Thread: Levelling the Shed Floor

Cement floor leveller has a max recommended thickness of 25 mm so would not work in your case.

My recommended solution would be a wooden floor laid over the concrete. You would need to level the "stumps" (packing) but you do the job yourself so that should save a bit. The wooden floor would also be much nicer to work on than concrete.

You could cope the joists directly on the concrete but that would require a lot more effort.

Another possibility is to grind the high spots down but that depends on how thick the slab is.

A timber floor on joists. You can buy boxes of plastic packers in various thicknesses, fibro also works well. Level and screw the joists to the floor and then cover with termite treated chipboard flooring. With appropriate support spacing the joists would only need to be 50mm thick and provided you don't have any seriously heavy equipment 350mm spacing on centre should be more than adequate. Only problem is that it will take a while to do.

Timber floor, no worries

Thanks Bohdan and Aldav

You have both suggested something that I had not thought about largely because I was concerned by the lack of underfloor ventillation on timber. It has raised a few questions, but I do like the idea or standing on wood rather than concrete.

What type of joists would be appropriate - timber or metal - and what dimensions. You suggest "only 50 mm thick" Aldav. What about the other dimension?

Would yellow tongue be appropriate? Or should we look at a thicker or harder option? I do not have any very heavy equipment - 14' bandsaw is on the wish list.

What is the easiest process for levelling the joists in all directions?


You have got me thinking.


Cheers

Graeme

PS: Floor is pre-WW2; don't know its thichness but expect it to be in excess of 150mm - it used to be a commercial garage so had 50 years of hard usage without damage. And no termites in Tasmania.

I did a mates shed with metal top hats and plywood flooring. Worked a treat. You could play billiards on it now.

Use treated pine joists 90 x 45 on edge,packed up to level,450 centres,you said I think that there was about 60mm variation so rip some down a bit so you are not packing 60mm,screw down into the concrete then yellow tongue

A quality laser level makes it quick and easy.

Metal top hat joists, black plastic over slab first (stops sweating and eliminates condensation) use the plastic packers to adjust (top hat maybe zincalum and treated pine will rust it out in about 3 months, if top hat galvanised, no problem) anchor top hat to slab with either tapcon screwshttps://www.allfasteners.com.au/concrete-screw-anchor-zinc-hex-head or mushroom pins https://www.allfasteners.com.au/fast...oncrete-anchor, then either yellow tongue or ply flooring. I would space joists at 400mm centres for a workshop.

+1 for the laser level, even a cheapie (under $200) is a hugely useful tool. Metal top hat might be a bit problematic because it needs to be attached on both sides of its base and with your wavy floor that could be a bit of a drama. A floor like this has more in common with a deck than a conventional floor. To increase the spacing of your supports for the joists you probably should be using at least 70 x 45 MGP10. This would allow you to run continuous joists across the 4.1 metre width with five supports, one at each end and three intermediates. Although the weight of the machines you've alluded to would present no problems I'd be more inclined to make the on centre spacing of the joists 400mm, it keeps a little bit up your sleeve for the future.

19mm yellow tongue would be fine. I didn't know there were no termites in Tassie, you lucky buggers!

I have done plenty of them using 70x35/45 treated pine on flat, levelled with plastic horseshoe packers and fixed down with batterns screws and mungo plugs
you can put a plastic underlay under it if you think there may be a moisture issue and you just close the spacing of the fixings and the batterns to strengthen the floor to suit your needs. I have used both pyneboard flooring and plywood to sheet it with and glue and screw it down

Will raising the floor a few inches or so cause you problems with doorway head height?

Biggest problem will be clearing out all your treasures and stacking them undercover for a few days. The bonus will be finding all sorts of things you didn't know you had or had lost quite some time ago. Any idea how many pencils you will find?

Alan...

Originally Posted by Uncle Al

Biggest problem will be clearing out all your treasures and stacking them undercover for a few days. The bonus will be finding all sorts of things you didn't know you had or had lost quite some time ago. Any idea how many pencils you will find?

one advantage of a timber floor is that it can be done in stages
tidy up a bit,
build 1/3 of the floor
move stuff onto the completed floor
build a bit more floor
move more stuff,
etc


and the laser level could be fixed to a wall before you start.
what the laser provides is a reference line which can be as high as the top plate

Hi,

IMO unless you're prepared to do it properly don't waste your time doing anything as you'll end up regretting it or redoing it down the track causing you more grief/cost/time out of shed etc.

Plus doing it properly will increase the value of your home if you ever decide to sell. Plus if you do go down the wood flooring route you'll inevitably lose that nice 3m ceiling height.

If doing it properly is out of the question, is there a way to set things up permanently? that way you won't need to keep readjusting the setup. Alternatively, i'd put a nice set of wheels on everything that needs dragging and it'll reduce the effort required to move things about.

Thanks Guys

A lot of helpful advice. I think I need to sleep on it before responding.


Cheers

Graeme