A Pittsburgh Handyman,
With A Few Specialties...
I Can Assemble Your Shed!
But PLEASE! Let Me Start With A SOLID FLOOR!
Rule Number ONE: Don't Put Your Shed Right On The Ground!
Wood Rots. Steel Rusts. Vinyl doesn't rot or rust, but it has other problems (see below)
And no matter WHAT it's made of, Spiders get in! RODENTS Get In!
And Moisture gets in! How ironic! Why don't you just leave your lawnmower out on your lawn? Because you don't want it to get wet. So you put it in a shed that GROWS moisture!
And if you build directly on the ground, you will encounter The SHOE BOX Problem! See below.
Rule Number TWO:
Use A Floor, But Not A Cheap One!
Floor Kits:
Some sheds come with a floor kit. Or they offer it as an extra cost option. You get a frame, and then you add your own floor panels.
This one costs $135, plus panels.
For the panels, you can go cheap and use chip board. Imagine your foot crashing through the floor five years from now! You only fall two inches, so you don't get hurt. But you DESTROYED your floor! And how do you replace it?
You'd better use pressure treated plywood, like I use on my Solid Floor. Figure $30 a sheet. So if you want 8x12, you need 3 sheets, or $90. That's a total of $225, for their frame plus your three sheets.
Seems like a good enough floor, but it suffers from The SHOE BOX Problem!
Vinyl Shed Floor Kits
Some vinyl sheds come with a vinyl floor.
I remember once I helped a guy assemble a vinyl shed that came with a floor. The floor came in 8 panels.
Snapping two panels together was easy. And then another, and another. But the next step was IMPOSSIBLE!
These are two 8x6 panels, each made up from four 2x6 panels. That long joint is eight feet long.
The two panels are NOT rigid, like the picture suggests. Each one flexes.
You CANNOT connect the two big panels unless that center line is ABSOLUTELY straight! They are UNFORGIVING! His ground was not absolutely perfect. Yours isn't either.
We ended up taking all the panels down to his patio, which was a concrete slab. We WERE able to snap them together. But then we had to carry the entire floor in one big piece back to the work site.
And then we discovered another problem! Once in a while, one of us would accidentally step on a crack and two panels would flex and make scary cracking sounds! I wonder if there could actually be a separation AFTER the shed was built!
This is NOT a firm floor. I don't think it's moisture-proof. Those joints are not watertight.
I swore that day that I would NEVER build a another shed on the ground. You will swear too if you try it.
Here's a page in the manual that we skipped.
They actually suggest building a wooden floor!
Imagine! You buy a shed with a floor, but it's not a floor you can assemble or even walk on!
And you thought the floor was included!
Even if you go to this trouble, you will still have The SHOE BOX Problem!
The SHOE BOX Problem!
Take a shoebox, without the lid. Push two opposite corners together. Notice how the other two corners pop out?
Sheds do that too!
Your Ground Is Not Table-Top Flat!
None of those floors will be table-top flat! They all lie on the ground, which is not perfectly flat.
Your ground might look flat to the naked eye. You won't see the problem until it's too late:
- The predrilled screw holes will not line up. The door might not close.
- The frame will be twisted. Hold a sheet of paper by three corners, and look at the other corner. Your ground won't sag that much, but it doesn't have to sag too much to get two predrilled holes to misalign.
- The bottom footprint might be a perfect rectangle, but the top will NOT be! How will you install the roof?
- Drill new holes? You're TRYING to build a crooked shed? It might not even be rain proof!
- Ask a buddy to push in a corner to get the holes to line up? You will be asking that little screw to hold too much weight. So now the walls are square, but you lifted that low corner! Here come the bugs! And the rodents!
Want proof? Go read some customer reviews. Some people say their shed went up easily, and these people mention how they did their site prep. Some even poured a concrete slab!
And some say they would never do it again. One guy said, "Next time I will hire two guys to take the Lord's name in vain, rather than me." None of these people mention site prep. Apparently they just opened the box and got busy.
You Cannot Fix This Problem
You can prop up a low corner with cement blocks and make your floor level. But don't do it with any of these floors
Look at the floor kit again. Imagine a cement block under one corner. Now step on one of those beams. Yeah, I didn't think you'd actually do it.
Even with the wooden frame described with the vinyl floor, a 12-foot span is too long. That long 2x4will flex. Stand on your floor at an edge. If you listen closely, you will hear your screws groan as you pull the floor away from the shed.
You can't build on a twisted frame. And you can't level a flimsy frame.
There Is Only ONE Correct Answer!
You NEED a SOLID foundation!
I use pressure treated wood throughout, even though it doesn't even TOUCH the ground.
I start with two 4x4 posts, resting on concrete blocks.
I level the posts, left to right and front to back.
Then I build the 2x4 frame on top.
The result is a table-top flat frame. And it will not flex when you stand on it.
Then it's EASY to add the floor!
Then I add a surface of pressure treated plywood, even though it's several inches off the ground.
It's SOLID! You could park a lawn tractor on this floor.
For sheds that come with a vinyl floor, it would be EASY to assemble that floor on this surface. And it won't flex as you walk on it.
For other sheds, you won't need that floor kit! Screw your shed down onto this floor.
Now it would be EASY for me to assemble your shed. OR, it would be easy for YOU to assemble your OWN shed!
How Much?
Some people just want the floor, then they can assemble the shed themselves. Others just want me to do the whole job. So the two jobs are priced separately. The floor is a fixed price item. Assembling the shed falls under the hourly rate.
In addition to the rates below, there may be a distance charge. I live near Ross Park Mall. If you live out as far as Monroeville, Cranberry, Robinson, or Mt. Lebanon, there is a service call fee.
I take cash (of course), checks, and credit / debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and Amex).
For The Floor
You could spend $225 on the floor kit above, and you'd be doing it wrong.
My Solid Floor starts at $375 for the 8x12 size. It costs a few bucks more, but you will be doing it right.
And you won't need that $225 floor kit. The shed will screw down directly on the floor.
Prices vary with size, and on your building site, and on your distance. Call.
Assembling The Shed
Assembly is done by the hour, with an hourly charge of $39, by quarter hours.
If you can help, you can save me some time, and save yourself some money.
Give A Call!
If you live in or around Pittsburgh, PA, give a call!
If not...,
I can offer you my plans! You can do this. Or your handyman can.
Send $20 via PayPal to paypal@the-honey-do-man.com
Mention 'shed floor plans'.
Ships via email.
Registered Home Improvement Contractor
with the PA Attorney General: PA077766
Insured
Copyright Kenneth R. Whitaker 2020
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