Best Options for Large Shed Base

[Tony68k]

Hope you can offer some advice on this little project of mine. All comments welcome.

I'm planning on buying a 16x8 Tiger Shed and I'm struggling to decide which cost-effective base option to go with.

The ground is soft soil, so I'll have to compact that in some way. A small part of the ground is covered by an old concrete path, so I suspect I'll have to remove this. Not sure?

I have ruled out a concrete slab as being too costly, and I don't really fancy doing this DIY. I've calculated it's a lot of bags of concrete and ballast!

I've been looking at EcoBases - plastic grids that you can fill with gravel, or concrete shed bearers, or concrete fence posts.

All these options require a level ground - do you think just tamping the soil down would be enough, or should I lay some MOT1 or gravel and tamp that down too?

I think concrete bearers would be the best option as they will allow more air to circulate, but levelling these might be too hard to me - would they sit on gravel, or should I sink concrete blocks into the ground? How would I do this simply?

Do I need to remove the concrete path before I start, or would it be okay to sit the base on part of this and part on soil?

Thanks in advance. I've been struggling to the best option for a while doing various searches, and gave up and thought I'd just ask the experts!

(I'm new here, this is unlikely to be my only post in the near future!)

 

[Belboz]

What are you going to use the shed for?

Just storage (unlikely I presume because of the size) or is it to be some form of workshop?

Reason for asking is that how you intend to use the shed will impact on how you need to create the base IMHO.

B

 

[Tony68k]

What are you going to use the shed for?

Just storage (unlikely I presume because of the size) or is it to be some form of workshop?

Reason for asking is that how you intend to use the shed will impact on how you need to create the base IMHO.

B

Just for storage... bikes, garden tools, junk.

 

[Belboz]

My old shed is a lot smaller so this may not be suitable (some of the more expert regulars on here will tell you)

I got a few spare concrete blocks and buried them (half deep) in the soil on top of a small amount of gravel. They were all easy enough to put in and level off. I then used 3 lengths of 4 inch fence posts which I placed on top of the blocks and put the shed on top.

The weight of the shed and the weight of the posts themselves ensured it didn't move and the blocks kept the treated fence posts (and shed) off the wet ground. I put weed control fabric down under the shed and placed some pea shingle on top.

The shed itself is needing replaced now (old age and I need a bigger one for all the 'tat') but the posts are still in great shape and no sign of any weeds coming through.

As I said, that's what I did but on a smaller shed.

B

 

[Tony68k]

I thought I'd close this post with details of what I ended up doing.

So, I dug out the base, shuttered it off and laid some hardcore - the remains of a concrete path I had to remove. I'm then added two jumbo bags of MOT1 sub base and borrowed a wackaplate to firm and level. Before I did this I ordered some 'probase' a plastic ecobase type thing, although the after all the other work i could have easily concreted it in the end.

Before I laid the probase I spread a thin layer of 10mm pea gravel to make it 100% level. Laid the probase, filled the outer grids with more gravel and put the shed base straight on top.

Slightly cheaper than concreting and much less effort, and I can pull the lot up easily and reuse the grids if I ever need.