Building A Garden Shed On A Terrace, Need Some Ideas For Base Levelling....

[Will__]

Hi all,

I'm building a 3m x 2m garden shed on our terrace. The shed itself won't be a problem (since it came with build instructions) once I have the base levelled. The problem is I can't decide the best way to do that.....

I've bought 7 treated wood base pieces, which you can see in this photo:
www.willshand.com/shed-base.jpg
(Only 3 of the 7 are laid out) The 7 pieces will be placed parellel, 40cm apart, and then the composite flooring boards laid on them.

For reasons I won't bore anyone with, we cannot install anything permanent on our terrace. No screws, no fixings, nothing. I'm fine with the shed being free-standing - it's heavy enough to stay grounded even in high winds since our terrace is an interior one (surrounded by highish buildings). Also, we're in Spain so the weather isn't anything like as bad for wood as in the UK.

But - how can I best level the base pieces? As you can, see the terrace tiles have been laid to create a rainwater channel which flows to the corner and then a drainpipe. The drop isn't huge but will, I think, make the shed slightly wobbly if the base pieces aren't levelled first.

I thought of slivers of wood to build each up so its base piece is level, but the slivers wouldn't be treated like the main base pieces and thus might rot. [By treated, I mean that our local B&Q equivalent sold them to me as shed base pieces for garden or terrace use - in theory they won't rot or otherwise degrade in ways normal wood would].

Any ideas anyone? Any thoughts would be gratefully received.
Many thanks.
Will

[boxtops]

You could always treat the slivers of wood yourself?

[Will__]

Well, I could, but that could be expensive (since I don't have any of the materials to do so) and time consuming. I'd like to build this week if possible.

[RATTER15]

I cant see the pic as the link isnt working, can you not support the supports on bricks.

[ChuckFickens]

pic works for me

http://www.willshand.com/shed-base.jpg

I don't like the idea of having those supports just resting on the ground and spanning a rainwater channel, the very small space left for the water to run under the supports will soon clog up and you'll be left with puddles of water under the shed.

I'd bolt some small pieces of that treated timber to the current supports to act as feet and then you could place "shims" (Washers) between the feet and the supports to level it and you'd raise the main supports of the ground to water would run under it.

(I'm sure the builder will be along soon with the real correct way to do it though ;) )

[RATTER15]

Ok, I can see the photo now, just get some house bricks and space them equally along the supports (3 on each) sit the supports on them and build your shed on them, still drainage for water.

Job done!!

[RATTER15]

The patio looks fairly level to me, as long as it is in the ball park for being level, dont worry too much about it.

[The Builder]

......... whooosh........... here's Gobby....................

Yes, definitely keep the timber isolated from the ground. You wouldn't actually need feet.

Nail a few counter-battens (left to right in the picture) to the joists to hold them all together so that you can treat the thing as one structure (not essential, but it just makes it easier)

Go to the highest (as in uphill) spot (one of the 6 joist ends)
Put a damp-proof shim under it (piece of steel/slate/thick plastic/anything)
Now go to the lowest of the 6 ends and shim that up until level with the "high" spot.
Simply shim the other 4 ends up until they're all level (use a level and a long straight edge.

[tonyav]

http://www.willshand.com/shed-base.jpg

Hope this works.

[ChuckFickens]

Morning TB :)

[tonyav]

Sorry I didn't see that Chuck had already done it.

[The Builder]

Hiya Chuck and the others.............. I must have heard an alarm go off in my head......... ;o)

[Will__]

What a great community for this sort of thing :-)

I think I have a solution for the shims in our local ironmonger's shop. (in spanish it's a Ferrreteria, and no they don't keep ferrets; I asked.)

I do take your collective point about the floor joists being in contact with the floor (the correct word was on the tip of my tongue when I wrote the question) but I am keen to keep the thing as low as possible - it's already raised by the height of the joists, and I can't really hide the height in any real way - its purpose is terrace storage for us, at least for one half and the other half of the shed will be for the kids - a small table and chairs (a new bigger wendy-house for them and their acres of plastic toys).

I think I will the joists with shims and leave it at that - Barcelona weather is so much better for wood - and these floor joists are also usable for garden installations, so they must be pretty tough.

Thanks all!

[Will__]

Sorry that should have read "I think I will level the joists with shims"