"Honeysuckle Bunch" wrote in message
...
Any advice would be welcome. I need a base for a shed 6ft x 8ft, I have
had one quote for £400.00 for labour only, I am to supply the materials
i.e. cement, sand, chippings and paving slabs. I was told to buy 10 bags
of each.

It seems a bit expensive as I have seen Hawklok tiles which would be quite
cheap in comparison and I could lay them myself.

Does the shed have floor built in?

If so you only need to lay a few slabs to keep it off the ground.


Does this quote of £400.00 sound fair, bearing in mind that the small shed
is costing £200.00.

"Honeysuckle Bunch" wrote in message
...

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
Steve Wolstenholme writes:
| On Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:08:35 -0000, "Honeysuckle Bunch"
| wrote:
|
| Does this quote of £400.00 sound fair, bearing in mind that the
small shed
| is costing £200.00.

No.

| It sounds like a rip-off to me but then I haven't done a shed base for
| ages. Perhaps it now takes more than a couple of hours using ready
| mixed agregate or maybe nobody supplies the stuff in your part of the
| world.

Why on earth do you need to cover the earth with concrete? Just
level it and put the slabs down directly (on bearers, of course).

I did question that but was told that "he knows what he is doing", I
suspect he was taking advantage of a female.

Whereabouts do you live?

Alan


Cheers

Honeysuckle Bunch

Paul Luton wrote:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Stuart Noble writes:
| | You'd probably just need a few bags of sharp sand to make
levelling the | slabs easier, but cement isn't usually necessary. Get
one level and pack | the rest out as you go.

Dead right. This is what I did - for my 10'x8' shed:

Levelled the ground, trod it down well, raked it level, and iterated
until it was within about 1/2" of the same level all over.

Laid a 1-2" layer of sharp sand, levelled, trod and raked, and laid
the slabs, adjusting by adding or removing sand as necessary.

Put several tanalised bearers (2"x4", if I recall), long side up,
to keep the underneath ventilated, and put the shed on those.

I think that I screwed it down, but that isn't usually critical.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Fifteen years ago I put a 6*8 shed on 4"*4" tanalised timber bearers
directly on the soil. A few months ago we moved the shed and the bearers
were as new. ( we did have guttering /water butt so the area under the
shed was bone dry). Time taken - minutes, expense - minimal.

Paul Luton


Using concrete posts as bearers is an alternative

"alan holmes" wrote in message
...

"Honeysuckle Bunch" wrote in message
...
Any advice would be welcome. I need a base for a shed 6ft x 8ft, I have
had one quote for £400.00 for labour only, I am to supply the materials
i.e. cement, sand, chippings and paving slabs. I was told to buy 10 bags
of each.

It seems a bit expensive as I have seen Hawklok tiles which would be
quite cheap in comparison and I could lay them myself.

Does the shed have floor built in?

Yes it does.

If so you only need to lay a few slabs to keep it off the ground.

Thanks, I think that that is the way I shall go.

Honeysuckle Bunch

On 21/2/08 12:47, in article , "Honeysuckle Bunch"
wrote:


"alan holmes" wrote in message
...

"Honeysuckle Bunch" wrote in message
...
Any advice would be welcome. I need a base for a shed 6ft x 8ft, I have
had one quote for £400.00 for labour only, I am to supply the materials
i.e. cement, sand, chippings and paving slabs. I was told to buy 10 bags
of each.

It seems a bit expensive as I have seen Hawklok tiles which would be
quite cheap in comparison and I could lay them myself.

Does the shed have floor built in?

Yes it does.

If so you only need to lay a few slabs to keep it off the ground.

Thanks, I think that that is the way I shall go.


That's what we've done here. Some slabs of concrete are on the ground just
back from the edges of the shed so that rainwater runs straight off it and
doesn't pool around it on the concrete.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Honeysuckle Bunch wrote:


Does this quote of £400.00 sound fair, bearing in mind that the small shed
is costing £200.00.


It sounds like a rip-off to me but then I haven't done a shed base for
ages. Perhaps it now takes more than a couple of hours using ready
mixed agregate or maybe nobody supplies the stuff in your part of the
world.

I did think that he wanted rather a lot cement and sand to lay paving
stones, perhaps he was going to take the excess away with him. He told me
to buy the materials because he had a cash flow problem. There is Builders
Merchants five minutes away from me which stocks ready made aggregate but
this chap said that he wanted cement, sand and chippings because he has his
cement mixer.

If you are laying slabs, then my rule of thumb is that 1 tonne of sand
covers 10 square metres.
600kg is roughly about right for your area, if it was to be used for a
driveway - you will not be putting heavy loads on it, so it'd be a lot
less for your use, though I do agree that 10 bags (250kg) is about
right. I'd only use 1 bag of cement with that.

If he was laying a full concrete base (though it wouldnt be very thick
with the amount of material he has requested), then the price is still a
little high, that'd easily be done in a day, even if the concrete was
mixed in a barrow.

A budget option would be to buy 4 8ft concrete fence posts at ~£12 each,
lay them down, get them flat, then put the shed on top(thats a tip
garnered from uk.diy).
Alan.
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