# How many blocks for shed



## titanoman (Nov 27, 2011)

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


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## House Engineer (Feb 23, 2012)

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).


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## nikeman (Nov 8, 2010)

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.


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## md2lgyk (Jan 6, 2009)

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.


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## md2lgyk (Jan 6, 2009)

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.


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## nikeman (Nov 8, 2010)

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.


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## nikeman (Nov 8, 2010)

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).


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## Daniel Holzman (Mar 10, 2009)

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.


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## nikeman (Nov 8, 2010)

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


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## nikeman (Nov 8, 2010)

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.


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## Daniel Holzman (Mar 10, 2009)

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.


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## nikeman (Nov 8, 2010)

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?


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## nikeman (Nov 8, 2010)

Here's a picture


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

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

DM


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## nikeman (Nov 8, 2010)

I'm sure it will rain, probaby every day while it sits there waiting for the door, windows, and siding... Just because that's my luck. I plan on covering the door opening with a tarp so the floor will stay fairly dry but that wouldn't make much since if the roof is going to leak anyway due to lack of shingles.


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

As long as the felt is on good, and it doesn't pouring rain/windy as heck, you still should be okay. 
A little water won't hurt it too much, I don't think.
I have this huge tarp.......  ....if it were me, I'd tarp over the whole thing and weight it down until the weekend. :laughing:

DM


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## nikeman (Nov 8, 2010)

Here are some pictures of how they framed the roof. I am not sure why but it seems they did a little over kill and prevented me from having a loft that I have been telling everyone I wanted from the start. Anyway, can someone explain why they did this? The 2 boards going across the beams are also nailed to each beam.


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## nikeman (Nov 8, 2010)

I realize it's probably confusing since everything looks the same in the picture but basically I want to take down the middle beam going straight across so I can have a decent loft space. There are 5 going across total along with the 2 2x6s going across all 5 of them. Would it make the roof unstable if I removed the middle board? I hope this makes since.


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## nikeman (Nov 8, 2010)

Bump

Also, my shed is sitting with no siding or paper on it and only has paper on the roof with no shingles yet. This morning it rained pretty hard for a good 2 hours and all I pictured when I tried to go back to sleep was my shed falling apart like particle board when it gets wet. Shed looks good but I didn't have time to go back there and really check it out before work. It should be okay right? I have a tarp covering the door opening since there is no door yet so hopefully the inside stayed dry.


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