subject: Building a Shed – How to Choose The Right Base [print this page] Building a Shed How to Choose The Right Base
By this time you should have made the decisions regarding not only the size of your building but also what the end purpose will be. To help you in making you choices I would suggest that you get hold of a good set of shed plans so that you can see what options there are for you to pick, and then you will be in the best possible position to start planning your project.
Ok, so you have made your choices, let's start at the bottom. The kind of foundation that you are going to put down must be strong enough to last and be able to stand up to the wear and tear that you are going to put it to. For instance, if you are going to build yourself a garage for storing a vehicle in, it's not going to be feasible to build your shed with a wooden floor, it just won't stand up to the continual weight that you are going to be placing on it and it won't be long before you will find yourself making costly repairs.
For this type of construction you will really need to consider putting down a concrete base, and then build your shed straight onto this. A concrete base will give you many years of use and should not need any maintenance apart from a coat of paint, which will help to keep the dust down as it will seal the floor, and in most instances will outlast the life of the shed.
With a concrete base you will need to mark out the site with pegs and mark the levels on each corner. You will not want to build your base too high so you will have to dig out a quantity of soil so that you will a depth of at least 6 inches or 15 centimetres to the mark on your pegs.
The bottom of your site will need filling with 3 inches or 7 centimetres of rubble or stone, over this you will be laying your concrete to the set level. If the ground you are building on is part of your garden and you find that the soil you have dug out was quite soft it may be an idea to lay a sheet of steel mesh in the middle of your concrete to give it added strength and avoid the finished surface cracking.
If you are building a shed to use as a tool store or potting shed you will be able to get away with using a wooden floor, as you will not be having heavy loads on it. Even if you are using a wooden floor you will still need to lay it on some form of base to avoid any movement in it. This is achieved by laying the floor onto wooden bearers.
To start with work out how many bearers you will need. You will have to place these every 24 inches or 60 centimetres apart, along the length of your floor, or whichever way the actual floor timbers are. The top of the bearers should be at the required level where you want your floor to sit, so you may have to dig some earth away so that they finish up at the required level. Once you have the bearers in place concrete along the length of each one to keep them from moving. After leaving sufficient time for the concrete to set, you are then ready to put the floor down and begin building your shed.
