Garden office - Easypads vs Groundscrews

[Burrower]

Hi. We've recently moved house and I'm hoping to build a small (3.3m x 2m) garden office.

Foundations are going to be either groundscrews (not cheap - 1300 for professionally installed 1.2m screws) or Easypads/similar. The latter are much cheaper - probably about half that cost with some MOT type 1 to put underneath them - though that would be DIYing it and costs time.

I'm not keen on a concrete slab due to hassle and environmental reasons.

Our ground is sandy soil and a very sandy subsoil about two spade depths down. It's very easy to dig, but I'm guessing the flip side is that soft ground may not be as supportive as otherwise

Has anyone had any problems with either pads or groundscrews subsiding? I'm presuming the groundscrews are the more reliable option due to their depth and they seemer the safer option, but are pricey. However the budget is there if it's worth it, and I don't want to skimp on the bit I can't easily get to after everything else is built.

-- Tim.

 

[Mike13]

I have a sandy soil and what I did was use a 6" hand Auger to drill a bunch of holes down to about a metre. The poured in dry cement/sand/ballast mix and wet the holes after, take care to level them as 3:1 is hard to level off afterwards. the log cabin about 3.8m x 3m has not moved at all. I worked out that it was ~1 tonne concrete vs 6 for a raft, so no contest. Make sure the bottom of the hole is below the frost line and it should outlast you.

 

[cdbe]

Just level lay building blocks

Or reclaimed 2x2 concrete slabs which you can usually pick up for nothing. If they do settle a bit (unlikely) you can just jack and pack up your floor joists.