Shed on stumps?

[Dan]

Looking at buying another house and have found what looks like a nice place on about 1 acre:) . The only problem is there's no shed:( . The block slopes down from the road a fair bit so to build a shed would mean cutting out a pad for a slab or putting the whole thing on stumps like the house. Has anyone had any experience with a shed like this? Still early days yet but I thought I might ask the question anyway just to see if it's feasible.

[Grunt]

I haven't had any experience but the idea appeals to me. Having a wood floor instead of concrete plus you can run all your wiring and ducting under the floor directly to the machinery.

[chrisp]

Dan,

Yes, it's feasible. My workshop is on stumps - complete with secret nailed hardwood floor. :)

My block has a bit of a slope (~0.6m fall over the 12m length for the workshop building), but the main reason for using stumps was so that I could do all the work building it myself. I doubt that I could pour that much concrete.

Chris

[Bodgy]

Sounds like a perfect spot for a pole shed. Easy to build and pretty solid. Ideal for sloping blocks. Bit agricultural, but its a shed, yes?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Then there's the ol' half'n'half job. Dig out the pad as wide as you want until you can't be bothered digging any further back. Then run stumps out the front to make up the size you want.

This'd give you a nice solid area at the back to support the heavier machines, while you can set up a workbench/window over the stumped section to enjoy the view during fine handwork and idle^H^H^H thinking time. :) A suitably located grille in the floor would make for quick floor-dust disposal, too, provided you don't mind shovelling out the compost every now'n'again. ;)

[Waldo]

G'day,

A shed on stumps on acerage sounds great. And like SkewChiDAMN! said you might need a portion of it grounded to support heavy machinery in the shed. And as some other bloke wrote (yeah I know it was you Grunt - but how do I know if you're a bloke or a dog by that avitar? :D), it'd be great to be able to run the ducting for a Dusty underneath.

And a shed on stumps would be a great place like Grunt to dig underneath and keep cool while his master works above. Never forget your best mate. :)

It's be a lot cooler with vents in flooring. Nicer on feet, but then I'm repeating what others have said.

Like the idea of it myself. :cool:

[Dan]

All sounds good so far, thanks for the replies.:)

Would the half 'n half design have a concrete slab joined to a timber deck or timber all the way through?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Would the half 'n half design have a concrete slab joined to a timber deck or timber all the way through?

That's entirely your call, either way would work.

But if you had joists all the way through you could run cabling, ductwork and the like between the joists, under the floor. The main difficulty I see there would be access but it's not a major problem... you'd be best advised to work out a floorplan for your machinery first, so you'd know where you can have easily removable flooring.

It's the little things like these that raises a shed's drool factor.

[Dan_574]

and by going half and half if your into it, you can do any welding or stuff like that on the concrete. I have a shed type area under my house on stumps (sought of temporary / permanent) Its not good to weld on timber floors I think.

[Wildman]

If you used Hardi Panel compressed flooring, you would have a strong solid fireproof floor (for welding) yet still have the benefits of access underneath. Depending on the loads, you may want closer than 450mm spacing and more stumps than residential code requires but there is no reason the whole shed could not be raised. Use RSJ's under the floor if you really want to strengthen it or put in steel stumps as well. You could really get carried away and pour 100mm of 32MPa+ concrete onto the hardi panel with a few sheets of mesh in it and some rebars in it. Suspended concrete floor, best of both worlds. If your stumps are done well, it won't move or crack and the weight of the floor will absorb any vibrations well. Use a product such as Caltite from cemetaid to make the surface ultra hard and liquid proof and it will never show signs of wear. Drill any holes first though as 250MPa surface hardness will take its toll on your masonry bits.

Personally I would never have a timber floor in my shed considering the abuse the floor gets. Timber would not stand up well to the mystery liquid cocktails that occasionally get spilled, the welding and oxy cutting and the dropped chunks of bricks, tiles, concrete, steel and tools. Better for tools to land on though...

Cheers
Ben

[Coldamus]

Think about termites too. I assume you're looking in the Gladstone/Childers/Bundaberg area. I used to have a house on a few acres near Maryborough, not too far south of you. The termites in that area are bad. Fortunately my house was concrete block with steel frame and stumps but any logs or timber in contact with the ground can disappear very quickly.

For that reason, I'd be wary of the half-and-half option - better to be off the ground.

regards
Coldamus

[Auld Bassoon]

I haven't had any experience but the idea appeals to me. Having a wood floor instead of concrete plus you can run all your wiring and ducting under the floor directly to the machinery.

I must admit that the thought of having a shed with a nice wood floor is very appealing.

[silentC]

The guy building next to me put his shed on stumps. It's a huge shed, has to be at least 30m by 10 or 15. He built the shed first, then he put in formwork on concrete stumps and poured a suspended slab on it. Don't know why he did it that way, might have been planning a timber floor and changed his mind.

[sailingamerican]

Why build on stumps. dig out the hill Pour concrete walls and floor. Build a cement roof and then rubber sheet it and put a deck on top. This way the shop will be in the ground with one wall of light out and the 55 degree ground temp will keep the shop warmer and cooler on its own. You then have a view out over the shop instead of the shop. The deck will be a nice place to put the shrimp on the barbie. You can put an entrance to the shop from the top deck with stairs down. Or grade a driveway around to the bottom. Here in California a shed on stilts would cost more to earthquake proof than to build in ground. Our codes are ridgid here.

[Dan]

dig out the hill Pour concrete walls and floor. Build a cement roof and then rubber sheet it and put a deck on top.
I guess that's another way to do it, but it would take a lot more work.

Here in California a shed on stilts would cost more to earthquake proof than to build in ground.
Stumps,stilts,poles or posts, would all be a reasonably cost effective way to do it given there's no earth quakes to worry about.

[rmcpb]

My shed is on stumps, ventillation all round, easy to check for whiteants, didn't have to dig out the slope to get a level floor.

Made sense for me.

[mic-d]

Sorry it's taken so long to post, but being a slack ares, it took me ages to get a couple of photos. SWMBO needed a new feed and tack shed for her two horses but the slope was too great for a pad. So I used 3000x200x50 pine sleepers, four around the outside and at 450 ctrs on joist hangers in the middle. Lower end is resting on 3 concrete pads at ground level and high end is on 3 100x100 posts on gal stirrups, checked to receive the sleeper. The floor is tongued 15mm ply.
I noticed that pine sleepers were well dimensioned and straight and economical so I thought I'd give them a go. Construction was very simple too. Just coach screw the four outside ones together, check for square and prop them up level. Mark the positon of the 3 pads and the 3 posts and install them. Clamp the sleepers back in place and level, mark the posts and check them out, bolt the sleepers to the posts and tiedown the front to the pads. Install the middle sleepers on joist hangers, one extra at the flooring join. Screw down the floor and build the shed on top. Sikaflex the inside edge of the shed to stop leaks.
The only problem I've had in 3 years is people throwing hay against the wall and breaking the sealant. Apart from other advantages over concrete, the shed can be craned or slid onto a truck and removed as a complete unit (its on agistment land). I don't know what it will hold in weight, all I know is that SWMBO has it pretty full and there has been no movement whatsoever. Its a good method for garden shed size, I don't know how well it would scale up.

Cheers
Michael

[Wood Butcher]

My 2cents. The school that I am doing prac teaching at has their entire manual arts dept built on stumps. Hardwood floor with close joist spacing (350mm). Its great to work on and all the cabling can be run underneath direct to the machines. No power leads over the floors.
Another advantage is that you could build a trap door in the floor with a bin underneath, when you finished work for the day open the trap and sweep it all into the bin underneath!!:D

[Dan]

So no problems with a shed built on stumps then. Only problem now is the house I was looking at sold about two days after I looked at it and that was three days after it was listed:( , gotta be quick around here at the moment.