Shed Storage

[Peter Andrews]

I have a 'shed' at my village hall 4m x 5m that consists of 10" thick brick walls on four sides (probably over 150 years old) with an earth floor and no damp course. It has a sloping felt roof with not much felt or indeed timber support, I intend to install new timbers and tile the roof as this will last longer than I will! What do people suggest I do in terms of a floor (suspended?) and walls to create a dry storage facility - no fixed power available but reachable with a very long extension cable.

This is intended to provide long term storage, i.e. I'm prepared to spend if I can achieve a service life of over 25 years with little maintenance. Existing wood sheds are reaching end of useful life as it's very difficult to get people to do regular maintenance, i.e. preservative and replacing felt roofs every few years.

Peter

[Nightjar]

...

My brick shed has a concrete slab floor and dry lined walls. There must be a vapour barrier behind the lining, but I left the exact details up to my builder.

Colin Bignell

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Peter Andrews writes

My farmhouse is a similar age and has a damp course in slate. Worth checking to see if floor and external levels have risen.

[harryagain]

Inject a chemical damp proof course into the brickwork. Equipment can be hired.

Dig the earth floor out, lay DPM (plastic sheet) and concrete. Good for a couple of hundred years!

[newshound]

If you *do* go for a suspended floor to avoid that amount of effort, make sure there is reasonable clearance over the earth *and* plenty of ventilation. Use metal joist hangers and wrap the ends of the (pressure treated) joists in polythene, then it should not matter too much even if the brick walls are a bit damp. Obviously, include a DPM if you add any supporting brick piers.

[Nightjar]

Or install a suspended floor that doesn't use timber:

Colin Bignell