Floor for 6x8 metal storage shed

[Ashton Crusher]

I've bought and assembled several Arrow Metal storage sheds in the past. Just bought another one from Home Depot (I'll post THAT experience in another thread..). In the past I just bought a couple sheet of ext plywood, cut they to make a "floor" that was just a tab larger then the fully assembled outer frame of the shed and plunked the shed down on top of that plywood floor and run some screws around the metal frame bottom into the ply wood. Last two I did are 15 years and 25 years old and seem fine.

The new shed I bought came with a "free" floor "kit" (just add plywood). This kit is just some metal cross pieces that will sit on top of the sheds metal bottom frame on the edges and run across the middle in a few places. So unlike past "floors" I've built which sit on my Crushed stone base, this one will have the plywood sitting on top of these metal cross rails and the bottom frame rail.

Doing it my way puts the plywood on top of the gravel with a more or less uniform support under all of it and then the shed itself is sitting on and attached to the TOP of the plywood. Using the floor kit means the floor is on top of the frame rail and will only have support where it sits on the cross rails and of course along the edges.

In my mind I'm having a hard time seeing how using the floor kit is an improvement over my old way and instead of the bottom frame having the nice threshold in the door opening, like it does doing it my old way, there will be the plywood sticking up there scrwed down to the top of the threshold just as it will be scrwed down to the top of the bottom frame all around the edges.

When I saw it came with a "free floor frame" I thought it would be a full perimeter frame, not this interior kludge.

Thoughts???

[micky]

I can picture your old method, but so far, I can't picture this, so I can't discuss advantages or disadvantages. But if it's as it seems to you, it wouldn't be the first time merchandisers have made something more complicated than necessary in order to have something to sell (or give away free, perhaps after they didn't sell.) After all, if they wanted to make a kit out of your method, what would it include?

[Ed Pawlowski]

Well yes, you got what you paid for. If you buy a house, the floor does not extend out from the building itself? Though your way may be better, I'd not expect "better" from the manufacturer for free.

It sounds like you put a 6 x 8 shed on an 8 x 8 plywood base. That would give you a nice apron in the front

[David L. Martel]

Ashton,

Ok, you have a shed with a set of cross braces as part of the flooring systen. You bemoan the fact that the floor will not be supported uniformly by gravel, as your old sheds were. Why you can't put and level gravel after the cross braces are installed is not explained. That will give you the floor support ypou think is desirable.

Dave M.

[DerbyDad03]

If you don't think the included cross members will provide enough support, why not get some PT 2x4?s and add some support in between the cross members? Maybe even some patio blocks placed in between the cross members will do the trick.

Question: If your old method consisted of a shed that sat on top of a floor that was larger then the shed frame, how did you prevent water from going under the frame? Typically, there is sheathing that cover the sill plates and the floor is interior of the walls.

[Ashton Crusher]

That's true but then why bother with the "floor kit" if I do that? The floor kit will have added nothing but extra work and extra rock I would otherwise not need.

Can you see any benefit I'm missing to using their floor kit system versus what I would otherwise do? That's the question. If there is some benefit I'm missing I'd like to know before I just do it my old way.

[Ashton Crusher]

Basically it's 'prevented' by the whole thing sitting "up" a little from grade on top of the crushed rock that is the landscaping it's going to sit on top of. If it was in a depression I'd be hesitant to do it the way I am and might see some value in the floor kit although even then it would leave the entire outside frame sitting down in the depression getting soaked. When I read "free floor kit" I had envisioned it would be a complete outer frame the same size as the shed frame that the shed frame would sit on top of with the plywood like the inside layer of a frame/shed sandwich. Instead it's just effectively a raised interior floor over my normal way of flooring it. Just wondering if someone sees a benefit I don't.

[hrhofmann]

Maybe the frame kit is for use where a solid filled-in gravel area would no t be available, like on a sloping surface, or one that tends to flood. Tha t's where I think a flooring system like you described would be used. Or m aybe someone would like to put the whole thing up a foot or so on top of ce ment/concrete blocks, for whatever reason.

[Ashton Crusher]

Yeah, I'm starting to warm to that thought.

[David L. Martel]

Ashton,

I suspect that the floor kit provides structural bracing to the flooring frame.

Dave M.

[krw]

Don't know why you would want to move a shed around the property but it works for ice fishing.

[krw]

Like I said, "I don't know why you want..."

Of course, but I did say "want". ;-)