Building with standard foundation

[Brian Blackman]

My plans for the future are to build a shed where I leverage the skills learned and experienced gained to apply that to a porch, garage, and garage to den conversion.

In building a large shed I was thinking of building it on a standard foundation so that I could use that experience to build the porch. By standard foundation I mean a poured footer with blocks just like a house on a crawl space.

For the garage I also will need a slab which I could do on the shed. Yet, I think for a slab for a garage it may be best to contract that out so I know/hope it is done right.

What do you think of my rationale?

[jraabe]

You could do the foundation for the garage using an owner poured footing and self built block wall up above grade. Then put the walls and roof up doing all this yourself and with friends as the timing is not critical.

Then pour the slab later after the roof is on. This you may want some help with, especially the finishing.

[glenn-k]

Our links area has a link to Quikrete concrete info where you can learn about footings, slabs, etc.  The information is pretty good even if you buy sand and gravel in bulk.

You can break your garage slab down into manageable sections -maybe 8'x8' and do it yourself also.  Some help getting started would be good.  This would be if you did it with help and a small mixer.  A 10 yard concrete truck carries enough for 800 square feet of 4" floor and would require a knowledgeable crew as concrete will not wait for you to study.

http://www.quikrete.com/diy/searchprojects.asp

[Brian Blackman]

Thank you for the replies.

Do you think that building a shed on a footer/block foundation to get experience for doing the same for a front porch makes sense?

Or do you think that is not necessary and a shed be best build on a slab or piers? Shed would probably be your large 14x19 plan. The area is sloped with about a one foot change in elevation from the front left to the back right.

The order of projects will be shed, garage, old garage to den, front porch. I am just trying to choose building techniques to learn from in one project to take to the next.

Since the porch is the last project I am not sure I will gain much from doing a shed on a footer and blocks and maybe I should just build the shed on a slab. Or since there is such a change in slope I should use peirs instead.

Thoughts?

[glenn-k]

You might decide which skills you want to have in the future then use the method that would help you to attain those skills.  This size shed could be done with any of the above.  A 1' slope could be worked with without too much trouble - possibly grading the high side and sand fill on the low side if pouring a slab and footings.

[Okie_Bob]

I had the same idea two years ago. I built a 24' X 48' garage partly to gain knowledge in building larger structures. Thank God I did! I made many mistakes but, learned so much from the experience that is was well worth it.
Personally, I went with a slab and recommend it highly. I rented a back hoe to dig the footing and do some leveling of the site. I went with a 6" pour with 24" wide by 24" deep footing with more rebar than necessary.
The one thing I highly recommend is hiring out the finish work. I went to the concrete company I planned to use and asked for recommendations. They already had a list of concrete guys ranked in order of preference. I got the best one to do the finish work for $650 and still believe it was the best investment I have ever made. It took a crew of 5 guys working their butts off a full 8 hours to finish the slab and it is perfect!
Later, I added another smaller slab on the outside what was only 12' wide and let me tell you, there is no harder work for two men to tackle. And we didn't even come close to the quality of work the pros did. Spend the money and let the pros do this job.
Okie Bob

[glenn-k]

You done real good, Bob.

I have, with my crews poured around 300 concrete slabs.  If you do things right it is work, but can be done well fairly easily - keeping ahead of the setting concrete is the trick.  If you get behind-- good luck -- lets hope it is even usable.

Starting small preferably  with knowledgeable help is the best way to go for DIY if that is what you want to do.