New shed base options

[daggermark]

I have an area in the garden around 10ft x 20ft. I am thinking of putting a 6ft x 10-12ft shed on it. The area is bordered by neighbour garden wall on 1 side, neighbour garage on 1 side, and my own fence on 1 side, and is just dirt at the moment.

I'd appreciate advice on the best way to cover this area and install the shed base. I'm particularly concerned about avoiding a constant weeding job around the sides of the shed, and making sure the shed is built to last.

The options I've thought of so far:

- Dig out the shed footprint, compact and lay sub-base, pour concrete, and lay weed membrane around the sides covered with shingle. Probably last the longest? Would probably need concrete delivery as its a lot to mix up even with my cement mixer. Concerned weeds will eventually appear around the edges.

- Dig out the shed footprint, put down hardcore and sub-base, lay slabs as a base. Membrane around the sides with shingle, as above. At least with slabs I can do it over a few days rather than rush to get the concrete down.

- Concrete the whole area and put the shed on a plastic base system in the middle. Definitely no weeds, maybe a bit ugly, not sure how good these plastic base systems are? Do rodents get under them?

- Pave the whole area and use a plastic base system for the shed.

I've also seen people lay a few courses of bricks around the shed footprint, then lay a DPM across the whole thing and pour concrete in the middle. Is this worthwhile?

 

[daggermark]

Bit of a bump but also an update and further question...

Decided to lay on slabs as that's what I'm comfortable laying.

Next question: Do I need the put the shed on bearers? I've seen loads of people building sheds directly onto a base around 4" bigger all around than the shed footprint. Presumably its designed so the roof overhang stops water landing on the base and running into the shed. But when the wind gets up, surely rain is going to blow against the wall, run down onto the base, and then run into the shed?

 

[JP_]

Bearers will allow those rodents under though ...
Can't you just lay slabs to the width of the shed, so water can only go down into ground?

I think I'll be doing a shed base soon too. Still undecided! I was thinking plastic shed base filled in with gravel, to stop rodents. I've used plastic base on smaller shad
(6x8) without any problems though. Even brought it with me when I moved house, along with the shed of course.

 

[daggermark]

I did think about laying the slabs exactly to size, yes, but I'd need to cut the final slab which is a job I could do without!

 

[JP_]

Could you leave a gap in the middle of the slabs, and fill that in with some gravel?

 

[daggermark]

Yes I guess that is possible. I was hoping if I avoided bearers I could avoid a timber floor entirely though, and use the slabs as the floor. The gravel would make that awkward.