Will this shed base work?

[timothydoran]

So I am still planning my shed. I will be restricted to 2.5m high so I want to make the most of the available headroom by digging down to make the shed base.

The size of the shed will be 3x4m.

Is it ok to dig down so that the floor of the shed would be level with 'ground level'. This would give me as much head room as possible and would mean that there would not be a step up to the door. I have drawn a picture of what I mean.

Am I being naive and will it all go wrong? Thanks in advance for your opinions.

 

[Tigercubrider]

surely you need some kind of dpc in there or overtime, your base will flood and the wood rot?

anything likely to be damaged by rust/damp will have to be off the floor?
think very shallow cellar

 

[r896neo]

If the ground allows ie. It slopes away on one side yes its no problem. You may need to retain the earth bank left by your digging to stop it crumbling into the side of the shed and rotting it.

 

[timothydoran]

What if all 4 sides were dug down? Would that just make the shed the lowest point and water would just drain there and rot the timbers?

 

[r896neo]

No it is possible just more work. What you would need to do is create a French drain of sorts around the perimeter.

Bare in mind water will be running off the roof too so you'd need mini guttering going to perhaps a water butt or directed into a French drain or real drain if possible.

All of the above will only work if your garden is relatively free draining. If the ground is heavy then you'd need to install actual linear drainage channels and pipe the water somewhere.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Unless the water table was incredibly high it won't fill up with water and i can't see why a french drain would be necssary its only a shed. I would be inclined (for the sake of a couple of quid) to stick a strip of DPC under the bearers and then under the joists. Worst case scenario the bearers could be replaced in twenty years time albeit awkwardly, there's no need to fix the joists into the bearers.

 

[John D v2.0]

You could always replace all that timber with cement based supports. You really want to keep any timber as ventilated and far off the ground as possible.

Maybe flag stones would be plenty in your case.