Brew shed questions

I've been scouring the archives for brew shed info, but have a few more questions. I'm thinking of building a shed like Ed Wort's pier/beam dek block thing. The pics on Ed's thread don't link anymore.

How closely to each other should the dek blocks be spaced? How thick should the floor be? I'm planning on having a few chest freezers (maybe three) and one regular fridge for fermentation/conditioning and storage. I'm not sure how heavy they'll all be once they're full of beer.

Would 23/32nd OSB be sturdy enough for the floor with that much weight? Or would 3/4" plywood be a better way to go?

OSB + Water = problem. Go with the plywood. I would even think about sealing it someway. You can get wood sealers at a hardware store. We use oil based because we are trying to keep pet stains/oder from coming up from the wood. For you I would look at a water based. It does not seal as well but does let the wood under it breath a bit so you do not have to worry about rot as much.

It may be a little over kill but worth it if you dump 20 gallons on the floor some night.

OSB+Wet is not a problem. The most expensive glue machines in the fabricated wood business are for making OSB, not ply, not LVL, not particle board. Each peice of Organized Strand gets just the right amount to stick it to the next, and no more or less. They test OSB by soaking samples for a month to see if it is delaminating , and it doesn't. Plywood does. To the question of thickness, 3/4 plywood is about the same as 23/32 OSB (24/32=3/4) Either one would be good.

Your questions really come down to cost, since sealing wood is STRONGLY recomended. While OSB is more wet resistant than plywood, enough wet and time and spilled wort will cause growth or decay. Is ply or OSB more expensive for you? As to your weight question, what is the decking on? joists or similar? just put the floor joists closer together and make the span less for the decking to span over. Floor Decking needs to handle the weight of the spans.

I'm sorry I've not seen your plans here, so I can't speak more directly to it, just general building knowledge.

OSB is about 2/3rd the price of plywood here, which is why I was leaning that direction.

Thanks for the responses, "general building knowledge" is exactly what I need! How close to each other should the joists be? I was planning on putting it on piers, either cinder blocks or those precast dek-block things. I've got a bunch of both laying around.

I don't have a final plan, yet, but I'm thinking something along these lines, but bigger:
http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Shed

According to the experts, OSB for your flooring should be fine, with one caveat:
The OSB you use for your floor needs to have "Exposure 1" on it. This means that the waxy material was used to seal the wood. Also, the edges of the panels are painted with a waterproof paint. If you cut the edges to fit the floor, you should re seal them. Here are a couple of web sites with info.

http://www.pathnet.org/sp.asp?id=17336

http://www.askthebuilder.com/304_Plywood_and_OSB_-_Which_One_Is_Better_.shtml

As to floor joist, here's a link that will get you started down the correct road:

http://www.mcvicker.com/resguide/page013b.htm

For the footings, that's up to you. It depends on how much your ground moves, if it freezes, etc. When I lived on the coast, I would rent an auger, put in some tube forms, shoot the grade with a transit and pour concrete footings. In the hill country, level blocks or dek-bloks should be fine. Depending on how big/elaborate your shed will be, a concrete floor becomes competative quicker than you think, if you do the wood flooring correctly. Luck - Dwain

P.S. Another good link from a manufacturer of both:
http://www.gp.com/build/pageviewer.aspx?repository=bp&elementid=6132

Thanks for the links!

The ground is about 2" of dirt, then solid rock. I'm on top of a limestone bluff. I know a cement floor would be better in the long run, but I want to be able to move it if/when I need to. I also want it to be convertible into just a regular storage shed down the road.

We have a 90x50' workshop on the property I plan on moving my brewing into in the next year or so, but it has a bunch of loose/exposed/dangling fiberglass batts that need to be removed. I don't plan on working on that until it's a lot cooler. I might literally die wearing all the protective equipment I'd need this time of year.

So I just need something to get me by for the next 6-9 months or so until I get the workshop set up properly. Or I can just buy a shed from the Mennonites down the road for about $1200-1500.