How many blocks for shed

nikeman

I am having a 12x16 shed built next weekend on pretty unleveled ground. It is going to sit on 3 4x6x16 skids. Since the guy if going to have to plane the skids to make everything level would it be a good idea to have him put flat solid concrete blocks under the skids to add more height off of the ground? If so how many blocks per skid? I was thinking 3 or 4 but I dont know. I would hate for the skids to bow because they aren't supported enough.

Would this be a waist of money? I just read that the minimum height off the ground is 6" to keep everything dry so when he planes down the high spots it will then be lower than 6 ". Maybe I'm talking gibberish.

titanoman

I never heard of any 6" rule.
Many slabs are only 3 or 4 inches above the soil.

House Engineer

I would not level the floor by planing the skids. That will weaken the skids. I would shim them on the concrete support blocks.

I would use skids deeper than 6 inches, to reduce the required number of support locations for the skids.

Other considerations that affect how high off the ground you should build the floor: desired stair type, desired ramp type, insulation protection, vapor barrier, preventing intrusion below the floor of unwelcome critters (animal-types and insect types).

nikeman

I just read somewhere that 6" allows for plenty of air flow underneath the shed to keep the floor dry. The guy building it for me actually answered the question for me. He wants me to get 9 solid blocks and he's going to put the skids on those and get it all level from there. I just asked him what he wanted me to do before he came to build and that's the only thing he wants from me. Do I need a moister barrier under a 12x16 shed? The ground had a thick layer of leaves and rotted sticks and once I cleared the space with a rake the dirt was pretty wet and spongey. I think it will dry up nice over the next week with nothing on it though.

md2lgyk

What do you intend to store in this shed? What is the shed's floor going to be? If only garden tools and such, I wouldn't worry about a vapor barrier.

Planing skids is one of the dumbest (and work intensive) ideas I've ever heard.

md2lgyk

What do you intend to store in this shed? What is the shed's floor going to be? If you're only storing garden tools and such, I wouldn't bother with a vapor barrier.

Planing skids is one of the dumbest (and most work intensive) wastes of time I've ever heard. Is that your idea, or the guy's who's going to build the shed? If it's his, I'd find someone else.

nikeman

Heaviest thing I plan to store is a riding mower. Floor will be 3/4" edge gold plywood or something like that. I am not sure how he plans to level it but I know he knows what he's doing being that several people speak highly of him and I saw an addition he did to a house on my street. I just know he mentioned planing and assumed the skids.

nikeman

So far I have raked up all the sticks and leaves where the shed is going. I also cut down 3 small trees mainly because I worry about there roots messing up the shed in the future. I cut the trees down to and 4' above the ground because they were is a fairly straight line and in a perfect spot to mark where I want the back of the shed. I still worry about how spongey the ground is though. When you step on it it sinks down but springs right back up when you move. Should I worry? It's being built on 4x6 skids on top of solid concrete blocks (3 per skid).

Daniel Holzman

I have never heard of planing skids as a method of leveling a shed. The technique makes no sense to me, but maybe someone else has seen it done successfully. Shimming the concrete blocks to make the floor level also should not be necessary, as it is quite simple to install the blocks so they are level with respect to each other. The blocks should be placed on a reasonable footing, say six inches of crushed stone. If you simply install the blocks over topsoil or loose soil, the blocks will settle unevenly, causing issues with the floor, door etc. If you don't care about that, then perhaps there is no need to put a footing under the blocks, but for the minimal amount of time and money, I would put down a crushed stone pad under each block, level the blocks. Much easier to build a good shed that way.

nikeman

Let's just pretend I didn't say anything about planing the skids. Maybe I will get 9 bags of gravel for the footings

nikeman

I also have a few small tree stumps that I cut down flush to the ground that will make good footers I think. Hopefully trees won't grow anymore after being cut to the ground.

Daniel Holzman

About the tree stumps, never use a tree stump as a footer, it will rot in a few years and the footer will be gone. You need to completely remove the stump, whether by grinding, burning, pulling or dynamite, prior to installing the foundation. Roots and all.

nikeman

Okay. Here's an update. The lumber yard kind of screwed me by not ordering the door, siding, or windows for some reason! I had 4 guys here ready to build and the stupid lumber people thought it was okay to just deliver wood and shingles and not mention a thing to me about the missing very important materials until I called yesterday morning asking where the hell my stuff was! Anyway, the guys pretty much built the entire thing anyway and framed for the windows without cutting out the holes and leaving a door space open.

One thing that worries me is that they didn't put the shingles on the roof. They put the paper up and left for the day(I wasn't home when they left). Will it be okay without shingles until the end of next week when the rest of my crap gets here?

nikeman

Here's a picture

DangerMouse

I think it'll be fine. Are you expecting any hard weather this week? That could have an effect.

DM

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