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Serious question, I built my shed foundation on gravel and my neighbor used concrete, and I think he wasted his money
I put up a 10x12 shed in my backyard in Boise last spring and went with a gravel pad on top of compacted soil, about 4 inches deep. My neighbor Rick poured a full concrete slab for his identical shed and kept telling me mine would shift. Well, we just had a wet winter and his slab has a hairline crack running right across the middle while my gravel pad has not moved at all. The whole thing cost me $180 in gravel and a Saturday with a rented plate compactor, versus the $900 he paid for concrete and a finisher. Here is the part people skip, his shed still sits fine and so does mine, so we both got what we wanted. But if your soil drains decent, why pour all that concrete just to worry about cracks forever? Gravel lets water pass through instead of trapping it under a slab that can heave when it freezes. Has anyone else skipped the slab and been happy with it 2 or 3 winters later?
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angela_harris11d ago
Man, nobody ever talks about the resale or repurpose angle here. If you ever want to move that shed or tear it down, you just rake your gravel flat and you've got plain yard again, but Rick's cracked slab is a permanent concrete pad he has to jackhammer out or build around forever. Gravel wins on that alone if you ask me.
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