I’ve been fussing about in the yard, where the woodshed and the burning barrels used to be. The new woodshed will be located just in front of where the barrels were, and it will be constructed of more permanent materials than pallets, stockyard fencing and tarps. I’ve been stuck on what to use for flooring, since pallets have proven problematic for me and attractive for rats. And I think I’ve settled on these little flat concrete blocks…
…which, possibly for very good reasons I’m not privy to, are dimensioned 15.5″ X 7.5″. There’s no nice clean way to get a 4X8 rectangle out of them, but you can get close with seven rows of six blocks. It’s a little short of eight feet, a little wide of four. Good enough to call a four-foot block of wood filling it an honest cord.
Douglas Adams fans will immediately jump to the following conclusion, and will no doubt be completely correct in doing so: The Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe and Everything is: How many blocks does Joel need for his woodshed floor?
Joel, the size of the blocks is intended to allow for a 1/4″ mortar joint, leaving the grid size at 8″ x 16″, perfect for fitting 4’x8′ anything. Just space them that way and fill in the joints with sand, then water it down to compact it. I’m reasonably sure that sand isn’t hard to come by where you live.
Usual practice is to run the blocks longways with the longways of the floor. Your rectangle thus be six blocks by six blocks.
Oh, and that would be 36 blocks. Of course, this being Arizona and all, it could be 42. They do strange things in your government down there.
Just space them that way and fill in the joints with sand, then water it down to compact it.
If available, and within budget, use polymeric sand and very gently spray it with H20 a few times to thoroughly moisten it. Polymeric sand hardens with moisture to lock pavers in place.
Or use sand mix. On a nice dry day, use a shovel to drop as much as possible directly into the cracks, and then use your new flatpoint shovel to scrape the concrete laying on the surface of the blocks to make it fall into the cracks. Finish off with a broom. You may want to buy enough bricks to lay along the edges to keep critters from making their homes in the block voids.
You can then wet the sand mix if you insist, but Mother Nature will eventually take care of the job.
The above procedure is how I set patio stones. Speaking of… I suppose you considered patio stones for that job?
I did, but they’re expensive for the application. And anyway I plan to cover the floor and lower walls with hardware cloth, which will pretty thoroughly destroy any decorative function of the floor. The hardware cloth won’t forbid rats from entering, but hopefully it’ll keep them from starting at the rear. That way by the time I get to the inevitable nest I’m hoping it won’t be owned by a wood-ruining *dynasty* of rats.
That’s the standard 8×16 cinder block size. With a 1/4″ mortar joint, it should lay out to 8 x 4 with no problems whatsover.
I would recommend that you screed out sand, set them, run a compactor over them (in your case an energetic rain dance from a one-legged desert dweller will have to do) then spread more sand on top, and use a broom to push the sand down into the 1/4″ joints you leave. That’s how paver are set. Usually you put a gravel layer below the sand for freeze thaw, but it’s a woodshed, amirite?
You should be able to set them out 6 long and 6 wide with 1/4″ joints for sand and have a perfect 4×8 pad…
Read the comments first, goober, you goober
Tall metal edging, corrugated or straight whatever you can find, buried around the edge might add to the difficulty various rodents, snakes and other critters would have getting into your woodshed. Polymeric sand is wonderful stuff, I’ve used it too. Those concrete blocks do come in larger squares that might be easier to work with but they are heavier and harder on the back.
Just to suggest more work for you, it might be worthwhile to acquire enough extra blocks to include a “curb” around the floor, standing them with the 8″ dimension vertical and partially buried to leave say 3″ or so above the finished floor level. This would help discourage undermining from critters and provide a good surface for the “siding” to overlap, keeping rain out. Just a thought,