Buyer’s Guide To Garden Sheds | 4Homes

Date Published:: 27/08/2008

Your shed will stay rot-free and dry if you spend a bit of time preparing the base properly. Lightweight small sheds can be put on paving slabs. Mark out the shed base (make it about 50mm larger all around than the shed). Remove any turf and topsoil to a depth of around 8cm. Now mix together one part cement to eight parts building sand and spread this evenly over the area so that it’s about 4cm deep. Now you can lay your paving stones, starting in one corner and working outwards. Use a spirit level to check the stones are all level with each other and flat. Use a mallet or the handle end of your hammer to tap down any high areas and leave the base’s cement/sand mix to harden for a day before putting up your shed.

For larger sheds or workshops in which you may want to store heavy items, a slab base is the answer. Prepare the area as for the paving but dig the hole so that you can lay 75mm of hardcore. Add some timber boards around the edge of the hole to make a former for the concrete, so that the top of the base is above soil level.

Fill any large gaps between the hardcore with sand and add 75mm of concrete, Made with one part cement to five parts ballast. Level the surface by using a timber batten, resting on the edges of the timber formers and using a sawing action to skim off the excess concrete.

Find out how to do more DIY jobs on our Expert DIY Guide pages

TIPS

* Make the base area a multiple of the paving slab size, ie, for a 300mm square slab make the base dimensions 1200, 1500 etc. This way, you’ll avoid having to cut the slabs.

* Measure the two diagonals created by the timber formers before pouring the concrete. The measurements should be the same if the base sides are square.

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Comments

I would agree with Garden Sheds post. It's definitely best to maintain your wooden garden shed every few years for longevity. And it is key to invest in a good base. People are too quick to invest in the disposable consumption culture but this doesn't have to be the case- there are many good quality garden buildings that aren't too expensive. My advice would be to buy a tongue and grooved garden shed as standard as overlap simply won't last as long. Another tip would be to get a base filled with pea gravel or something similar to aid drainage under the building and prevent damp from building-up. Metal sheds can also be good and there are many metal sheds on the market that are rust resistant. These are great garden buildings that are ultra strong.

Posted by Wooden Sheds on 18/11/2009 10:09:15

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My tip would be to encourage people to take care of the shed they buy. With just a few hours of work a year you can keep a shed in near enough perfect condition for 10 years or more. Building a solid base is essential- there's nothing worse than getting a rotten shed just because you allowed grass/damp to attack the bottom of the shed (something you can't do much about unless you move the shed and redo it!). Retreat your shed every year if you can- not only does it make it look at good as new, for just a few hours work every year you save having to buy a new shed. Finally, keep checking that water is draining off the roof properly- hopefully it won't be neccassary to re-roof your shed, but if it needs doing then do it. From my experience the one thing that sheds hate is water!

Posted by Garden Sheds on 30/10/2009 16:39:31

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