It’s time for me to get back to building my new garden shed. In a previous video, I chose the site for the small outbuilding and squared things up in relation to nearby structures. Now it’s time to get the site ready. First things first, I need to prepare a level foundation for the garden shed.
When it comes to foundations, you have a number of options available, from a poured concrete pad to gravel to simple footings. Because my garden shed is a smaller structure, I’ve opted to use concrete brick footings for the building.
Note that, as I’m not a professional builder who puts up outbuildings every day, I have to think my way through each step. I think this is good for a step-by-step instructional such as this, but it also makes for a more thoughtful project (and hopefully more durable end product).
Building Blocks
So to get started, I simply place my first concrete block on the ground, tamping it down slightly to ensure it has steady placement. Upon setting the second block, though, I check for level and see that, as we’re running slightly downhill, I’ll need to add some dirt to bring it up a bit.
When you bring in dirt like this, it’s important to be generous. I built a fairly large dirt pad around and under the block in order to bring it up to level. This will ensure my shed foundation stays steady no matter what.
Read more: In part 1 of this video series, we look at planning and prepping our building site.
Keep Things Square
With two blocks laid for the shed foundation, I then set a post across them. Then I checked this line against the outbuilding I’m squaring it against.
Squaring these buildings is a matter of aesthetics for me—it doesn’t serve a practical purpose. But a tidy homestead is always worth a little extra effort as far as I’m concerned.
To do this, I grabbed my tape to measure off the outbuilding I’m trying to stay perpendicular with. Check out the video above to see what this looks like, and stay tuned for future build videos as I construct this garden shed.
