How to build a paver base for a shed?

[NicholasE]

Hello there,

I recently purchased a shed online, and I've quickly realised that the temporary anchoring pegs won't be enough to secure my shed in place. I know that ideally, a concrete slab would be the best to secure the shed to, but I am wanting an option that I could potentially move in the future if needed. 

I was wondering if a paver base would be secure enough to secure the shed to, to give the shed a good amount of weight.

My plan was to put 9x 

Custom Concrete Products 600 x 600 x 40mm Plain Pavers ontop of 30mm of road base and sand (dug out level with my ground). 
The shed is 1.5m x 1.5m, and I thought I would secure 8 of the pavers to the shed with concrete anchor bolts, which would give the shed a total weight of around 260kg. Do you think this would be secure enough? Should I do anything extra such as securing the pavers with mortar?

I know there will be a slight amount of pavers around the edge of the shed given the size of the paver base will be larger than the shed, but I was wanting to ensure I could avoid securing the concrete bolts right onto the edges of the pavers.

If possible, could you also advise which bolts/anchors would be best to use with the pavers?

Thanks for any tips.

[JacobZ]

Hi @NicholasE,

Thank you for your question and welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.

Unfortunately, we have had this kind of question in the past and the answer from the shed manufacturers is that they will only warrant a shed installed on a concrete slab.

The weight of the pavers, like you have indicated, is fairly high, however the ability for wind to lift and throw things is quite remarkable and certainly worth taking very seriously. I can't say with 100% certainty that it would be a perfect solution, but it would certainly offer stronger anchoring than simple pegs would.

My suggestion is to use the pavers as you had originally planned, but to pour concrete piers in the four corners of the shed. You can then place the paver base over them and then bolt to the pavers around the perimeter with Ramset 8 x 40mm DynaBolt Plus Hex Nut Bolts and bolt through the pavers into the concrete piers with Ramset 10 x 100mm DynaBolt Plus Hex Nut Bolts.

This will give you more secure anchoring that will help prevent any uplift and can still be moved later with minimal struggle.

You might also like to check out Garden shed on timber base as another potential solution.

Allow me to tag some of our knowledgeable members to see if they have any ideas, @Nailbag, @Dave-1, @Noyade.

Let me know if you have any further quetsions.

Jacob

[Nailbag]

Hi @NicholasE 

a friend of mine asked me to install a garden shed a little larger than yours. He wasn't able to avoid a suitable concrete slab and we also considered thick large format pavers. But as @JacobZ mentioned, unless these are cemented to the ground, then in a strong wind they could lift and move and distort the walls effecting how the door functions. In the worse case, the shed could roll over.

So after levelling the ground I used 75mm thick treated pine sleepers positioned next to each other. There is not a lot of space in the channel along the bottom of the walls, so I drill 5mm holes every 400mm and drove in 14ga (thick) 50mm screws to secure the shed to the sleepers. This would also work with yours.

Regards, Nailbag

[Dave-1]

Evening @NicholasE 

I have thought of these before  Otter 690 x 90mm Ground Screw Stirrup tho the same issues come up with wind lift of the shed. 

Maybe a mixture of these posts supporting a heavy sleeper timber floor and that is what your shed is attached to as a work around?

Dave