Flooring material for a wooden shed?

[Pickup]

Hi folks,

Looking for advice on material (type & thickness) for a shed floor? ideally something with a decent lifespan and not too expensive. Was thinking oak floorboards but figure the cost would be pretty high so maybe exterior or marine ply, OSB, scaffold boards, treated softwood, something else?

Shed is to be 12’x 8’ (3.6 x 2.4m) floor will be supported on 3”x3” (75x75mm) tannelised fence posts (acting as joists/bearers???) at 24” (600mm) centres - all sizes approx.

General garden / diy use but will also be used to store motorbike(s) over winter…

Thanks

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Recycled plastic planking (the sort if stuff councils get planters made out of) or composite decking, possibly? Both relatively expensive, but both highly durable and can be pressure washed without issues.

If you are storing anything as heavy as motorcycles I'd go reduce the joist centres to 16in or 400mm (same as a floor would normally be)

 

[Odds]

Pressure-treated plywood is the go-to for shed floors but tongue n' groove might be better if you're going to store a motorbike. Maybe an extra layer of vinyl flooring to cover oil spills over the wood but i defer to J&K in regard to the best type of wood for T&G.

 

[foxhole]

You could save money on base with pallets , I used 6 pallets from roof tile supplier screwed together , strong enough to park a car on.

 

[Odds]

You could save money on base with pallets , I used 6 pallets from roof tile supplier screwed together , strong enough to park a car on.

How high does that make your shed floor?

 

[foxhole]

How high does that make your shed floor?

Depends what pallets are available , around 120mm.

 

[big-all]

Sacrificial 5.5 mm ply in the motorbike storage area and workbench area if it has one doubled up if you're using less than half

 

[Odds]

Depends what pallets are available , around 120mm.

12cm for 6 pallets doesn't sound very high off the ground: do they weather well?

 

[scbk]

One of my sheds (think it is 12x8 too) I used 22x150 rough sawn boards, with the 3x2 joists underneath at about 500mm centres.
Then when the rest of the shed was built, laid 3 sheets of 9mm osb over the floor so there's no gaps.
Works well, the floor is very strong

 

[foxhole]

12cm for 6 pallets doesn't sound very high off the ground: do they weather well?

Not stacked on top of each other you Wally.

 

[Odds]

I thought at least two would be stacked, for strength, or do you mean heavy duty pallets?

 

[andycollins]

I used scaffold boards in mine. One side is un-treated for general storage (shed stuff) and the other side (divided by a wall) I've sanded and treated for a nicer workshop floor. I put a concrete base down first and then screwed down some joists (tile batten) to screw the boards to.

 

[foxhole]

I thought at least two would be stacked, for strength, or do you mean heavy duty pallets?

Aren’t pallets heavy duty by design , hold 1/2ton of roof tiles .