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[Shop-talk] Moisture in shed

To: shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: [Shop-talk] Moisture in shed
From: "John T. Blair" <jblair1948@cox.net>
Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:49:37 -0400
Gang,

Over the last few weeks, I've been working on a shed project.  My old erector 
set, shed (10'W x 8' deep)  had seen it's better days. I purchased a 10'w x
12'd 
Royal Outdoor Products vinyl (PVC) shed.  With the help of my wife, 24 yr
old son, 
and a buddy, we made a foundation, brick floor, and got the shed up.

The back corner of my yard, where the old shed was, and the new shed is, gets 
an inch or so of standing water when it rains.  Consequently we wanted the
base 
build up about 3 to 5 inches before we layed the solid  4" thick cinder
block floor.  

To hold the base in place we laid 2 layers of garden timbers and drove
spikes into 
the ground to hold them in place.  We moved about 40 wheel barrels of dirt,
rock, 
and crush-n-run to build up a base for the floor.  Used some line levels to
make 
sure the base was level, and then some 2"x4"s screwed together to scrag?
(level) 
the base. We used a power tamper to try and pack everything down.  I then put 
down 2 layers of a 10'x25' plastic drop cloth as a vapor barrier.  (Note: I
didn't put 
any holes in the vapor barrier.)  Finally we laid the 160 solid cinder
blocks for the floor.

The walls of the shed sit inside a metal "U" channel that is screwed to the
floor, 
and the inside of the walls are screwed to this channel.  

Before I screwed these "U" channels to the floor, I put a wavy bead of
silicon calk 
on the bottom to seal it to the brick floor.  I also ran a bead of calk on
the outside 
of the "U" channel at the bottom where it is sitting on the brick floor.

After everything was done, I took a bag of sandbox sand and poured it along
the 
cracks between the cinder blocks and swept it into the cracks to fill and
stiffen the 
bricks.

Now to my problem.  When it rained a few days later, I went into the shed
and a 
there was moisture on the bricks.  Not really any standing water, just the
brick was 
damp.  I'm worried that tools and lawnmowers will rust.

So I'm trying to figure out what to do, or what I did wrong.

Yestereday I went out and purchased some 6" wide Al. flashing and made a
skirt to 
go around the base of the shed.  My thought here was to get the water off
of and 
away from the bricks.  I put a bend about 3/4" in along the length of the
metal to 
form an "L".  The short part of the "L" is set in the U channel between it
and the wall.  
The long part of the "L" overhangs the bricks. I ran a bead of calk around
the shed 
at the bend in the "L" to seal the skirt so water didn't get in behind the
skirt.  
Unfortunately, the skirt does not over hang the garden timber frame, but it
does 
overhang the bricks for the floor.

We put up the same shed at my dad's, with the same cinder block floor, with
plastic 
vapor barrier and he doesn't have any problems with moisture in his shed.

We had rain yesterday, and this morning the floor was still wet.  I'm not
sure if the 
moisture was residual or new. 

I can email pictures of the damp floor, and the base/construction of the
shed if anyone 
wants to see pictures of what I'm talking about.

I'm pretty sure I do not have the outer bricks slanting down away from the
shed.  
So it's possible that the rain is come down on the bricks, and then getting
wicked up 
in the cracks.  Which I'm hoping the skirt will eliminate this problem by
deflecting the 
water past the bricks.

So has anyone had a problem like this, and if so what did you do about it?

John


John T. Blair  WA4OHZ     email:  jblair1948@cox.net
Va. Beach, Va             
Phone:  (757) 495-8229

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