The foundations that you set for your garden shed are an extremely important part of the shed building process. It doesn’t matter how much you spend on your garden shed, because if your base is at the wrong level, your timber shed is set for a life of problems. It’s not difficult to build the right base for your garden shed, providing you take care and provide a little attention to your base planning.

Building the right base for your garden shed is a task that the average DIY person will be able to complete alone, but for safety and speed two people will complete the task much quicker.

Do you need to check about planning permission?

Most garden sheds can be built in your garden without the need for planning permission. It is best that you check before buying a garden shed, just in case as some models will fall outside of the size that local authorities allow, but these are only the timber sheds almost the size of a house. If you live in a particular conservation area or your property already has special billing with your local authority, it is best to check whenever you are thinking of installing a shed. It makes common sense to advise your neighbours about your plans just in case they have any objections.

Which garden shed you going to buy?

You will find garden sheds available in your local garden superstores or online, where you can click through a multitude of different sizes and shapes of sheds to find one that suits your need. Most sheds are provided to you in kit form and your shed base will need to be ready and in place before you can construct your new shed in situ.

Is best if you are able to consider the areas surrounding where you wish to place your garden shed as these may have a long-term effect on your ability to maintain your shed. Beware of young trees that may grow into giant oaks and you wouldn’t want to stop all natural light going into your timber shed if you’re going to use it as a workshop. You might also need to consider the position of your shed if you are intending to run an electrical supply from your home down into your shed.

Base options

Whichever shed base you finally decide upon, it must be level so that your new structure will sit properly without placing excess stress on any parts of that structure. This will also help rainfall off your shed properly and not build up in an area which will cause long-term damage to your timber shed.

Whether you are going to use a concrete base or a paving slab base for your garden shed, long-term maintenance will be improved if you have a small lip around the base of your garden building, rather than making it the exact size of your garden shed.

A concrete base works best when you are able to lay a compacted hardcore base of around 3 inches and then another 3 inches of concrete above that, keeping the surface as perfectly level as possible.

Some people choose to lay paving slabs around the perimeters of the garden shed, but again the ground below it must be compact it so that the paving slabs can sit level.

Once you have a dry and level foundation area, one of the simplest methods you can use for a shed base is to buy a kit direct from your online shed supplier. These are available in wood, plastic or metal and are easy to put together and providing your original foundation area is compact and level, the shed base will keep your shed above the ground and away from any pooling water.