Shed base advice

Vonhelmet · 25 Jan 2018 at 20:00

Ok, so I’ve got a shed in the garden but it’s crap and falling to bits and it’s not as big as I’d like. It’s 8’ by 6’ and I’d like something bigger, maybe 10’ by 7’. Anyway. It’s on a concrete plinth at the back of the garden, which is maybe 8’6” by 6’6” so I need something bigger. It’s concrete with paving slabs on top, maybe 4” above the height of the patio and lawn around it. One side is up against the fence with our next door neighbour and the back edge of the plinth is a foot or so from the fence with the house behind. So my question... If I want a bigger shed I need a bigger plinth, say another foot behind and two foot to the side. What’s my best plan of action? More concrete? Piles of solid paving slabs? Breeze blocks? Lego? What’s the likely cost of going the concrete route?

Any ideas greatly appreciated...

Hedge · 25 Jan 2018 at 20:51

Ill be interested in hearing tips too because I need to do the same. Particularly since high winds wrecked my shed!

thezappa · 25 Jan 2018 at 21:13

if it were me, i'd make up some stuttering and increase the size of the slab with concrete. The slabs are there presumably to stop water from the grass contributing to the shed rotting so pouring a load more in to increase the depth would be straight forward enough. I suppose then you're looking at mixing a lot of concrete to cover the existing base with enough to make it thicker, so it's wether you can be bothered to do that vs putting more paving slabs over the top of a wider base (which you will have to make with extra concrete).

paintguy · 25 Jan 2018 at 21:39

Not quite the same but I went from an old 4x6 that was here when we moved in to a 10x8.

I dug out a trench around the perimeter and set the old slabs on edge as a kind of permanent shuttering. I poured a small amount of concrete in behind these to stabilise them but the majority of the base was simply 3x2 slabs laid on compacted sand. It's stayed perfectly flat and stable for 8 or 9 years.

DXP55 · 25 Jan 2018 at 22:22

I extended my concrete patch with slabs on cement mix to 9x8 - Do put your shed on batten's to keep base off concrete or whatever - also see if you can get base a few inches smaller than shed - if base is bigger the water will run off shed onto concrete and soak into base of shed or battens

The left to right battens were there just to hold front to back ones in place - when shed base went down the middle one was removed first - when base was down front and rear left to right was removed - idea being if any rot it is easy to jack shed up and pull out old batten and slide in a new one - I used treated roof lathes.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 26 Jan 2018 at 08:25

You want the shed to sit on pressure treated timber.
The hard base is more for stopping rodents building empires underneath that anything else tbh

Woogie · 26 Jan 2018 at 09:19

Our current place has a massive concrete slab that the shed was placed onto to but it was placed directly ONTO the concrete base. Water obviously pooled underneath this and the floor rotted. Our new place has a concrete base with 2 rows of bricks on top of it which the shed then sits on top of the 2 rows of bricks and is solid and dry. I will however be making this slightly larger at some point in the coming year, Possibly integrating the shed space into the workshop.