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A heavy rain last week showed me a huge flaw in my shed base
Honestly, I built a 10x12 shed on a gravel pad last spring and thought it was fine. Tbh, we got 4 inches of rain in two days and the whole thing started to tilt because the gravel washed out from under one corner. I had to use a car jack and some patio blocks to lift it and re-level the base, which took all Saturday. Has anyone else had a gravel base fail like that, and what did you switch to?
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jessem596d agoMost Upvoted
Actually had the opposite experience with my gravel base. I dug down about eight inches, put in a solid layer of crushed stone, and compacted it really well with a plate compactor. The key for me was using the right kind of gravel and making sure the whole area had a slight slope for drainage. It's been solid through some nasty storms.
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walker.julia6d ago
My uncle did the same thing for his workshop. The gravel just shifted every winter with the freeze-thaw cycles. He ended up pulling it all up and pouring a simple concrete slab. It was more work upfront, but he hasn't had to touch it in ten years. A friend used those plastic grid things filled with gravel, and they seem to lock together better.
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wells.christopher5d ago
Ugh, gravel is such a temporary fix. It looks okay for a season or two, then it just turns into a mess. The freeze-thaw cycle destroys it every single time. Your uncle had the right idea going with concrete. Why keep redoing the same job every few years? That plastic grid stuff seems like another band-aid solution to me. Just do it right once and forget about it.
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