Build an underground shop - why not?

[czechsonofagun]

Could you piece it together from existing blocks? Like, say, bridge beams or such? I am sure somebody somewhere makes something usable.

I have a friend in Prague, his house building lot came with an old street car or tramway as we say, truck load of concrete railroad ties and 60 concrete factory posts. Posts look like steel beam with a ledge for the hoist rail if you ever seen one.

He tried to get rid of it, but it was too expensive - soo he rented a crane and with the help of 5 of us and a keg of pilsner urquel we built walk out basement from those concrete pieces. Some places it had to be formed with concrete added - but most of it was pieced together.

 

[Egon]

pilsner urquel

Only one keg?

 

[czechsonofagun]

Only one keg?

We had few dozens of these also. I believe you can get them in Canada.

 

[dfkrug]

I've been plotting and planning to build a nice 40 x 60 metal building for a long time. As I was excavating in my sandpit recently, I suddenly had an epiphany moment and realized I have the perfect place for a very large underground structure.

By all means, do it, JIN!

I does seem that a good deal of your excavation is done.

You can have your walls assembled and poured using ICFs (insulating
concrete forms) for about $3-4/sf of wall area by experienced contractors.
That includes labor and materials, waterproofed, but the footers and
slab are not included in that.

I have designed and built several of these kind of buildings (incl my house and
workshop and water tank), but I have only recently done a flat concrete roof.
It has a clear span of 20 feet and I designed for 100psf live load. Stamped
and stained. Two walls retain 8-10' of dirt.

My house has a wood I-joist roof rafter system with 14' rear retaining walls.
If I did it over, I would go with some kind of concrete insulated roof, like
PanelDeck or equivalent. Insulating conc roof systems are VERY expensive,
so I would prob not use it for a workshop-type building.

For your building, I would go with a sloped or domed roof. I did a domed
roof of only 4-4.5" thickness over my water tank: clear span 12.5'.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Jim,

I think that would make a great energy efficient workshop/building. Hope it becomes a reality for you. Would love to see the project documented. Check on some government tax breaks for energy efficient structures.


Oh...that epiphany stuff, have them all the time...wife tells me to take a couple of Tylenol

 

[SamWalton]

You may want to speak with Jay Schafe of Terra-dome.com. He builds three different size super structures. The largest is a 40 foot by what ever you desire. Prefect for your application and the roof can handle a massive load of soil or equipment.

 

[yooperdave]

Precast Concrete is great - but expensive.

You will also need a waterproof membrane with a wearing surface over that.

Good Luck

Yooper Dave

 

[Max2310]

Before you get too exited with this, you might want to check your city rules...

 

[SamWalton]

Precast Concrete is great - but expensive.

You will also need a waterproof membrane with a wearing surface over that.

Good Luck

Yooper Dave

The Terra-dome system is not precast and is very affordable. You can make you concrete water proof with a 2 dollar per yard additive.

 

[EddieWalker]

I saw a show where they build concrete dome homes by blowing up a giant balloon type material. Then they sprayed concrete over it with rebar tied together. It was a big project, with allot of man hours, but when the concrete dried, they had a dome. I doubt it would be strong enough to hold dirt over the top of it, but then again, maybe....

Of course, how much per square foot are you willing to pay?

Eddie