Garden Shed Flooring

As with roof bracing, shed flooring is not normally a top consideration when selecting your next shed – though it should be! Some cheap sheds are supplied with thin chipboard flooring made from wood chippings glued together. Unfortunately chipboard flooring is not well suited to a garden shed environment: it’s fairly weak due to its minimal thickness and, as it isn’t water resistant, it may swell and break up if it gets wet. A much better suited, yet inexpensive, material for basic shed flooring is OSB. For heaver duty applications, tongue & groove flooring might be a good choice.

 

OSB Flooring

As with roof bracing, shed flooring is not normally a top consideration when selecting your next shed – though it should be! Some cheap sheds are supplied with thin chipboard flooring made from wood chippings glued together. Unfortunately chipboard flooring is not well suited to a garden shed environment: it’s fairly weak due to its minimal thickness and, as it isn’t water resistant, it may swell and break up if it gets wet. A much better suited, yet inexpensive, material for basic shed flooring is OSB. For heaver duty applications, tongue & groove flooring might be a good choice.

 

Tongue & Groove Flooring

If you are going to put very heavy items in your shed such as metal filing cabinets and large quantities of books, it is advisable to choose a shed (such as our premium sheds and heavy duty range of garden workshops) that has a tongue & groove floor. Tongue & groove flooring provides more strength than OSB as the thicker boards interlock and so work together to spread the load.

 

Floor Bearers

 

As well as flooring type, it is important to make sure that your shed has bearers on the under side of the flooring to keep it raised from the damp ground and to ensure adequate ventilation. Also, check that the bearers have been treated with a preservative to avoid rot.