I built a large shed behind the guest house several years ago to hold the ATV, riding mower, pool furniture, and other things that I didn’t want cluttering up any of the garages. It has served its purpose very well, and as the first full building I built from scratch, I’ve been very pleased with it. However, one thing I wished I had done differently when building it was the foundation and floor. I poured concrete footings, and then the floor itself was a raised subfloor over fairly lightweight joists. I then put heavy duty wood planks over the subfloor to make tracks for the vehicles, so that the subfloor wouldn’t bow underneath them. This worked well, but also felt a little bit janky and in certain places I could feel the subfloor flex underneath me. This summer, I decided to rip out the old subfloor, pour a full concrete slab, and then put in a new subfloor directly over the concrete to remedy this. The first step was to rip out the old subfloor:
I then had two pallets of concrete delivered, and poured the slab.
After that, I installed the new subfloor. I also reinstalled the old ATV tracks, since they still serve a purpose and will reduce wear on the new subfloor.
The last step was to stain the new floor, and to touch up some of the exterior stain on the shed’s siding that had gradually eroded over the years:
Now the shed is ready for the (sadly rapidly approaching) winter, when it will be filled with vehicles and pool furniture!