Paving slabs for shed base - Advice needed please

[mayonline]

Hi,

I need some advice please for a paved shed base I will be laying. Essentially, I need to know what slabs are suitable. The shed is 10" x 8" and will be used for general storage of bikes, lawnmowers etc. The slabs will be laid onto a bed of cement which sits on top of type 1 hardcore.

Please could you suggest what type of paving slabs I need for this? I think the super cheap one's I've seen may not be thick enough. I was looking at 'council' type paving slabs as they are 5cm thick and quite cheap, but I may struggle to lift/position these on my own. Maybe 5cm thick is overkill?
What thickness would you recommend?

If you could perhaps post links to websites that have the slabs you'd recommend, this would be useful.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[r896neo]

Anything will do if you lay it on a full mortar bed. A shed is not heavy really and the weight is quite spread.

Council 2x2's would be the obvious choice but are a pig to work with.

You can get lots of 400x400 sized flags and these can be easier to work with. A 400x400 by 40mm thick concrete pressed flag will do the trick.

Avoid a wet cast flag like bradstone.

[mayonline]

Great, thanks for the advice.
When you say a full mortar bed, I assume you mean not dot and dab style, but a full on bed of cement?
If this is correct, how thick does this full mortar bed need to be please?
I will need to somehow try and figure out how much sand and cement I will need to cover 10 foot by 8 foot, by what ever depth you recommend.
I assume I will not be putting ballast into cement mix, just builders sand and cement to maybe a 5 sand to 1 cement ratio?
Cheers again

[Tony McC]

If only there was a website which gave all this sort of information.

Plus ca change.....

[PavingSuperstore]

There's another product that may be of interest to you as it's actually easier than laying slabs. It's a portable grid system that locks together and is simply laid onto a weed membrane. The structure of the system distributes the weight of the building evenly across the area and may be filled with aggregate if preferred, although this is not essential. By using the grid slightly larger than the building and filling the perimeter with gravel it acts as a soakaway around the building preventing splashback against the walls of the shed where it would often rot. It's priced at £6.45 for each 500x500mm section which includes the vat, delivery and weed matting and assuming the ground is level, the whole thing can be laid within the hour. Here's a link: http://www.gardenandbuilding.co.uk/ecobase....3-p.asp

Hope you find this useful.

Regards,

George