slab options for a garage

[keegs]

At our summer place in nothher ME I spend a full day of every trip cutting the grass with a walk behind mower. I cut around the house, down around one side of the pond and out to the road. I don't really mind the work but it's a day out of what's typically a 7-10 day visit. I really need a bush hog and tractor to do the job quicker but I don't have a place to store it. I'm thinking about having a small garage built to store a small tractor and bush hog.

I'm finding out that the biggest part of the cost in garage construction is typically the slab. I'm not a builder but my understanding of it is that typically in order to put down a slab you need perimeter footings and walls poured up from the frostline. The frostline in this area is about 5' which drives up the cost even more.

I'm wondering whether there's some lower cost options for putting down a slab for a unheated garage.

[kidr]

I would go with a pole building. no need for footings and such, just a slab.

[Egon]

Consider a shipping container?? Quick and easy.

Can you build on concrete piles ?

What type and wetness is your soil? Does the surface drain well?

Slab on a gravel pad??

[Bocephous]

We're currently in the beginning phases of having a garage built. My step-brother, who has been building for 40 years or so, is the contractor. He recommended an Alaskan slab, and that is what we'll be using as a foundation.

Monolithic or Floating Slab Foundations for Garages, Sheds and Small Barns

[bearhawk]

We did a 24 x 36 floating slab for our barn. You make the perimeter 12" thick and the center of the slab is thinner..

[brokenknee]

Another vote for a pole shed, and floating slab. My last place had a 40X60X12 with a floating slab. No sure how thick it was on the perimeter, but it was 6" in the center. Soil prep is the main thing to help minimize cracking.

[flusher]

Pole frame construction for the building. Floating concrete slab 4" thick with 12"x12" integral concrete footing around the perimeter to stiffen the edges of the slab and prevent cracking under load, 4000 psi concrete, #4 rebar on 24" centers.

[Texasmark]

Why slab it? Why not just rock it and if you get your new tractor with a loader or box blade you can spread the rock yourself.

If you are building a place where you work in addition to storing equipment then by all means a slab. But for the cost of the product and requirements for finishing labor and connections to a concrete retailer I surely wouldn't spend the money.

I have 2 shops, pole building design...poles in concrete, with floating slabs; a 24x36x8 (built in '81) and a newer 30x50x12 with a 15' roof extension (shed)running the full length built in '05. The first shop had a 4" slab and cracked, course we have tremendous soil upheaval here. The newer shop has a 5" floating slab and the shed part is floored in gravel. I kept a 100 pto hp JD tractor in there (on the slab) with cab and rear wheel weights and have had no problems.

My opinion: Perimeter and cross beamed buildings are primarily for areas where the perimeter gets the load...supports the structure, like for a home, and the rest is just filler; not made for heavy machinery and all that goes with a farm shop. I mean if you are just going to have a work bench and drill press, band saw, welding equipment, maybe a lathe and that sort of thing ok fine. But if you are going to park a 10,000# tractor on it, I don't think so; not for me anyway.

My 2c,

Mark

[Carl_NH]

We did a 24 x 36 floating slab for our barn. You make the perimeter 12" thick and the center of the slab is thinner..

Same here monolithic/floating slab 24x36' for the barn, 16"x18" perimeter with rebar with 4-6" interior slab all poured at one time. $2600 complete - All I did was dig the outside, level the area with crusher run gravel and the concrete guys compacted, formed, rebar, poured and finished.

Carl

[Bocephous]

We did a 24 x 36 floating slab for our barn. You make the perimeter 12" thick and the center of the slab is thinner..

That is the thickness that my contractor is going with, too. Eight triaxles of
2B gravel, and now waiting for a good day to pour the concrete.