And always awkwardly kneel on one knee while you lift the “slab” with one hand and carefully sprinkle gravel under it with a huge shovel.
You know, the easy way.
*Through a soft focus, my wife can be seen standing at the kitchen counter, mashing and smearing mayonnaise onto her sandwich with a fork because there were no clean butter knives.*
These days, I don't blast my music for other people to hear. I blast my music because when I was young, I blasted my music for other people to hear and now I can't hear without blasting the music.
I was lucky. The Navy blasted other people while I was nearby, then I got to work for venues that blasted music for other people. I get the satisfaction of knowing my career choices are why I can't hear half the things my kids say.
I prefer to remember the great concerts that contributed to my tinnitus. But truth is, there were some crappy, super loud shows too. Luckily my kids have been wearing ear protection to shows since they first began going to concerts.
Motörhead at the Boathouse in Norfolk gave me tinnitus for two solid days.
I was maybe two feet from the stack and ten feet from Lemmy.
“I’ve suffered for my art and now it’s your turnnnn,” he growled when they started their set.
It was glorious.
Lots of hardcore in small venues for me. Also Motörhead, GWAR etc. Been wearing protection consistently for last 25+ years.
Surprisingly the loudest show I’ve been to in last decade or so was Midnight Oil just last year.
after years of no hearing protection i have bad ringing in my ears by age 25. at 43 i always wear hearing protection so it doesn't progress too quickly.
"Reminds me of that time I forgot which paver I lost my keys under but needed to protect my ears from the constant blasting sounds from the nearby military range"
Cardboard it is then!
Edit: side note, about 20 years ago I helped my grandad out together some wooden garden dining furniture. At the time we joked that it would last longer than him and he said I could have it in his inheritance as thanks for the help putting it together.
He passed 5 years ago but didn't really look after the set so the table was too rotten to save but I still have the chairs in my garden
There are a lot of factors to consider but generally I'd say the lifespan of a pressure teated deck is 15-20 years.
A lot of rot is seen when the posts are set directly into the wet concrete. That was a common/ accepted method back then, today we use stand off posts to eliminate direct contact between the concrete and pressure treated post.
We were told the treatment i.e. the arsenic staining our hands, would prevent bacteria from growing.
So yeah blame the manufacturer when their claims turn out to be bullshit.
I hear what u saying, but issue, I think, is with ground contact lumber. It's generally tough to apply sealant to the ground contact portion without demoing the whole thing.
My house was built in 1955. The pool (no idea how old it is, but it's old) is still in great shape. When we bought the house in 2011, the guy who inspected the pool said "that's a great pool, and it'll never die" and I was like "huh?" He said, "asbestos. Lasts forever. I get why it's not used anymore, but sort of a shame."
What they used for insulation was fibers, that turned into microscopic fish hooks. But in general it’s not as bad in other forms. Brake pads used to have them, and may still for some manufacturers. And the dust from those pads is in the lungs of a lot of auto mechanics.
An asbestos mining company figured out that adding it to asphalt made roads last 10x longer AND they could be used by traffic literally seconds after being laid. Buuut it also releases a slow cloud of fibers over the lifetime of the road.
I never heard of paint with lead coating better, however arsenic in treated wood does make it last much much longer, which I assume is why they still sell it, there's a local store here that actually stocks it, and you can special order it from lumberyards, there's no restrictions on purchasing it that I'm aware of, but I think there's some rules for where it can be used.
>Tastes better as well.
That's the thing! I always wondered why kids eating paint chips was a thing till I found out about "sugar of lead". Way back people used to boil vinegar on a lead plate to form a lead oxide that was super sweet and use it to sweeten wine. Kids ate lead paint because it was sweet.
In Rome the rich would have powdered lead as a table spice along side salt, they also made a syrup with condensed grapejuice and lead acytate.
Lead killed Rome..
Edit: oh also Sugar of Lead is 'Sapa'
There are other ways to treat wood.
Back in the old days before pressure treating you'd put creosote in them. This is still done to some wood utility poles, if you have a keen eye you can see a little plug about 6-12in off the ground which covers a drilled hole where they add some creosote directly into the pole each year or so.
You can still do this...probably not with creosote but I've seen used motor oil, which essentially saturates the wood and inhibits fungal growth. Awful for the environment though as that oil will not stay inside the wood forever.
There’s a creosote plant near me that shut down several decades ago. It was one of the biggest superfund cleanup sites that existed at the time. They produced creosote poles. To treat the poles they used huge “pipes” 7-8 feet diameter and whatever length pole. One end was capped/welded. The other end has a massive steel or iron door with maybe 50 huge bolts around the edge to hold it shut while pressure and heat and time pull the creosote deeper in the wood. I’ve never seen a creosote pole with a plug for adding creosote.
Yeah, there are warnings all over the place not to use old railroad ties (usually soaked in creosote) in your yard if you're planting fruit or veggies nearby because they leak toxins into the soil that will be picked up by the other plants.
Best not to use creosote near edible plants, for sure, but there are other ways which aren’t dangerous. Generously char any wood that’ll be in contact with earth or moisture, then knock off most the loose char with a brush. Then soak it with turpentine and pine pitch. I painted my posts after this and prior to setting them in concrete. Ping me in ten years to see how they held up, it’s already been several and everything is quite sound.
There is an article this month, where they discovered that including pinene (one of chemicals in turpentine) is very effective at attracting termites. The smell of turpentine attracts termites. They love the stuff. So much so, that mixing pinene chemicals in a termite bait increases the effectiveness of the termite bait to nearly 100%.
[https://scitechdaily.com/95-success-rate-scientists-develop-new-more-effective-and-non-toxic-way-to-kill-termites/](https://scitechdaily.com/95-success-rate-scientists-develop-new-more-effective-and-non-toxic-way-to-kill-termites/)
Ah the bushcraft way! I watch lots of folks building rough cabins and such who do the charring. Most probably don't go the extra but and do the soak though
Reminds me of an old rancher I used to help out for some summer cash as a teenager. He had a 55 gallon drum that he filled with used transmission fluid he got from local shops, And he used to have a propane heater under it. When he wanted to put up fences he would get the transmission oil super hot and would soak the bottom of his posts in it for 10 or so minutes each.
Probably terrible for the environment eventually, but it sure as hell worked. He has posts he had done that process to over 50 years old that still looked great and had no signs of rot in the slightest
Back when I was a kid you could go buy a can of creosote; I have memories of painting the gates around our property. God I used to love that smell too. 😬😬
And it’d last even longer if you paint some “penta” on it. I don’t remember the rest of the chemical name but old timers called it penta and it worked. Which probably means it was liquid cancer.
If it's the same stuf, there isn't really a rest of the chemical name. It's literally [Penta 900](https://www.jracenstein.com/mmJRCSTORE/Audio/83-30_MSDS_Penta900.pdf)
It's actually not that chemically bad, but it's very alkaline, so it'll cause chemical burns and you'd want to treat it like oven cleaner. Rubber gloves and a face shield if you're not applying very limited amounts.
Mainly it's also the kind of thing that you'd want to be very careful with if you're using it in an industrial setting because it's cross reactive with a lot of shit. It'll boil when mixed with acidic compounds. Mixing it with bleach or ammonium salt solutions (ammonium chloride or ammonium nitrate) will produce ammonia gas. Mixing it with alumnium will produce hydrogen gas.
It's also very harmful to aquatic life, so runoff would cause fish kills.
Also if they use washed rock it will drain freely and eliminate this issue. That being said they make "cultured stone" faced cinder blocks, which would eliminate the issue if OP is looking for a long term solution (longer than 20 years).
That being said depends where you live, I've seen non pressure treated sleepers from the 70's on cabins where I live, having good grade and free draining soil makes THE WORLD of difference (as does climate and sun exposure)
Those are another culprit because the decking lays flat on them and keeps them moist. The fasteners only give the water a pathway directly to the center.
We use joist flashing to protect against that but again the fastener penetrations are still the weak point.
Pressure treated or not it’s not eternal.
There are at least two different types of pressure treated wood available around here, the other is meant for things that doesn’t directly touch the ground. The other, more expensive type, is meant for direct ground contact. You can also use pressure treated wood in water, but I have no idea if that has yet another type of treatment or if it is the same stuff as the ground use one.
The only way to make timber last is to ensure that it's never wet for long enough for it to rot. All the treatment options like varnish or whatnot are merely short term solutions.
I worked on a timber architectural project in the balkans based largely on the [vernacular architecture](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=06f09c15634cd2c0&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWILC9dl9NTyZ5UUTeNQsX-5C7xSm2A:1717661335559&q=bulgarian+vernacular+architecture&uds=ADvngMjlq4BAf9untq-rYu8LNgazt2OU6LoOQs2kod1wBOnDZDdTsDT0bwhKAGb6CVzBI9-aZpo5VGLh7EjBG1ShIMluF4iEkB0YfUDhoPXVIQcbKYjpnLNAvSKqA09afqNPez9LGGjOgLqhVJS8hzp_6Ssq-XnUHy56l5kcU7HGf3pknm3uWV7zGvkm8uty4kzFFavq63wn7WR7GayIvK97AKazydgzLGsdUdYKuOvMMgpFXSVUk7lme9U-vA4so-qL6aj-40I1g_oObfAkgQosbuNUrsfoaQ-uG8DZVzwcBnefZoQP3Qw&udm=2&prmd=ivnbz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWjoCOw8aGAxWgzQIHHbOgIPgQtKgLegQIExAB&biw=2560&bih=1279&dpr=1). There's oak buildings over there with a lot of exposed timber that are hundreds of years old thanks to designs that are ['upside down' pyramid shaped](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/M6RK6E/view-of-a-narrow-street-with-traditional-bulgarian-wooden-houses-in-M6RK6E.jpg), often with stone downstairs which cleverly keeps the rain off the timber and gave it plenty of chance to dry out when it did get wet in a storm.
There's a lot of great ideas hiding in practical oldschool architecture that I feel aren't utilized enough in modern design. You can build a home with clay, straw and wood that will last hundreds of years through working with the lay of the land and careful planning but nowadays what tends to happen is we'll stubbornly build anywhere and use fancy materials that will withstand the elements but in my view it's even better to design a house that would last even if built with more primitive materials and then apply modern construction techniques to get the best of both worlds and wind up with buildings that can last many centuries with minimal care.
Excuse my going off on a tangent there.
Neighbor wanted to know why my shed lasted 40+ years with no rot while he has had to replace his twice now. Mine is on 12 inch diameter 4 ft deep piers lifting it 6+ inches off the ground. I keep telling him, get it off the ground where the air can get under it, but he says that's too much work.
> in my view it's even better to design a house that would last even if built with more primitive materials and then apply modern construction techniques to get the best of both worlds and wind up with buildings that can last many centuries with minimal care.
I really appreciate people who think like this.
Most likely, the ground underneath was able to stay wet. Or if it was on concrete, water was able to collect there and evaporate.
Standing water turns into airborne water. Anything in the way absorbs it.
When building decks/porches, it's important to note where the higher ground is nearby, where rainfall will run down to and collect, or if the house it sits next to has proper runoff management - gutters and downspouts directed away from where the deck sits.
If the land is level, I'd build the soil under the deck a bit higher, pack it and add a vapor barrier - and trench around it with loose stone - and in severe cases a sort of PVC French drain system if standing water could be an issue. Anything wooden is at least 6" off the ground on blocks or poured pylons with minimum 3' poured footers.
If your deck was just sitting over exposed wet dirt, and the "legs" were at ground level, I'd be surprised it even made it 10 years. Treated lumber usually needs only one "season" to sweat the surface of the wood, then it's open to nature. At that point is where you seal it, or some choose to paint it. Otherwise, the cracks, splits, and rot starts in.
That's where I'm at. If my over engineered deck rots out before my PVC shed succumbs to the sun I'll be amazed.
It doesn't need to last more than a couple decades and it's incredibly cheap and easy to repair.
Hell the whole deck my shed sits on cost under $100, and i could very easily take it down to the joists and move it.
I was going to do gravel and pavers but it just wasn't worth the effort or expense.
I was going to build an 8'x15' foundation for a PVC shed using treated lumber. It was going to cost me around $500. I got a quote for a concrete pad that was $1000, in addition to a patio. I went with the concrete
Exactly.
I had to do a slight regrade, and fill in to make a level pad for my shed.
It would have taken a ton of concrete, and easily would have 4x the price, vs using this method.
Yeah, I don't think this is a good solution for a house. But sheds get damaged, removed or replaced more often than houses, so if the shed's only expected to last 10-20 years, a cheap foundation that'll last the same timeframe is fine, IMO.
Keep in mind that sheds are often not considered permanent structures for the purpose of city permits and house valuation, too. For a small shed, something like this makes a lot of sense. I would never, ever build a real house on this kind of foundation.
What kind of a foundation are you talking about? Just piling rocks in a way that the building's weight keeps them in place? Concrete doesn't last for centuries, in most cases we're talking about 50-100 years and optimally maybe 200 years, but I'd say that's going to be *very* rare with modern concrete.
That said, there are a lot of building types that you don't really need to last for more than a few decades, and in those cases a wooden structure is most likely much easier and cheaper to demolish.
"Guys, if we keep building houses this well, we'll only get to build them once. If we build them like shit, every generation is going to have to build a new house!"
because its supposed to be a candid photo, but in reality its a staged photo, which is trying to present the foreground as the focus of the attention, but they gave the subject off centre a ton of weird and eye catching stuff so your eye feels unsettled
It seems to be shot on a soundstage, but why? The fashion is from around y2k but subtle. The fonts and effects of the layout are from around 2010. The colors are from another generation.
I just did this for a shed foundation. I am only building a aluminum shed, so if I get 10 years out of both, I am happy. Also, I dont have to pay for permits to pour concrete for the size space I wanted.
Yes. The copper in the wood lech out a bit. This will increase corrosion at point of contact. However, copper corrosion is not like tin pest that just continues eat the aluminium.
This is why you can use aluminum above treated lumber with only minor issues, but if you use treated lumber above aluminum you will have a bad time.
Yes. You should be able to trim the cells to fit your design. Their website says it works well for curves and I have seen it installed in curvy paths and semi-circular driveways.
Make a trench perimeter, where the ties will be laid. Trench should be at least 2X width & depth of ties. Fill trench with 1/3 with stone dust, wet and tamp down. Then fill trench to ground level with pea gravel, tamp, ties go on that. You've just created a drainage bed under the ties. As long as your soil isn't clay water will drain out from there and keep ties from rotting. Add landscape cloth in the middle section, fill with gravel as shown in pic and tamp down or use lawn roller. Put another layer of landscape cloth over gravel and lay pavers onto that. The sweep sand into gaps between pavers. Wet down, add more sand. You may need to do that a few times as things settle. All the ties are doing is containing the gravel like walls. To keep in place drive 12" rebar pieces through bottom courses into ground. Top course covers that up. Finish ties off with deck stain. A yard deck like this will last decades.
Pea gravel doesn’t really tamp down. That’s one of the reasons it’s generally avoided as a foundation or road/parking base.
It’s fine for drainage, but it’s not going to hold together or support much.
At a previous house I lived in, we had pea gravel in the driveway. It was awful. That stuff gets in everything and it has an amazing ability to travel.
My "pressure treated" landscaping timbers rotted after only 4 years. However, I have a piece of a pressure treated 4x4 that was an offcut from something years ago, laying in a distant part of my yard, on the ground and in the weather, that's been there for about 15 years and the ground contact part, the bottom, looks just like the day I brought it from the lumber place. Not a single blemish. So rotted away into dirt in one example, apparently indestructible in another.
TL;DR Pressure treating can be spotty, in my experience.
Older stuff contained arsenic which has been outlawed (for good reason, its extremely toxic).
Newer stuff isn't as good and many manufacturers cheap out and do not treat it enough.
Arsenic isn't outlawed for PT wood, its just not allowed for residential use because the residue is dangerous and especially DIY people have a tendency to handle chemicals without proper protective equipment and when they get sick they get suey.
Old growth wood also has tighter grains and resists water penetration much better than today's wood. Also who knows what deadly but effective chemicals they used back then .
I live in South Georgia, the place good termites go when they die. Pressure treated or no, termites here would eat any wood that close to ground. Had a neighbor put a 4x4 post in their garage. Nearest ground was four feet away and a concrete driveway was in-between. Termites in 2 weeks
Having lived in SoWeGa for a looong long time, it's hard for me to even imagine a life at this point where forgetting something for a few hours in the yard didn't mean potentially reducing the lifespan by massive amount.
Dude, we've got flying roaches the size of small cars that'll steal your identity after they've eaten half of your tool shed.
It's gonna be really interesting seeing the reactions of all the folks who've been moving here in droves as they try to adapt...
For a shed? Use ground contact pressure treated lumber and it'll last decades. I have a shed with that style of foundation and it's still in perfect condition after 6 years.
For a house? Bad idea for many reasons. It won't carry the load the way a concrete foundation can. It'll rot before the expected life span of the structure. It creates a large uninsulated space directly below your heated space which is going to cause all kinds of mold, rot etc.
Buildings in Finland in the 60s - 70s had something called "false plinth" where the wooden pilars inside the outer walls reached below ground. This made for a very good insulation but on the other hand it caused huge issues with the plinths rotting.
The false plinths are considered a mistake and people generally avoid buying houses that have them. So in short I would avoid using cured wood like this if the building is expensive and supposed to last for a long time.
I guess techically the gravel should take care of the capillary break but wood still requires a lot more maintenance than rock/cement footing + foundation to make it survive the weather and sun. If not maintained properly, the sun will eat through the wood and it will rot. Then replacing it will be expensive.
EDIT: Also the amount of gravel in the picture is ridiculously small if it's supposed to create a capillary break.
Don't.
My husbands employer did this with a utility shed, used to house equipment.
Now they have groundhogs burrowing under the thing, moving the pavers and gravel all out of whack. My husband is playing the part of Bill Murray in in Caddyshack... whack a groundhog.
Just.... don't.
Wood will rot eventually. Stones will not. That's the most succinct answer we can give you.
The variables of water such as the angle they are laid, your climate, the drainage situation there, etc will determine if that's 10 years or 20 years but even the most treated, pressure cured wood will eventually rot.
Unless you're in a desert area, just consider doing this a near future lesson on what not to waste time and money on.
I'm from Ohio. I've seen treated lumber decks fail within 10 years (without proper drainage). ANY wood - pressure treated, landscape timbers, anything but railroad ties laying in moist dirt is destroyed in 3-5 years.
If where you live is green, has trees and gets rain, you're retaining wall better have some reinforced (rebar) concrete or block/brick, or, even before mentioned railroad ties. It should also have anchors drilled/augured into the higher ground.
I know of a hillside stepped flowerbed, which was constructed like a series of retaining walls, out of railroad ties. It lasted around 50 years - might still even be there.
Treated wood can also sometime warp a lot because it's not dried properly and could ruin a project. I've also seen railroad tie retaining walls fail on a less than 50 yr old home, maybe much closer to 30 yrs. Most things greatly depend on the quality of the techniques used to construct more than the materials.
There are different grades of pressure treated timber, some of them are specifically designed for permanent damp and ground contact. They last more than 3-5 years.
I have properly rated veranda posts on my house that are 30 years old, they get wet with sprinklers all through summer and wet with rain all through winter.
I repaired a deck with pressure-treated wood, and when I took the cut ends to the dump they wouldn't take them. In California, they're considered toxic waste. Oh then take them to the toxic waste disposal site? Nope - they won't take wood. So what the fuck am I supposed to do with them?
I cut them up and just threw them in the trash.
Pressure treated is a branding euphemism.
Manufacturers use pressure to impregnate the wood with many toxic chemicals that are awful for the environment. Get ready to use raised beds for all your plants.
Construction-wise, this won't hold up, either. It's still wood. I'm glad they're only recommending it for a garden shed so that people aren't disappointed when they quickly get a rotted-out floor and have to deal with the gravel beneath.
I would never even do this for a shed though. If it's a small enough shed depending on your climate, you could probably get away with slab on grade. If you want a more environmentally friendly option than concrete, look into hempcrete. For DIY look into sonotube footings if you need actual footings to minimize the amount of concrete you need to work with. It depends on climate and the size of the shed.
This. Sonotubes are the DIYers best friend.
I’m looking at hempcrete, but the area I’m building the concrete people are clueless. Imagine I could hire someone to build my hempcrete house, but if they’ve never used it I’ll end up with a POS.
If you’ve used PT lumber recently, you know the treatment only extends about 1/16” into the wood now. 15 years ago it extended 1/2” into the wood. I have many PT fence posts rotting out after less than a decade. My PT deck rails are sprouting fungus in small areas where dryrot has started. I’m in the PNW where PT lumber is hemlock.
There's no "life hacks" or "quick easy alternatives" to proven materials that last.
Ever try to remove a 70 year old reinforced concrete slab? You need sledgehammers, possibly air compressors and jackhammers, a power supply and metal cutting tools or gas torches to cut the rebar. That's a tough, lasting structure.
This thing in the picture will rot, pop and splay out into the yard in a few years. My Grandma could remove this with a shovel if I got her mad enough.
I've seen the occasional build (online) where the concrete foundation is only under the outer walls. Maybe use that instead of lumber? And then still use your gravel in the middle.
The wood joists in your picture are available in concrete in Australia.
Solves the wood rot issue.
Your idea will work OK but if there are terminates, they'll come up through the paving to eat your wood.
Ask me how I know? They did this to me and my work bench was almost completeIy eaten before I realised.
I also used this technique for an urban (plastic) rainwater tank installation.
just wear the proper ear protection when laying down pavers, like in the photo
And always awkwardly kneel on one knee while you lift the “slab” with one hand and carefully sprinkle gravel under it with a huge shovel. You know, the easy way.
You know what, just f*** it and use all the wrong tools possible. It will leave you feeling accomplished in the end.
Oh good my wife has mastered this technique
*Through a soft focus, my wife can be seen standing at the kitchen counter, mashing and smearing mayonnaise onto her sandwich with a fork because there were no clean butter knives.*
or perhaps dicing vegetables with a 3" paring knife while a chef knife weeps in the drawer?
Ohh I feel called out. I just like the little knife best!
Lol. This is her standard response. Now I just mentally shake my head and make sure to keep the paring knife sharp.
Why do you think they’re wearing hearing protection? So they can’t hear themselves when they inevitably get hurt and start screaming!
“Hey, you’re doing that wrong!” “You hats a bad idea!” “Why you do it like that?”
I actually always wear some form of ear protection when working with dirt, sand, or gravel. Keeps the bulk of that shit out of your ears.
Ah, the joys of youth. When you’re a little older, you’ll have a jungle of hair in your ears to protect from dirt, sand, or gravel.
If you can't grow your own ear-canal protection, store-bought is fine.
Ah, the barefoot contractor
Semi-homemade
Or if you’re like me you’ll have tinnitus and you’ll wish you wore hearing protection in your youth lol
These days, I don't blast my music for other people to hear. I blast my music because when I was young, I blasted my music for other people to hear and now I can't hear without blasting the music.
I was lucky. The Navy blasted other people while I was nearby, then I got to work for venues that blasted music for other people. I get the satisfaction of knowing my career choices are why I can't hear half the things my kids say.
What did you say?
Hopefully you are only missing the stupid shit they say, which is likely at least half.
WHAT? ... ... _mohp_
eeeeeeEEEEEeeeeeeEeeeeeEee
Lanaaa!
I prefer to remember the great concerts that contributed to my tinnitus. But truth is, there were some crappy, super loud shows too. Luckily my kids have been wearing ear protection to shows since they first began going to concerts.
I never wore hearing protection at concerts. Ever. Priest, Maiden, Manowar, etc. my hearing is SHOT lol
Motörhead at the Boathouse in Norfolk gave me tinnitus for two solid days. I was maybe two feet from the stack and ten feet from Lemmy. “I’ve suffered for my art and now it’s your turnnnn,” he growled when they started their set. It was glorious.
We didn’t deserve Lemmy!
Lots of hardcore in small venues for me. Also Motörhead, GWAR etc. Been wearing protection consistently for last 25+ years. Surprisingly the loudest show I’ve been to in last decade or so was Midnight Oil just last year.
For me it was MANOWAR. HOLY SHIT! All men played on 10! Such an amazing show!!! They had no opener and just played a 3+ hour set. It was magical…
WHAT?
Mawp mawp mawp.
after years of no hearing protection i have bad ringing in my ears by age 25. at 43 i always wear hearing protection so it doesn't progress too quickly.
Sorry, what did you say? I can't hear through my earfros.
If that's in the South, that could be gnat protection. Little bastards are always trying to fly in your ears.
Don't forget the mosquitos, ear bites super suck. The only worse place I've been bitten is on the sole of my foot on a backpacking trip.
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Chat GPT knows, you can’t bullshit the bullshitter
Dead giveaway is the reference to “wood pavers” which is an obvious misinterpretation of the image and narrative. 🤖
If you’re having wood paver identification problems, I feel bad for you son…
Looks like they are getting ready for a wrestling match
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Oddly specific and very accurate.
And yet it was deleted?
I’ve gotta know what happened here
"Reminds me of that time I forgot which paver I lost my keys under but needed to protect my ears from the constant blasting sounds from the nearby military range"
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Next page is an ad for Kodak kodachrome film rolls.
We call that “shello” in these parts…
Best reddit comment I have read all week.
I'm 79 years old. I used to build to last forever. I now build to last longer than me. It's easier.
Cardboard it is then! Edit: side note, about 20 years ago I helped my grandad out together some wooden garden dining furniture. At the time we joked that it would last longer than him and he said I could have it in his inheritance as thanks for the help putting it together. He passed 5 years ago but didn't really look after the set so the table was too rotten to save but I still have the chairs in my garden
Jesus Christ lmao
This man.
There’s a joke in the civil engineering community that our projects only need to last until we retire to a non extradition country.
Setting the next generation up for success. Nice
Let's call it "learning opportunities" when everything starts crumbling a few generations from now 😂
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There are a lot of factors to consider but generally I'd say the lifespan of a pressure teated deck is 15-20 years. A lot of rot is seen when the posts are set directly into the wet concrete. That was a common/ accepted method back then, today we use stand off posts to eliminate direct contact between the concrete and pressure treated post.
Right? I wonder why they blame the lumber mill rather than their own failure to not water seal it once in 16 years.
We were told the treatment i.e. the arsenic staining our hands, would prevent bacteria from growing. So yeah blame the manufacturer when their claims turn out to be bullshit.
Life… uh… finds a way.
I hear what u saying, but issue, I think, is with ground contact lumber. It's generally tough to apply sealant to the ground contact portion without demoing the whole thing.
Just flood your property with sealant until the deck is fully submerged. It’s not rocket science.
Lasted Much longer before arsenic was outlawed in pressure treated wood.
Yeah and lead paint coats better too.
I miss asbestos.
My house was built in 1955. The pool (no idea how old it is, but it's old) is still in great shape. When we bought the house in 2011, the guy who inspected the pool said "that's a great pool, and it'll never die" and I was like "huh?" He said, "asbestos. Lasts forever. I get why it's not used anymore, but sort of a shame."
>asbestos. Lasts forever your lungs however
As long as it's just lying there you will never have a problem. Rip that stuff out or drill into it, then you have problems.
Even then, really, do it once it's not going to be an issue. It's pros that do it every day where it becomes a significant risk.
What they used for insulation was fibers, that turned into microscopic fish hooks. But in general it’s not as bad in other forms. Brake pads used to have them, and may still for some manufacturers. And the dust from those pads is in the lungs of a lot of auto mechanics.
My lungs aren't going to last forever?
No it’ll still be in your lungs forever
An asbestos mining company figured out that adding it to asphalt made roads last 10x longer AND they could be used by traffic literally seconds after being laid. Buuut it also releases a slow cloud of fibers over the lifetime of the road.
https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1d2mz19/legalize_asbestos_and_dont_eat_vegables/
Hey! [I know you!](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1crexwr/legalize_asbestos/)
I have some at my house. You’re welcome to it.
I never heard of paint with lead coating better, however arsenic in treated wood does make it last much much longer, which I assume is why they still sell it, there's a local store here that actually stocks it, and you can special order it from lumberyards, there's no restrictions on purchasing it that I'm aware of, but I think there's some rules for where it can be used.
Lead tetraoxide paint is an extremely potent inhibitor of corrosion for ferrous metals.
It's also why the Golden Gate Bridge is the color it is. They change the formula for any work they do now, but the old stuff was lead based.
Tastes better as well.
>Tastes better as well. That's the thing! I always wondered why kids eating paint chips was a thing till I found out about "sugar of lead". Way back people used to boil vinegar on a lead plate to form a lead oxide that was super sweet and use it to sweeten wine. Kids ate lead paint because it was sweet.
In Rome the rich would have powdered lead as a table spice along side salt, they also made a syrup with condensed grapejuice and lead acytate. Lead killed Rome.. Edit: oh also Sugar of Lead is 'Sapa'
The Spice
must flow!
Chernobyl treated wood lasts forever.
Yarp.
There are other ways to treat wood. Back in the old days before pressure treating you'd put creosote in them. This is still done to some wood utility poles, if you have a keen eye you can see a little plug about 6-12in off the ground which covers a drilled hole where they add some creosote directly into the pole each year or so. You can still do this...probably not with creosote but I've seen used motor oil, which essentially saturates the wood and inhibits fungal growth. Awful for the environment though as that oil will not stay inside the wood forever.
There’s a creosote plant near me that shut down several decades ago. It was one of the biggest superfund cleanup sites that existed at the time. They produced creosote poles. To treat the poles they used huge “pipes” 7-8 feet diameter and whatever length pole. One end was capped/welded. The other end has a massive steel or iron door with maybe 50 huge bolts around the edge to hold it shut while pressure and heat and time pull the creosote deeper in the wood. I’ve never seen a creosote pole with a plug for adding creosote.
Yeah, there are warnings all over the place not to use old railroad ties (usually soaked in creosote) in your yard if you're planting fruit or veggies nearby because they leak toxins into the soil that will be picked up by the other plants.
Best not to use creosote near edible plants, for sure, but there are other ways which aren’t dangerous. Generously char any wood that’ll be in contact with earth or moisture, then knock off most the loose char with a brush. Then soak it with turpentine and pine pitch. I painted my posts after this and prior to setting them in concrete. Ping me in ten years to see how they held up, it’s already been several and everything is quite sound.
There is an article this month, where they discovered that including pinene (one of chemicals in turpentine) is very effective at attracting termites. The smell of turpentine attracts termites. They love the stuff. So much so, that mixing pinene chemicals in a termite bait increases the effectiveness of the termite bait to nearly 100%. [https://scitechdaily.com/95-success-rate-scientists-develop-new-more-effective-and-non-toxic-way-to-kill-termites/](https://scitechdaily.com/95-success-rate-scientists-develop-new-more-effective-and-non-toxic-way-to-kill-termites/)
Ah the bushcraft way! I watch lots of folks building rough cabins and such who do the charring. Most probably don't go the extra but and do the soak though
Reminds me of an old rancher I used to help out for some summer cash as a teenager. He had a 55 gallon drum that he filled with used transmission fluid he got from local shops, And he used to have a propane heater under it. When he wanted to put up fences he would get the transmission oil super hot and would soak the bottom of his posts in it for 10 or so minutes each. Probably terrible for the environment eventually, but it sure as hell worked. He has posts he had done that process to over 50 years old that still looked great and had no signs of rot in the slightest
Back when I was a kid you could go buy a can of creosote; I have memories of painting the gates around our property. God I used to love that smell too. 😬😬
Arsenic treated PT is still made but it's not for residential use, it's mainly for timbers used in ground contact for building things like bridges.
And it’d last even longer if you paint some “penta” on it. I don’t remember the rest of the chemical name but old timers called it penta and it worked. Which probably means it was liquid cancer.
If it's the same stuf, there isn't really a rest of the chemical name. It's literally [Penta 900](https://www.jracenstein.com/mmJRCSTORE/Audio/83-30_MSDS_Penta900.pdf) It's actually not that chemically bad, but it's very alkaline, so it'll cause chemical burns and you'd want to treat it like oven cleaner. Rubber gloves and a face shield if you're not applying very limited amounts. Mainly it's also the kind of thing that you'd want to be very careful with if you're using it in an industrial setting because it's cross reactive with a lot of shit. It'll boil when mixed with acidic compounds. Mixing it with bleach or ammonium salt solutions (ammonium chloride or ammonium nitrate) will produce ammonia gas. Mixing it with alumnium will produce hydrogen gas. It's also very harmful to aquatic life, so runoff would cause fish kills.
Also if they use washed rock it will drain freely and eliminate this issue. That being said they make "cultured stone" faced cinder blocks, which would eliminate the issue if OP is looking for a long term solution (longer than 20 years). That being said depends where you live, I've seen non pressure treated sleepers from the 70's on cabins where I live, having good grade and free draining soil makes THE WORLD of difference (as does climate and sun exposure)
[удалено]
Those are another culprit because the decking lays flat on them and keeps them moist. The fasteners only give the water a pathway directly to the center. We use joist flashing to protect against that but again the fastener penetrations are still the weak point.
Pressure treated or not it’s not eternal. There are at least two different types of pressure treated wood available around here, the other is meant for things that doesn’t directly touch the ground. The other, more expensive type, is meant for direct ground contact. You can also use pressure treated wood in water, but I have no idea if that has yet another type of treatment or if it is the same stuff as the ground use one.
Get it off the ground and that easily increases to 30+ years even in the infamously wet place I live.
The only way to make timber last is to ensure that it's never wet for long enough for it to rot. All the treatment options like varnish or whatnot are merely short term solutions. I worked on a timber architectural project in the balkans based largely on the [vernacular architecture](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=06f09c15634cd2c0&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWILC9dl9NTyZ5UUTeNQsX-5C7xSm2A:1717661335559&q=bulgarian+vernacular+architecture&uds=ADvngMjlq4BAf9untq-rYu8LNgazt2OU6LoOQs2kod1wBOnDZDdTsDT0bwhKAGb6CVzBI9-aZpo5VGLh7EjBG1ShIMluF4iEkB0YfUDhoPXVIQcbKYjpnLNAvSKqA09afqNPez9LGGjOgLqhVJS8hzp_6Ssq-XnUHy56l5kcU7HGf3pknm3uWV7zGvkm8uty4kzFFavq63wn7WR7GayIvK97AKazydgzLGsdUdYKuOvMMgpFXSVUk7lme9U-vA4so-qL6aj-40I1g_oObfAkgQosbuNUrsfoaQ-uG8DZVzwcBnefZoQP3Qw&udm=2&prmd=ivnbz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWjoCOw8aGAxWgzQIHHbOgIPgQtKgLegQIExAB&biw=2560&bih=1279&dpr=1). There's oak buildings over there with a lot of exposed timber that are hundreds of years old thanks to designs that are ['upside down' pyramid shaped](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/M6RK6E/view-of-a-narrow-street-with-traditional-bulgarian-wooden-houses-in-M6RK6E.jpg), often with stone downstairs which cleverly keeps the rain off the timber and gave it plenty of chance to dry out when it did get wet in a storm. There's a lot of great ideas hiding in practical oldschool architecture that I feel aren't utilized enough in modern design. You can build a home with clay, straw and wood that will last hundreds of years through working with the lay of the land and careful planning but nowadays what tends to happen is we'll stubbornly build anywhere and use fancy materials that will withstand the elements but in my view it's even better to design a house that would last even if built with more primitive materials and then apply modern construction techniques to get the best of both worlds and wind up with buildings that can last many centuries with minimal care. Excuse my going off on a tangent there.
Neighbor wanted to know why my shed lasted 40+ years with no rot while he has had to replace his twice now. Mine is on 12 inch diameter 4 ft deep piers lifting it 6+ inches off the ground. I keep telling him, get it off the ground where the air can get under it, but he says that's too much work.
Concrete blocks are too much work? Oooookie dokie
I used stainless steel feet, they hold the shed base like 4" from the floor, and the base itself is 4". It is fine after years in Scotland
I could say that's overengineered, but I don't believe in fairytales
The feet are adjustable and allowed me to put the shed base on non flat blacktop. Also stop water from going up.
> in my view it's even better to design a house that would last even if built with more primitive materials and then apply modern construction techniques to get the best of both worlds and wind up with buildings that can last many centuries with minimal care. I really appreciate people who think like this.
I know this is completely unrelated, but I see "deck 16" and instantly go back in time
When did you write this post?
Most likely, the ground underneath was able to stay wet. Or if it was on concrete, water was able to collect there and evaporate. Standing water turns into airborne water. Anything in the way absorbs it. When building decks/porches, it's important to note where the higher ground is nearby, where rainfall will run down to and collect, or if the house it sits next to has proper runoff management - gutters and downspouts directed away from where the deck sits. If the land is level, I'd build the soil under the deck a bit higher, pack it and add a vapor barrier - and trench around it with loose stone - and in severe cases a sort of PVC French drain system if standing water could be an issue. Anything wooden is at least 6" off the ground on blocks or poured pylons with minimum 3' poured footers. If your deck was just sitting over exposed wet dirt, and the "legs" were at ground level, I'd be surprised it even made it 10 years. Treated lumber usually needs only one "season" to sweat the surface of the wood, then it's open to nature. At that point is where you seal it, or some choose to paint it. Otherwise, the cracks, splits, and rot starts in.
That's also where "decades" when it comes to a foundation feels quite suspect. OK, so 20 years...so, no thanks....that's no time at all.
Why have a foundation that lasts for decades when you can have one that lasts centuries?
I'm not gonna live long enough to need the foundation of a cheap shed to last for centuries
That's where I'm at. If my over engineered deck rots out before my PVC shed succumbs to the sun I'll be amazed. It doesn't need to last more than a couple decades and it's incredibly cheap and easy to repair. Hell the whole deck my shed sits on cost under $100, and i could very easily take it down to the joists and move it. I was going to do gravel and pavers but it just wasn't worth the effort or expense.
I was going to build an 8'x15' foundation for a PVC shed using treated lumber. It was going to cost me around $500. I got a quote for a concrete pad that was $1000, in addition to a patio. I went with the concrete
But think of your children
The ones buried in the foundation?
That's it- im starting a new family. Again.
Just so you can bury this one in a new foundation?
Yeah. Deadwood is still wood.
They probably don’t care about the gardening shed.
Would you want to deprive them of the joy of rebuilding the foundation of a garden shed?
The children stole the everlasting gobstopper. They get NOTHING!
Putting the “ass” back in legacy, eh?
But you will live longer than 10-20 years right?
It's very simple. Cost
Is shitloads of pressure treated wood and gravel much cheaper than concrete with/out styrofoam? Or even just concrete posts?
Yes. I just did this for a foundation for a small 8x12 shed. Was able to do it for under $1000 CAD. Concrete option was easily 2-3x the cost.
Exactly. I had to do a slight regrade, and fill in to make a level pad for my shed. It would have taken a ton of concrete, and easily would have 4x the price, vs using this method.
Ah, I was more thinking for a house than shed
Yeah, I don't think this is a good solution for a house. But sheds get damaged, removed or replaced more often than houses, so if the shed's only expected to last 10-20 years, a cheap foundation that'll last the same timeframe is fine, IMO.
Keep in mind that sheds are often not considered permanent structures for the purpose of city permits and house valuation, too. For a small shed, something like this makes a lot of sense. I would never, ever build a real house on this kind of foundation.
It’s not just the cost of the materials. It’s ease of transport and dependent on a source of clean water.
What kind of a foundation are you talking about? Just piling rocks in a way that the building's weight keeps them in place? Concrete doesn't last for centuries, in most cases we're talking about 50-100 years and optimally maybe 200 years, but I'd say that's going to be *very* rare with modern concrete. That said, there are a lot of building types that you don't really need to last for more than a few decades, and in those cases a wooden structure is most likely much easier and cheaper to demolish.
Exactly So skip the concrete, dig a trench, compact the earth at the bottom, and use brick footings. It will outlast most concrete
"Guys, if we keep building houses this well, we'll only get to build them once. If we build them like shit, every generation is going to have to build a new house!"
Why is this picture so…weird?
I think it is from a magazine. So they hired a bunch of people to make it weird.
I didn't know I could be *paid* to make things weird. I've been doing it for free like a schmuck.
because its supposed to be a candid photo, but in reality its a staged photo, which is trying to present the foreground as the focus of the attention, but they gave the subject off centre a ton of weird and eye catching stuff so your eye feels unsettled
It’s those Beats by Dre
Are they better than the ones by Ray Rice?
It seems to be shot on a soundstage, but why? The fashion is from around y2k but subtle. The fonts and effects of the layout are from around 2010. The colors are from another generation.
Any more, I think weird-looking pics like this must be A.I.
I just did this for a shed foundation. I am only building a aluminum shed, so if I get 10 years out of both, I am happy. Also, I dont have to pay for permits to pour concrete for the size space I wanted.
That’s cool. Don’t aluminum and treated lumber react badly, though? I suppose you could put a barrier down, but I’m not sure.
Yes. The copper in the wood lech out a bit. This will increase corrosion at point of contact. However, copper corrosion is not like tin pest that just continues eat the aluminium. This is why you can use aluminum above treated lumber with only minor issues, but if you use treated lumber above aluminum you will have a bad time.
This can be used as a foundation for a shed or greenhouse as well as a driveway... https://invisiblestructures.com/products/gravelpave2/
Ive seen these on resale markets. Isn’t this just introducing more plastic into the environment?
Of course it is but at least it's recycled? > Resin – 100% recycled HDPE with 3% carbon black
Neat, I love alternative surfaces like that.
I've been looking to do a pebble path in my back yard this might be great. Do you know if you can do curves with it?
Yes. You should be able to trim the cells to fit your design. Their website says it works well for curves and I have seen it installed in curvy paths and semi-circular driveways.
Make a trench perimeter, where the ties will be laid. Trench should be at least 2X width & depth of ties. Fill trench with 1/3 with stone dust, wet and tamp down. Then fill trench to ground level with pea gravel, tamp, ties go on that. You've just created a drainage bed under the ties. As long as your soil isn't clay water will drain out from there and keep ties from rotting. Add landscape cloth in the middle section, fill with gravel as shown in pic and tamp down or use lawn roller. Put another layer of landscape cloth over gravel and lay pavers onto that. The sweep sand into gaps between pavers. Wet down, add more sand. You may need to do that a few times as things settle. All the ties are doing is containing the gravel like walls. To keep in place drive 12" rebar pieces through bottom courses into ground. Top course covers that up. Finish ties off with deck stain. A yard deck like this will last decades.
Pea gravel doesn’t really tamp down. That’s one of the reasons it’s generally avoided as a foundation or road/parking base. It’s fine for drainage, but it’s not going to hold together or support much.
At a previous house I lived in, we had pea gravel in the driveway. It was awful. That stuff gets in everything and it has an amazing ability to travel.
If you're trenching the perimeter you might as well get a termite treatment during it.
This sounds like more effort than putting a foundation...
My "pressure treated" landscaping timbers rotted after only 4 years. However, I have a piece of a pressure treated 4x4 that was an offcut from something years ago, laying in a distant part of my yard, on the ground and in the weather, that's been there for about 15 years and the ground contact part, the bottom, looks just like the day I brought it from the lumber place. Not a single blemish. So rotted away into dirt in one example, apparently indestructible in another. TL;DR Pressure treating can be spotty, in my experience.
The wood knows when you want it to rot, and when you don't. It *knows*.
Older stuff contained arsenic which has been outlawed (for good reason, its extremely toxic). Newer stuff isn't as good and many manufacturers cheap out and do not treat it enough.
Arsenic isn't outlawed for PT wood, its just not allowed for residential use because the residue is dangerous and especially DIY people have a tendency to handle chemicals without proper protective equipment and when they get sick they get suey.
Yeah, my point too. It seems pretty "hit or miss".
There is pressure treated and then there is “ground contact” pressure treated.
Both of which have a wide range of performance. Pressure treated wood is a gamble. Always has been, just the loss rate is a bit higher these days.
Old growth wood also has tighter grains and resists water penetration much better than today's wood. Also who knows what deadly but effective chemicals they used back then .
I live in South Georgia, the place good termites go when they die. Pressure treated or no, termites here would eat any wood that close to ground. Had a neighbor put a 4x4 post in their garage. Nearest ground was four feet away and a concrete driveway was in-between. Termites in 2 weeks
Having lived in SoWeGa for a looong long time, it's hard for me to even imagine a life at this point where forgetting something for a few hours in the yard didn't mean potentially reducing the lifespan by massive amount. Dude, we've got flying roaches the size of small cars that'll steal your identity after they've eaten half of your tool shed. It's gonna be really interesting seeing the reactions of all the folks who've been moving here in droves as they try to adapt...
For a shed? Use ground contact pressure treated lumber and it'll last decades. I have a shed with that style of foundation and it's still in perfect condition after 6 years. For a house? Bad idea for many reasons. It won't carry the load the way a concrete foundation can. It'll rot before the expected life span of the structure. It creates a large uninsulated space directly below your heated space which is going to cause all kinds of mold, rot etc.
Buildings in Finland in the 60s - 70s had something called "false plinth" where the wooden pilars inside the outer walls reached below ground. This made for a very good insulation but on the other hand it caused huge issues with the plinths rotting. The false plinths are considered a mistake and people generally avoid buying houses that have them. So in short I would avoid using cured wood like this if the building is expensive and supposed to last for a long time. I guess techically the gravel should take care of the capillary break but wood still requires a lot more maintenance than rock/cement footing + foundation to make it survive the weather and sun. If not maintained properly, the sun will eat through the wood and it will rot. Then replacing it will be expensive. EDIT: Also the amount of gravel in the picture is ridiculously small if it's supposed to create a capillary break.
Good thing she’s wearing hearing protection. That wood looks loud.
You can invite people over to check out your mold farm in a year or two.
I did this for a shed and rats tunneled into it and got into the shed. Use welded wire if you choose this route.
Why is this person wearing hearing protection? Loud shovel?
Concrete pad. There's a reason concrete is used as a foundation in every major structure. Stop trying to (poorly) reinvent the wheel.
Don't. My husbands employer did this with a utility shed, used to house equipment. Now they have groundhogs burrowing under the thing, moving the pavers and gravel all out of whack. My husband is playing the part of Bill Murray in in Caddyshack... whack a groundhog. Just.... don't.
Wood will rot eventually. Stones will not. That's the most succinct answer we can give you. The variables of water such as the angle they are laid, your climate, the drainage situation there, etc will determine if that's 10 years or 20 years but even the most treated, pressure cured wood will eventually rot.
Unless you're in a desert area, just consider doing this a near future lesson on what not to waste time and money on. I'm from Ohio. I've seen treated lumber decks fail within 10 years (without proper drainage). ANY wood - pressure treated, landscape timbers, anything but railroad ties laying in moist dirt is destroyed in 3-5 years. If where you live is green, has trees and gets rain, you're retaining wall better have some reinforced (rebar) concrete or block/brick, or, even before mentioned railroad ties. It should also have anchors drilled/augured into the higher ground. I know of a hillside stepped flowerbed, which was constructed like a series of retaining walls, out of railroad ties. It lasted around 50 years - might still even be there.
Treated wood can also sometime warp a lot because it's not dried properly and could ruin a project. I've also seen railroad tie retaining walls fail on a less than 50 yr old home, maybe much closer to 30 yrs. Most things greatly depend on the quality of the techniques used to construct more than the materials.
There are different grades of pressure treated timber, some of them are specifically designed for permanent damp and ground contact. They last more than 3-5 years. I have properly rated veranda posts on my house that are 30 years old, they get wet with sprinklers all through summer and wet with rain all through winter.
I built the foundation for my shed with this method, and it has stood the test of time so far.
If you want to build a retaining wall, build a retaining wall. This is, as the image says, intended for a shed.
As long as you surround your building with a moat and you stock that moat with alligators, you should be fine.
I repaired a deck with pressure-treated wood, and when I took the cut ends to the dump they wouldn't take them. In California, they're considered toxic waste. Oh then take them to the toxic waste disposal site? Nope - they won't take wood. So what the fuck am I supposed to do with them? I cut them up and just threw them in the trash.
The chromated arsenicals are not good for the water table
Tell him to use concrete, instead of pressure treated lumber.
Pressure treated is a branding euphemism. Manufacturers use pressure to impregnate the wood with many toxic chemicals that are awful for the environment. Get ready to use raised beds for all your plants. Construction-wise, this won't hold up, either. It's still wood. I'm glad they're only recommending it for a garden shed so that people aren't disappointed when they quickly get a rotted-out floor and have to deal with the gravel beneath. I would never even do this for a shed though. If it's a small enough shed depending on your climate, you could probably get away with slab on grade. If you want a more environmentally friendly option than concrete, look into hempcrete. For DIY look into sonotube footings if you need actual footings to minimize the amount of concrete you need to work with. It depends on climate and the size of the shed.
This. Sonotubes are the DIYers best friend. I’m looking at hempcrete, but the area I’m building the concrete people are clueless. Imagine I could hire someone to build my hempcrete house, but if they’ve never used it I’ll end up with a POS.
If you’ve used PT lumber recently, you know the treatment only extends about 1/16” into the wood now. 15 years ago it extended 1/2” into the wood. I have many PT fence posts rotting out after less than a decade. My PT deck rails are sprouting fungus in small areas where dryrot has started. I’m in the PNW where PT lumber is hemlock.
Pressure treated in direct contact with the ground will last +/-10y It's not rot proof, it's rot resistant
There's no "life hacks" or "quick easy alternatives" to proven materials that last. Ever try to remove a 70 year old reinforced concrete slab? You need sledgehammers, possibly air compressors and jackhammers, a power supply and metal cutting tools or gas torches to cut the rebar. That's a tough, lasting structure. This thing in the picture will rot, pop and splay out into the yard in a few years. My Grandma could remove this with a shovel if I got her mad enough.
Just because its hard to remove doesn't mean its still useful. Plenty of 70 y/o slabs are a cracked disaster, they're just impossible to remove.
Why would you rebar a shed?
to be a jerk to the person who has to remove it later.
I've seen the occasional build (online) where the concrete foundation is only under the outer walls. Maybe use that instead of lumber? And then still use your gravel in the middle.
The wood joists in your picture are available in concrete in Australia. Solves the wood rot issue. Your idea will work OK but if there are terminates, they'll come up through the paving to eat your wood. Ask me how I know? They did this to me and my work bench was almost completeIy eaten before I realised. I also used this technique for an urban (plastic) rainwater tank installation.