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Bases for garden cabins and saunas

Joy One Outdoor Sauna

Building a base for your garden cabin

Whatever you’re building –  garden office, a playroom, a meditation room or a sauna – you’re going to need a good base or foundation.

By good foundations, we mean foundations/bases that are both SQUARE and LEVEL. Square so that the building we supply sits directly down on the base, and overhangs evenly all around. (One thing is for sure – our building will be square! If there is a problem, it’s going to be with your base :-))

Slab foundation or decking base?

There are a few differences between a slab foundation and a decking base, but let me firstly explain what I mean by the two different types.

Slab Foundation:  A slab foundation is a solid piece of poured concrete, generally four or five inches thick, and usually with a steel re-bar included. (Some people say you won’t need the re-bar. That might be true, depending on the weight of the building you’re putting on the slab, but as some other people say “it’s better looking AT it than looking FOR it”. Re-bar really strengthens your slab and is relatively cheap when considering the overall cost of the slab, so stick it in!

Decking Base: A decking base is a timber frame sitting on top of a set of blocks, usually set on the flat, and best sitting on a bed of hardcore or gravel. It’s important that there are no gaps in your block ring where rodents can get in. The timber frame is made of four by three treated timbers, at 400mm centres. It is important to talk to us about the direction of those timbers. On top of this frame sits a 50mm marine ply, which operates as a support for the floor insulation in your cabin, if specified for the build.

Here’s a interesting video for you on how to build a decking base, although we’d recommend you get a full-time builder to do this for you if you need to watch a video in order to build bases for garden cabins.

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