Bought house with old shed, advice needed re base

[parajba]

Hi everybody,

I just bought a house that came with an old but pretty wooden shed built by the original owners in the 50s-60s.

It´s in poor conditions, but I want to restore it and keep it because it´s a bit of history of the house and the original owners. The house was built in the 1934.

Re the shed, I listed below what I think the key issues are, and put in brackets a possible solution. I´d appreciate your opinion.

1) The floor is made of wooden panels, there is no base underneath apart from old wooden panels. These wooden panels are rotting.
(Remove all the wooden panels, excavate the ground around 15 deep, lay 7 cm of hardcore, level with sand, fit timber rail to the shape of the base, fill with mortar, spread mortar with wooden float, let cure properly)

Question: How do I spread the mortar given that I can´t walk around the base as the shed is already built? there is no room for walking around as I´m doing this job from inside an existing shed...).

2) The roof is an inclined roof, there is no gutter. The felt is in good condition.
(Install gutter)

3) Half of the rear wall is rotting (due to the lack of gutter...).
(Replace wooden panels with new ones, oil them).

Thanks all for the kind replies!
Merry Christmas

 

[r896neo]

It sounds like if you really want to keep it you should dismantle it, install a concrete base and rebuild.

Trying to install a concrete base level whilst its in situ would be very difficult and likely to be off the level etc.

 

[parajba]

Hi, thanks for your kind reply, I´ll see what I can do, I´d be happy even if it´s not perfectly level, but at least tidy and dry...thanks again.

 

[Mursal]

That sounds like a plan

You could level things of first on a few concrete blocks. Then just fill the base in, probably using a bucket to get the concrete into the shed? You will have loads of time to float the floor level to markers you can have in place beforehand.
Would you consider building a row of blocks to drop the shed on, helping keep it off the ground and the sides out of the damp?

Don't go mad with the depth, its just a garden shed, oh and a few boxes of your favourite breakfast cereal, you'll need the energy .........

Merry Christmas ...........

 

[parajba]

Quick couple of follow up questions...

1) I was thinking to rent an electric concrete mixer for the job, can anyone recommend a shop in London? Or will a wheelbarrow do the job?

It´s for a 4 meter x 3 meter surface (4cm deep I guess).

2) What brand/type of post mix (?) concrete do you recommend? Could you also recommend a place with good prices in London?

Thanks again.