Okay, I’ll admit that I’m a carpenter, not a concrete guy. When I have a pour on my site, I usually try to either be sick that day, or if I absolutely have to help, I run the wheelbarrow. But here is my question, now that we’ve established the fact that I don’t like concrete work…
I’m building a 12×8 shed for personal use at home. Original plan was just to put it on piers. Then, for whatever reason, I thought why not just dig a 12″x12″ trench the perimiter of the building, drive re-bar into the ground and shoot the tops of the re-bar with the transit so that they’re all at the same height, and them pour the concrete into the hole and build the 12×8 shed on that?
Replies
why drive the rebar into the ground?
gunna have a concrete floor too?
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter
skip the driving rebar and drive on...
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answer depends on your soil type and climate, both of which are hard to guess at without seeing your profile filled in
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I live in Northern Wisconsin, about 1/2 mile from Lake Superior (as the crow flies). Soil is clay. I built the floor already out of treated rough sawn 2x8's, and it's decked with 5/8 treated ply. As stated, the original plan was to put it on piers (4' deep 12" holes to get below frost). I figured I'd just build the deck, get it square (which it is), install the plywood (which I did), then just flop the deck out of the way and put up batter boards and string out where the holes would go. But then I had this idea that I mentioned earlier. Hope that gives enough info. Thanks
12x 8 shed. just set it on top of dirt and forget about it.
brownbagg,
I think you're right. As long as i can keep it (the existing deck) level long enough to build it, what the heck? Once it's all square and everything's tied together, even if it does go anywhere it'll go there as a single unit. I have had fairly good luck building small things just on the ground, anyway. I have a 6x8 deck outside my front door that heaves up on one side every spring, then goes back down when the frost is all out of the ground. It's not attached to anything, so it's not tearing lag bolts out of the rim joist or anything.
Thanks to all who responded. nice to have folks to bounce ideas off of.
Yep, brownbag has it right, put it right on the dirt.. If you are over 60 YO any anywhere near an urban area, dont even bother with pressure treated.
I have about 12 sheds/barns/garages, only 2 have concrete and I built those before property values went out of sight after an "urban growth' law went into effect and a neighbor sold out and they put 62 cheap-$$it houses (even though they cost $400K!) on the 7-1/2 acres!
The next 10 sheds' 'foundations' are any old piece of wood from half rotten railraod ties to cottonwood logs. Gonna die in less than 30-40 years probably, then they will all get bulldozed for the next generation of Mcmansions, so why build anything even semi-permanent. Dont even bother with a layer of gravel anymore.
I've got an 8x12 shed that was here when I bought the house a couple years ago. Floor is just regular 2x4 joists w/ plywood, and it was sitting on 6 blocks around the edges and 1 in the middle.
Settling had left it with a big hump in the middle.
I had to move it to build my garage, so I'm planning on relocating it.
My plan is to level an area, and put a couple or more inches of 1-1/2 stone down. I'll then run (3) 12' 4x6 or 6x6 PT beams front, middle and back perpendicular to the joists. This should give good support and keep it off the ground. It didn't have any issues with wind movement where it was, and the new location will be even less exposed, so I don't plan on tying it down.
Don
I did one a few years ago. 10x12. I poured an Alaskan slab. I set one course of block on the slab and framed off of that. I anchored the block with rebar that went right down into the slab. I'm on sandy soil in a cold climate. No problems so far. It's nice to have a concrete floor to your shed.
why not
Hmm, the local AHJ might call it a permanent structure and not a "garden shed" (no matter the square footage), might be a 'why not?'--but various Cities' minions have put me in a pessimistic mood today, too.
Realisitically, you could probably just make a 12 x 8 x 0.5 box and toss in #3 @ 15" OCEW and call it "even" (which would let you argue that your "foundation" is as fixed as an a/c pad).
Ok, I'd likely thicken the edge to 9x9 or 12x12 "ground forming" that with a sand bed--but that's probably 'cause I never got to call in sick for the concrete pours <tired sigh> <G> . . .