (gulp).

Location is thick gravel on hard core ground. Concrete slab not an option as rented. Need ideas!

My ideas:

1. scrape away gravel, put down dense concrete blocks and then place a lattice of 4×4 fence posts down with the blocks at the nodes and sensible mid spans.

2. Concrete blocks and a load of old scaffold planks from the slavage yard.

3. Just a load of concrete blocks

Mates idea:

reclaimed concrete sleepers. Need about 12 and will have to borrow a JCB from the farm to move them as they are 250kg each (gulp).

Photographic examples if you have any very much appreciated! Workshop has a 1″ thick T&G floor but will be reinforced locally for some heavy stuff.

Er…paving slabs on sand?

Talk to your landlord anyway, you might get permission for the concrete. A 16×10 is a big lump of building to appear unexpectedly and you don’t want to scare the landlord into giving you your notice at the next opportunity, especially after investing in the workshop.

I wouldn’t over think it, any of the above will be fine. Bit of sand and a few slabs will be more than enough. You can probably get free slabs from the free ads if you collect. You won’t get many in a standard car, though. Mine (about 3/4 the size) has been ‘temporarily’ a couple of pallets on the lawn while I sort the garden out. Its been like that for 2 years. Not done the lawn much good but the shed is fine.

just done 8×6 with 6 foot fence posts levelled with concrete blobs in the middle and at each end onto gravel and old broken slabs. I would be happy to stand it on the gravel and hardcore as long as it was level and I treated the underside .

Do it how they do it in the US? What they call a sled, perfect for your needs I would have thought..

Basically rest the shed on large sleepers (or equivilent, so long as tanilised) which are laid directly on the ground.

Make sure the gravel is level, lay sleepers at 1 foot spacing (less for low weights in shed), add shed to top, add internal floor (OSB) if the shed doesn’t have one.

Whole thing is portable, keeps the shed dry as their is airflow underneath and not too expensive.

for my shed: 12″ x 10″ , I built ply shuttering moulds 30 x 30 x 30 cm x 12. Buried 15cm in ground and poured concrete into each one. These acted as the pillars for (3 x 2) x 2 = 3″ x 4″ pressure treated beams laid in a lattice work (damp proof membrane between wood & concrete) for the floor support. Not much concrete to pour and air gap under the shed.

I did four rail sleepers under a smaller shed. It was fine for five years.

Considering the rail sleeper approach. What happened after five years?

We moved, they are still there under the shed 😉

Why cant you just put it on the gravel? Gravel drains very well and can be easily levelled. I have a pretty large shed on gravel and no issues.

IMO paving slabs would make a shed rot quicker

Just for clarity – the shed joists and floor just sat on sleepers, that we’re not side by side, but separated by the same width as the sleepers.

Landlord is fine with the shed, was a condition of us moving in that I could put one up and wire it into the mains. TBH if we did get notice it wouldn’t be a huge problem as the landlord is useless. Big long list of problems that have still not been sorted after 5 months living here.

Problem with the gravel is it is very thick and moves around.

I am starting to think about just getting a pallet of concrete blocks delivered and some DPM. Or I have some left over fence posts so could use them to batten up the blocks, especially under one area that some heavy equipment is going. Need to scrap up the gravel and explore what lies beneath.

I’d have thought Railway sleepers would be good for 25 years or more…

Level off ground, sand/concrete dry mix and paving slabs over.

It’s what we did for our own. It’s not complained.

Have opted for a combination of ideas. Just had a pallet of dense concrete blocks and some sand dropped off (so much easier than trying to move them by car and the OH has taken the landrover away for the weekend).

Under the gravel landscaping fabric and then hard core so just going to run strips of concrete blocks levelled with sand and then surrounded with the gravel (which is almost as deep as a block is thick). Then put some DPM on top of the blocks as water may capillary up them from the gravel.

In a moment of brain fade I put 250mm in as concrete block lengths so ordered 80…then remembered they are 440 so have about 40% too many but nevermind, we have another shed going in to use as a small lambing shed next week so I have more for them.