Forum menu
What to put a big s...
 

[Closed] What to put a big shed on?

Posts: 4379
Full Member
Topic starter
 

The garage is full and needs emptying in to a new shed in the garden. Shed needs to be garage sized or bigger and will be a permanent feature.

I'm thinking I should get a concrete base put in. Am I right or is there a better way? Ground is quite sandy soil.

What sort of cost should I expect? No access for a digger so will probably have to be done by hand, or a mini digger <1m wide.

Cheers


 
Posted : 27/12/2018 9:36 pm
Posts: 4954
Free Member
 

There are many ways to skin a cat. I am sure you have seen the grain stores on staddle stones.

You probably could use an augor drill and create several mini piles (as deep as the drill will go) if you want a suspended wooden floor.


 
Posted : 27/12/2018 9:44 pm
Posts: 4954
Free Member
 

Btw I don't mean extend the booked out the ground 1m like staddle stones. That was a reference to different methods.


 
Posted : 27/12/2018 9:45 pm
Posts: 4379
Full Member
Topic starter
 

The garden slopes slightly so I guess piles would help with that too. Although my plan was to have someone come in and lay a base and I'd put up a "flat pack" shed on top, suspended floors sound a bit more involved/bespoke.


 
Posted : 27/12/2018 9:57 pm
Posts: 58
Free Member
 

I used this for a log cabin. Make sure you get the ground level and it does a great job.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F112427532195


 
Posted : 27/12/2018 10:02 pm
Posts: 4954
Free Member
 

Depends if the flat pack comes with a floor or not? It would get you out of the limited access problem. 4x6m shed. Piles every 2m (adjusted to fit where the beams on the floor of the kit are). 12 piles. Hire a post hole drill for a day, quick drill then level of all the piles. Hire a concrete mixer. Mix, poor. done. Can always add joists if kit floor is not bmxers load bearing.

It's a way. Ofcourse there are always loads of other ways to do everything!


 
Posted : 27/12/2018 10:09 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

We did ours on concrete piles with a 3x3 framed base on top (to level the ground as it dropped away a bit at the rear)
Then the shed on top.
It’s solid as a rock and has loads of room to “breath”
Plus a bit of extra “out of sight” storage underneath for long/flat stuff.


 
Posted : 27/12/2018 11:59 pm
Posts: 33910
Full Member
 

The space underneath could prove attractive to hedgehogs as a sleeping/hibernation location as well.


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 12:08 am
Posts: 152
Free Member
 

I built one of those garden cabins, roughly garage sized, with a friend about ten years ago. We cut the turf off, bashed the ground down hard (end of a sledge hammer I think), light layer of sand trowelled flat and paving slabs on top. Obviously we levelled them all up. The slabs were placed at suitable distances apart, about 12 in all from memory.
Still rock solid today. At the end of the day it's a shed not a civil engineering project and I would definitely use this method again.
Hope this helps.


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 10:09 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

We built a wooden frame for our cabin, which fit into base pads sat on paving slabs. Adjustable so easy to level on the slight slope we had. Worked out far cheaper than a concrete pad.


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 10:13 am
 rone
Posts: 9783
Free Member
 

Concrete fence posts.


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 10:19 am
Posts: 251
Full Member
 

I saw these recently and they look like a simple solution. No idea of cost:

https://stop-digging.co.uk/house-and-garden/


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 10:22 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

The beauty of a suspended wooden floor is it can vastly reduce the chance of rot as it all sits off the ground per se. I've just sat mine on concrete pads with a 7n block laid on them, then built a frame out of 4x2, 2/3 of it was already down as it was a previous deck area. 3.6m 4x2 timbers went in at 600 centres front to back with a pad at 1.2m intervals. Lot of work but it had 14 people in it for Christmas dinner without a creak. [url= https://i.postimg.cc/56DWbdn7/20181225-123943.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/56DWbdn7/20181225-123943.jp g"/> [/img][/url]


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 10:59 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/43/outbuildings

If these regs apply then a concrete base might give greater headroom / internal height than a suspended wooden floor.


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 2:18 pm
Posts: 8527
Free Member
 

My 3rd one will be going in very soon, on a concrete pad sane as the other 2 are.

Easy one man job, I always have rubble, slates n stuff I can take up space with, and means no foxes digging in below, or weeds either. 2" deep is fine for a shed, doesn't have to be huge.


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 2:32 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

 
Posted : 28/12/2018 2:38 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
Posts: 8527
Free Member
 

150mm? Bugger that! 🤣


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 2:43 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Nobody would put 150mm down for a shed base, not even me. That base in the first vid is floor rot just waiting to happen.


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 11:30 pm
Posts: 7627
Full Member
 

i had uneven and sloping ground so my method was posts in the ground with a suspended floor screwed in around all the posts. its supported by as many rocks and bricks as i could find. all a bit heath robinson but had no issues with it.

pics of it can be seen on page 3 of my shed thread.....
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/inspired-by-shed-threads-do-you-think-its-possible-for/


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 11:48 pm
Posts: 23326
Free Member
 

I made mini piles for the foundation of my wife’s studio on quite a sloping site.

These were great for forming the piles above ground level.

http://www.defendapack.co.uk/concrete_footing_tubes.html

Can see the front piles here:


 
Posted : 28/12/2018 11:54 pm
Posts: 4379
Full Member
Topic starter
 

Great thanks. I thought the general consensus would be an overwhelming concrete base, but the concrete pillars seem a good alternative.

@jam bo that looks ace. In a perfect world I'd build something that was shed one end and summer house at the other with a little deck out the front. But time/money/motivation is against me! Just a big shed will do 🙂


 
Posted : 30/12/2018 5:37 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7817/45615410875_beaa4e716c_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7817/45615410875_beaa4e716c_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

Photo showing the supports we used


 
Posted : 30/12/2018 6:00 pm
Posts: 4379
Full Member
Topic starter
 

@ebygomm is that a kit or are you building from scratch?


 
Posted : 30/12/2018 6:24 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

It's a kit from Tuin. The frame is something we assembled ourselves, not part of the kit, but the plastic supports came from Tuin as well.

Took about 6 hours to get this far, then another day for the roof

[url= https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4861/32655583158_0bf8959f10_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4861/32655583158_0bf8959f10_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url]


 
Posted : 30/12/2018 6:35 pm
Posts: 4379
Full Member
Topic starter
 

/goes off to look up Tuin.

It's even got a shed/summer house split.


 
Posted : 30/12/2018 7:24 pm
Posts: 3873
Free Member
 

I put one of mine on old scaffold boards. Concrete is killing the planet etc.

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 31/12/2018 12:28 pm