Help on base for 20ft x 12 ft shed

smith_stle

Hi, Hoping someone can help me on this one please. We are looking at buying a 20ft x 12ft shed. Our back garden is about 24ft x 40ft and is fully concrete laid in two parts length ways. Unfortunately these have now become unlevel so we need to build a level base for our shed. Obviously we are wanting to keep the cost down so digging up the original concrete is not an option as it would only add cost. The two options we have come up with is laying paving slabs the size of the shed or making a new concrete base on top of the original concrete.
Firstly which one would you recommend and how would we go about it? I have no building skills but I can put my hand to pretty much most things. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

john.xs

Did you know you cannot build a shed that covers more than half your garden and that it has to be a metre away from any boundary?

smith_stle

It doesn't cover half of the garden and yes we have already confirmed its all above board but thanks for your concern.

kitschkitty

how does that help? 20ft x 12ft is half of 24ft x 40ft and 12ft is more than 2m.


BTW sorry OP I have no ideas about concrete or slab laying!

mrs_sparrow

If it is less than 2.5 metres high, it can go next to the boundary and we found the pents were lower than apex so we went for the pent. It cannot be placed within 2 metres of your property and total garden buildings cannot take up more than 50% of your garden.

If your neighbours are anything like ours, be prepared for them to grass you up to the council though so make sure you stay within the rules. We had someone come to do ours and he placed it on concrete slabs - it is slightly bigger than yours. The slabs are not the entire size of the shed, it is about 6ins short either side so it overhangs and the slabs are not tightly packed together either. Hope that kind of makes sense.

DavidFx

Lay some 50x100mm treated timber bearers on a mortar bed on your concrete base and level these, then place your shed on them.
I would lay at 400mm or 600mm centres but this really depends on the strength of the shed floor (ask the supplier of the shed).

google 'timber bearers'

For a belt and braces approach, place a DPC between mortar and timber

mikey72

Ours was out by about a foot, end to end. The cheapest option was slabs, and filling the difference with a dry cement mix. wet cement, delivered and poured was dearer.

flashg67

Have you thought about using these? - http://www.ecobase.biz/

Canucklehead

Hi: we use Megapads.

HTH

Canucklehead

sunshinetours

kitschkitty wrote: »

how does that help? 20ft x 12ft is half of 24ft x 40ft and 12ft is more than 2m.

Er no it isn't. Its roughly a quarter of it in area (draw it out on graph paper if you aren't sure)

OP ask the cabin/shed manufacturer what they recommend as a lot will depend on how floor is contructed. one thing that is key is that the base whatever it is slabs or bearers are completely level.
Also if your garden is completly concrete you will certainly need guttering on the roof edges as you will get a lot of run off when it rains on that size cabin

tim.charles_2

flashg67 wrote: »

Have you thought about using these? - http://www.ecobase.biz/

Thanks for the link, we're planning on building a cabin at the bottom of our garden, but our garden is unlevel and our soil is heavy clay, so ecobase looks ideal.