Topic: Sheds - paved base or not?

[Suzanne]

I am going to put up a shed at my new allotment and was going to level the ground and put some paving slabs down. I have had advice that this makes it difficult to sort out any mice etc which can tunnel underneath the paving slabs. That is you can't get to them,- and I should therefore put the shed on concrete corner supports only.

I have never put up a shed before so looking for a consensus of opinion on this one - paving slabs or no paving slabs? All advice appreciated.

[cambourne7]

i but slabs down with a dry cement base but the weeds have still come up under them and have started to displace some of the slabs. Personaly i would still go with slabs as you can bolt the shed to it.

[mikey]

Suzanne,

shed in the garden of my home sits on 3 x 3 inch timber runners which in turn are standing on cement slabs.

I laid the slabs on +/- 3 inch of coarse Builders sand, no sign of weeds coming through or of any movement.

The last house (in Scotland) I had 2 large sheds/workshops erected, 20 ft x 10 ft. They were also on 3 x 3 inch timber runners, which sat on a gravel bed. I cleared the areas and thoroughly dosed with Weedol, then had a delivery of 4 cu yds of rough gravel (in Aberdeen area known as 'chuckies') this was raked level over the area and the timber runners laid ontop.

Had no problems with drainage or weeds but one H*ll of a problem with Rabbits, they immediately burrowed beneath the sheds and created a Rabbit Motel complex ...  never did get rid of them, so moved house  ;D ;D
just kidding  ;)

Shed on our new Lottie is built from Pallets and stands on 4 Pallets as a base and foundation, underneath is just heavy duty black polythene and the Pallets are levelled with Bricks and timber packing, dead easy to level up should we get subsidence  ;) ;D

Mikey

[Suzanne]

Thanks both :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

I wouldn't worry too much about slabs, but get it up off the ground away from the damp. my next shed will be going on top of railway sleepers (if I can find them, beams if I can't) placed on top of breeze blocks. That'll leave no room for rats to nest, and provide dry storage underneath.

[Simba42]

We used 4 Pallets screwed to the base..

Not likely to blow away..

[EmmaLou]

The shed in our garden was just balanced on pavingslabs in each corner (not done by us). Where the rats had been tunnelling underneath, the shed ended up sat in soil and eventually the floor rotted and the rats started coming in.

The landlord ripped up the floor, dug out the soil (and loads of rats nest! :o) he then poured concrete in. We now have a lovely solid, dry floor, and no more rats! :-)

[Superstar]

I set my shed on bricks under which is a big sheet of black plastic.  The base of the shed is very heavy being made of joists and heavy old wooden flooring planks.

Although it has been broken into via the door the vandals have not been able to move the shed although there is evidence that they have tried!

[Nelson]

Paving slabs are difficult to level.

For my 6x8 shed I roughly levelled an area to abut 2" deep and then spread 10 bags of 10mm gravel.  You can then get this reasonably level before laying 4 or 5 treated wooden brearers (fence posts) on it.  Get those dead level by shimmting them in the gravel and then drop the base on top.  Took me and my dad about an hour and its as straight as I could ever ask for.

[Tin Shed]

Have just put up a new shed today with my 18 yr old son. We levelled the ground, put a layer of builders sand on top, then a double layer of woven black ground cover [found on the lottie tip] and then paving stones, followed by the shed. Will put stakes in on each corner when I can bang them into our concrete soil.

[Suzanne]

It sounds as though me nearest and dearest (all males in the faimily, including my grandad at 93!) will be helping me with this! Bigger job than I niavely assumed. :o

[Kea]

I'm not the only one with concrete soil then Tin Shed. I saw on the Model Garden makeover programme they used a pneumatic drill to break up the soil because it was so hard. I might get that instead of a rotovator!

My shed is on 6 concrete slabs ontop of a base of builders sand. Not sure it's the right height to stop rats. however they moved into my compost heap over winter so maybe that was more of a 'des res' than under the shed. Now they can't get in the compost the shed may be more appealing next winter but I hope not.