Wood Shop on Grade

[offthegridcortland]

Hi all.  I am building a small wood shop in front of my house.  10 x 16, stick construction, basically a shed where I can keep my tools and run a little power.  The area I want to put the shop has a cement slab that runs from the house.  All is good so far, right?  Easy peasy.  The problem is that the slab is graded to run away from the house, approximately 3'' in a 10' run.  My idea is to rip joists at an angle to counteract the slope of the slab, then place the pressure treated joists directly on the concrete with an exterior grade ply sub-floor directly onto the joists.  If I used 2x8s for the joists, I'd have 7 1/2'' on one end and 4 1/2'' on the other- hopefully enough to get some air flow and let water runoff pass beneath.  No snow here.  Wind with the tropical storms and such, but it seems like the entire east coast has to keep that in mind these days.  Any opinions on this?  If a bad idea, any suggestions?  Would you attach the joists to the slab or allow the structure to float as a whole?  Thanks.  -Aaron

[UK4X4]

Rather than have the wood sit on the concrete -wet moist will eventually take its toll

I think I'd mount the posts drilled into the concrete base

use the same joists but have them 1" up from the floor at the higher end and at the other end will be about 8-9" ish.

I looked at using these post bases for one of my projects as they looked to be quite sturdy- rather than the tin plate simpsons etc

http://www.permacolumn.com/drill-set-models

they also lacked the 1" spacing though- 4 hocky pucks shoul do you for that !

[MountainDon]

It should not be too difficult to have steel base spacers made to lift the sub floor structure to an even level.

[EvoQ]

3 inches in a 10 foot run is Very Steep, why so steep might I ask? No way I would put wood on this slab, especially on the down-ward slope end. All the water will concentrate to the up-side of that inside of this one wall and collect big time. Unfortunately there is no practical way to fully enclose this slab building. If I were you I would start over with a better slab as all you will be doing is fighting the weather at every turn trying to build on such a steep slab. Not a good place to store tools, especially if you did not have some sort of water barrier underneath the concert. Moisture will certainly migrate up and into any building on top of this slab, ruining any tools that are stored inside the building. Sorry but it's my opinion, hope it works out for you.

[MountainDon]

why so steep might I ask

driveway?

[rick91351]

I'm sort of like EvoQ and being a fair woodworker or can hold my own most of the time so long as it is not to weird.  However that said the two things in a wood shop make it so much easier.  A level floor and tough stable bench.  However any wood shop is better than no wood shop.  So you could start out with such and pour a better floor latter and larger.  That spoken from someone that is really shopless currently.  My shop now is a 26x50 storage household goods storage facility.     Lord send us a house quickly............

So some unsolicited thoughts:

10x16 is WOW a more of a challenge than the floor.  Breaking down panels can be done easily with a wall mounted homemade panel saw fastened to a 16' wall or or outside with saw horses.  Unless you live in the land of perpetual down pour.  Or if you will in the desert southwest you can just roll your tools and stuff in and out of the shop.