Equipment Storage Shed, House, Building, etc.......

[jimbofoxman]

I bought my childhood home from my dad and need to build an enclosure around the equipment and was thinking of extending it to have storage and it could be even used to change clothes in.

There is already an existing pad, with not much exterior room for the pump, etc. To me, ideally you'd have a pad that you could build walls on so it creates an air tight building. My dad originally started by setting 4x4's outside the pad to build something but never got any farther. My biggest concern would be frost heaving. I live in Michigan so we got all the elements and frost to deal with.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[JasonLion]

There are many different ways to do it. Which one you choose is mostly a function of how much money you have to spend and your local building codes. Generally for an equipment shed frost is not a critical issue as the building is usually solid enough to hold together through fairly dramatic ground shifts. As the size goes up proper foundations become much more of an issue.

 

[haybird]

We build our's 10x10 so we didn't need a building permit, and you could put
it as close to the property line as posible. Anything over 115sq feet we would have
needed a permit. For the foundaition we used about 2 feet of limestone
screening and plate tamped every 4" then placed concrete patio slabs on that.
Build the base on that. There is a picture of it on the Show off your pool fourm under before and after.

 

[matt4x4]

Up here in Ontario, the max size is 12x12 for a non permanent structure - by that, they mean something that is easily movable.
Usually, that means no concrete slab as a foundation, however, many use concrete slabs because that is one way to get a nice sealed building and not have the problems you encounter with wood on the ground.

Look into Royal sheds - they make a floor system out of plastic - and the whole shed is plastic (vinyl), easily assembled and NO maintenance. Also easily customizable with add on windows, skylight panels etc etc.
http://www.royaloutdoor.com/shed-base-system.html

if it's floating like a royal it'll be fine through the frost season - it'll be on a level surface, a level surface tends to have identical moisture content, so the whole area should expand the same.
Slab on grade (concrete) works on the same principle.