Serious question, I put 6 inches of gravel under my shed pad and it sank anyway

Jason Scott · 2026-10-08T03:20:03.59995+00:00

I built a 10x12 shed in my backyard in Fort Worth last April and thought I did everything right. Dug down 8 inches, laid weed fabric, packed in 6 inches of crushed limestone, rented a plate compactor for $70 a day and ran it over the whole pad twice. The shed sat level for about 5 months. Then we got 9 inches of rain in 3 days and the back corner dropped almost 2 inches overnight. Turns out my yard slopes toward that corner and the water just pooled under the gravel because I never dug a french drain or sloped the base away from the shed. The gravel held water like a bowl instead of letting it drain. I had to jack the shed up with bottle jacks, pull half the gravel out, and redo the pad with a 2 percent slope and a drainage trench on the low side. If you are about to pour or pack a base, check where water goes when it rains before you do anything else. Anyone here dealt with a shed pad that sank after a big storm, and did you fix the base or just re-level and hope?

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Serious question, I put 6 inches of gravel under my shed pad and it sank anyway | Backyard Builds - Rigidtalk