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Greenhouse bases
Jonathan Thomas
Posts: 1
Hi, I'm about to purchase a greenhouse and am considering laying a dry mix base of sand and cement, onto which slabs will be laid. Does anyone know of a good way of calculating the amount of material needed (the slabs are easy - just the sand and cement!). Thanks
0
Posts
Jonathan, are you laying the whole floor or just a centre path? My greenhouse went in 27 years ago with a centre floor laid on sand, a wood side bar and soil on both sides of the path to grow plants in. Over the years the soil came out gravel laid and staging went in one side with a hot sand bed, in all this time those slabs never moved, I washed them down yesterday still as good as new, after all it is not having to take a car, just you walking on it, why bother with cement?
Frank.
How big is the greenhouse? And how many slabs have you got? Is it slabbed just on the edges or throughout?
Foundations for slabs are usually 2 inches deep or 50mm and the mix is 3 to 1 sharp sand/cement.
So work out your area of slabs and multiply by the depth of the foundations. If you do it all in mm you'll get the answer.
Buying a little extra (10%) is advisable. You can use any left over sharp sand for potting.