advice needed on concrete shed floor & what materials i need

mystic_bertie

i am getting a 10 x 12 ft shed delivered soon and i want to put down a concrete base or slabs

which is likely to be the easiest for me and what is going to be the cheapest for me ?

if concrete how much materials will i need and how thick should the floor be

if slabs should the slabs be set in cement and laid on whin dust ?

any advice greatly appreciaited

woodbutcher_2

I think slabs are more in the range of diy'ers and would be suitable for a shed.Concrete flags are best but are very heavy so maybe a lighter slab would be better.You can lay them on sand with a dusting of cement sprinkled on the top before laying.I lay them on a sand and cement mix but if you don't have a mixer the first method should suffice.

If you go for concrete,standard thickness is 100 mm.You need roughly 12 sq mts,so at 100 mm thick,that is 1.2 cube of concrete.You would need about 2.5 tons of mixed ballast and 12 bags of cement.Mix at 6 parts ballast and 1 part cement.

mystic_bertie

woodbutcher wrote: »

I think slabs are more in the range of diy'ers and would be suitable for a shed.Concrete flags are best but are very heavy so maybe a lighter slab would be better.You can lay them on sand with a dusting of cement sprinkled on the top before laying.I lay them on a sand and cement mix but if you don't have a mixer the first method should suffice.

If you go for concrete,standard thickness is 100 mm.You need roughly 12 sq mts,so at 100 mm thick,that is 1.2 cube of concrete.You would need about 2.5 tons of mixed ballast and 12 bags of cement.Mix at 6 parts ballast and 1 part cement.

thanks woodbutcher
for some reason i seem to prefer the concrete route as i hate laying slabs, now you have informed me what i need i can weigh up things up better

i would need to hire a full sized cement mixer for the job if doing it with concrete, so what would the cost difference be and can you buy the mixed ballast by the half ton or would i need to buy 3 ?

woodbutcher_2

If you buy it by the bag then you will need three but those bulk bags are slightly less than a ton anyway.Some merchants still sell it loose,tipped from a lorry,so will sell 2.5 ton.

To give some idea,i bought 2.4 cube of readymix last week and it was £241.00.To mix myself i would have needed about 5 ton ballast and 2 dozen cement,which would have cost about the same,so why hand mix?Readymix gets cheaper the more you buy but 1.2 cube would be about £150.00 in my area.

With readymix,you need to be ready and get it in and trowelled off before it starts to set.

mystic_bertie

woodbutcher wrote: »

If you buy it by the bag then you will need three but those bulk bags are slightly less than a ton anyway.Some merchants still sell it loose,tipped from a lorry,so will sell 2.5 ton.

To give some idea,i bought 2.4 cube of readymix last week and it was £241.00.To mix myself i would have needed about 5 ton ballast and 2 dozen cement,which would have cost about the same,so why hand mix?Readymix gets cheaper the more you buy but 1.2 cube would be about £150.00 in my area.

With readymix,you need to be ready and get it in and trowelled off before it starts to set.

the ready mixed stuff was my first thought and was quoted just under £300 delivered for what i needed, so its a bit too expensive, had it been £150 i would definately have gone with that.

as far as i know all the merchants in this area sell by the bag, ill phone round and get some quotes for materials now i know what i need at least buying mixed ballast saves a bit of mixing

thanks for the advice matey

woodbutcher_2

Seems very expensive for 1.2 cube of concrete.As i say,paid 240 for twice that amount.

mystic_bertie

woodbutcher wrote: »

Seems very expensive for 1.2 cube of concrete.As i say,paid 240 for twice that amount.

yes thats what i thought but they said as im only using a fraction of what thos big cement lorries carry is why it works out so much for a small amount. i was told it would be much cheaper if i could collect it but thats not possible lol

BTB1_2

Take a look in the Yellow Pages/Thomson Local for your area.

What you need is a mini-mix or barrowed service. Ring around and I'm sure you will get a much better price.

I am in the Manchester area and pay £100 m3 barrowed or £87 m3 minimix (both plus vat).

mystic_bertie

BTB1 wrote: »

Take a look in the Yellow Pages/Thomson Local for your area.

What you need is a mini-mix or barrowed service. Ring around and I'm sure you will get a much better price.

I am in the Manchester area and pay £100 m3 barrowed or £87 m3 minimix (both plus vat).

ok ill try that fingers crossed as it would save me so much work, i hate work lol

andrew-b

A solid concrete base will be far better than slabs. With slabs ideally you should have sharp sand and hardcore underneath - unless you want them to sink/move around.

Have you tried getting some quotes in from builders as they'll know what they are doing and probably do the job much quicker than you, get the materials at trade price and transport it to you. That's what i intend to do when i finally get round to replacing our shed.

There is another option ...you could support the shed on wooden bearers resting on concrete or brick columns which would be much less preparation.

Hope that helps

Andy

woodbutcher_2

That was going to be my next suggestion.Mini-mix service.We have 2 or 3 of them locally but i prefer readymix myself.As BTB says,should be able to get it cheaper if you shop around.