A shed that has gone at the bottom rarely went because of the shed. Nine times out of ten the base failed first and took the timber with it. February is the right month to put that right, because the ground work needs doing before the garden wakes up and you lose the access. A shed base replacement produces a mixed and slightly awkward load, and our Appley Bridge skip hire service covers a steady run of them at this time of year.
Why the base fails first
Most sheds around here sit on one of three things. Paving slabs bedded on sand, timber bearers laid straight onto soil, or a thin concrete pad poured without much preparation underneath it. All three fail in the same way and for the same reason, which is water.
Slabs on sand move. The sand washes out at the edges over a few winters, the slabs settle unevenly, and the shed frame twists just enough that the door stops shutting properly. Timber bearers on soil rot from underneath, and by the time you notice, the bottom rail of the shed has gone with them. A thin pad without a sub-base cracks with frost heave and then holds water in the cracks.
Appley Bridge sits on ground that does not drain quickly, and gardens running down towards the valley bottom hold water for weeks after heavy rain. That is the underlying reason so many shed bases here have a short life.
Doing it once rather than twice
If you are going to the trouble of taking a shed off its base, the base wants doing properly. That means digging out enough depth for a compacted hardcore sub-base, getting a fall away from the shed rather than towards it, and finishing on something that will not move.
The depth is where people economise and regret it. A base that sits on two inches of hardcore over undisturbed clay will not last much longer than the one you have just taken out. Dig deeper than feels necessary, compact it in layers rather than all at once, and the base will outlive the shed on top of it.
It is also worth raising the finished level slightly above the surrounding ground rather than sitting flush with it, so that water runs away from the timber rather than pooling against it.
What comes out and how it splits
This job produces three quite different materials and they do not mix well.
The old base itself is heavy inert waste. Broken slabs, concrete, sand and whatever hardcore was under it. Clean and separated, that material crushes down and gets recovered, which our environmental and recycling page explains. Mixed with everything else it becomes general waste.
The rotten timber is the second stream. Bearers, the bottom rails of the shed, and often a fair proportion of the shed itself if the rot has climbed. Rotten timber that has been sitting in wet ground is far heavier than dry timber, so do not judge the load by how a dry fence panel feels.
The third is the roof covering, and this is the one worth thinking about. Old shed felt is bitumen based and it is not something that can be recovered usefully. It also tears into long strips that blow around a garden in a February wind. Roll it, tie it and put it in the skip rather than dropping loose sheets in.
Treated timber and what not to do with it
Shed timber is treated, and older shed and fence timber may have been treated with preservatives that are no longer used. Whatever it was treated with, the rule is the same. Do not burn it. Burning treated timber in a garden releases what was in the preservative and it is not something anybody nearby wants to be breathing.
It goes in the skip and it comes back to our site to be handled properly. That is the whole of it, and it is easier than a bonfire in any case.
Sizing it
For a base replacement alone, a 4 tonne midi skip handles most domestic sheds comfortably. Where the shed itself is going as well, or where the base was a full concrete pad rather than slabs, an 8 tonne builders skip gives you the headroom.
The variable is the concrete. If the old base was a poured pad with any thickness to it, that alone will use most of your weight allowance, and our page on skip size versus weight limits explains why that matters more than the volume does.
If you need material bringing in for the new base or for making good the garden around it afterwards, we can deliver top soil on the same visit rather than as a separate trip.
Access and where the skip sits
The awkward part of any back garden job is the distance between the work and the skip. Everything has to come up the side of the house, and on a February morning that route is usually wet grass or a narrow path.
Lay a board run if the ground is soft. It is ten minutes of work and it saves both the lawn and your back. Where the drive will take the skip, put it there rather than on the road, which avoids a permit entirely.
Local coverage
We cover this side of the valley regularly, running Parbold skip hire and Skelmersdale skip hire work alongside Appley Bridge, and our drivers know how tight some of the lanes and driveways get around here.
Ring us on 01695 769123 and tell us what the old base is made of. That one answer sizes the skip. Our contact page is there if you would rather send a photograph.
