Concrete base for summer house

[HERTS P&D]

Flippin' heck. My mate's even more clueless than i am with this job.

Jesus wept, he must be bad.

You must be like LAUREL and HARDY.



Andy

 

[Keitai]

Gonna put down hardcore and wakerplate the whole area. So 4 metres by 4 metres . Does the weed membrane go under the hardcore?

 

[Mike13]

I bought an Auger that allowed extension bars to be added and made enough holes all around the edges to support corners and about just under every metre around the edges, holes about 150mm diameter x 1-1.2 metres deep, filled with dry mixed sand/cement/hardcore then watered around the holes. It was a lot less cement than a raft, and I put down a dpm, and used those plastic "planks" as the first support for the bearer beams around the edges. Log cabin has not budged in quite a few years now, and I paid a bit extra for some headroom with two extra rows of logs. about 70mm of celotex under the floor and across the roof too, reduces the temperature fluctuations a lot.

 

[Keitai]

View attachment 192118 We were going to put hardcore down for blocks to ho on so they dont sink. We thought 50mm depth. Its 4m x 4m and the guy and Jewsons said a ton bag and half. This wont work as he has nowhere for them to dump it in his front garden and no side way round his house to take it in a wheelbarrow. So we reckon just buy 25kg bags of hardcore from b and q or wherever and walk them through the house.

Is there an easier way of making the ground solid for the blocks?

Could i dig small holes for each block then fill with pea gravel or something then use postcrete to stop it moving?

In photo it's the raised area at too of garden with long grass. Other picture is the blocks we're going to useView attachment 192110

 

[Mike13]

The reason why I put the base onto concrete posts sunk into the ground was to get the bottom of the posts below the frost line, so you dont get any heave any time there is some hard frost on the ground.

 

[Keitai]

The reason why I put the base onto concrete posts sunk into the ground was to get the bottom of the posts below the frost line, so you dont get any heave any time there is some hard frost on the ground.

In hindsight I would have got concrete posts but we've got the blocks now so gonna make the most of it.
Holes with hardcore and blocks on top. We'll try without cementing first

 

[Keitai]

This is it so far. It's not the same measurements on the diagonals -525cm and 505cm on other diagonal. Is this a problem? Put one screw into each butt joint, is that enough?

 

[lostinthelight]

Why are you using washer head screws at an angle,as soon as the first side contacts it will force the screw over towards the weaker side?

 

[Keitai]

Why are you using washer head screws at an angle,as soon as the first side contacts it will force the screw over towards the weaker side?

Would these silver screws in photo be ok in outside work or would they rust?

 

[Buck_68]

This is it so far. It's not the same measurements on the diagonals -525cm and 505cm on other diagonal. Is this a problem? Put one screw into each butt joint, is that enough?View attachment 193336 View attachment 193337

if your deck is supposed to be square then yes, the diagonals not being equal is a problem! If you’ve made the base to match the existing fences / edging then that must be out of true?

 

[Keitai]

if your deck is supposed to be square then yes, the diagonals not being equal is a problem! If you’ve made the base to match the existing fences / edging then that must be out of true?

I think he spent so long getting the blocks level i think he doesn't care. If it's square. I guess the summer house will just be smaller than base.

I guess we should have got the outside square then fitted them on blocks