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shed/workshop

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flatfour:
I bought and had built on site a cedar garage for the bikes when we moved here some seven years ago and it has been very good for the bikes (3) that normally live there and as a workshop. It is 20' by 10' and the floor is 19mm board that is claimed to be able to support a car (it is sold as a garage, after all). I did, however have a second sheet of the same flooring laid over the area that the bikes stand in (the far end of the building is used as a workshop, the entrance has the bikes stood side by side) as the floor would "flex" a little when the bikes were wheeled in. The supplier made the point that although the floor was rated at three tons, with the weight of a large tourer and the two older bikes being through the two main stand legs and front tyre, it was probably exceeding the design limit in those areas! We have, during holidays sometimes put a second car in there without any ill effects.

The base is brick weave, as is the rest of the drive and that has so far been satisfactory.

Moorey:
I got a mixer and bought bags of ballast and cement and mixed my own. It doesn't have to be done as one single slab. Do it in metre strips or what you would be comfortable with  to make it more manageable. It worked out far cheaper and better than timber and ply sheets,  Its not a lot of concrete you would only need approx 2 cubic metres. Timber and sheets are costly.
If there are any building works going on near you have a word with a mixer driver they often have "surplus concrete" at cheap prices the only problem been you have to be ready to deal with it immediately when they ring you to say they have a load.

haynes66:
moorey, that also makes sense as i dont mind a bit of hard work. a metre at a time would be easy enough.  the problem with readymix is that the back of the house is only accessible by barrow/bike so not really an option.

Moorey:
It does take longer than you imagine to mix, depending obviously on mixer size. I just set my shuttering up so at any polnt I had had enough I could put a board across and finish the slab at that point with a couple more barrows full. The next day just remove the same board and work to that concrete edge. If you are on your own you might find a cube a day a bit much.

matthewmosse:
Going back about 18 years I did my workshop floor by normal belle mini mix cement mixers. Its 4 x4 metres roughly, an odd shape building that was a lean to on a barn. I laid it in sections. Doing a cb550 engine rebuild on an old dresser in 1 side one day, laying concrete next to it the next day. I found having two mini mixers a great boost to the speed of mixing concrete, you could load one up while the other was stirring its mix. A bit spoilt to have two mixers, one was from a neighbours skip, engine seized. Got it running, found it was still a pig to start - cracked valve guide, so whacked an electric motor on there. Think it took 2 days to lay the floor. Had a few details to accommodate, like a oak post buried into the floor, not concreted in for my anvil. And a steel girder that was very firmly connected to a decent depth to hold a leg voice. Think it was about £300 for cement, ballast and sand. It's way more heavy duty than a bike shed needs.

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