This is the 3rd post in a series on how to build your very own cute DIY She Shed. In this post, I’ll show you how I placed the DIY She Shed Brick Floor.
I planned out the whole thing before starting. You can find the planning post here. Next, I started building with the perimeter concrete foundation you can see below. The post with details on that are here.
With the foundation in place, I was in need of a proper floor. There are various ways to do this. A simple concrete slab would have worked great here. But, as a one-person construction crew, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to mix all the concrete in time before it set. I had cement bricks on-hand and decided a brick floor would give the shed a quaint look to help with the farmhouse style. So, how to place a DIY She Shed brick floor? Let me show you.
Brick Floor Sub-Layer Prep:
The sub-layer prep the brick flooring is similar to the prep below a concrete slab. From the bare soil, the layers of prep work look like this:
- Flattened, compacted soil.
- 4 inches of clean, dry, compacted gravel.
- Vapor Barrier
- Approximate 2 inches of clean, dry, compacted sand.
- Brick Floor
Let’s go into each step in a little more detail…
Gravel:
I ordered a truck delivery from our local rock supplier of 1/3 truck sand and 2/3 truck filled with 3/4″ blue gravel. The sand would be just enough and I figured I’d just any leftover gravel to fill in the driveway. Here are the piles just after delivery.
Ok, let’s get to work! Obviously, it would be easier to use machinery to move and compact the gravel. But I didn’t have that and didn’t want to buy it, lol. So shovel by shovel, I moved the gravel into the floor area of the shed. After each layer of about 1″ or so, I would use the hand tamper and compact each layer of gravel.
Here I am using the hand tamper to compact the gravel.
Not gonna lie, it was a lot of work. But hey, it was a good workout! I did a little bit each day. After about a week, the gravel was in place.
Vapor Barrier:
A vapor barrier will stop moisture vapors from traveling up from the ground, into the shed floor, and potentially soaking into anything I place on the shed floor. A vapor barrier is typically used under interior or finished space slabs, so it made sense to use one here. I used a 6 mil thick black plastic found at Home Depot. I simply laid it over the gravel and let it fold up around the edge walls of the concrete foundation. You can see it here.
Sand & Bricks:
Now it’s time for sand and cement bricks! The sand is a softer, easy to level filler on which to set the bricks. I placed an inch or so of sand and then started filling in bricks. Use a rubber mallet and a wood block to pound each brick into the sand and level it into place. Here is the start of the bricks. I thought the brick pattern was cute but simple. Keep it easy.
Laying bricks takes time! Be patient with yourself. I recommend playing some music you love and just enjoy the process. Sing really loudly if you need to. 🙂
Here’s a progress photo.
If I needed to cut a brick, I used a hand-held brick set chisel found at Home Depot. Simply place the chisel on the brick where you want it cut, hit the chisel with a hammer and hope its a clean break! I needed to cut the bricks to size at the ends of each row.
More brick progress. Almost there! I ran out of bricks here and had to make a run to Home Depot. Laying the bricks took me about a week of working during the cool evening hours when I had time.
Floor Finishing:
Once all the bricks were in place, I needed something to fit between the joints to keep them stable. If this were an outdoor patio, sand would work just fine. But, I wanted something more solid here. I figured a non-shrink grout would work great, similar to a tile floor. So I mixed some up and spread it around. Here is the grouted brick floor. Please note, this did NOT end up working well! I think I used too much water and otherwise it was really difficult to get the grout into the small joints. DON’T DO THIS!
So yeah, like I said, this did not end up working out. When I started the wall framing, I noticed the grout was cracking and crumbling away. Hmm…so in the end, I used a small screw driver to scrape out all the grout and shop-vacuumed it up. I needed something that would flow into the gaps between the bricks and hold everything in place. After much Googling and brainstorming, I had the genius idea to use cement leveler as the joint filler between the bricks!
The whole floor area took about 4 – 50 lbs bags of cement leveler, but it really soaked into the cracks well. It “seeks it’s own level” and was very viscous, so I knew it was flowing between the bricks, into the sand layer and solidifying everything together. I used a wide squeegee to spread the leveler around. I’m finally writing this blog about a year after actually doing the work (gasp! I know I need to get it together! lol), but I’m happy to report that the floor is holding up great.
More next week with the DIY She Shed Wall Framing!
Let me know in the comments what you thought of this DIY She Shed brick floor. Any questions? Have you tried installing your own DIY Brick Floor?
